Career profile Kindergarten Teacher

Table of Contents

• What does a Kindergarten Teacher do?
• What is a typical salary for a Kindergarten Teacher?
• What personality traits are common among Kindergarten Teachers?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Kindergarten Teachers need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Kindergarten Teacher do?

Kindergarten Teachers teach academic and social skills to kindergarten students.

What kind of tasks does a Kindergarten Teacher perform regularly?

Kindergarten Teachers are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among students.
• Prepare children for later grades by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
• Instruct students individually and in groups, adapting teaching methods to meet students' varying needs and interests.
• Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, or social skills, to preschool students with special needs.
• Demonstrate activities to children.
• Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
• Guide and counsel students with adjustment or academic problems, or special academic interests.
• Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
• Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
• Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.
• Identify children showing signs of emotional, developmental, or health-related problems and discuss them with supervisors, parents or guardians, and child development specialists.
• Maintain accurate and complete student records, and prepare reports on children and activities, as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
• Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate these objectives to students.
• Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
• Confer with parents or guardians, other teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.
• Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, and storytelling.
• Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and to determine their priorities for their children.
• Use computers, audio-visual aids, and other equipment and materials to supplement presentations.
• Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.
• Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment or materials to prevent injuries and damage.
• Assimilate arriving children to the school environment by greeting them, helping them remove outerwear, and selecting activities of interest to them.
• Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.
• Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of secondary school programs.
• Prepare, administer, and grade tests and assignments to evaluate students' progress.
• Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons that promote learning, following approved curricula.
• Prepare materials, classrooms, and other indoor and outdoor spaces to facilitate creative play, learning and motor-skill activities, and safety.
• Prepare for assigned classes and show written evidence of preparation upon request of immediate supervisors.
• Organize and label materials and display children's work in a manner appropriate for their sizes and perceptual skills.
• Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guest speakers, contests, or other experiential activities, and guide students in learning from those activities.
• Supervise, evaluate, and plan assignments for teacher assistants and volunteers.
• Involve parent volunteers and older students in children's activities to facilitate involvement in focused, complex play.
• Administer standardized ability and achievement tests and interpret results to determine students' strengths and areas of need.
• Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops to maintain and improve professional competence.
• Attend staff meetings and serve on committees, as required.
• Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
• Perform administrative duties, such as assisting in school libraries, hall and cafeteria monitoring, and bus loading and unloading.

The above responsibilities are specific to Kindergarten Teachers. More generally, Kindergarten Teachers are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Kindergarten Teacher salary?

What personality traits are common among Kindergarten Teachers?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Kindergarten Teacher are usually higher in their Social and Artistic interests.

Kindergarten Teachers typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Kindergarten Teachers typically have moderate Artistic interests. Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Kindergarten Teacher tend to value Relationships, Achievement, and Working Conditions.

Most importantly, Kindergarten Teachers very strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Kindergarten Teachers strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Lastly, Kindergarten Teachers strongly value Working Conditions. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Kindergarten Teachers must consistently demonstrate qualities such as dependability, integrity, and adaptability/flexibility.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Kindergarten Teachers, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Kindergarten Teachers need?

Many Kindergarten Teachers will have a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Kindergarten Teachers usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Educational degrees among Kindergarten Teachers

• 1.5% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 12.5% completed high school or secondary school
• 20.5% completed some college coursework
• 13.5% earned a Associate's degree
• 35.3% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 15.4% earned a Master's degree
• 1.2% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Kindergarten Teachers

Important Abilities needed by Kindergarten Teachers

Kindergarten Teachers must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Kindergarten Teachers need abilities such as oral expression, written comprehension, and oral comprehension in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Kindergarten Teachers, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Kindergarten Teachers

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Kindergarten Teachers frequently use skills like social perceptiveness, instructing, and active listening to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Kindergarten Teachers, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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