Salary and Outlook
According to the US Department of Labor, there are 483,100 people employed as preschool teachers, except special education in
the United States.
The median annual salary is $30,210.
Entry level employees earn approximately $22,840 per year and senior employees earn approximately $58,530
per year.
Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.
Job Duties
- Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, and social skills.
- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order.
- Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests.
- Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
- Serve meals and snacks in accordance with nutritional guidelines.
- Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, and changing their diapers.
- Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and needs, determine their priorities for their children, and suggest ways that they can promote learning and development.
- Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, storytelling, and field trips.
- 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 as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
- Assimilate arriving children to the school environment by greeting them, helping them remove outerwear, and selecting activities of interest to them.
- Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
- Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
- Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of preschool programs.
- Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guests, or other experiential activities and guide students in learning from those activities.
- Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.
- Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
- Supervise, evaluate, and plan assignments for teacher assistants and volunteers.
- Administer tests to help determine children's developmental levels, needs, and potential.
- Attend staff meetings and serve on committees as required.
- Provide disabled students with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
- Perform administrative duties, such as hall and cafeteria monitoring and bus loading and unloading.
- Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicate those objectives to children.
- Arrange indoor and outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, and safety.
- Teach proper eating habits and personal hygiene.
- Demonstrate activities to children.
- Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
- Enforce all administration policies and rules governing students.
- Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.
- Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons promoting learning, following approved curricula.
- Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops to maintain and improve professional competence.
- Organize and label materials and display students' work in a manner appropriate for their ages and perceptual skills.
- Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.