preschool teacher

daycare teacher

child care teacher

daycare assistant

preschool director

The Sunshine House Early Learning Academy

I worked there for one year and the staff turn over rate was extreme (including one classroom having about 8 different teachers throughout the year). It quickly became clear why that was though due to the consistent mistreatment of staff and total lack of support from upper management.  This came from both the director and our corporate staff.

Extreme behaviors from children are not just part of a typical day, but they are expected and treated as typical by all those who are not actually in the classroom, and possibly have never been in a classroom as a teacher. When asking for support with aggressive and dangerous behaviors, you will be told that you are not doing enough for the child and that the behavior is your fault. 
 
You as a staff member and a person will ultimately not be valued either. The requirement of a uniform for staff is a great example of this. There is no discernible reason for this other than for reinforcing the hierarchy of the companies management. It also makes it much easier for the company to see you as disposable rather than as a person who is working for them. Additionally you ultimately have to do a lot of work off the clock as it is impossible to do all of the required cleaning, paperwork, and lesson planning on the actual planning period you are provided. 

The cherry on top for me was in May when the company had a mandatory “training” on a Saturday which ultimately was 3 hours of all the staff being blamed for the behavior problems in the classroom rather than providing actual solutions to the problem or taking any sort of accountability for allowing the behaviors to continue in the classrooms for months on end. There is absolutely no system or structure to deal with behaviors that consistently disrupt class and put other students at danger, and the company does not seem to feel like this is a problem that involves them.

Ultimately I would never work for this company again, but I did learn to be more selective when looking for schools to work for.

Typical day: I come in at 2 pm and start to prepare the students' snacks. At about 2:40-3 pm, the students come in and have their snack while I took roll. Note: At this location, I had to take roll every 30 minutes. 
I worked with K-5th. The ratio should be about 15-20 students per teacher but this location was understaffed. I worked alone with around 30 K-5th grade students. The pre-k teacher was out of ratio. And also the pre-school teacher. The room was small for that many students. To keep my sanity, I got through homework as fast as I could so we could go outside. Which is dangerous with so many kids but the room was stuffy and the kids had too much energy. At about 6 pm, most of the students are gone and I have to clean the classroom. I have to mop the floors, clean the toilet, vacuum the carpets, sweep the floor and take out the trash (inside and outside). 

I worked holidays for extra pay. These days were easier. There are less kids which mean more workers. No homework and unlimited fun for the kids.

Hardest part: I could not use the restroom because there wasn't anyone to watch the kids. I had to use it before they came and then I held it until 6:30 pm. Cleaning took me almost an hour by myself. Being responsible for that many kids stressed me out. Kids after school have more energy after being cooped up in school all day. So having that many in one room is overwhelming.

What I learned: Check policies and make sure that if you work with children, that the company gives you adequate help. It's dangerous to left with so many children. When things happened, I had to line them all up and take them with me to the front desk or ask an older child (4th or 5th grade) to get the assistant director to help. Also, I learned before accepting another job to ask about ratio and whether I'd be left with too many children at one time.

Workplace culture and management: My coworkers were nice. Management was okay. They were stressed, too. If anyone called out sick, the directors had to help fill in.

Went into the center for a practicum, left with a job. My favorite job I've ever had, I miss it every day. in the right center, you have opportunities to grow into a strong and fantastic teacher, the children are wonderful! it is a lot of fun to see siblings of previous students come into your classroom

Management shouldn't have hired bad managers. I miss my classroom and babies.
-the pay is not great, for everything we have to do we should be getting paid at least 22/hr. -CORPORATE SUCKS; what they say goes regardless if it is practical in the classroom or not -they will hire inexperienced management, this will ruin entire centers. if you currently work for SSH you have to be an assistant director before being eligible to apply for a director's position. but if you are hired outside of the company you don't have to have previous director experience. -the app is unreliable, you spend more time taking pictures of the activities than experiencing the activities with the children. then you have to hurry and upload everything into the app. -there is a lot that is required to put into the app every day -communication from corporate is unreliable -corporate didn't pay our center's trash bill often so our trash removal service was shut off often resulting in mountains of trashbags piling up -the snow removal service never happened for our playgrounds. Thick sheets of ice would happen every winter rendering big portions of the playgrounds inaccessible or dangerous to play around -teachers often had to buy their own supplies for things, if it isn't available through Staples or Kaplan then you're sort of screwed. 

The hardest part of the job was working with the regional management. There was a strong sense of a clique mentality, gossip and friendship as opposed to professionalism. I have experienced my sexuality being a topic of discussion for the regional management team, and was told as a justification that it was a matter of concern and caring. The regional manager led more of a seniors girl group for sleep overs and strawberry picking than professional and beneficial training for center directors and assistant directors alike. A typical day at work was spent reassuring parents that the company was worth staying with for child care, and comforting the teaching team in putting forth their best effort, although raises had not been given company wide for 7 years, compensation and corporate appreciation was not of importance to the regional manager. Financially- the company has recently been sold, which is a benefit to the quality of service, hopefully. A change of regional management would benefit, fresh ideas, new blood, a new outlook on the industry and the way that things are done in the industry would really make this company a lot more competitive in the future.

The Sunshine House has grown leaps and bounds in the last decade! The company is expanding and taking care of it's centers and staff better than ever.

Curriculum and programming are child-focused.  Parents and families are great to work with.  Children are awesome as always.  Staffing has been a challenge in the past, but current staff are dedicated and truly love being there each and every day. 

There are various opportunities for teachers to move up in the company, but that comes along with hard work and dedication.  Staff have clear expectations for performance reviews, so there is a clear path for how to advance on the pay scale. Management and staff also have consistent expectations and regularly receive feedback from upper leadership to help us continue to learn and grow.

Management does have a lot of responsibility that staff don't always recognize and often perceive this as "being all over the place."  Management receives regular training, but it's important to remember that not all issues can be resolved through training.

I have worked for other companies and can genuinely say that The Sunshine House cares.

I enjoyed working with the Sunshine House when I first started, but that quickly changed.  There was a lot of drama and gossip within the staff, and to my disgust, some of the managers took part in it.  We had a problem with timing as far as when a 2nd teacher was needed in the classroom and how many kids would be left by a certain time towards closing.  They ended up putting one of us on a split shift with an hour and a half to two hour "lunch".  It was nice to have a break long enough to run some errands during business hours, but the classroom was almost always in disarray if both teachers in our classroom were on lunch breaks at the same time.  Management acted as though my coworker and I were the root of all the problems with bad behavior from the children, even if we were both on lunch when an incident occurred.  After leaving the Sunshine House due to medical reasons and personal reasons I began looking for a job at other childcare centers.  In my interviews I was told by Center Directors that the current Director at the Sunshine House does not give anyone a positive referral or good feedback.  I asked several other former employees and they confirmed that.

A typical day at Sunshine House requires a great amount of flexibility. As in many childcare companies there is a staff retention issue and many people employed are only doing so for reduced childcare costs, which as a practice is good, but leads to many teachers being unqualified and distracted. 
Sunshine House does offer many learning opportunities and professional development programs. 
Management obviously varies by location, but in my experience there is large communication gaps and there are a lot of instances of misuse of funds…
Hardest part of the job is getting classroom support. The focus of corporate is getting classrooms to max ratio, versus retaining families or teachers. Each time a new child has been added to a class, the teachers are first notified as the parent is walking in, making teachers scramble to add the child to the class (name tags, making sure there is available seats, job charts, documentation, ect.) Overall the communication and policy consistency is terrible.
All that being said, by far the best part is the children. Even through the mess I have loved working with the children and doing my best to create a great early childhood experience for them. 

The center that I worked for in Charlotte ( Matthews) NC was by far the worst! The director had little to no knowledge about the childcare profession. She never understood that the director sets the tone or mood for her employees on a daily basis. She ran the place based on her emotions and feelings for both the parents and employees Budget was more important than the kids and and the supplies needed to get through a normal day. The expectations of you were high but you had little to no support on purchasing supplies needed to meet the needs of the curriculum. The children were allowed to come to school sick, and trust me it will be very obvious that they're sick. There is ABSOLUTELY no cut off time, parents were able to bring their kids in when they wanted to. The development of the children was definitely not important. Most of the employees have no education at all! The most horrible part of the job was a lack of parent involvement and support. Most of the children attended for free, or low cost so parents looked at the center as babysitting for low prices. The most enjoyable part of the job was seeing the children happy and socially interacting with each other.

I've worked with children for nearly a year now full time and I can say with certainty being both a teacher and a parent I get it when others say they don't get compensated for half the stuff they go through during the day with these kids. Some days I pray for certain kids to not come to school bc I just need a break from all the running around, but then I see their face and the desperate look on the parents face and I just kinda give in bc I kinda have to working in daycare. It doesn't pay a lot but I assume that's bc it's solely dependent in the tuitions garnered from paying parents and the genaral run of the building. My coworkers are colorful and engaging and although they have their own cliques and tend towards being very black and white with one another they are still team-minded and want our house to be one of the better ran houses with or without a director present. I'm happy to be working here bc they take great care of all the kids including my own enrolled ones and I don't have to worry about anyone coming to check with me about my kids. I'm left to do my job in the infant room while I trust others to handle my youngins. I like my job and my kids and I like the care that they show to my kids as well

What is the best part of working at the company?
The children and parents were very sweet and the environment is interesting in terms of cultural differences. The company itself has no good features.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Feeding the children at meals was often mentally painful to watch them eat such distasteful food. Management is very unprofessional and insensitive to others. The company as a whole has difficulty with communication. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture of the environment is ghetto and unprofessional. The parents and teachers are very nice and seem to truly care for the children there.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Typical daycare schedule 6am-6pm. Days can go very well or very badly. With staff shortages children from other classrooms have to go to other classes which can disrupt students and teachers. Teachers will also have to go to other classrooms and teach because of staff shortages was well. That can be incomfortaqble for everyone involved.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Preschool teacher 84 salaries reported	$16.79 per hour
Daycare teacher 119 salaries reported	$17.06 per hour
Child care teacher 222 salaries reported	$16.63 per hour
Daycare assistant 5 salaries reported	$17.20 per hour
Preschool director 9 salaries reported	$52,027 per year

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