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| “Be a kindergarten teacher if you really love children and finance is not the main goal. This is the first time for a child to learn social skills and it can be frightening for them but it is important.” – Teacher Margaret |
Have you ever wondered what is it
like being a kindergarten teacher? Is it all just fun and games with cute
little children? What are the challenges involved in this career? Many people
think that a kindergarten teacher has fun all the time with adorable little
children but how much truth is in that assumption? Let us ask someone who has
been in the education industry for 7 years!
Teacher Margaret has been with
R.E.A.L Kids Kajang Prima for 7 years now and she is familiar with all the ins
and outs of being a kindergarten teacher. She is someone who is always smiling
and joyful. She generally tends to stay out of others’ personal matters as she
feels it is not her place to interfere but sometimes this makes her come across
as unfriendly. After working so many years alongside her colleagues, they've
come to see that she’s far from unfriendly and really enjoy her company. We had
the opportunity to talk to teacher Margaret and get to know her a little
better. Ms Margaret is someone who exhibits strength and courage because of the
challenges she had to go through in life. We could see the devastation in her
eyes as she told us about her late husband and the struggles she went through
finding ways to support her children who were still in school at that time. She
managed to pass through 3 levels of interview for a bank call centre but later
on declined the job offer despite the good pay because of the unsuitable work
schedule that would not enable her to care for her children. That was the
beginning of Ms Margaret’s journey with us at R.E.A.L Kids.
Ever since then, teacher Margaret
has told us that she has no regrets about the decision to work in R.E.A.L
Kids. She tells us about all the interesting and fun things that go on at the
Kajang Prima centre but the most outstanding story is about their annual
concert. Teacher Margaret had on the biggest smile on her face as she told us
in detail about the concert. She would teach her students to sing and perform.
She told us about how last year she taught 2 girls to perform the song “let it
go” and how well they did! Teacher Margaret loves to sing and believes in the
use of music to be creative in conducting her lessons. She would come up with
catchy tunes, which we had the privilege of having a preview, to teach her
children. She tells us that its creative methods like these that help engage
the students better and effectively. So it is not just the children that have
fun in class, but so does the teacher!
Teaching children sounds like
fun! Whoa whoa.. hold your horses. There are challenges as well in this line of
career.
We asked teacher Margaret what
are some challenges being in this line of work and she looked at us with a
small smile on her face. “Our daily lives are already challenging. Waking up at
5.30am to beat the traffic jam from Semenyih to Kajang is a challenge. Life is
always full of challenges.” Wise words from a kindergarten teacher. She
continues sharing with us about how it is sometimes challenging to prepare
homework for the children, marking books, preparing for classes the next day
and juggling all this with the limited time there is in a day. Even with all that pressure, you still see the
joy in teacher Margaret’s eyes telling you that she is not beaten down by the
challenges in this career line but she is in fact made stronger through all
these.
“I remember in one of
my classes, I assigned a student of mine to do extra homework by colouring in a
drawing of a face even though the instructions on the book clearly stated that
colouring was not necessary. His parents came back the next day to ask why did
I give extra work to their child and I told them that it was because I wanted
him to practice his grip on his pencil.”
Teacher
Margaret isn't a teacher who would simply just follow the guidelines of the
book but would go the extra mile in teaching her students. You could see how
dedicated and passionate she is about her work and children. She always has the
best interest of her students in mind and will be on the lookout of methods to help
improve their learning. While having fun too of course! She would tell her
students’ parents “I need to be a little bit more firm with your children so
that they can be a little bit better.” The dedication portrayed by teacher
Margaret is something that is amazing. Being a kindergarten teacher should not
be taken lightly. It is a huge responsibility and it requires hard work.
However seeing teachers like teacher Margaret talk with such a burning passion
about her work, it truly inspired us.
