By Paddy Eger

In the rush to summer, stop! Take a few minutes to talk with your kids about their school accomplishments this year:

-Learning to print, write a letter or an essay for the first time.
-Solving a complicated problem alone.
-Reading an entire book, reading in a new genre or reading a book a month.
-Completing a project on time.
-Learning a new way to effectively handle personal problems.
-Speaking aloud to the entire class with confidence.
-Attending school all year with few absences.
-Using new resource materials effectively.
-Standing up your yourself.
-Improving your math or language or science or social studies grade.
-Helping a friend work through a problem.
-Using higher level thinking skills.
-Giving school tasks your best effort.

Remember to celebrate the personal side of education. Not every success is tied directly to a piece of paper or a test question.

Paddy Eger is a veteran teacher from the Edmonds School District. She’s participated in classrooms as a community volunteer, a parent volunteer and a parent trainer, as well as a teacher in primary and intermediate grades. Her years in the PCEP, the Parent Cooperative Education Program, as teacher and trainer created the basis for the award-winning book, “Educating America: 101 Strategies for Adult Assistants in K-8 Classrooms” and it’s companion “Educating America Desktop Flipbook.” Today she volunteers in classrooms, trains classroom assistants, and speaks about the value of community involvement. She also enjoy writing Young Adult novels.