Ask me about being a (male) kindergarten teacher

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about being a (male) kindergarten teacher

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

NOTE I will not answer anything that will breach my confidentiality NOTE

About me: I have a bachelor degree in kindergarten teaching and is currently working in a kindergarten in Norway. I work in a team consisting of four persons (one of those are another kindergarten teacher) and we have responsibility for 25 kids in the age group of 3-6 years.

About kindergartens in Norway: Every kid at the age of one has the right to attend a kindergarten in the place where they live, kindergartens are not allowed to charge more than 2330 Norwegian kroner (about 386 dollars) a month, every kindergarten is obligated to follow a framework made by the government where it says what we shall teach, every kindergarten shall have at least one educated kindergarten teacher but since there's not enough of us dispensations are given.

What I do:

I'm in charge for the parent-teacher conferences, organizing the day, I also have the responsibility for preparing the older kids for school.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2014 17:13

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Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

AdorableStar posted:

So you're saying that people have to pay $386 a month to attend kindergarten or did I misinterpret that?

If my calculations are correct, yes.

Redkist posted:

What are the day to day problems in a class full of white well-off 5 year olds?

I don't know. That's not the reality in my kindergarten.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2014 17:43

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Tricerapowerbottom posted:

Does Norway have a stranger-danger, don't let men near my children sort of culture? If so, how have you dealt with it?

In the nineties we had a pretty infamous case called the Bjugn affair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjugn_affair where a man working in a kindergarten was wrongly accused for molesting children. After that people became a little more careful with the whole stranger-danger thing.
I myself have never experienced anyone that has reacted negatively to me being a man working with kids, but I have met others that have. If anything people thinks it positive that men works in kindegarten.

Lord Windy posted:

That is a pretty good model for cheap daycare. Does the State subsidies the kindergartens pretty significantly? ~$10,000 a month doesn't seem enough for 4 working adults and everything that goes with it.

Norway is made up by municipalities. One of the things a municipality does is subsidizing kindergartens.

Tooke posted:

How would you incorporate play into your daily routine.

Play pretty much forms the basis for everything we do. When we have workshop for example we base it on what children play, when we want the children to learn more about (for example) math we do it through play.

quote:

What kind of expectations do you have for each age

This is actually somewhat controversial. There exist various forms for measuring the development for children but there is some issues with all of them. First of all we're not allowed fill out those forms without the parent's consent and even then we have to a reason for doing it (the kid have to be severely behind in development for example). The forms themselves have also been criticized for being too narrow, not allowing for cultural differences and causing people to only see the negative sides with the children they're observing.
All in all it's difficult to set expectations for kids development. I know what the kids should be able to do at certain ages (by the age of two for example they should be able to play pretend) but I also know that kids develop differently. Take language for example, some kids produce their first words at nine months, some at sixteen months. That doesn't mean that the kids that speak at sixteen months are behind in development but that they're developing language differently than those that speak at nine months.

quote:

and what are the expectations for successful completion of your kindergarten program?

I don't know how satisfying an answer this is, but for us a successful completion is based on whether or not the kids had a good time.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2014 11:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about being a (male) kindergarten teacher