Early Years Educator Job Description

Certified Early Childhood Teachers

An early childhood teacher is certified to teach from birth to age eight. The term may be used in reference to a daycare provider, teaching assistant, or school administrator. To become an early childhood teacher, you need a bachelor's degree in early childhood education and a teaching certificate or license in a particular state.

Background checks are required for those who want to work with children. An early childhood educator can work at a school, a daycare, or a community head start program. In early childhood education, class sizes are usually smaller than in later school years to allow the teacher to spend more time with each student.

The teacher is responsible for creating lesson plans and teaching students in the best manners, such as through interactive play and hands-on activities. Evaluating progress, disciplining children appropriately, and keeping them safe are all things an early childhood education teacher is responsible for. Early childhood teachers must prepare reports for parents and school administrators.

It is important for an education professional to be patient, communicative and to enjoy working with children and teaching creatively, because early childhood education requires more care than teaching older children. An early childhood educator might do activities with children that include arts and crafts, story time, problem solving with games or puzzles, group activities to help kids build social skills, and activities that teach basic skills such as numbers or the alphabet. Early childhood education includes music, and many teachers begin to teach their students basic musical instruments and rhythm.

Early Childhood Education: Certification, Training Programs and Tools

Early childhood educators are responsible for the overall health and welfare of the children in their classroom, which requires constant monitoring of all children during learning times, meal times, restroom breaks, and nap times. Early childhood teachers need an associate's degree or better in child development, early childhood education, elementary education, or special education to work institutions of learning. Candidates for primary or assistant teacher must have at least one year of classroom teaching experience.

First aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training certification are required for early childhood educators to meet licensing requirements. The early childhood educators have acredential. The Child Development Associate credential requires candidates to complete a certain number of hours of training and meet other goals that vary depending on the age group of children being educated.

In some cases, early childhood teachers must pass a state exam to be allowed to teach. NAEYC offers publications and development programs for early childhood educators, as well as information about accreditation programs and tools for more effective classroom leadership. The National Childcare Association has a lot of information for early childhood educators, as well as news to keep them up to date, and forums to provide networking opportunities.

Early Years Safeguarding and Child Protection: A Facebook Group for Experts

There have been huge steps taken in recent years to respond to children's risk, danger, abuse, and death. Every single member of staff must be fully trained and retrained to know and understand the responsibilities of protecting children's safety, and that is where statutory guidance comes in. Laura Henry, an early years expert trainer, set up a Facebook group called Early Years Safeguarding and Child Protection in January 2016 after seeing a lot of questions and queries being posted on social media.

Laura felt that there was a need to come together to discuss some of the issues face-to-face because there are 4,000 members. Dr Lumsden has experience in social work and is head of Early Years at the University of Northampton. She is passionate about the quality of training and has advised on professional standards for early years in England internationally.

Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education

Students who are accepted into a bachelor's degree program will usually spend the first two years of their studies earning general education credits. The second two years of the bachelor's degree program will focus on courses in childhood development, methods of teaching children, and theories of learning. Students can expect to work with small children in a classroom setting, and they can expect to complete at least one internship.

Many early childhood education programs include classroom engagements to prepare teachers for the demands of the job. Prospective early childhood teachers will be prepared to become licensed to teach and earn their endorsement through testing such as the Praxis Series, although state testing requirements for early childhood certification vary from state to state. If you have a bachelor's degree in another subject and have been licensed for at least one year, you can add an endorsement to your teaching certificate by completing a master's program in early childhood education.

A master's degree in early childhood education can give you a deeper understanding of learning in childhood and a more developed skills for working with small children. Special needs, gifted and talented, and other subcategories of early childhood education can be covered in master's degree programs. The required tests are required for early childhood endorsement in the state where the master's program graduates are from.

Answer: Early childhood teachers need a bachelor's degree and a state teacher's license in order to teach. The preschool teachers must hold an associate's degree.

Some states and private schools have different requirements. The Board of Education and local teacher preparation programs can give you information the requirements for your area. There are many career opportunities for early childhood professionals.