preschool teacher

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The Gardner School

I've worked in three different child care centers and The Gardner School by far is simply the best.  I walk in each day feeling secure with my job, but more importantly as a member of a large family.  Teachers are always willing to help one another when needed.  We are lucky to have some awesome floaters who know the routines of each classroom and the name of every child in the school.  They are incredible!  At times, working in childcare can be overwhelming, but at the end of the day, you are going home knowing you are making a difference in the lives of many children.  Co-workers are always offering words of encouragement to each other and are willing to give advice and share ideas.  I appreciate the hard work management puts in each and every day.  While they are very busy with day to day tasks, they make sure to take the time to be there to talk to and to support us in any way possible.  The Gardner School is corporate owned, and with that comes guidelines that must be followed.  This can become burdensome at times, but I understand why it needs to be done.  The school itself is always crisp, clean, and well organized.  Our regional manager frequently visits and is always very friendly and gives us great advice.  The school offers several Enrichment programs for the children which I think is superb. Some advice:  While this is not a public school, we also are not babysitters.  We offer an amazing curriculum to get the children ready for school. We follow schedules and do assessments, as well as conduct parent-teacher conferences.  Go in to this knowing that it's hard work but also very rewarding.  Most importantly, we have some AMAZING families.  We all form a huge team of individuals whose top priority is the quality of care we are offering these wonderful children.

Be wary. The corporation cares more about aesthetics and enticing parents than the children or the employees. The time you spend tapping on an iPad would be better served actually teaching and bonding with the children. 
Management wants to help, but can't admit failure or poor hiring choices, so they cover up illegal activity such as teachers using food as a reward and a punishment, verbal abuse of the children, and aggressive physicality with the children. (Even after parents witnessed the behavior and complained) Instead of using corrective and disciplinary actions, the company prefers having passive conversations and suggesting that other employees become watch dogs And take care of it themselves.  A teacher has a responsibility to report abuse and protect the students. A teacher should not be placed in a situation where he is forced to watch and condone abuse...versus constantly "teaching" another teacher how to run a classroom...while still watching the children. It's NOT SAFE. 
The parents are customers. Razzle dazzle them but pay no mind to the overworked and stressed-out staff. 
For customers, it looks like sunshine and achievement. For teachers, it's an academic beauty pageant covering a daycare. 

But! There are some hardworking and academically focused teachers there. They are the sole reason the place works. They follow all the ridiculous rules of hanging art "just so" and taping up evidence that something happened that day, and they keep their smiles. They are heroes; and a corporation like TGS should treat them better.  Perhaps if they did, the turnover rate would decrease.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best thing about this company is the children we serve. Being able to teach, guide, and support them as they grow and learn is truly the most rewarding part of the job. Watching their curiosity spark, helping them build new skills, and knowing you play a role in their development makes the work meaningful every single day

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management has been one of the more challenging aspects of my experience. There is often a lack of positive feedback or encouragement, which can make it difficult to feel valued or motivated. At times, favoritism seems apparent, and it affects team morale. Additionally, support from management has felt inconsistent, especially during situations when guidance or assistance was needed. Stronger communication, fairness, and more consistent encouragement would greatly improve the overall work environment.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The overall work culture feels toxic. There is a lack of open communication, limited support, and minimal positive reinforcement, which creates a negative atmosphere. Favoritism and inconsistency in leadership further impact team morale. Instead of feeling collaborative and encouraging, the environment often feels tense and discouraging, making it difficult for employees to feel supported, valued, and motivated.

I loved working at The Gardner School. The teachers are great, the office staff is great, the families are great. I loved all of the school wide activities like the pumpkin decorating contest, water days every Wednesday over the summer, pajama days, movie days, etc. The school worked to make everyone seem like they were part of a family. 
There were definitely hard days, but that comes with every job. The office staff made it clear you could always talk to them about a problem you were having and they were there to listen and help anyway they could. 

One thing that was frustrating happened after I left. I did not get any information about when my health benefits would be terminated until I reached out to HR about 3 weeks after and then I was told I should receive my Exit Package 2 weeks after I contacted them (which was nearly 5 weeks after I stopped working there) and did not receive it until a week ago, nearly 2 months after I left. As it turned out, my health benefits were terminated the last day of my employment. 

However, what happened with the benefits was one small thing and would absolutely not stop me from working there again. If it did not take me so long to get there I would go back in a heartbeat.

What can I say about working at The Gardner School! Working for The Gardner School is not just a job to me it’s more of a passion in my life. I love having the opportunity to watch children grow from the youngest babies in our infant program to graduates in Pre-K. I also have the opportunity to work with some incredible teachers who truly care about the children in their classroom. They go the extra mile to make sure their children feel special everyday. We receive support from the Director, Assistant Director, Trainer and Curriculum Coordinator when needed. The working atmosphere is great! It takes a dedicated team of educators to teach young children! Working in childcare can be overwhelming, but at the end of the day, you go home knowing you made a difference in a child’s life!

The Gardner School cares about the safety and well-being of their students, staff, and families. The benefits are wonderful, pay is competitive, in addition you receive personal time, vacation, and holiday pay, and they also give employees their birthday off with pay. The rewards are worth it! If you haven’t already you should apply with The Gardner School today!  

I highly recommend The Gardner School as an employer for anyone looking to work in the preschool industry.

I worked in the Lincoln Park Gardner school and this is not the best place to work in. There is poor communication by management, drama among employees, sick students were allowed to stay at school putting the other children at risk, no support for teaching staff,  management doesn't respect teaching staff, managements concern is not the childrens needs they are all about customer service and making sure they keep an image that they care about the children in front of the parents, but they really don’t. Management has no classroom experience making it very difficult for them to understand what teachers deal with on a daily basis, director plays favorites, zero organization. The teacher is the first to be thrown under the bus in any situation. Teachers don’t get paid enough for everything that is expected from them. Teachers have to work during their breaks to get things done because they are not given plan time.  Teachers are constantly quitting in this school so they are very low staffed and always need help from other schools. When I left this school the parents were sent an email where they bashed my name and made me seem like an incompetent teacher. This has been the worst place I have ever worked in.

When you decide to work somewhere, you should believe in the mission of the job. I believe whole-heartedly in education and providing children with proper attention, love and care. If those were the only components to showing up here everyday I believe I would have been fine. Unfortunately, those are not the only factors. I do not believe this company as a whole is a good company. There is not enough support for their teachers, floaters and other staff. Majority of everything that happens there is for an image to maintain their monetary growth. It is definitely a business. The caring nature of the teachers is the only thing that is keeping this place afloat, and God bless them because it is not always easy to show up and efficiently do your job without proper support and resources. I will leave out the conversation of favoritism and blatant disrespect that management can exude a lot of the time. I will leave out the lack of bathroom breaks. I will leave out the conversation of lack of accountability. It will change you, and sadly it is not always for the better. The children and their innocence might keep you their longer than you should be; so be careful if you have a heart that is pure.

When I first started working here, it was great, however throughout the 2-ish years that I worked at TGS, it quickly became a stressful, frustrating, and draining work place. Was always asked to either come in early, or stay later, or both. I felt that there was a presence of favoritism between management and some of the employees, management was unappreciative, and seemed to not care about their employees. Instead, they care more about the company and the parents rather than the well being of the teachers and floaters. The job drained me physically and emotionally. There was an incident that involved a negative conversation involving race between some employees, which later resulted in diversity training and the regional manager coming. The situation was not handled well, and one of the workers involved in the incident was promoted to enrichment coordinator. A lot of what made this job unenjoyable came from management. The only thing that kept me at this job was the kids and my coworkers. 

This place is an overall positive environment, and I wish the circumstances had been different and I didn't need to resign, I really enjoyed working here. Management is very personable and helpful, and the staff are all very friendly and helpful. However, this place is currently critically understaffed, and you will feel the strain of that, physically and mentally. You may find yourself working longer shifts than you agreed to when you were hired, or you may find yourself filling a role you're not trained in. And certain positions get overwhelming, as you will be expected to perform the work of multiple people solo. 

I don’t usually write these BUT something has to be said. For one management isn’t following protocol with these children and their sickness. Kids come to this school sick ALL THE TIME. Literally and get the teachers sick. They want to make the parents happy and not call when kids temperatures are high or have a running nose. It’s COVID people!!! Wake up. You DONT need to be showing symptoms to have COVID.  SECONDLY, this company does not want to give out raises to co workers who deserver them and are granted to them each year. The company is being cheap! Sadly. There’s an excuse from management which is very sad to say the least. Management doesn’t do anything about call offs. People call off left and right at this place and there’s nothing done. Management will put anyone in a room just to say they have a body in the classroom. It could anyone from a different teacher to a floater who doesn’t even know the kids at all. Change needs to happen now at this location. All the teachers are BURNED OUT. Also this school needs a deep clean every weekend! 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Preschool teacher 147 salaries reported	$20.31 per hour
Early childhood teacher 98 salaries reported	$20.03 per hour
Lead teacher 162 salaries reported	$21.60 per hour
Assistant teacher 137 salaries reported	$19.24 per hour
Teacher 139 salaries reported	$17.25 per hour

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