Preschool teachers find contentment in working with children, teaching, loving, and watching them develop and grow from baby to preschooler. Liza Price, the teacher of the Giraffe class, spoke with the Randburg Sun and shared what a day in the life of a preschool teacher looked like.
Teachers dealt with parents in the early mornings and evenings as teachers were their first point of contact. Teachers would try to respond to them as soon as possible to maintain a good rapport.
Price said a preschool teacher differed from a primary school or high school teacher as they did not sit behind a desk or stand in front of a class to teach.
“We are very active with the children – we help them with tasks that need to get done, like painting. I have the oldest group at the school, so I have to sit and correct their pencil grip, and their scissors grip. We have to be hands-on and interact with our kids.”
She said the biggest challenge as a preschool teacher was the judgment from parents who questioned the significance of their qualifications.
“We still have to study the same length of time as any other teacher. We have to be more compassionate toward the kids and more involved with the kids because they are little and we are shaping them for the future – we are the foundation of their entire education.”
She said most parents would be in denial when confronted with an issue concerning their children.
“By picking up those issues, we can help them correct them at an early age which could better their child for the future. Some of the kids are slower learners than others … just because they are slower at something, doesn’t mean they are doing it wrong.”
Price’s hope for the female child in the future is to empower them and let them know that they can be anything they want to be because we don’t live in a world where one is forced to live by gender stereotypes. The biggest thing was teaching their girls independence and providing them with that environment as their foundation.
“We teach them that women and men are equal and that the colour of your skin does not affect who you are. That’s a big thing we teach at Ferndale Nursery. If you asked any of my kids, they would tell you that ‘I am brown’ or ‘I am peach’. We teach our kids to not talk about people’s weight or how they look because everyone is different but we are all special and loved.”
Being a preschool teacher meant gentle hands and kind words. It entailed patience with all children.
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