Early Childhood Education Experience

My Experience as an Early Childhood Educator

As a preschool director and early educator of 12 years, I have had the pleasure to work with children ages 6 weeks to age 5. Children are such intelligent, curious individuals that sometimes it makes me wonder how I can possibly enhance their developmental needs.

Early Childhood education is crucial for children, as it develops their core developmental skills to help them become bright little individuals that will take over the generations to come.

Providing a safe learning environment is very important for childrens optimal growth, in which why early childhood educators must create age appropriate curriculum with activities that will keep the children engaged in their learning to reach their fullest potential.

As an experienced early childhood educator, it is with great pleasure to say I enjoy learning and growing with my students as the years come. This experience gives me the opportunity to learn as well as an educator, see what works and what doesn't in the classroom, what is engaging for the children, what are they interested in and so much more.

My experience as an educator has been fun, emotional, eye opening, challenging, and so much more, but I am so grateful to say that I have been the reason many of my students have been ready for kindergarten, enjoy coming to school, and share wonderful memories with that have been great learning experiences and opportunities for both the children and myself.

Becoming an Early Childhood Educator was not a plan for me. I was fresh out of high school, studying Business management at my local community college as a young mom. My focus was on going to school for business, and work part time as a preschool office secretary. But that idea was so short lived. Two weeks into my job, finally comprehending how to handle parents, tuition, the schools system, one of the teachers feels ill, and they are caught off guard, and no one else to replace so here I come. I began my official preschool experience as a 2's teacher with 20 children, with no experience, yet expected to train an assistant for the class as well. On my second day as a preschool teacher, no assistant shows up, and now Ms. Sam is on her own! On my own?!?! How Could that be?!?! Can I even do this?!?! All these glorious thoughts raced in my mind, and then bam, reality hit, diapers needs to be changed, its circle time, what activity are we doing today, and so much more all at once. Well here goes nothing! Ms. Sam had to figure it all out and she did! As it being my first job, this was not easy at all. I cried day in and day out as my office part time job, become a fulltime teacher position and had no experience. After many trials and tribulations, I finally got the hang of what I was doing in the class, but man keeping an assistant was not east at all. After a long year of online school, being a teen mom, and surviving my first big girl job I felt so worn out. I had no choice but to resign and move towards a different job that was suitable for my schedule with my son and school.

Well after trying several different jobs, I was not content! So I thought, why not give childcare a chance again. So here goes Ms. Sam, a new preschool, 12 two years, with only a year of experience. Well guess what this was it! I finally did it, I took my prior experience and made it work. I had this all in the bag and was finally adjusting to my preschool teacher position. but I was still studying business management. After three and half years of working at the same preschool, my next adventure came about and it was time to move to Florida. Oh man what was I going to do in Florida? Is preschool the same here? Who knows! Well I gave it my shot, a year into the field in Florida, learning and experiencing new preschool opportunities I felt it was time to give up with Business Management and try Early Childhood Education. My time as a preschool kept going, and I was only becoming a better early childhood educator and I was so pleased with the outcome. This has not been a very easy to say the least, but I have definitely come a long way in this field and couldn't be any happier with my decision to change my career. Being a preschool teacher and director have been a wonderful experience that has taught me more than I thought I would learn about children, their development and the importance of early childhood education.

This career is definitely not for the faint of heart, so take a moment and think to yourself, can you make it as an early childhood educator?..... This is where you realize we aren't glorified babysitters, but teachers who build the foundation for your child's growth and development. It is so important that preschool teachers are trained, experienced, and equipped to take on the position as an early childhood educator. This career may have brought me many tears through the years, but the journey, experience and opportunity have been an experience that I do not have enough words for. Early Childhood Education is where I am meant to be, and if this is what you decide you want to pursue, make sure you have the heart and passion to grow and learn through the experience with your students.