This weeks essential question looked at the following statement, "Get the right people on your team, and get the wrong ones off."
This question is extremely fitting for me this week. Currently I am working as Assistant Director of a local daycare. We have 40 children from 12 months to 12 years. We have 7 teachers and 2 administrators including myself. In a daycare setting there is an extremely difficult line we have to walk. The salary for preschool teachers is disgraceful and doesn't provide a wage that attracts experienced or licensed teachers. As a result we are only able to hire inexperience individuals who maybe have some background babysitting.
This poses a difficult situation for the administrators. We want to ensure we have the best teachers and provide the best early education to the children in our care, but most of the time the teachers are not professional experienced in early childhood education. While this makes it challenging due to their lack of formal education it provides us with a great clean slate to mold them into the educators we need.
When I first came aboard it took a few months to figure out where I would be the most successful and able to help the entire center. Despite my formal education background we found out that I am able to help more with training the staff and passing down my knowledge and experience to the new teachers to help them before successful early childhood teachers.
While we have found that some people fit better working with the toddlers we have found that when others are put in with these young kids they feel overwhelmed and appear unhappy. It is important to be willing to move people around and take chances with their placement within the organization. Without the right people in the right places our child care center would not be successful.
This question is extremely fitting for me this week. Currently I am working as Assistant Director of a local daycare. We have 40 children from 12 months to 12 years. We have 7 teachers and 2 administrators including myself. In a daycare setting there is an extremely difficult line we have to walk. The salary for preschool teachers is disgraceful and doesn't provide a wage that attracts experienced or licensed teachers. As a result we are only able to hire inexperience individuals who maybe have some background babysitting.
This poses a difficult situation for the administrators. We want to ensure we have the best teachers and provide the best early education to the children in our care, but most of the time the teachers are not professional experienced in early childhood education. While this makes it challenging due to their lack of formal education it provides us with a great clean slate to mold them into the educators we need.
When I first came aboard it took a few months to figure out where I would be the most successful and able to help the entire center. Despite my formal education background we found out that I am able to help more with training the staff and passing down my knowledge and experience to the new teachers to help them before successful early childhood teachers.
While we have found that some people fit better working with the toddlers we have found that when others are put in with these young kids they feel overwhelmed and appear unhappy. It is important to be willing to move people around and take chances with their placement within the organization. Without the right people in the right places our child care center would not be successful.
Sounds like a busy job.
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