Tips for Daycare Teachers

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Sarah Norris with Total Childcare Center in Wilmington, North Carolina. Today we're going to talk about tips for childcare teachers. Childcare teachers do much more than babysitting. Just because you like to babysit may not mean that you should be a childcare teacher. However, you do need to really like being around children because you will spend most of the time, eight hours a day, in the classroom with a number of children. In order to be a good teacher you need to like children, number one. Then, I would recommend that you get some experience if possible. Education, certainly, is becoming more and more important and is going to be a requirement for particular levels of teachers in North Carolina. In many states it's already a requirement. We may end up having to have as much education as a regular teacher in the school systems. That's not a bad thing. Teachers need education. So, I would recommend education. Any experience that you've had within organizations of teaching children within possibly your church setting where you've taught children, that will help. You need to stay calm, you need to be flexible, you need to be able to roll with the punches, you need to be able to laugh with the children at their mistakes and at the good things they do. You need to be able to laugh at yourself because it will happen during the day that that really helps. Children love to laugh and we can learn as adults from that also. You need to be able to provide a clean environment, to be aware of what's in your classroom. Keeping it neat, orderly, clean. Being aware of the children's needs, what works well for particular child, zoning in on that particular child and what particular activity she might like or manipulative that she likes to play with in order to bring her out. Being a childcare teacher is not easy, as I said, but these are some of the tips that might help you in deciding if you want to be a teacher or maybe in continuing to be a teacher in this field."