Her Story
About Brittany
I started in education when I was 18 at a preschool facility in Roseville. I had already gotten most of my associate's degrees and all of my EC units, and I was talking to someone in one of my college classes who said they were a preschool teacher, so I went and applied. I started out as a floater, training and learning how a preschool runs and what a teacher needs to do. From there, I continued getting my education and got promoted to a lead toddler teacher, running a toddler classroom. After that, I eventually went to infants and became a lead infant teacher, working with infants, toddlers, and threes. I started doing subbing for a little bit at different preschools that didn't have any qualified teachers available. Eventually, I finished getting my degrees in early childhood education and applied to be a director so I'd be able to use all of my knowledge from school and my experience being a preschool teacher myself. I've been a site director for going on 4 years now, overseeing a before and after school program with a preschool component. I'm responsible for staff, making sure they're up-to-date on mandated reporter trainings and licensing requirements, and I'm also currently in an internship with the Sacramento School Unified District working toward my teaching credential.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Brittany
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would ask why first. Like, what is the reason why you're going into education? Because a lot of people kind of think of it as an easy job, where you just babysit kids all day when you actually don't. After they would answer that question, I'd talk to them about what the steps would be. Is it just for a part-time job? Is it a career? Do you see it in the future? I'd tell them you have to love your job, you have to love kids, you have to actually know that it's not just an 8-hour day, it's actually longer than that. You're thinking of activities when you're at the store, you're thinking of activities when you're just looking on your phone. You also build a bond with the kids. You have to actually really love kids. And I would say, you know, every day, you are a student first before a teacher, because you're consistently learning from the students, because every child and every student every year is going to be different. So you're going to be constantly changing, being flexible, and learning each day as it goes.
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