early childhood educator?

Question

what are some skills u need to have to be a early childhood educator

Answer 1

The first answerer is correct, you will need lots of patience, and you don't even need spelling skills for early childhood educator...but as far as I know, you can be one with lots of early childhood development classes...if you want to lock yourself in to teaching just preschool, or Headstart, or be a 'daycare' teacher. You will also have to deal with the political and social issues that affect your students' families, and balance that with the really strange demands of your teachers union.

Answer 2

Aside from personal characteristics, you will need some training in early education, which can be obtained from a community college. Preschools require this in order to fulfill state mandates.

If you have a higher education than some junior college work, you might find it to be a hostile environment, as I did; the other teachers never accepted me as "one of them" because they knew I had an MA already, and the parents treated me like their servants because they didn't think I had any education at all.

The politcal stuff is hard, too, especially since there is a lot of pandering to parents' superficial demands without concern for how it affects the children. For example, I was once scolded for sweeping crumbs off a table before sanitizing it, when picking bits up by hand would only take away from time I could spend with the kids and sweeping let me get back to them sooner. There's a lot of that - be forewarned.

However, early education and preschool teaching is a lot of fun when you are alone with the kids and able to interact with them without their parents looming. Watching them learn and be able to do new tasks unaided is a joy second only to freely given hugs from adorable little toddlers.

Answer 3

In a public school you will need a teacher certification - which will require a BA and student teaching. During student teaching you will receive no income for 16 weeks unless you work nights (VERY difficult during student teaching). States offer different options for the certification. Some offer Early Childhood Ed which is birth through age 8 (third grade) that would let you teach K, but some only offer Elementary (K-6). Both are different than the degree in Child & Family Development that many schools offer. While it also trains you to work with young children, it does NOT certify you to teach above preschool. Another option is to find out if any of your local public schools offer a preschool program on-site. Its a growing trend and many schools are piloting preschool programs. Not sure if they would require you to be degreed or certified, but you get the same benefits as a public school teacher and would most likely earn quite a bit more than you do now. I would suggest contacting a school and asking to "shadow" a K teacher for a day to see what a typical work day is like. Mention to them that you work in early childhood ed as a preschool teacher and are considering pursuing teacher certification. I assume that you are required by your preschool to have a criminal background check and TB test on file. You might mention this to them as their volunteers & employees must have these. Also, some larger preschools offer tuition reimbursement for teachers intending to become degreed or certified. If yours does not, there are also several scholarships from ECE professional organizations at the state and national level that might help you with the financial aspect of continued schooling. Best of luck!

Answer 4

There are courses at the community college level to prepare you for an early childhood educator.

One primary requirement is that you need to love children and should be innovative in teaching them.

Answer 5

deal with problems, PACIENT!! is a BIG one!! you must love kids becase they will really make you mad sometimes trust me i know how it is :$ you have to be able to multi task because the kids will need your help for just about ANYTHING!! Good luck :)