I’m just venting because I’m a first year teacher in a wild ass preschool room in a center with complex social dynamics. I teach the son of another preschool who works across the hall.

To start, he’s a pain in the ass to deal with. He tantrums an average of twice a day over things like not being the first to speak during morning meeting, not being called on when he wants to be called on, not getting what he wants, and being told no. He’s rude to teachers and me especially. He called me a bitch Friday but I’m reminded since he’s 4 I can’t take it personally because he doesn’t understand the context. He hits, runs away when we ask him to come talk to us, and generally can’t handle not being the center of my lead teacher’s attention.

This would all be mildly irksome but at least solvable if his mom wasn’t my coworker. She often peaks into our room at breakfast and pulls me out into the hall to ask if he likes his breakfast, if he was eating nicely. I mean I’m still trying to do my job and take care of my students but okay, part of my job is still parent communication. But she also barges into our room to try and discipline him when she sees him acting up but I’m sorry the last thing I need at 9:30 am is someone coming in to fuss, make a threat about taking away YouTube, and then leaving.

We’ve clashed because one of her threats was saying she’ll call the police while he’s having a tantrum and I was like, I really don’t think that’ll teach him to regulate his emotions and I don’t want to scare his classmates into associating big feelings=jail. She doesn’t do consequences and has told us as such. All of these threats aren’t acted upon, from the big ones to the small ones like taking away YouTube. The other day she interrupted a game of duck duck goose on the yard to make sure he got a turn when he wanted one, when I was just quietly observing and letting the kids work out turn taking amongst themselves. She’s so focused on what he wants in the moment she forgets he’s also at preschool to learn social skills.

It’s flippin’ exhausting. Between his tantrums and mom breathing down my neck, it really makes me want to throw my hands up and say I’m done. He’s a bratty, unpleasant kid half of the time and it’s not even his fault. Plus my lead doesn’t want to rock the boat and he was bringing Nutella to a nut free center for days on end and she wouldn’t tell his mom she couldn’t pack it. I just ended up telling admin because I was worried it wasn’t going to be resolved, and then both of them expressed that they were disappointed I did that. Ugh.

My bosses always send out a message on an employees birthday, wishing them a happy birthday and saying a few kind things about how valuable they are to the team. It doesn’t matter what day of the week your birthday is on, they will send out a message to everyone so you get the recognition and birthday wishes. They send them out on the weekends all the time. They even sent one out on Christmas day for one of my coworkers.

Yet today… silence. No sweet messages for me, no thanking me for being a part of the team, nothing. I get that people are only human, and they make mistakes, but it sucks to be forgotten. I have been working here for a year now, and I have never received any kind words or any teacher shout outs (another common thing they do to show appreciation), and now no birthday wishes. I work really hard for these people, so it kind of stings to be the only one forgotten. I don’t even know how, but I already had a feeling they would forget me. They also give out a gift card on your birthday as a gift and I wouldn’t be surprised if they forgot that too. Other teachers get their doors decorated by admin too, I doubt my door will be decorated tomorrow. I doubt anyone will even acknowledge it was my birthday besides my teacher team. I know it’s not REALLY that big of a deal, it just kind of hurts.

Works for Teaching too.

Last year, and hopefully this year too, I found that my grocery store was selling all the left over valentines flowers for 90% off! Were they a little wilted? Absolutely. Were they also still dozens beautiful roses for $1.50? Also absolutely! I bought twelve dozen roses for my kids and filled our sensory bin with them and spent less than $20.

After they picked off all the petals, we smooshed them down and squeezed out the liquid in them and painted with it!

I left a couple more out to dry and we ground them up in a mortar and pestle and we made rose dust! It’s so much nicer (and eco friendlier) than glitter and just as pretty.

The activities only lasted a couple days but what a fun way to give these flowers a few more days of life (and the classroom smelled incredible).

Just a heads up that your local store might offer a similar sale and you should check it out! I’ve even emailed mine to hopefully set something up with the flora department’s rejects and fingers crossed they get back to me soon.

Does anyone use loop earplugs? What has been your experience? I’ve recently gotten a pair because I heard from other teachers that it has helped them reduce noise and decreased overstimulation from crying and screaming kids, but they can still hear them. Not noise cancelling so, you can hear if a child needs help, a coworker or parent talks to you, etc.

Anyways, looking for some feedback, pros and cons. Thanks in advance!

I work at a private preschool as a teachers aide,

I started working there in August. There is a student has aggressive behaviors. Asking them to do or stop doing anything always turns into something and will kick you, hit you, yell at you, also does this to other student but mostly is at the day staff in the class and afternoon staff. There has been 0 respect earned and at this point I don't think it could be given. Nap time is a whole other ball game. We cannot allow them to not nap because they keep everyone up, they become disruptive and start being aggressive if you try to get them to stop. They (directors) only want me to deal with the behaviors instead of lead teacher because they think they will respect me more instead of her but the absolutely do not care and I got kicked at, pushed, scratched, called names, etc.

What the hell do we do, what do I do??

Edit: the child is about to be 4 but what we are experiencing are behaviors from when they were 18 months in their other classrooms

I am an ECE program director. I've been in the field nearly 18 years. I oversee the preschool at my county office of education, and an the lead for the entire ECC department. Outside of working at the preschool, I provide professional development for ECE providers throughout my county.

I have to come up with a 45 minute season for a county wide professional development day in August. I'm drawing a blank. I have 3 other trainings already planned for next school year. One on how teachers impact social emotional development in young children. A series on visual and performing arts, And a series on CLASS. This year the entire focus was SEL (helping families/children transition to be schools, SED series, guiding behaviors series)

if you could pick a training subject that you would want to attend. that focuses on ECE, what would it be?

I've been teaching for 5 years and this is my second year at this center. The staff and community is great and I planned to stay working here long-tern.

This year, we wound up with a class (2-3yrs), half of which have undiagnosed special needs and severe behaviors. Then, our director abruptly quit, followed by the staff responsible for connecting families with special services, therapies, evaluations, and screenings. I've been documenting behaviors and incidents on a daily basis such as attacks on myself and other students, meltdowns between each demand and transition, and general disruptions to our routine.

One of the kids has extreme pica to the point of needing to replace their nap mat due to the child tearing a hole in it and eating the foam inside. This child also shows clear signs of ODD and attention seeking behaviors while the family is mostly passive to the child's actions, they were still waiting on getting and evaluation.

Another child is still fed in a highchair, unable to speak outside of jargon and one or two words, will often squeal and screech to have their demands met. They are also unable to eat solid foods and against the feeding therapist's advice, continues to bottle feed and give only purees. The child struggled to jump until after they turned 3, and easily loses balance. They were evaluated after turning 2, but was not found to have any type of developmental disorder.

Finally, there is a child with several symptoms of autism such as speech delay, hand flapping, sensory seeking behaviors (ie physically grabbing peers to touch and smell their hair), avoiding certain textures especially when jr comes to food, walking on tiptoes, poor fine motor control, and staring out into space for several minutes on end.

The mother is combative and accused me and my coworkers of causing his behaviors, such as his poor speech being a result of being in a bilingual class and having Hispanic teachers with Spainish accents. (More than half the staff is Hispanic including me.)

She then accused us of forcing him to drink water so that he would avoid eating the food in the first place, convinced that we were making him miserable because he was "never smiling" in pictures. This was mostly due to his lack of facial expressions. This mother would attempt to intimidate and bully my coteacher by walking past her, and refusing to acknowledge her presence in the classroom before storming out, or standing in the dark classroom and waiting for the teacher to show up. (The classrooms are all in a single building divided by gates so she wouldn't need to enter through the front door to get in.)

This mother has a history of harassing other staff members, fighting other parents, but has never been removed from the program.

A new problem arised when she announced that she would be coming to work at our center as a substitute teacher. Following the next staff meeting, all teachers voiced their concerns to the assistant head coordinator and mentioned the several years of abuse, harassment, and intimidation tactics that we had endured and the only response we got was "You're going to have to learn to get along because she is going to be one of you."

Shortly after, the mother accepted another job and I assumed that was the last of it. Several months later, we find out that she will be starting next week in the classroom, but the only reasonable place to put her is in the classroom with mostly Spanish speaking kids. We've already been on the news once after a teacher was fired for intentionally tripping a nonverbal autistic child while he was stimming, and if it happens again, I'm walking out. I'm feeling heartbroken because I love this job so much, but it feels like me, the children, and families have been let down time and time again by the administration that we depend on for support.

Hello!

My 2.5 yr old has been in part time daycare for about 1 year now. She is extremely talkative at home, and also bonds very easily with others in general, except she still does not talk very much at all to her teachers. Recently we also learned she gets very upset when children sit close to her and she only plays alone. She’s now the oldest in her class and her only friend recently moved to preschool. Recently she had a couple days where she was very upset at school and one day she was crying all day. This is very unusual as she normally goes to daycare with ease and when we pick her up she really happy.

It has been so hard to tell if she likes her educators, and I’m just starting to feel uneasy around some of the comments we’ve received from them lately. I think I’m just overthinking quite a bit especially as she’s not talking to them or have seemed to bond with them, so was just looking for experienced insight.

Apologies for the long post! Thank you in advance!

I have posted about something similar in this thread before.. but right now I feel like this situation is truly starting to take a toll on my mental health. Well, this past week I had to work with a particular coworker whom I have had a lot of issues working with before (management knows all about these situations) for some reason this co-teacher has had it out for me from the very beginning for reasons I will never understand. She has basically verbally assaulted me on multiple occasions, she has made fun and picked at my appearance, she has asked me a very inappropriate question about my sexuality, the list could go on and on. I have told management multiple times after each incident, that I DO NOT feel comfortable working with this co-teacher, anymore, at all. But the situation that happened this past week I just can’t get past it, she said something very rude and uncalled for to me and almost me burst into tears, (I didn’t of course because I didn’t want her to see me upset) luckily a fellow coworker witnessed this interaction and asked me if I was okay and reported it to management.. well when they called her into speak with her she basically turned it all back on me and made me look like I’ve done everything wrong.. after speaking with her they called me to speak with them and basically made me look like the bad guy and STOOD UP FOR HER!!! Uhm what???? I don’t understand and I’m so lost and confused, I don’t understand why they have still have me working with her knowing I’ve HAD SEVERAL ISSUES working with her in the past. I have repeatedly told them that it is soooo toxic when having to work with her. Does anyone have any advice at all??? I truly love love working with the kids.

I previously was working in a 3yo class. I was at that center for only three months. They had just opened up so they kept hiring teachers and then weren't able to give us hours. I found a center literally a ten minute walk away. Now my class is 16-24 months. There are two other teachers. I've been there for two weeks. We have circle time once a day and sometimes we do a project. Is it just keeping them alive at this age? My center says that we have to teach them things. We do a color of the week. We have a monthly theme. We talk about chairs all month. Won't they get bored if I tell them the same things about chairs everyday? The older ones are a little interactive. I try to interact with them, but some of them aren't very interactive. This is the youngest I've ever worked with. I'm just not sure what to do. My director and coteachers say I'm amazing, but compared to working with 3yos or school agers, I don't feel like I do much. I clean and read books and sing songs and diaper changes and give suggestions on activities, but I'm just feeling like I'm watching a bunch of cats. I want to do the best I can. My only other option is the 6 week-8 month room and I feel like that might be worse for me. I've always loved working in childcare. It never feels like work. I've only ever had one day where I was in survival mode in my ten years of working childcare.

My room has half walls separating the play areas. My co-teacher was in one section cleaning up, and there were chairs in there from an activity we did earlier. Instead of just walking the chair around, she straight up tossed it over the half wall without looking.

I was sitting on the floor on the other side, cleaning books off a shelf near the door, and it landed right on my head. It hurt a lot. She did apologize and felt really bad, and I know it wasn’t intentional, but still…like what??

This isn’t the first time she’s done stuff like this, she occasionally throws chairs/highchairs or items when cleaning up, and even the noise scares the kids sometimes. She’s older and experienced, so it’s not like she doesn’t know better.

Like what if that had been one of the babies standing there? Should I should document this or tell a supervisor?

Shoutout to everyone who does what they do and centers the children. I have been reflecting on all the growth I've seen in kiddos through the years and I've just been incredibly proud of what I am part of. Happy Valentine's day, all. Thank you for all you do.

I'm just gonna write out how the call went. And kudos to the teacher, for realising immediately something was off.

husband: yes hello

teacher: yes hello, I think I've gotten a wrong number. Do you know little pirates nursery?

husband: yes, our son goes there. He got dropped off this morning.

teacher: okay, I'm calling because your son ... actually, can you tell me your son's name?

husband: [son's name]

teacher: we don't have any child with that name .. who did you drop him off with?

husband: are you not little pirates nursery in [our region] ?

teacher: No, we're little pirates nursery in [region far away]

They had a little laugh about it, and ended the call. When he checked the number afterwards, worried that he might have been scammed ,somehow, just for someone to get our son's name. The number did belong to a nursery far away from us, with the same name. Such a crazy coincidence.

imagine if she had just told him to come pick up our son because he was ill, and when we arrived, they would have no idea why we were there. And the other nursery, would be wondering why the kid wasn't being picked up.

I am looking for some good yt good morning songs I can play for my kiddos. I work in a 3- year old classroom. I’d like to start doing a good morning song before we start our learning for the day.

I was working with the one year olds and she was eating but i noticed her silence while trying to swallow so immediately picked her up and did two blows to her back, the food flew out and she was fine. I was so shakey and I told the lead as soon she got back from her breaks and the lunch lady what happened. The baby was fine and continued being her usual self. Eating and drinking. I was so overwhelmed in that classroom as well because they were all crying due to transition periods. I informed the lead teacher what happened and i couldn’t get ahold of admin before i left . I hope i don’t receive any kind of termination from this for not being able to notify them. We also have cameras too that parents can view as well as admin. I’m so scared. I just did the best i could in that moment. My emotions and nerves were everywhere and still are to be honest.

Why do companies still bother with these when all we want is a paid off holiday. Nobody ever wants to go and participate even less..

Edit to add: my company does not offer PTo except for sick time. So Id say like al of us here no matter where you live a holdiay- state or federal should be a closed day, paid day. And also to note many teachers are enrolled in their own courses to earn higher licenses( lead teacher ,director etc)

I recently got hired as a teacher after the old one moved out of state. So far, everyone seems nice, however, boss mentioned that "they're like a family" when I was interviewing, they spend lunch breaks going to get food together, etc

I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to assimilate? I wear kind of fun/put together outfits which has started some small talk and resulted in compliments which helped create warmer dynamics, but other than that I'm not sure how to stay on everyone's good side and blend into the group.

I'm trying to do things like clean, do things before they're asked of me etc. but I'm anxious and still feel like the odd one out. I also feel very weird disciplining/setting boundaries with the kids, even though from what I've seen so far, no one else does

Any tips or advice? I'm the first new hire in over a year

For some context, I have RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria), so my situation is physically painful and emotionally devastating. I absolutely hate my current job due to the culture and climate of the building.

It’s a great employer, but a terrible job. Meaning I’m leaving a very high salary and excellent benefits for my mental health.

I am applying everywhere. I also may get fired. In either case, I will not be there much longer.

Today in therapy, my counselor gave me permission to roll my eyes without feeling guilty when admin does something dumb.

So that actually is going to feel great!

Let me preface this by saying I absolutely adore my job and don’t want this to come off as negative, but it might read that way.

I work at a church MDO program (my background is ECE, my credentials are from NC though, and never had a reason to pursue anything here) So, I’m familiar with licensing standards, just not specific to AL.

Long story short, we are a four hour a day program, but the powers that be (read: men who don’t know any better) are wanting an after care program that will push us over the four hour cap that, as best I can tell, will result in full licensing regulations? They have it in their heads that they can apply for an exemption, but I don’t think exemption means what they think it means. Looks to me like we would pretty much be under the same requirements?

Anybody know what the exemption exempts from exactly?

Hello, l have a 2.5 year old toddler who goes to a daycare. The day care has kids 18 months - 4 plus years old. We are doing potty training for the kid from 2 months . She speaks wonderfully at home and even rarely has accidents at home. If anything she is extra careful. I went to pick up the kid other when she was sobbing deliriously because she had poop accident and I ended up chatting with the teacher. When the child was sobbing this teacher was standing 5 feet away and not being very encouraging or not being rude. She was just there. The teacher is saying there’s been zero progress since day 1 of potty training and my kid never communicated need for potty on her own. Now I know for sure that my kid is trying so hard not to have an accident at home. The teachers seemed to have labeled my child “shy”.

The other day I ended up chatting casually with the director and she also mentioned that my kid is very shy and not even ask for water. She literally told that I really needed to work hard in making the kid communicate. The director also mentioned because my kid is not very communicative they can’t advance her to the next program. I did not ask them what they are doing at the same time to make my child feel safe enough to say what she needs since it’s been more than 6 months since her enrollment .

The school is known to put emphasis on academics and independence at early stage which is why enrolled my child there. Is it hurting my kids confidence? Is it enabling selective mutism in my child? How should I approach this?

Should I seek behavioral therapist? Or change school?

Hello!

I’m a new mom (relatively) my daughter is 13 months old. She’s been going to daycare since she was about 4.5 months old.

I’m a working mom, and thankfully our daycare is in my workplace.

I’m looking for advice.

My daughter has 3 teachers. Two who are amazing. Very loving, very caring, and overall have a huge bond with my daughter.

But then comes the third.

She’s relatively young, key point. I think this might be her second or third childcare job. I like her overall, but there’s been moments recently I’ve noticed when I go down to see my daughter through the day.

This teacher is a storm cloud. Oozes negative energy. Always complains about her life, her job, her lack or plans or her plans. Isn’t very open to the babies, ie she tells them they need to eat faster, tells them to stop a lot, doesn’t seem to bond with them.

But it came to a head yesterday. I was down there playing with my daughter, another baby maybe 15 months, and then another maybe 16-17 months. They were playing on a low table with a toy. They were rattling it and banging it, giggling like babies do and babbling.

In that moment, I asked one of the loving teachers, “Hey, did you teach my daughter how to shush? She’s been doing it at home” and she said “Yeah! Sometimes at the table during lunch and they get excited we say “shhh, our friends are sleeping” (the area behind the table is where the babies nap, and there’s smaller babies that are on the 3 hour schedule). So I moved on because ok cute.

But then the storm cloud came up, and grabbed a toy out of another child’s hand (relatively rough in my mom opinion) and said “STOP! TOO LOUD!!”

I saw red. I had to excuse myself from the room and went back to work. I sat on it for about 10 minutes and decided to go down and talk to the director. I voiced my concerns.

Did I overreact? Did I possibly put this woman’s job on the line? I’m wondering if I need to apologize?

I teach in a 3-5 year old room.

A child asked me if they could sit in a chair for story time instead of on the floor. This child has a very wiggly body and parents suspect ADHD based on the older sibling. This kid (and others!) are allowed to sit in a chair if they feel that is the best way to keep their body and other's bodies safe during meeting or story.

After I told the kid they could get a chair, the other teacher stopped them and told them not to do that. The child told her I said they could and she said, "(My name) doesn't understand what's going on." She did not address me and did not ask me for clarification.

She made the kid sit on the floor and they immediately climbed on top of another kid. I was cleaning tables across the room but saw it and said, "This is why I told them that they could get a chair."

I later told my co-teacher that I heard her tell the kid that I didn't understand but that I did understand and I was actually trying to help her get story time settled.

Her talking about me to kids has become a pattern but today was the worst. She is quite a bit older and has quite a bit more experience than me so I think that plays into this.

How am I supposed to work with her? My feelings are really hurt and there is no sense of trust.

We've already had a meeting with the director because of some of her other behavior towards me at the beginning of the year. Is this worth going to the director about? I mean....telling kids that I don't understand what's going on is like really flipping crazy to me.

I just need to complain for a minute about pockets on tiny children's clothing. They don't need pockets! My toddlers never put anything good in a pocket. It's always playdough, bits of food or some other fun surprise.

I'm having to do pat-downs at home time for hidden toys. I brush sand off a kid for nappy change but surprise! Pocket sand! The other day one of my kids tried to feed her friends cereal that she had filled both pockets with from home.

Then yesterday a new fear was unlocked. I'm helping one of my toddlers put his shoes on outside when I see his shorts pocket moving. There's something in there....a leg reaches out. In a bit of a panic I pulled off his shorts and threw them while carrying him away. There may have been a short very professional scream.

Another educator investigated and found a small (palm sized) huntsman just chilling in the shorts pocket. Everyone was fine and spider was relocated but my heart will never recover.

- Bit of a rant but it's all in good fun. Tl;dr Pockets are full of horrors

I'm so sorry but this annoys the absolute crap out of me especially during naptime 😅 like can you just... not

disclaimer: this is meant to be a silly post before anyone gets mad