Qualities of a Good Preschool Teacher

Preschool teachers have the greatest responsibility as they are the first teachers in life of a kid. They have to shape the personality and character of a child. A preschool teacher should have ability to make kids excited about getting education. Other qualities which a preschool teacher should have include the following:

• Preschool teaching is all about a combination of lessons and creativity. Creativity plays an important role in educating kids in their early educational years. So it all depends on a preschool teacher to use different things creatively to teach different things to students. A preschool teacher should be creative enough to find exciting things which can be used to teach alphabets and colors etc. For example, for teaching different colors, a preschool teacher can hold a fancy dress show. Same can be done to give knowledge about different festivals. At the same time, a preschool teacher should also encourage kids to use their creativity as well. A creative preschool teacher manages to create an enthusiasm in class with his unique activities and games.
• A preschool teacher should also have an extra knowledge character building aspects of education. Preschoolers are in developing stage of their life so preschool teachers should have knowledge about early child development process. Moreover, a preschool teacher should also get some know-how about human behaviors so that he can understand children’s behaviors and emotional conditions. When a preschool teacher will know about developmental process of a child, he will face behavioral challenges in a batter way.
• All teachers have great communication skills but communicating with a child of 4 or 5 years old is entirely different. Therefore a preschool teacher must have some extra ordinary communication skills. He should communicate with kids at a level which is understood by them easily. Preschool teacher must know how to understand what kids need, how to teach kids and how to be patient with kids. Extensive communication skills of a teacher also help him having good rapport with parents as well.
• A preschool teacher has to use a lot of energy to participate in every activity of class. Monitoring kids of 3-5 years of age is quite exhausting and needs energy and enthusiasm. Deflating energy of teacher also affects students. Being lethargic, a teacher can loose patience due to which kids may get bored or even annoyed. A preschool teacher should know how to keep his energy at highest level at all the time.
• Classroom management ability is quite obvious for any teacher. Classroom management is actually a teacher’s ability to control environment of a classroom. Classroom control can be achieved by setting appropriate rules, managing kids’ behavior and rewarding for good behavior. A preschool teacher should have good classroom management abilities to keep a balanced atmosphere. Using punishment as a classroom management tool is not a skill of a preschool teacher.

Tips to Handle Violent Children in Preschool

Preschool children may show excessive aggression due to many reasons. Most common reason of violence may be that a kid may become annoyed on being sent to school. Kids may show violence and aggression by either fighting with other kids or biting others. In some cases, they can even want to damage a property. If you are a preschool teacher, you will be definitely aware of this. Every preschool class has one or more such students who are extra violent. Aggression in young kids should be taken seriously and being a teacher, you should learn to manage such children. Here are some tips in this regard:

• Before taking any action, observe and monitor the aggressive kid regularly and carefully. Try to determine causes and issues that make him violent. You will find over-stimulation, frustration, stress and lack of speaking ability as some of major causes.
• After knowing reasons of aggression, tell that child to stop this behavior at the least sign of anger. While asking him to do so, keep yourself calm, firm and patient. Do not raise your voice while talking with a kid especially the aggressive one.
• Start with a slight punishment. Give punishment of time-out to that kid for not more than 10 minutes. These ten minutes should begin after the kid is seated separately and became quiet. After this punishment, do not allow him to rejoin his friends. Instead ask him that he has to play alone for 10 to 15 minutes.
• After this light punishment, remind him that he should behave in an acceptable manner if he wants to rejoin his friends. Younger kids immediately learn from such reactions of teachers. Also teach them not to show same behavior again. For example, if kid has bitten someone, tell him that biting is bad and it hurts others. In most cases, a kid will understand and not do it again.
• In this whole process, involve parents also and ask them what they do as a reaction of such aggressive behavior of kids. Assure them for your support and communicate with them to devise better ways to deal with this problem. Ask parents to employ some disciplinary measures at home also while in school, you can do your best to handle them.

Handling aggression and violence in preschool kids is not difficult. All it needs is parents support as well as appropriate measures taken by teachers.

Becoming a Good Preschool Teacher

Have you started your professional teaching career as a preschool teacher? If yes, then prepare yourself to cope with responsibilities and challenges that come with preschool teaching. To become a good preschool teacher, you can attend preschool teachers training programs. At the same time, you can follow some simple tips and guidelines to play your role efficiently. Here are some guidelines in this regard:

• First thing which you should remember is that kids do not know how to stay quiet in class and listen to what their teacher says. So you can not teach them a lesson in an ordinary or traditional way. Instead, you should make your lesson interesting by turning them into a fun activity. Use games, songs and poems to teach young ones.
• You should also know that every child has own capabilities. For instance, some kids can speak fluently while some others cannot. Similarly, some students can perform various tasks properly while some of them need special attention and care to do the same task. So as a preschool teacher, you should know caliber of each student and teach accordingly. Prepare your lesson that is appropriate for all growth levels.
• Be patient and remain calm in class. Young children create mess in classroom. Some kids also start crying for small reasons. Some go wild without any reason. Being a good preschool teacher, you should learn to handle all such situations. Try to know why a child acts in a certain behavior and then teach that kid in a calm manner.
• As a preschool teacher, you should also be aware of educational and developmental problems of kids. Some students may need special help and assistance due to any problem. Try to solve their problems. Preschool teachers have not enough skills to teach special students but still they can identify them and refer them to somewhere else for their proper education.
• Adopt a teaching method which can prepare students for elementary level. This not only includes teaching basics but also it means to teach proper behaviors and attitude. For example, you should teach a kid how to sit silently in class and how to follow directions of a teacher.
• Also prepare your students to meet daily life challenges. Teach them good communication skills so that they can interact with their class fellows in a better way. Also help them understanding emotions and feelings of others. Help them learning the way of overcoming their thoughts and emotions.

That was a bundle of tips which you can follow to become a good preschool teacher. Besides following these tips, take care of yourself to meet challenges you may face in a preschool classroom. Get a sound sleep at night to perform next day’s tasks efficiently.