Pros and cons of being a Head Start teacher include topics such as pay, creativity, child and parent behavior, and plenty more.

Head Start teachers have many ups and downs in their day to day work, and some days can be an emotional roller coaster. The level of social work required in teaching Head Start classrooms places teachers much closer to families than a typical Preschool teacher will encounter. Those rewards and punishments can be exhausting if you’re not up to the task, so make sure your heart is in the right place and you have plenty of energy!

The Pros of Being a Head Start Teacher

The positive side of working in Head Start generally creates a lot of happy teachers, staff, children, and family. There are so many crafts, so much singing, dancing, playing, and family-style eating that it’s hard not to have a smile on your face. As a Head Start teacher, YOU MATTER!

Teachers Make a Difference in Children’s and Families’ Lives

Head Start parents are generally low-income, uneducated, and struggling to provide the basic essential needs for their families. One of the greatest challenges a Head Start teacher has at the beginning of the school is to teach the parents how important their role is in their child’s education. A huge problem with Head Start parents is they don’t understand that they are their child’s primary teacher, and instead expect Head Start to do everything on their behalf. With time and effort, teachers help educate and support parents on how to teach their child educational skills at home. Once parents see their child’s progress, they begin to work harder and more closely with the teachers to continue the progress.

Teachers See Continuous Growth In Their Students

Teachers assess students skills and keep track of their progress throughout the school year. One of the tools commonly used to do this is the “Desired Results for Children and Families” (DRDP) observation and assessment tool. This puts Head Start teachers in a position to lesson plan based on students’ levels to increase their skills.

Head Start Teachers Are These Children’s First Educational Role Model

When a child enters school for the first time, teachers are the central role model and will be the one to support them during an important time of personal growth. During this time, school can be the child’s first place where they are away from their parents. This can be stressful for a child, but as a loving, dedicated, and caring teacher, you can be the one to help ease this time of stress.

School is one of the safest places for children to interact, communicate, and play with their peers around their age group. And as their teacher, you can be the one to model and teach the appropriate social skills to help a child build long lasting friendships with each other.

Teachers Support and Build Children’s Primary Development Areas

Head Start teachers place a large focus in the five domains of development, which includes cognitive, social and emotional, speech and language, fine motor, and gross motor skills. Teacher will be doing assessments and take ongoing data to ensure the child is progressing in these areas. Additional support will be given as required.

Head StartTeachers Build a Relationship With Parents and Help Them Understand Their Child

At the beginning of school, teachers generally do a home visit to get to know the child and their families. This is a great opportunity for teachers to utilize this time to build a rapport with the families and get to know the family’s environment. Parents come in and pick up their child every day. This gives teachers and parents an opportunity to build an ongoing relationship that can last the rest of their child’s time at Head Start, or sometimes longer. Teachers enjoys giving parents praise and thanking them for being part of their child’s success. This helps further build the working relationship between parents and teachers.

Teachers Get to Exercise Their Creativity

Head Start teachers need to find ways to keep the students engaged in the lesson by being creative. For example, during group time teacher can focus on the weekly letters by doing arts and crafts. If one of this week letter is H, we will turn the letter H into a Horse and the students can decorate as they like.

Another example is when your lesson is focused on farm animals. You can use arts and crafts by having the child make a farm animal a puppet and use it when singing, “Old MacDonald Had A Farm”.

Teachers Have a Fulfilling, Positive Role to Play

By making a difference in people’s lives, being a positive role model, watching people grow, and exercising creativity through crafts, there is a lot for you to feel good about. By the end of a school year, your students will become attached to you and you will have the same feelings.

If you have a loving, caring passion for working with young children then being a Head Start teacher can be an incredible experience and is absolutely worth doing.

The Cons of Being a Head Start Teacher

Like any other job, being a Head Start teacher will have its lows. Sometimes parents can get angry for no reason. Sometimes children will get injured in those three seconds you weren’t looking. Other times divorces happen in the middle of a school year that has a negative impact on a child. These bad moments can really make the world look bleak at times, and you need to be ready to take in the bad with the good.

Teachers Have Low Pay

In addition to low wage, teachers often work after hours without pay just to keep up with demands. Head Start teachers are not given enough hours to complete a day’s work, especially when deadlines need to be met. On many occasions, teachers have to bring work home to make sure the materials are ready for the next day. Not only that, teachers often use their own money to purchase materials for the class because there are not enough funds for all the activities you want to do.

Additionally, preschool teachers earn a higher wage and Head Start teachers. And preschool teachers’ jobs are less demanding. Because of this, there are more job openings for Head Start teachers than preschool teachers, and the lack of qualified people adds stress in Head Start sites. Check out the below table to compare preschool and Head Start teacher pay nationwide.

If you’re curious to learn more about salaries in your state, you can view Preschool salaries for your state here, and Head Start salaries per state here.

Teachers Do Regular Home Visits

Home visits are required twice a school year, but it may vary from program to program. Often times, teachers need to schedule home visits in advance to ensure they go to all the students’ homes. However, this can be a little frustrating. Families tend to cancel home visits at the last minute or reschedule during a time you are not available. Home visits generally last between fifteen to twenty minutes, but some parents take advantage of the home visits to let out their frustrations to you. Thus, home visits will last longer than you intend it to be which may make you late for your next home visit.

Spending time on the road takes away the time you can use to plan and prepare materials for your class. This is one of factors that will cause you to take work home to do without pay in order to catch up.

Student Skills Vary Widely Within a Classroom

Teachers need to find balance in their teaching style to ensure all children are learning as their skill levels may vary within the classroom. This can be challenging for teachers at times because they need to use their judgement to make sure students are not bored or gives up because an activity is either too hard or too easy.

Children Have Separation Anxiety

At the age of three and four, children are fairly young and can still be attached to their parents. Being away from their parents or caregivers for even a short period of time can be stressful for a child. The child may exhibit negative behaviors which may take a while to overcome, at least for the first few weeks of school.

This also holds true for the parents. Parents can also have separation anxiety because they are putting their precious child in the care of someone else’s hands and are away. Thoughts are running through parents’ head as they are exiting the building.

Parents Are Sometimes Untruthful

As we all know, everyone tells lies, even parents who want their child in a free education program. At Head Start, children are not allowed to start school if they are not fully potty trained. However, Head Start will accept those who are in the process of being fully trained. Although, parents don’t always tell the truth. They tell the program that their child is potty trained so they get a spot on a class roster, only for Head Start to later find out the child’s pants are wet on the first day or first week of school.

Teachers normally ask parents questions to help improve their child’s skills. However, parents either exaggerate or under exaggerate their child’s skills. This does not help a teacher whose job is to prepare the child for the next school year. Not only that, the child is not getting the necessary support to improve their education.

Teachers Get Ill and Injured

We all agree children get hurt all the time. Whether or not they are careful or careless, there will be accidents. Head Start teachers can not prevent accidents from occurring ALL the time and parents need to accept it. Teachers do their best to prevent accidents from occurring with teaching and reminders. Parents should not immediately blame the teachers for their child’s injury. Instead, parents need to understand teachers do everything in their power to ensure safety within their classroom.

Everyone gets sick. Parents often send their child to school sick. Teachers come to school sick. When someone is sick and you are around that person, it is likely you will get sick. Illnesses are often contagious and you can not always prevent yourself from being sick or escape. The only way to do so is not to be around someone who is ill.

Teachers also get sick and injured. They get sick from children who are contagious and are sent to school sick. Teachers can get hurt on the job in several ways such as falling down, hurting their backs from heavy lifting, There are children who can be aggressive and take their anger out on teachers.

Parents Have Disagreements With Head Start Teachers

Teachers need to keep in mind they may be the first to be blamed no matter what. We can all agree to disagree and that is okay. However, this does not hold true for everyone. Not all parents agree with a teacher’s teaching style, lesson plans, activities and so on. When this happens, an argument may arise where both the teacher and the parents need to have a meeting to discuss the differences to find a solution if there is one.

Parents may disagree with teachers regarding their child’s abilities and want reasons or additional information. Teachers should be ready and prepared to explain or provide any information parents need to satisfy their concerns.

Tell Us What You Think

There is plenty to feel encouraged or discouraged about in the Head Start field. There is a lot to consider if you’re thinking about becoming a Head Start teacher. Working with people is never easy but the work can be incredibly rewarding. Hopefully we helped set you on the right path!

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