preschool teacher

lead teacher

assistant teacher

teacher

kindergarten teacher

The Goddard School

I can honestly say that this has been the best job I've ever had and the most rewarding. I respect the people who work at The Goddard School in Indian Trail so much. It takes a lot to care for children, but it takes even more to love and respect the children you care for. It takes a special kind of person to show that many children the love and kindness that you would show to your own. During my time working here, I have met many individuals who do just that. 

You MUST be a dedicated individual who cares deeply for children to thrive in this environment. As both a former employee and parent at this center, I would hope for and expect nothing less. 

Responsibilities for a lead teacher include: 
- Developing relevant lesson plans
- Completing monthly portfolios and biannual developmental assessments for each child
- Caring for the needs of each child 
- Communicating with parents (and management) on child's growth 
- Being a kindhearted individual with a passion for helping children grow, learn, and succeed 
- Maintaining your classroom and displaying relevant learning materials and children's artwork. 

As an employee, I gained so much knowledge and experience from the director. If I didn't know how to address a situation, or if I had a good idea but wanted to confirm, I was always able to speak with my director to ensure that the children got the best care possible. I had wonderful coworkers who helped me keep my classroom at a 5-Star level that I could be proud of. They genuinely cared for the children in our classrooms and offered suggestions and advice if I ever needed it. We collaborated and worked together on various projects to provide the best experience possible to our children.

As a parent, I had anxiety about enrolling my son in child care for the first time. I feel as if I will never find a child care center that will come close to replicating the amount of love and encouragement that my son received on a daily basis here. It is to be expected that children will get bumps and bruises. As a first time mom, those new experiences would have been far more difficult on me had I not had constant reassurance and support from the staff here. On our last day, I was given the entire portfolio of my child's accomplishments and development from the time he joined the center at 3 months old to now (at a year and a half). He has learned so much and smiles when his teachers and friends are talked about with him. I could not be happier with the care my child received while at this center. 

The owner and director went above and beyond when caring for my child and supporting my role as a lead teacher. They keep the center running at a 5 Star level every day.

Thank you so much to the team at The Goddard School of Indian Trail!

I started off telling them in my interview that I had to leave my job due to it being unsafe for my pregnancy. They told me they treat pregnant women well. Well, I was in orientation for one day and on the job training for one day(it was suppose to be five days). I was thrown into a classroom with 2 year old ten of them. I had no experience with these children nor a degree in it. I was told i would be trained and had another person in the class at all times, unless a teacher is not there for the day. One day two all the way to week three (in which I quit), they had me in that class all by myself. The teacher I was working with was nice but never there! Why was she not there? Because she was the office lady and the teacher at the same time LOL. This was ridiculous, and insulting to me. I had to go to the doctors appointment and usually jobs wouldn't expect for you to come back for the day, but they emailed me asking if I could come in after the appointment. This daycare is one of those places I would never put my child in! They charge the parents all this money just for the kids to run wild and not learn a thing. They have no organization here. They combine children in all the wrong age groups together. The teacher told me they combine the infants with the one year olds together. They combined all the different 2 year olds and placed them in different rooms also. When the parents would ask me questions I would not have an answer due to the constant room changes. The children really do not have a chance to learn and take everything in. I literally was applaud when the director said she didn't focus on the curriculum but cares for the safety. This does not make sense to me, the parents are paying for the curriculum to be followed.  My last straw was the fact that they did not care about me being pregnant. They gave me the late break and mind you I am six months pregnant. I had to care for all these children and my pelvic area was super sore every day i left work from not being able to sit down (in a decent chair). I was even instructed to take out two garbage bags in which again I am six months pregnant, I cant lift anything heavy. The director told me to do so, and at that point it was a no to that job.  I never quit a job before until this one. Thank God I still had my other job. If you like getting paid 10 and hour in which they advertise its 13 on indeed, then be my guest. Just know its chaotic in there and no one comes to work, and if they do they have errands that they just have to do. My thing is that if all the new people get placed in the room I was in and they all quit, maybe they should do something about it. Oh and majority of the children bite, kick, and hit. They do not believe in time out, but they should have some type of discipline for them, because that was too much!

A typical day for me consisted of teaching my students in my Get Set classroom and later, Pre-K and Preschool.  Every week I would implement lesson, that I had planned the week before, based on a certain theme and student abilities.  I would also communicate daily with parents, staff and management, as well as, my students.  On top of caring for my students educational needs, I would also take care of their bathroom needs, as well as, help them with their snacks/meals.  I would also teach yoga, sign language, and Spanish each day.

Another aspect of my job was as the "Support Specialist."  In this role I would train in coming staff members on the ins and outs of the center, safety, how to write/implement lessons, etc.  I would also help to conduct tours to prospective families, as well as, assist in trainings.

I learned how to write lesson plans and adapt them to my students needs. I also learned how to better communicate with parents, management and staff about happenings at our school.  I learned basic yoga, sign language, as well as, some Spanish.  I have found that since my experience of working here I am more confident in working with students of all ages and in communicating with others.

The management team was great! The owners are very hands on. Throughout the day the stop in to check on the classrooms, address any needs that the students, parents or staff may have. They are open to meeting with their teachers to talk about any changes that they feel will help those students who may need extra assistance.  They help to develop their staff professionally to be able to move up into management positions, as well as, to handle any situations that may occur in the center.

My co-workers were also great. They were always willing the lend a hand when one was needed. If they needed to stay late to help out with the number of students they would.  If they needed to step into another classroom for a day they did.  These co-workers were more like a family than just co-workers. They were always willing to help someone out when it was needed.

The hardest part of this job was being in and out of my classroom.  When I was training a new staff member part of my day would be in the classroom and part of it would be outside of the classroom. However, this helped me to be more flexible and trusting in my co-teacher to step in whenever I had to step out.

The most enjoyable part of this job was taking care of the students and watching them grow and learn.  My favorite part of my day would be watching the aha moment when they finally got something new that we were talking about/learning about!

I really loved enjoyed being part of The Goddard School. The most enjoyable part of the job was working with the kids and having such great and supportive staff members to work with. It was also enjoyable to be part of such a great team. The hardest part of my job was being able to work a new head teacher when staff changes had been made. I got along with the new head teacher very well. But when it came to doing things right it didn't seem like she had any idea of what she was doing. I felt like I was doing all the work on my own. And many other teachers witnessed that as well from just seeing how the classroom I was working in has changed. When my old head teacher and I worked together everything was done as a team. But when I basically got a new head teacher thrown at me I felt like I was doing everything on my own. Meaning I was running the classroom and she couldn't keep up with the schedule that the kids were scheduled to be on. It wasn't fair to me that i had to deal with that. I had to come into work hoping things would change and it didn't change one bit. It was the same thing happening every single day. It came to the point where I was going home from work stressed out because I was basically running the classroom on my own with no help from her. This situation was seen by other staff members from other classrooms and it was brought up to my boss and there was nothing done about it after it being brought up to her. Nothing changed the classroom was still the same. Anyways, When I left Goddard it wasn't on good terms and unfortunately I had been fired but not for the situation above.The reason being is that I was accused of something that I would never ever do and didn't do. She basically fired me because she was afraid of being sewed. And there was a witness in the classroom with me who saw everything that happened. But before she was even spoken too about the situation I was brought into my boss's office first and right then and there she fired me and threatened me saying you will be having a CPS case on you but that was just to scare me. Because there is no proof of anything that can happen with any child and or staff member because there isn't any cameras in any of the classrooms. There are only cameras in front of the building and outside on the playground. Leaving Goddard on bad terms was the hardest thing to overcome because I did not expect it. I was very happy there and was completely devastated when it happened. After all of that the good outcome was being able to find a job close to home and still in the childcare field and I'm loving every minute of it.

Goddard schools have the reputation of being extremely hit or miss and I was nervous before coming to work at this center. Since joining the staff I have had the opportunity to see how a Goddard center runs and like any center there are pros and cons. Overall I am enjoying my employment at Goddard Center Valley, there are admin there that truly care about the children and staff and will take the time to listen and work with you if you come to them with an issue. I enjoy the freedom to implement my voice and teaching philosophy in my classroom and I have received positive feedback from both admin and families. There are however issues that I think work as an antithesis to allowing teachers to be effective early childhood educators, the biggest such problem being enrollment capacity. I, and every other educator I have talked to that works in a class room, have a huge issue with the fact the Goddard enrolls children to capacity. This job itself is a huge mental and physical workload at base, and when there are only two teachers working in a room with the maximum amount of children they are legally allowed to have, it is absolutely no wonder why there is such a high turnover rate. This is not the first center I have worked at and from my experience the ECE centers that retain the most teachers, and I'm talking multiple teachers being there for 5, 10, 20+ years, do not enroll to capacity. This is one of the most emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting professions a person can choose. We are responsible not only for the wellbeing of 10+ children every day, but we have a classroom to maintain, daily sheets to keep updated, and lesson plans to either plan or prepare for (with very sparse and infrequent lesson planning time). This is simply a huge workload to put on two people. Now it can be done, there are a number of successful teaching teams at the center, however this teacher to student ratio will and does lead the eventual burn out of most teachers that come to work here. Now I recognize that this may be an issue far above the owner of this center, I have heard that Goddard owners receive a lot of pushback from corporate when the do not enroll to capacity. However that does not change the fact that if this center and any other center wants to retain good professional teachers they need to have a fundamental change in practice where they either enroll less children or put more teachers in each room, every day. 

Goddard Pflugerville is a great experience, especially for people new to teaching who are hoping to pursue it. It does require a lot of work, but is fun. Lead, Assistant, and Float Teachers are all expected to learn quickly and take each child's needs, parents' needs, and the school's needs into account. It is a very fast-paced environment, filled with a lot of multi-tasking. The job is also technology-heavy and much of the communication with parents and children's progress is recorded through an  application on an apple iPad. Strong supervision skills, of course, are required. You are teaching and also caring for children. This means your are feeding, changing diapers/assisting bathroom needs for, and tending to the emotional and physical needs of children. Depending on the age group, you are expected to supervise a large group of children ranging from infant to 5 years old on your own or with another teacher. I learned how to communicate affectively to customers (parents) and work with a team to accomplish goals. I also learned how children's brains work and how to communicate with the children. I learned what is expected as a teacher and how to improve my skills. It certainly is not a job where you take it just for the sake of having a job. The Goddard staff are incredible. Much of the teachers and staff is comprised of helpful and encouraging people who want to see you succeed as much you do. It is very much like a family, for better or for worse. Everybody is expected to do their part and everybody is expected to take the job seriously. The communication is mostly good. Sometimes things are misheard or context is confusing, but the owners, admin, and other staff are always up to help if messages get confusing. It is fairly easy to maintain positive relationships with all staff and teachers. The hardest part of the job is working with a diverse group of children. What works for a few may not work for all. Because of the diversity in the students, you need to be able to learn and improve your skills frequently and consistently. A lot of the work is planning and problem solving. The stress can be overwhelming but when a goal (the child's behavior has improved, for example) is accomplished and you were a part of it, it is very rewarding.

I worked at a Goddard in WA state and loved it. It is a franchise, so your experience is going to vary by owner. The folks who owned the one I worked at were fantastic. They cared about the kids and the employees, spent time in the classrooms and the atmosphere was fantastic.

The pay wasn't great if you are trying to support a family. $13-15 to start and small raises, and they have a bare bones health plan. There was high turnover and I'm sure the compensation was the reason why. Occasionally, people would start only to realize that it was a lot more work than they anticipated and be gone in a day or two. If you enjoy it, though, it doesn't feel overwhelming.

They are very strict with quality assurance, which is not a problem, except sometimes we wouldn't know a new regulation until we got marked down for it, so that aspect was occasionally frustrating.

A typical day consisted of opening which involved setting up the classroom, organizing the activities for the day, putting away sanitized items, etc.  The kids can arrive as soon as you do, though, so the opening tasks weren't always easy to get to. The same with closing, but I was always offered a hand with closing if I still had kids in my class. It is a lot of work, but I always felt supported and enjoyed the atmosphere with the owners and my coworkers. Each classroom had a different routine as they were separated by age and they would graduate to the next class.

The parents were sometimes a challenge, but management dealt with any issues that came up beyond routine day to day stuff. Most of them were fantastic anyway.

We had inservice days where we closed but attended a seminar and were able to reorganize, deep clean, change decorations, do lesson planning, or anything else we needed to get done.

There is a lot of lifting if you are working with those in diapers and you should get a great night moisturizer because you wash your hands every time you turn around. 

Overall, I loved it. I love working with the kids and if you have a great management team, you can have a great experience. They were very family friendly and would work with you if you had any issues. I was sad to leave when we moved.

I admire the owners passionate for the school and children. However, sometimes it is a little too much. Not everything and everyone is going to be perfect. While I worked there it started off great, as you go on, you start getting more and more responsibilities until the point where you are exhausted all the time. THEY ARE OVER WORKING EVERYONE AND UNDERPAYING. They call themselves a school and you have the same amount/ maybe more work to do than an average teacher. However, they pay the staff the same amount as any other high school student working at a daycare. This is supposed to be a professional SCHOOL so pay the staff the amount they deserve. They are always understaffed. All the staff is always stressed and can rarely enjoy being with their students and doing activities. We spent more time on the Ipad putting in every single move the child made instead of interacting with them. Every single day at work i heard at least 1 person say they couldn't wait to quit or talking about getting a new job. One of the teachers even started going to therapy because the job is too much. They made me come into work so so so many times sick because there was no one to cover. Its impossible to get a day off. PTO needs to be earned through "acts of good" which is impossible with the management. Management was alright. They would be supportive one minute and yelling at you the next. If the owner (or directors) didn't make you cry, I would be SHOCKED. Even the parents would complain about them to use and we tried to defend them but I totally understood what they were saying. They are not always professional or fair. One of the students was delayed and needed extra help. On his report card, they asked the teacher to change  some of the grades because it looked bad and the parents might feel bad about getting a bad report card. The whole bathroom and break situation was awful. You were only allowed to go to the bathroom 1 time during your shift. The lady that gave the bathroom breaks would sneak me in an extra bathroom break during "that time" of the month. It was a nightmare. 
STRONGLY recommend not working here!!

This is a great place to work at, after high school with no experience or education. Not a great school for someone seeking a more long term teacher role/career to step into. The school is not accredited to the Maryland State Department of Education- which means the school is technically just a daycare, and the teachers cannot be accredited. 

There is so much turnover in staff because of the low standards of the school, and the lack of professionalism from the administrators. Directors hire people that are not qualified, and it's just a cycle of survival trying to stay in ratio with students. The school constantly had tours, and being short staffed. 

Parents are nice, and really appreciative with teachers, which does make working here a lot more pleasurable. The directors will occasionally buy teachers lunch or give us gift cards, which is nice.

Pay is good considering teachers are underqualified. Teacher aides are more often than not utilized as a lead teacher role, and it causes a sense of low standard- even if you want to be at "Goddard standard", it just seems pointless, so you adjust to the environment. Most teachers are young, fresh out of high school with no true aspirations to be a teacher, just looking for a job; along with a hand full of actual qualified teachers. 

No true professional development, we have monthly staff meetings that are relatively short just speaking on basic things (cleaning tables, importance of knowing how many children are at your care, begging some teachers to complete basic trainings, etc.) that you would assume is common knowledge as a teacher, but because of the under qualified teachers that don't have true desires to be at a school, it in a way impacts everyone. It makes it hard to have any professional growth, because our meetings are mainly focused on miscellaneous basic safety topics. 

During Ramadan, the directors were passive aggressive towards me when I voiced my concern and requesting accommodations/additional support. 

For all of you reading mixed reviews, each Goddard school is run by individual owners, so you will come across a myriad of experiences.
My experience was very good. I worked for The Goddard School for three years, as a co-teacher and as a teacher specialist. I received a fair tuition discount for my daughter, full insurance coverage was available at our particular school, pay was good but not exceptional; pay raises were very rare and small, as is normal with most hourly jobs. My hours were consistent most of the time. For example, I worked a 7am-4pm shift every day, which did not change unless I requested it. Work days are fast paced with many tasks and physical demands.
The management was accommodating and fairly flexible when personal, unexpected interruptions came up or seasons changed. They showed staff appreciation often with random treats like donuts, gift cards, and other little things. My particular manager offered twelve PTO days per year, which was great! However, those twelve days also included sick days, so if you were to stay home sick a PTO day was automatically used.
State, corporate and individual school standards were very high, as they should be working with children! Be prepared to follow a lot of rules and regulations. The company requires a handful of certifications and online tutorials to complete throughout the year because company standards are high and fairly extensive; parents are paying high tuition rates for their little ones to receive a great early education. We attended one required staff meeting per month, and a few teacher development days.
My very favorite part of working at The Goddard School was forming close relationships with the children (and families) and just loving on them, as well as my fellow teachers. The whole point of being a teacher is LOVING children and showing them love by caring for their needs and encouraging their character, while being a safe place. Teaching infants, toddlers and preschoolers definitely had its challenges ... but I absolutely loved it!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Preschool teacher 1367 salaries reported	$18.48 per hour
Lead teacher 177 salaries reported	$18.63 per hour
Assistant teacher 157 salaries reported	$16.85 per hour
Teacher 224 salaries reported	$18.12 per hour
Kindergarten teacher 43 salaries reported	$20.70 per hour

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