Early childhood educators are those who work with infants and young children in various fields related to their physical, mental and social development. They work in institutional settings, daycares, private and public schools or private homes. Early childhood educator jobs include education administrators, teachers, teacher assistants and child care workers.
Education administrators set goals and standards for educational activities and academic programs. They monitor the educational progress of students, and hire, train and evaluate the performance of teachers and other staff. In private or public schools with daycare centers, they work with the preschool teachers, teacher assistants and other childcare workers to ensure that all the important parts of child development are covered. Some of these areas include language development, motor skills, emotional development and social development.
Teaching, in relation to early childhood educator jobs, has many specialties and categories. Preschool teachers provide early childhood education by employing a number of teaching strategies. They educate young children, usually between the ages of three and five, who have not yet entered kindergarten. They may teach the children individually or in small groups, always sticking to a curriculum developed to cover the important basics of childhood development.
Early childhood educator jobs also include jobs like that of teacher assistants. Teacher assistants work with preschool teachers to provide clerical assistance or help them supervise the children. This is important because it allows the teacher to devote more time to other things like planning educational and recreational activities for the children. They basically serve as support for the teachers and will step in to read stories to children, sing nursery rhymes, or administer other kinds of activities related to early childhood development. Teacher assistants are also called instructional aides or teacher aides.
Child care workers include the informal workers who care for young children at home. Private household workers are employed by parents to care for young children in their homes. They perform a myriad of activities like feeding, bathing and supervising play. Babysitting is also part of early childhood educator jobs because babysitters read to young children, play with them, involve them in educational games, and even discipline them. Nannies are involved in early childhood education because they tend to children from an early age — sometimes from birth — by providing different kinds of services, including early education. This may be their exclusive job, or they may combine nanny duties with housekeeping duties.
