You and I both know how important it is to have found the right set of teachers for your preschool.
They need to be trained, they need to be approachable and friendly, they need to uphold the values of your preschool!
How do you select the right candidate?
No worries, I’ve got you covered.
I’ve carefully selected and put down a list of tips you need to consider when you’re appointing teachers for your preschool.
And I’ll walk you through each tip in detail!
RELATED: How To Start A Preschool in India – The Complete Guide

3 MAJOR TIPS TO HIRE PRESCHOOL TEACHERS:

1.FINDING QUALITY CANDIDATES:

Finding the right candidates for the job can be quite a task, but it is one among the major points to consider when you are looking to hire preschool teachers.

Here are a few methods to find the right candidates:

a) Advertisements:

One method that can be used to find the right candidates is by advertising on various traditional platforms, job fairs and other social platforms about your needs and requirements and the type of teachers you need.

Preschool teachers who are looking for jobs and think they qualify for the job at your preschool will apply for it and this way you can avoid unnecessary applications.
b) Personal Referrals:

Getting referrals is one of the best ways to find the perfect candidates for your nursery teacher. You can ask the parents of the kids at your preschool if they know if anyone would be interested in a teaching job at the preschool.

Asking friends, teachers, neighbours are other methods to find applications for nursery teacher job.

c) Quality Candidates:

Wanting qualitative candidates at your preschool is any preschool owner’s dream.

One way you can ensure this is by making sure the preschool has strong policies and a safe, productive and inclusive environment along with a brilliant reputation.

If your school is meeting its required standards, qualitative candidates will start applying for a job at your preschool.
d) Offering Benefits:

Another way to attract qualitative candidates is by offering benefits like fair pay and flexibility with scheduling.

Offering professional developmental opportunities is also very important to both teachers and the preschool — wherein investing in child-care staff training will help in understanding, developing and reinstating the requirements or qualities of a preschool teacher.

2.INTERVIEW:

Once you’ve selected a few candidates for the job, the next step is to interview them and check whether they truly meet all the requirements as a daycare teacher.

Take the time needed to decide on the qualifications needed to be a preschool teacher at your preschool.

Keep in mind that what is on a preschool teacher resume can be only half the story and to get the full picture you need to interview them and find out if they are the right fit for the job.

A few things you can consider are:

a) Educational Philosophy:

Finding the educational philosophy of the candidate can be vital because it gives you an idea of how they think, how they want to teach and what they believe is the best way to teach; and if they are in line with what the preschool needs.
b) Loyal Applicants:

One other criteria that can be considered while interviewing the person is by figuring out whether they can commit to everything the preschool looks for in their teacher to do for the preschool. If they’re not willing to commit fully and if they have other commitments then maybe they’re not the right hire.

c) Interaction With Children:

It’s important to find out whether or not they have had experience in dealing with children or interacted with them.

Because it is essential for the teacher to be sensitive to the needs of a child in the classroom.

So the frequency of interaction with children can be another way you can find out while interviewing them whether they’re the right person for the day-care teacher job.

d) A Few Questions To Ask:

A few other questions that can be asked at the interview could be:

1. Ask them to describe their teaching style
2. Ask them why they chose to teach as their career
3. Ask them what they think are the best qualities to look for in a teacher
4. Ask them to describe their ideal lesson and even do a demo

There are so many good interview questions and teacher-centered questions that you can ask to obtain the goal of selecting the best candidate for your preschool.
We’ve come up with a list of questions that you can include in your interview session that can help you make your selection process easier.
Read further to see the list of primary teacher interview questions and answers.

PRESCHOOL TEACHER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

A few areas that can be focused on for preschool interview questions are as follows:

A. Motivation:

A major area that can be focused on while interviewing a potential candidate to work at your preschool would be the motivation of the teacher.
You can ask questions regarding what they feel about teaching in general and move into specific preschool related questions like why they decided to teach in kids and not older children.
You can ask them what motivated them to become preschool teachers and why they think that they are the best candidate for this job. With this, you can try to identify their love for the job and their dedication as a teacher.
You can ask them what they define as success for a preschool teacher and what they think should be the philosophy of a preschool teacher. With this, you can attempt to find out how their goals and aspirations can contribute to your preschool’s ideals and value systems.
You can ask them how comfortable they are when it comes to handling children and the parents of these children. You can ask them how difficult they find working with children and how working with such young children can be challenging. With this, you can find out if they’re well-equipped enough to handle children who are undergoing preschool education.

B. Skills:

In this section of the preschool teacher interview questions, you can focus on finding out the skills that this preschool teacher has that will benefit your preschool.
You can ask them what has been their prime duties in the past and what they think are their strengths and weaknesses are as a teacher which will help you gauge the level of experience they’re operating at.
You can ask them what they think in general are the required skills for a preschool and what their approach towards managing the classroom must be to find out if their thinking is in line with the philosophy of your preschool.
You can also try to find out what they think the role of the parent is and how important teacher-parent relationship is for the growth of a particular child. With this, you’ll find out their level of commitment to the relationship towards the parents.

C. Situational:

In this section of the interview, you will pitch them various situations and ask them how they would handle that particular situational to find out how they can maintain discipline in the classroom and how well they can teach the children what is right and wrong.
A few questions you can ask them can be:
Imagine two children in the classroom misbehave and fight constantly. What do you do?
If a child showed signs of defiance, how would you act?
Imagine you suspect a child is being neglected by their family. What is your course of action?
What would you do if a child got hurt while playing?
Based on how well they are able to deal with such situations, you can evaluate them and make an assessment.
These questions can definitely help you in making a practical assessment and help you interview the candidates and select teachers for your preschool, wisely.

3. SELECTION:

When you’ve finally come down to the process of selecting the playgroup teacher, there are a few things that need to be considered along with the preschool teacher qualities.

The laws and requirements with respect to the city/state laws and making sure they’ve ticked almost all the boxes required for being a teacher at your preschool.

You must also consider the soft skills and the behavioural qualities of the candidate which are extremely important when they have to deal with toddlers which is just as important as the certificates and degrees.
Hope these above pointers help you in choosing the right and appropriate teacher for your preschool.
Now let’s move on to the next section – training the preschool teachers!
Effectively and efficiently engaging in teacher training can have a major impact on the quality of education at your preschool.
So what is preschool teacher training?
Why is it important to train preschool teachers?
What role does this play in the way parents perceive your preschool?
We’ll explain!

WHAT IS PRESCHOOL TEACHER TRAINING?

Handling early childhood education can be quite a task.
Teachers need to be equipped with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and skills.
Teachers require this training to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school, and wider community.
So it’s important to provide the teacher with as many answers to get a grasp on the preschool education requirements.

Teacher training helps the teachers in understanding:

• The nuances of teaching
• What is essential to become a teacher at the preschool
• The role he/she has to play and the teacher requirements put forth at the preschool
• The philosophy, goals, vision and mission, of the preschool better

It is very important to invest in preschool teacher training.
Why do we say so?
Because the staff that you appoint at your preschool need more clarity on the methods used to run a few things at the preschool. They will also require a few guidelines used at the school for teaching and the methods and rules followed.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO TRAIN YOUR TEACHERS AND STAFF?

We’ve come up with a few valid points you need to consider to decide on including teacher education and teacher training programs which may focus on specific areas of expertise. They are:

1. The kindergarten teacher with further training will improve the quality of the day care.
2. The reputation of the day care increases with qualitative teachers.
3. The teachers (once they understand what the preschool requires of them) will provide their inputs and make the preschool more successful.
4. The teachers will understand the benchmark set by the school and will uphold that and increase the standard once the set benchmark is understood and attained.
5. The teachers will also need to acquire pedagogic skills to help emotionally connect with the environment and the preschool children.
6. The teachers learn to manage tasks efficiently which in turn helps in teacher burnout.
7. It gives the teachers clarity of the concepts to be taught and the few basic guidelines that should be used while teaching at the preschool.

To help the teachers function effectively, the preschool has to ensure that they provide the teachers with everything they need. The preschool has to provide the teachers with teaching aids.

WHAT ARE TEACHING AIDS?

Teaching aids are materials used by the teacher to help make the classes a little less monotonous and more fun, interesting and lively.
It is important from a preschool perspective to provide the teacher with as many teaching aids and school supplies as possible which will, in turn, help the teachers to work efficiently and improve the quality of learning.
Teaching aids for preschool will enable the teacher to instill play school activities and make the classes as educative as possible. Because children can learn through different methods and enable them with different methods can expand the child’s horizons.
RELATED: Why Is A Play Area Important In A Preschool?

NEED FOR TEACHING AIDS:

Why is it necessary to provide teachers with teaching aids? Here are a few pointers that will help answer that question

• It’ll help the children learn better
• It promotes interaction within the classroom
• The teacher can come up with new methods to change the monotonous learning patterns in the classroom
• The students will get introduced to different types of learning and pick one that they’re most comfortable with.

TYPES OF TEACHING AIDS:
Types of teaching aids are as follows:
Visual Aids:

Visual aids like charts, maps, whiteboards, blackboards, overhead projectors, etc. can be used to teach the curriculum in different forms.
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Audio Aids:

Audio are proven to be very effective while teaching. Aids like radio, tape recorder, rhyme CD’s, etc. can be used to teach proper pronunciation and the formation of words in spoken form.
Audio-Visual Aids:

Audio-Visual aids like film projector, television, etc. can also be another method used to teach students a form of learning. We all learn through movies and shows. So, the children get introduced to learning from the medium.

Puzzles:

Puzzles are a very interesting tool that helps children develop many skills and mental learning benefits and opportunities.

Books:
Books are a wonderful teaching aid that can help the child learn through reading. The benefits of reading are endless. It helps in the development of a child and can also help improve their language skills.

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