Video:Career Profile: Pre-K /Kindergarten Teacher

Transcript:Career Profile: Pre-K /Kindergarten Teacher

Hi I'm Mary Lou Kozol for About.com and today I'm going to tell you what it's like to be a kindergarten teacher.

Certifications Needed for Pre-K/Kindergarten Teachers

To become a kindergarten teacher, what you really need to do is get your masters degree in education. Once you've done that then you go through a series of tests depending upon the specialties you might want to have. Of course you need a states certification as well as a city license.

Planning is Essential for Pre-K/Kindergarten Teachers

Well let me start by saying there is a tremendous amount of planning. I mean you're planning all year, you're planning before the year starts to make sure you are covering the standards and the curriculum. But you also are trying to make it creative and fun, you're trying to cross disciplines, you're trying to cross intelligences, you're trying to include music and art and dance and ks and to everything. So the planning is really pretty extensive, I'm usually up at about 5-5:30 in the morning and I sit there and I start to think about a standard lesson that I want to go through. And then from there I would expand on the lesson and tailor it to the children that I have.

Pre-K/Kindergarten Students are Different Every Year

And every year it's going to be different because every year these children are different. And the goal is really to get to know each child as individuals; what there strengths are, what their likes are, what their challenges are, what they enjoy doing. Once you do that it is a lot easier to teach because once you get the know the child as a human being then you can really tailor what you're doing to these children's interests and that's really important especially at this young age because at that age I think the number one thing you can do is instill confidence in them, you want them to be confident in what they believe in, you want them to have integrity.

Pre-K/Kindergarten Teachers Must Be Engaging

Way back when, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago I can remember people telling me that when they went to school, of course, you needed to be quiet and just answer only when the teacher asked you a question. I try to do just the opposite with these children, I try to give them the opportunity to talk about things that really mean something to them and obviously something that's pertinent to their education.

It's interesting when people say "I want to be a teacher because I love kids." Of course you have to love kids, you're going to be with them from 8 to 10 hours a day, you're going to be with them longer than their parents are with them. Loving children is one thing, but helping them build their future is something very very all together different and much much bigger.

Thanks for watching. If you'd like to know more about being a kindergarten teacher please visit About.com.