If you are reading this article, you might be contemplating starting a career in education, specifically, teaching kindergartners. But what does this entail, and how easy (or hard) is being a kindergarten teacher?
Although rewarding, and contrary to what some might think, being a kindergarten teacher is not easy. Kindergarten is the foundation of education, requiring teachers to have immense dedication with particular expertise and attributes. As with any education level, kindergarten teachers will face challenges that will need specific skills and strategies to overcome.
There are drawbacks and rewards to teaching any grade group, so the challenges of being a kindergarten teacher shouldn’t put you off. If teaching is your calling, you can learn to manage the obstacles.
The Challenges Of Being A Kindergarten Teacher
From an outsider’s perspective, being a kindergarten teacher might look easy, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Classroom Management
A classroom is the first structured environment for most 4 to 6-year-old students. They arrive with various habits, typically formed by caregivers at home, which might or might not be appropriate for a classroom.
For example, many students need to learn to raise their hands when they have questions, adhere to set times for snacking, and share toys and materials with others. These aspects of a school day might seem easy, but to an untaught kindergartener, it can be a big transition, often resulting in noncompliance.
Secondly, some kindergarteners will often require the teacher’s attention for things that aren’t related to cognitive learning, like tying their shoelaces or going to the toilet. These individual student needs can overwhelm a teacher trying to focus on the syllabus, especially when they have 20+ students.
Finally, kindergarten teachers typically need to get to know their students from scratch, with no prior records or teacher feedback to consult. This clean slate makes dealing with behavioral issues complex since the teacher is unfamiliar with the child’s home life, past issues, or emotional state.
Teaching and Differentiating Instructions
A kindergarten teacher has the challenge of tailoring instructions to meet each student’s unique needs. What makes this slightly trickier in the early years is that students cannot verbalize their learning styles or instructional preferences.
Most children would also not have received formal education before. So, the teacher won’t have past transcripts showing the student’s academic strengths and weaknesses, including any additional educational needs.
Moreover, the level of concentration shown by kindergarten children will understandably be shorter. They typically have an attention span limit of between 10 and 20 minutes. Consequently, you’ll want lessons and activities to fall within this time limit to ensure that students remain focused on the task at hand.
Administrative Load
A kindergarten teacher’s workload includes creating engaging teaching resources, classroom decorations, prepping materials, curriculum planning, completing assessments, and writing report cards with detailed, individual feedback. Teachers are in the classroom teaching most hours of a school day, so they often complete these tasks in their spare time.
It should be noted that these administrative responsibilities are not exclusive to kindergarten teachers, meaning that almost all teachers, regardless of school or grade group, are subject to a demanding workload.
No Compensation For Overtime
Teachers cannot clock overtime, unlike many private sectors, even though they accomplish many administrative tasks outside school hours.
Teachers in the US are considered relatively well-paid compared to other countries. However, the salaries still do not justify teachers using their evenings, weekends, and holidays to keep their heads above the ‘administrative’ water.
The workload and the lack of appropriate compensation are among the most prominent reasons teachers leave the profession.
Relationships With Parents
The parents of kindergarten students sometimes have unreasonably high expectations of their child’s teacher. These expectations result from them being new to the schooling system and concerned with the details of the classroom. Such over-involvement can cause a teacher stress and jeopardize their relationship with the parents.
In contrast, kindergarten teachers must also manage parents who are not involved in their child’s life. Absent parenting may cause a kindergartener to seek a teacher’s attention more, be overly emotional at school, and be unable to complete specific tasks based on a lack of support at home.
The Rewards Of Being A Kindergarten Teacher
As many challenges as kindergarten teachers face, various rewards balance the scales.
Personal Enrichment
Besides their primary caregivers, a teacher will directly impact the overall development of a kindergartner and the passion they will form for learning. This curiosity and thirst for knowledge often last a lifetime.
Teachers also have front-row seats to a kindergartner accomplishing something for the first time based on their influence and teachings, like reading their first book, doing simple mathematical equations, or making real friendships, which is incredibly rewarding to witness.
Experiencing Joy
From their quirks and jokes to celebrating their birthdays, kindergartners will make you laugh and fill you with happiness any day of the week.
Kindergartners will often also idolize their teachers and give them love and affection, even with hugs, since they are unaware of the legal boundaries between a student and a teacher. For a kindergartner, their teacher is one of the most influential people in their lives, and they will not hold back on showing it.
If they like the teacher, they will include them in play, shower them with little gifts of appreciation (e.g., drawings) and even share personal stories. Their trust in the teacher is highly fragile, and although rewarding, it is vital that teachers carefully navigate such a meaningful relationship.
Stable Employment
Every year, numerous reports are published on teacher shortages in the US and globally. It is no secret that the education sector is always looking for more qualified kindergarten teachers to take up roles in the profession. Therefore, you should always be able to find a job somewhere with a decent salary.
What Skills Does A Kindergarten Teacher Need?
Besides the necessary teaching qualifications, kindergarten teachers need the following skills to help them be successful:
Patience
Students often test a teacher’s patience, both deliberately and unintentionally. This may involve showing challenging behavior, needing constant assistance with trivial tasks, and simply sharing arbitrary stories and remarks.
Patience is one of the most important traits a teacher should have. It doesn’t just enable you to be a great teacher; it’s also essential for your own mental and physical well-being.
Students and colleagues won’t feel safe or encouraged if you’re frequently losing your temper, yelling, or getting frustrated, so showing patience is a must.
Creativity
Kindergarten teachers need a lot of imagination and creativity when delivering the curriculum with compelling lessons and engaging resources suitable for 4 to 6-year-old students. These teachers’ arts and crafts days are far from over, as they are often busy creating something that will make the classroom environment or subjects more appealing.
Creativity is also necessary during presentations, like impersonating different roles when reading a story or explaining tricky concepts. Not to mention the innovation and artistry that goes into producing something like an annual student play.
Classroom Management
Classroom management can be a testing aspect of teaching kindergarten, especially regarding student misconduct. However, if you change your mindset and practice empathy, you will understand that much of their misbehavior results from their age, including an inability to manage their emotions.
Many classroom management techniques are shared by practicing kindergarten teachers on multiple online platforms. Research and implement these methods to make life easier for yourself and your students.
Communication
You should be able to communicate appropriately in the classroom. It starts with presenting information clearly by using understandable terms, knowing when to repeat a word or phrase, when to pause, and when to change the volume of your voice to keep your students’ attention.
But communication is also about how you speak to a kindergartner, which is very different from talking to an adult. You must be able to converse with them in a non-threatening way, especially during a one-to-one, like bending down to meet them at eye level when you have something serious to discuss.
Conclusion
Being a kindergarten teacher is not easy, but it is rewarding and fulfilling in a way that often makes up for the difficulties that come with the job.
If you are considering working in kindergarten, you are likely to be asked, “Why Do You Want To Be a Kindergarten Teacher?” Find out the top ten responses by reading the full article.