Hello! My name is Donna Wheeler and this is my 20th year teaching here at Tye Elementary School! I have been teaching Pre-Kindergarten for 15 years. For five years prior to that, I taught self-contained Mentally Disabled students here at Tye. I was raised in Merkel, Texas and attended all 12 years of public school there. I attended North Texas State University (now The University of North Texas) and graduated from McMurry College (now McMurry University). I have completed some post-graduate work in Early Childhood Education at Hardin-Simmons University. I am married with 2 daughters and live near Abilene.

Our Pre-Kindergarten class became a Head Start classroom in January 2002. With Head Start came a full time Educational Aide and a Family Services Aide. Head Start allows us to service whole families, not just the student in the classroom. Our focus in the classroom centers around social skills with some academics throughout the curriculum. We also work to help the families with medical, dental and nutritional help and put them in touch with community services as needed. We also encourage parent involvement in the classroom through trainings, special positions (Monthly Parent Meetings, Language Facilitator, Project Share, etc.)Head Start built a new playground on our campus which is designed especially for our age-group and the children all love their time outside! We will be adding to the playground in the future and are always adding new and exciting items to our classroom. I love working with these young children and helping open up a whole new world of discovery for them. I look forward to the fun we have in our classroom.