Teaching- the Early Years

Audience Nutshell: To inform anyone about what a preschool teacher does.

As a preschool teacher, one is responsible for teaching the future generation the fundamentals of learning. It can be an extremely fulfilling and rewarding profession. With learning tools such as blocks, sandboxes, finger puppets, and Lincoln logs, it is the perfect profession for those who are young at heart.
There are several different routes you can take to become a preschool. For time sake, this paper is only going to address the most traditional route that one might follow. By the end of the 2005-2006 school year, according to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), all teachers must have a bachelor's degree, full certification or licensure (as defined by the state), and demonstrate competency (as defined by the state) in each core academic subject that he or she teaches ("Routes").
Early childhood programs are available at four-year schools. Almost all courses for earning a bachelor's degree in elementary teaching include classes in early childhood development, math teaching, and reading teaching ("Preparation"). Both the University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College require classes like developmental psychology, phonemic awareness/phonics, and the principles of learning and development. They both also require classes that teach methods for teaching social studies, science, and other school subjects.
Before a person can graduate from a teacher education program, he or she must complete some form of teaching internship, most commonly in the form of student teaching. A student teacher works in a classroom with an experienced teacher. They begin by observing the teacher and the classroom, and work   to achieve teaching on their own by the end of the year ("Preparation").
Upon completing a teacher education program, the next step to becoming a teacher, is obtaining full certification and licensure as defined by the state. All fifty states and the District of Columbia require... [continues]

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