Being a preschool teacher can be a struggle. There are many ups and downs and there will be days where you run out of time. There are many challenges and struggles you will have to face and overcome. But the rewards are endless. You will feel good that you are making a positive impact in the lives of many children. As you look back, you will see you made a huge and lasting impact on many children’s lives.
Preschool teachers face many challenges and will struggle with something almost every day, regardless of experience. Some of those struggles preschool teachers face include a lack of prep time, low pay, lack of teamwork, lack of funds, lack of support, and difficulties moving up career-wise. But don’t fret. We have ways you can get around these issues. And we even have craft ideas to help speed up your work.
Preparing Materials
Preparing materials for your lesson plans can be very easy when all of the items you need are within your reach. However, when you don’t have the materials for the assignment, it can be exhausting and will take a lot of time. You will need to reorganize your thoughts, improvise with the materials you have on hand, or run out to the store to purchase the items you need which all takes a lot of time and effort.
There are times where you don’t have enough time during working hours to prepare the materials, thus, you need to do your prepping at home. You can also ask your teaching assistant to help you, if you are given one. Hoping they are reliable.
When you prepare materials, it can be overwhelming because you may be constantly changing your ideas from one to another. The best approach is to plan and stick to your plan if you have easy access to the materials. Don’t forget, you can always improvise. A turkey doesn’t always need real feathers. You can cut up some paper and call them feathers.
If you’re a new teacher, keep in mind the crafts and projects you use today can be reused later in the school year and future years. So be sure to take the extra steps and make a sample and template, then store them they are easy to find in the future.
Overwork
Teachers often work more hours than they are being paid. They are not given enough time to plan and are often planning and prepping materials at home. When this happens, they don’t have the time to use for themselves or the time to spend with their friends or family.
There are certain times of the year where it is easy to be overwhelmed. For example, at the beginning of a school year, you’re busy setting up and getting the classroom ready according to the licensing requirements. But you also need to make sure to get all of the parents in for orientation. And you’ll need to plan the initial home visits. You will also need to purchase items to use for the school year. There will be teacher orientations and large organizational meetings you need to attend. On top of all this, all the other teachers are too busy to help you out because they have the same duties and stress. You will feel alone on an island with no fish in the sea.
Teachers sometimes get too caught up in their work, and they forget to put the time and energy in themselves and live their lives outside of a working environment.
Prioritization and assertiveness are your friends during these stressful moments. It is sometimes ok to be late, or, dare I say, not do something. Your supervisor should be understanding. If you’re not sure what to prioritize, that would be the time to get your supervisor involved. From the beginning of the year example above, you may be able to get someone else to call parents for orientation, which will save you at least a couple hours. Or if your class already some enough materials to start the school year, then postpone ordering materials for a few weeks.
Turning in Paperwork on Time With Accurate Data
There is a schedule for teachers to follow and deadlines that must be met. And sometimes it is impossible to meet those deadlines due to unexpected situations such as personal problems or lack of support and help.
During this time, preschool teachers will struggle to do what they can do and try not to stress about it. All teachers go through it, and, it is okay to be late once in awhile as long as it doesn’t become a habit. It is also okay to make mistakes as long as you make the effort to not repeat them. If so, you will find yourself sitting in your supervisor’s office. If you think your supervisor really is that cruel, then consider talking to your union about the issues you’re having.
Supervisors are not that cruel, can be reasonable, and they try to give you a reasonable amount of time for you to meet the deadlines. You must also remember, your supervisors have deadlines too and they themselves have to do their job to the best of their abilities as well.
Keeping Everyone Happy
Do you want to be happy? I do. When working as a teacher, it is extremely important to build rapport and establish a positive relationship with staff, parents and students. It is best to know the people who you are working with because this will help you understand why they act the way they do. When you do this, some of the things you need to take into consideration are the people’s background, culture, and tradition. Once you have an understanding of the individual, you will know how you can talk to the person using the appropriate words or tone in a conversation. You will then know when and how to bring up a situation. And you will have a better understanding of how they will react to your opinions, comments, or suggestions which you will not take personally.
You want to take into consideration to always be positive and treat everyone one in a positive way, even when other teachers are not doing so. I’m sure you have heard of the saying: Treat Others The Way You Want To Be Treated. I can testify, it is not always true. Some people, like me, can take criticism well. Others can’t and will have a hard time accepting it. Just keep in mind that not everyone is like you and it is best to be less harsh.
When working with your students, you should find the opportunity to know your student on a personal level. You want to make your students happy, thus, make sure you have items in the class that each student can relate to. Make sure you smile, laugh, hug, and build a positive relationship with each student. When your students are happy, you too, as a teacher will be happy!
Making Ends Meet
Salaries are on the low end and do not compete with K-12 teacher salaries. If you’re researching becoming a preschool teacher, you will see that your average preschool teacher earns $15.34 per hour. And Head Start teachers earn even less at $13.94 per hour nationwide. This is hardly a living wage in a lot of states and some teachers will need government assistance. Preschool teachers will struggle to earn an independent living on these wages.
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Very Narrow Career Path
Preschool teachers don’t have too many options to move up in their career and will struggle doing so. A large center will have 10-20 teachers and one site supervisor. Site supervisors don’t leave very often, so these 10-20 teachers will rarely get a shot to compete for that one position.
Luckily the preschool field is growing so new centers with new jobs open up regularly. If you want to stay in preschool but move up into manager positions, make sure to get your site supervisor permit. Also, make sure to frequently communicate with your supervisor and show interest in their work and ask how and why they do what they do. Once your supervisor trusts you, then try asking to take on some of their responsibilities for the sake of improving yourself.
Lack of Recognition
Many teachers feel they don’t get enough recognition for the hard work and effort in changing students’ lives. They don’t earn enough praises or rewards for everything they do to help keep the school up and running. Teachers care for their students and are willing to put extra time to give their students the best education a teacher can give. They go out of their way and use their personal money to spend on the classroom to make sure learning is fun, interesting, and engaging for the students.
Preschool teachers struggle to put enough time for themselves or their family, thus not everyone sees this. Teachers have a lot of impact in their students’ lives and the lives of their community. However, Many people see teachers just as a “teacher” and not someone who makes differences in people’s lives.
We all need to give teachers more recognition throughout the years to show them our appreciation for their hard work and dedication.
Vacation Time
Vacation times are limited for teachers. Teachers’ schedules are usually set for the school year. They don’t have many options to take a vacation when they want to. The only time they know they can take a vacation without an approval is during the holidays, winter breaks, spring breaks, and summer breaks.
This can be positive for teachers who are parents because they will usually have the time off when their children are also off. This does not create any problems. However, it can be negative for teachers who want to take vacation during the school year. Some teachers have accumulated vacation times, but are often denied to use their vacation time because they are needed in the classroom due to a shortage of staff. This can be stressful when you are not given the approval to take the time off when you want or need it most.
Funding for Materials
We all know teachers spend a lot of money on their students. Surprisingly, each school gets funds for their teachers. Each year, every teacher gets ‘X” amount of money to use for their class. Teachers are to use this fund to purchase items and materials that will help with their teaching style.
Even though teachers are given a fund each year, it is still not enough. Teachers are still digging down their pockets to purchase items to make the lesson exciting for their students. They want to entice and motivate their students to want to learn. And in doing so, items in the class need to be changed every so often and/or replaced with new items.
Preschool teachers struggle with asking for more money to purchase materials for their class. This is a great opportunity to have your unions fight for what you need to improve your teaching and use less of your hard earned money on classroom materials.
Bizarre Supervisors
This is hopefully an exception, but there are extreme control freaks out there. Some Master Teachers will want such tight control over “their” room that they will manipulate their other teachers into misery. When a supervisor is constantly going back on their word, not following through, pitting you against other people, lying about simple things like funds, or throwing you under the bus, then you need to plan for your exit. Get another job and be happy you’re out of there. There is little or no hope in these extreme cases. Not even your union will give you back your sanity in these situations.
Challenging and Motivating Parents
Parents play an important role in their child’s education. Some parents believe it is the teacher’s responsibility to guide and teach their child. In reality, this is not true. Students spend more time with their parents than with their teacher. And as teachers, we struggle to inform parents on how important it is for them to be part of their child’s learning, especially in the first few years of school.
Teachers find it difficult to motivate parents to be part of their child’s education, let alone, volunteer in class. Parent volunteers are incredibly important and are superstars in their child’s lives.
Teachers also find it hard to work with difficult parents. Especially, those who are demanding and complain about everything. It takes time to get these parents to understand your job duties, but they will eventually come around and appreciate you. Just be positive, consistent, and acknowledge everything they say. It is important to these parents that you are listening.
Struggle is the Path to Growth!
Believe it or not, struggling is one of the main ways we become better people. When we can work our way through a difficult situation we can then repeat that success in the future. When we repeat those successes many times, then we achieve mastery in the very thing we once thought was the end of our career. Don’t be afraid to take risks to solve problems when you’re struggling. It is okay to occasionally fall down your ladder. You can just get back up and climb again. You can do it!