Preschool and Kindergarten Teacher

What a Preschool/Kindergarten Teacher Does

While teachers all over the world are equally held responsible for molding students into intellectual beings, preschool and kindergarten teachers have an exceptionally important role in establishing the foundational building blocks that that are instilled in young children forever. Like a domino effect, what a child retains from his or her preschool or kindergarten class can affect their progress in all aspects of life, including the success or failure in other grade levels and career choices. It's imperative that elementary and kindergarten teachers do their very best to teach young children as much, and as accurately, as they can. Most preschool and kindergarten teachers are responsible for introducing young children to their very first encounter with mathematics, language, science, and social studies. While both teachers incorporate interactive activities such as games, music, artwork, films, books and computers to make into their lesson plans to make them seem more appealing, kindergarten teachers start to dwell into more complex ideas such as letter recognition, phonics, and numbers. It's highly important that preschool and kindergarten teachers be able to handle stress fairly well and are very patient, especially with very young children.

How to Become a Preschool/Kindergarten Teacher

All American public schools require that teachers be licensed by the State Board of Education. During their licensure, applicants will be tested for competency in basic skills, such as reading and writing, and must demonstrate proficiency in the subject and grade level they wish to teach. This means that in addition to their bachelor's degree, they will also have completed an approved teacher education program for a certain grade level and subject. But many school systems are shifting towards a performance-based systems for licensure, meaning in addition to passing an examination in their subject, applicants must first demonstrate satisfactory teaching performance over an extended period of time as a teacher's aid before they can be granted a provisional license. Private school teachers, on the other hand, do not necessarily have to be licensed in some states but possibly may still need a bachelor's degree. While in school, most aspiring preschool and kindergarten teachers will take courses that are specifically tailored to explain how to work with and teach very young children. Courses will include mathematics, physical science, social science, music, art, and literature, as well as psychology of learning, and philosophy of education. Most States require teachers to renew their license throughout their career by completing a number of hours of continuing education.

Career Outlook for Preschool/Kindergarten Teachers

While educators are one of the few occupations that there is always a necessity for, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the career outlook for Preschool and Kindergarten teachers is not necessarily going to grow at a fast rate, but is predicted be steady in the next coming years. Employment opportunities for teachers who don't mind relocating to urban or rural school districts are in high demand however. According to the Bureau, teachers held 3.5 million jobs in 2008, of which about 179,500 were kindergarten teachers (preschool statistics were not available). The Bureau predicts that in the 2008-18 decade, employment opportunity is projected to increase by 13 percent. The Bureau states that this employment increase will be the direct result of the shortage of teachers in certain locations and the number of teachers lost to retirement. According to the Bureau, the median annual wages of teachers from kindergarten to high school ranged from $47,100 to $51,180 in May 2008 (the most recent statistics available).