Pre-k teacher is responsible for young children under his/her care. You are to engage the children in educational activities, teaching them fundamental concepts they need to know for kindergartens like numbers, shape, color, letters, art, and craft. Using creative methods in teaching such as storytelling, free play, a pre-k teacher encourages and monitors social interaction among children. You will also work to instill respect and discipline in them to make them work effectively in the classroom. Pre-K teachers will be required to communicate with parents to get a proper assessment of children and give parents reports of the children when necessary. Supervising children outside class activities and maintaining a clean and conducive learning environment for the kids are part of the responsibilities of this role. A Pre-k teacher may also be involved in curriculum planning that addresses early childhood education.
Patience, optimism, empathy, compassion, creative mindset, administrative skills, and mediation skills are necessary for becoming a pre-k teacher. A bachelor's degree in education, in the area of early childhood education, is a basic requirement Years of experience teaching kindergarten children will be an added advantage here. The average base salary of a pre-k teacher is about $31,168 per year.
Pre-K Teacher Overview
Pre-K Teacher Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pre-k teacher. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.48 an hour? That's $40,517 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 53,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Pre-K Teacher Do
There are certain skills that many pre-k teachers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed resourcefulness, communication skills and patience.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a pre-k teacher, we found that a lot of resumes listed 39.6% of pre-k teachers included language arts, while 38.7% of resumes included social studies, and 4.5% of resumes included classroom management. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the pre-k teacher job title. But what industry to start with? Most pre-k teachers actually find jobs in the non profits and education industries.
How To Become a Pre-K Teacher
If you're interested in becoming a pre-k teacher, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.3% of pre-k teachers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.3% of pre-k teachers have master's degrees. Even though most pre-k teachers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a pre-k teacher. When we researched the most common majors for a pre-k teacher, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on pre-k teacher resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a pre-k teacher. In fact, many pre-k teacher jobs require experience in a role such as teacher. Meanwhile, many pre-k teachers also have previous career experience in roles such as substitute teacher or cashier.
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Pre-K Teacher Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a pre-k teacher can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as kindergarten teacher, progress to a title such as lead teacher and then eventually end up with the title center director.
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Average Salary for a Pre-K Teacher
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Kencrest Teacher Pre-K-Available NOW Teacher Pre-K-Available NOW | Kencrest Kencrest | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $42,43601/30/2021 $42,436 |
Redwood City School District Mandarin Immersion Teacher K Mandarin Immersion Teacher K | Redwood City School District Redwood City School District | 01/20/2021 01/20/2021 | $55,26601/20/2021 $55,266 |
Kindercare Infant Teacher, Twos Teacher, Preschool Teacher and Pre-K Teacher at Canyon Point Kindercare Infant Teacher, Twos Teacher, Preschool Teacher and Pre-K Teacher at Canyon Point Kindercare | Kindercare Kindercare | 01/13/2021 01/13/2021 | $27,65301/13/2021 $27,653 |
Standard Elementary Multiple Subject Teacher K Multiple Subject Teacher K | Standard Elementary Standard Elementary | 12/19/2020 12/19/2020 | $50,01612/19/2020 $50,016 |
for Kids' Sake Float Preschool and Pre-K Teacher Float Preschool and Pre-K Teacher | for Kids' Sake for Kids' Sake | 12/04/2020 12/04/2020 | $18,78312/04/2020 $18,783 |
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Pre-K Teacher Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Pre-K Teacher. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Pre-K Teacher Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Pre-K Teacher resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Pre-K Teachers
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
5. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
6. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
7. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
8. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
9. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
10. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Public
Top Skills For a Pre-K Teacher
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 39.6% of pre-k teachers listed language arts on their resume, but soft skills such as resourcefulness and communication skills are important as well.
- Language Arts, 39.6%
- Social Studies, 38.7%
- Classroom Management, 4.5%
- Pre-Kindergarten, 3.5%
- Pre K, 1.6%
- Other Skills, 12.1% See All Pre-K Teacher Skills
Best States For a Pre-K Teacher
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a pre-k teacher. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, California, New York, and Alaska. Pre-k teachers make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $57,378. Whereas in California and New York, they would average $55,398 and $51,936, respectively. While pre-k teachers would only make an average of $51,804 in Alaska, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New Jersey
$51,499
Avg. Salary
2. Connecticut
$50,088
Avg. Salary
3. Massachusetts
$57,378
Avg. Salary
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