Childcare Education Institute asked:
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Being an early childhood teacher requires you to be willing to wear many hats.  As an experienced teacher, you are already prepared to be flexible.  As a new teacher, remember that your job description may change on a daily basis.

In most cases, your role as an early childhood teacher will be very similar to that of a guide. A guide leads others down new paths.  A guide walks beside a person on a journey, not in front.  A guide also keeps others safe from harm.

As an early childhood teacher, you will be challenged to find new experiences to share with children.  Guide children, do not lead them, and move in a direction that interests the child.  As a guide, allow the child to choose their learning and playing style while making safety your number one concern!

Give up the notion that a teacher knows everything.  Become a partner in learning and encourage children to find their own answers instead of providing the answers for them.  By being a partner, teachers learn with the children and share in their experiences.

Early childhood teachers support learning by providing activities and materials that children find engaging.  By facilitating learning, supplying a developmentally appropriate environment, interesting materials, and adequate time to explore, play, and interact, children find learning easy and fun!

To nurture is to nourish.  Nurturing a child encompasses all aspects of development: social, emotional, cognitive, and physical.  In every interaction, a teacher should nurture appropriate growth and development.

Teachers must also take care to listen to a child including interpreting words and actions.  Listening carefully helps teachers determine a child’s needs and aids in furthering the child’s development.

Teachers communicate with many people throughout the day: parents, children, support staff, the general public, and administrators.  Early childhood teachers must be prepared to communicate with all of these people.  You should feel comfortable opening up, asking questions, seeking advice, and sharing your experiences.

Paperwork, lesson planning, preparing materials and the environment, and negotiating require teachers to have strong management skills.  Managing a classroom requires organizational skills, attention to detail, and commitment.  There are many balls in the air and it is your job is to keep them up and moving!

Teaching is full of many responsibilities, roles, and challenges.  Like most worthwhile endeavors, it brings both challenges and rewards.  Be flexible and you will more readily enjoy the rewards of teaching young children.

Learn more about teacher roles and responsibitlites. Visit ChildCare Education Institute to discover over 100 online child care training courses that meet the continuing education requirements of the child care industry.  Register for a sample course and try online learning today!



BENITO
AP asked:


Teachers use many metaphors to describe what they do . Sometimes they say they are like father , mother , judge , salesman , technician , librarian , actors , and more within the role . Dictionaries also give a variety of information about teaching . According to the ‘Cambridge International Dictionary of English ’ teaching means ‘ to give (someone ) knowledge or to instruct or train (someone )’ whereas the ‘Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English ‘ suggests that it means to ‘ show somebody how to do something ‘ or to ‘change somebody‘s ideas ‘ .

According to Hill and Dobbyn (1982 :30) ‘ some people are born teachers , who have the desire and the ability to pass knowledge and skills on successfully . But even a person who is not a born teacher can improve a lot by learning to smile , to be enthusiastic and patient , and to be constantly looking for new ways of getting his message across to his pupils ‘.

To be a good teacher we can not forget about the values of teaching . As an individual we may value sympathy more highly than the ability to make money .Our social group or peer group value trust more highly than intelligence . There are various ways that make you to be a good teacher and understand or intensify the values of teaching. Teachers should address their students by first names . They should not show anger in front of another people . A teacher must love his job . If he really enjoys his job that will make the lesson more interesting . Teachers should have lots of knowledge not only of their subjects . We must not criticize each other in public . We should respect another’s privacy and another’s person opinion on an issue . We should always attempt to do our best . The teacher’s job is to give knowledge and the learner’s job is to absorb the knowledge teachers give them .Successful and valuable teachers are those people who can identify with the hopes , aspirations , and difficulties of their students that they are teaching . Values are factors that influence teacher’s identity.

Within the classroom , our role and identity may change from one activity to another .
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The teacher plays the role of controller when he is totally in charge of the class . When teachers act as controllers they take the roll , tell students things , organize exercises , read aloud .

The teacher is also an organizer . He organizes classroom activities , sets up learning tasks and assists the learners in doing these activities .

One of the things that students expect from their teachers is an indication of whether or not they are getting their English right . This is where we have to act as an assessor , offering feedback and correction and grading students in various ways . Teacher can play the role of resource . He is a resource of knowledge about the subject and also how to acquire it .

Teachers also adopt some kind of a ‘prompting’ role in which we are keen to encourage the students to think creatively rather than have them hang on our every word . When we prompt we need to do it sensitively and encouragingly but with discretion .

What is more , there are also times when we might want to join in an activity not as a teacher , but also as a participant in our own right . When it goes well , students enjoy having the teacher with them and for the teacher , participating is often more instantly enjoyable than acting as a resource .

Teachers can also observe what students do in order to judge the success of the different materials and activities that they take into lessons so that they can , if necessary , make changes in the future .

One feature of social groups is that they hold beliefs and attitudes in common . They all tend to believe in roughly the same things and to value the same things positively or negatively . All people have strong desires to belong to a group . They need to identify themselves with others , to feel the same way about things as they do .

Feeling like a teacher means performing many roles , understanding our own identity , exploring our own attitudes and values .

We act like actors because ‘ we are always on the stage ‘ . Thus we can identify with different roles . Every role involve human contact , but of differing type .

Moreover , we should remember the values of teaching . Teachers can not forget about their main aim which is giving knowledge to their students and motivating the students in their work with the subject .

Only in this way a teacher can feel like a ‘successful teacher ‘ with real values .

Anna Piekarczyk

www.anglobiznes.pl



ARTHUR