FAIRMONT — Patty Rider grew up thinking she might want to be an actress or a professional dancer. But when it came time to declare a major in college, she decided to be a teacher.

“When I went to college, I didn’t know what I wanted to be,” Rider said. “I had to pick a profession and I thought, ‘Well, I like kids. I want to have an impact on lives.’ So I chose teaching.”

Now a kindergarten teacher at Pleasant Valley Elementary School, Rider loves working with kids just as they are learning how to read as well as embracing a lot of new knowledge.

“When I did my student teaching, I just loved kindergarten,” Rider said. “That was my favorite age. That’s where I got my first job, and it always was real joyful for me to be with them.”

Rider grew up in Fairmont until about age 8, and then her family moved

to Morgantown. She attended West Virginia University for a couple of years and then transferred to Fairmont State College. She worked at a day care center in Morgantown for a couple of years while getting a master’s in elementary education at WVU, and then she embarked on her teaching career.

Her experience in day care led to a kindergarten teaching position at Rivesville Elementary, and she knew she had found the grade she wanted to teach.

“What I love about them is they are so excited about learning,” Rider said. “They have a lot of zeal and excitement. They are so sincere and so innocent. They just love you and they think you are the best thing that ever happened to you.”

Plus, she said, “They haven’t formed any bad attitudes about school yet. They are excited about learning and they take everything in. It’s a lot of fun. They are so spontaneous.”

And yet, kindergarten these days is much more structured than when Rider first started out. Changes and updates that allow students to use technology sometimes occur every year.

“You almost can think of it as first grade,” Rider said. “Everything is bumped up a level. It’s really changed. I don’t think people realize how much it’s changed since I first started out. It wasn’t as intense or structured as it is now.”

Some of the students arrive on the first day of school knowing all of their letters and others do not, so the children must be divided up into groups depending on their existing knowledge. But by the end of the year, the idea is for everyone to be able to read and do simple math problems.

“We teach them the alphabet and their sounds so they can be reading by the end of the year,” Rider said.

The students learn math, such as how to count to 100; how to count by fives, tens and twos; how to tell time and recognize shapes and patterns.

“They also want you to do hands-on science and talk about animals versus plants,” Rider said.

Internet technology — including in the form of Discovery’s United Streaming Videos — also has become a valuable resource.

“They have videos on every subject,” Rider said. “It can be on the alphabet, reading — on every subject.”

Teachers have different methods to help children learn how to read.

“The big thing now is fluency — getting kids to read more fluently and know their alphabet,” Rider said. “If they know it, they don’t have to stop and think about it and they can attack words faster and their comprehension is better.”

Children who spend a lot of time sounding out words, Rider noted, can lose something in the translation.

Teacher now use something called DIBELS, an acronym that stands for Dynamic Indicators for Basic Early Literacy Skills, in helping kids read.

“In short, research has shown that if we can diagnose deficiencies early in kindergarten through third grade, then we can prevent children from falling through the cracks,” Rider said.

This includes “intense lessons focused on the target skills that the child is weak in through small group instruction with very focused lessons on the skills the child needs to acquire to be successful.”

In addition to teaching at Rivesville and Pleasant Valley, Rider has taught at Jayenne Elementary — for 12 years — and at Watson Elementary for one. Her years of teaching means that some of her early kindergarten students have grown up now. Some even have become teachers, including Anne Lienhardt, who now teaches sixth grade math and science at Monongah Middle School.

“I just remember how kind and energetic she was,” Lienhardt said.

Rider enjoys running into her students even years after she had them in class.

“I always hug them,” she said. “I’m so excited to see them. I like to know what they ended up doing. And the kids come up and huge me. I think that’s a kindergarten thing. And they call me Miss Rider to this very day.”

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.