Skills Of A Kindergarten Teacher
Early childhood education sets the foundation for a child’s education making it the most important stage of the education process.
Children at that level can learn faster and a skilled teacher is required to provide them with the necessary training.
Whether you’re a school governing authority or a teacher, you need to identify the necessary skills for teachers who would be training these children.
This article, therefore, elaborates on some of the required skills kindergarten teachers need in order to be successful in this position.
Key Skills Of A Good Kindergarten Teacher
Patience
Although patience is necessary for most aspects of our lives as teachers, it’s especially key when dealing with children.
Taking care of children requires a tremendous amount of patience as their mood can easily change from happily playing to crying over something every adult wouldn’t even consider a problem.
If you’ve ever taught children before, you’d know the kind of challenges that comes with it, ranging from kids fighting during a lesson to playing in the middle of a class.
A kindergarten teacher, therefore, needs to have extreme patience to be successful in their role and their commitment to the parents and the institution.
In some cases, the teacher would need to develop or adapt some individual approaches to teach each respective child or to even get them to pay attention.
Patience doesn’t only apply to the children alone as some parents may have some unique specifications for their children in school.
The teacher is expected to be patient with the parents and their demands especially when the demand is permitted by the institution.
Problems associated with discipline need to be handled with patience especially since these problems may usually originate from their homes or at the very least outside the confines or boundaries of the institution.
Creativity
There’s a reason why children love magic. To be frank, we all love magic and it’s able to easily capture our attention.
As a teacher, there’s no need to go out of your way to learn magic in order to wow your learners but some creativity on your part will lead to a similar reaction from your students.
While some things may seem normal to most adults, most experiences are still new to children.
A typical example in a classroom is using a 3d printer to model and print out the best design in the class or even using a normal printer to scan a design or laminate the best design in class to take home to their parents.
You think it’s impossible to model a 3d design, a few hours should get you conversant with how to create simple designs for 3d printing.
You can also give out badges or some kind of reward for good behavior both in class and outside the classroom.
Most importantly, children have short attention spans and also learn at different rates.
It is therefore your role as a teacher to creatively employ a variety of techniques that can be leveraged to successfully grab the attention of your learners during a lesson.
Classroom Management
Taking control of a classroom is key especially with children who have the tendencies to revert back to their own devices.
The classroom needs to be a very welcoming environment where learners will be able to socialize, and most importantly learn from both teachers and peers.
It is therefore necessary that a kindergarten teacher possesses the relevant skills to control the classroom.
With varying personalities even at the childhood levels, the inability of the teacher to control the class would lead to some students taking control which becomes problematic.
That said, the teacher needs to be able to balance being rigid and being welcoming to students both inside and outside the classroom.
Children need to know that the teacher is always available for them whenever they need, while also keeping in mind that they can’t get away with any misbehavior in the classroom.
Some learners may be unable to fully express themselves adequately. This means the teacher needs to be able to ascertain any challenges based on body language and other factors.
Organization
A teacher’s organizational skills include themselves, the classroom, and most importantly the students.
Organization in a classroom starts with the teacher as children learn from what they see. Teaching a kindergarten class in the modern-day requires keeping track of any progress they make.
A typical example is a change in a child’s mood and the reasons behind them. Whether progress or regression, a teacher needs to keep track of these to analyze and identify areas that need improvement and the best way to accomplish this.
If you need to print worksheets for students, a printer and a photocopier may be required. This means ensuring that these pieces of equipment are available to ensure your lessons and classes are as organized as possible.
File holders, trays, and other resources should be readily available to keep track of learner deliverables as well as to organize tools for your learners.
Punctuality among learners should also be checked and any habitual lateness should be investigated to identify the root cause.
Tardiness on the part of children could lead to the rest of the class being delayed or an interruption in an ongoing class.
An organizational system, therefore, needs to be established in the classroom. Children need to be taught to dispose of refuse in the allocated trash can and to sit down properly during class.
Organization skills will help make the teacher’s work easier and also make learners more discipline even at the lower education levels.
Technological Savvy
In our modern world of technology, having some level of knowledge in the use of technological devices and applications is necessary for the education industry.
Not only will the use of technology benefit learners, but it’ll also make the teacher’s work easier as well.
Modern learners start getting used to technological gadgets as kids. It is, therefore, easier to relate to learners if a teacher has an understanding of such systems.
With applications specifically developed with kindergarteners in mind available online, teachers need to possess the technical skills to leverage these applications to teach learners and also acquaint them with modern technologies.
These applications range from educational games to online assessment tools for kindergarten learners.
Compassion
Although children adapt quickly, it’s never easy for them at the initial stages. Simply getting dropped to stay with an unfamiliar group of people isn’t easy for any child.
The first few times are not easy for most children and are accompanied by constant crying over little issues.
This might seem annoying to a grown-up but it is necessary to understand the position the child has been put into and find creative ways to make the process easier for the child.
Not only children but you should also understand that some parents will have some separation anxiety at the early stages.
You should therefore be compassionate towards this challenge knowing full well it’s a passing phase.
Calming the child down would simultaneously help both the child and the parent.
The Bottom Line
There’s some satisfaction that comes with being a teacher and more so for good teachers.
If you love teaching kindergarten, then the skills listed in this article are a must to provide the best benefit to your learners.
