TL/DR at bottom.
While the assistant teachers I worked with were amazing, management and most lead teachers had a serious clique issue. The assistant teachers would be forced to pull the weight of the lead teachers in the classroom because management would pull out their favorite lead teachers to the front and do office work if we were in student teacher ratio making the entire facility feel short staffed when we were in fact over staffed. To add on this facility has a "no time out" policy and it makes disciplining a child extremely difficult, especially when management does not give us suggestions to redirect negative behavior, to the point where I began to ignore the rule for the safety of my students as I have had students in my class who would throw heavy toys with one instance hitting another child. This same student would repeatedly punch and kick me causing me to go home with bruises and it took management two weeks of this kid in my class to notify the parents. Management has also given terrible advice when I was dealing with an explosive tantrum and word for word told me to "let them do what they want". Also one day as the assistant teachers were closing down the classrooms and management made one of my coworkers close down two rooms originally without help i finished my room early and went to help her finish up because i felt that was unfair to make her do that alone we began to talk about how unhappy we were with management among other things while still clocked i
A typical day at work consists of having to do an amount of work for four people but essentially on your own and with a full class. The only thing worse then the piece of junk iPads are the ancient vacuum cleaners that are most definitely a hazard at this point. Management is untrustworthy and cheap (hence why we have the worlds first ever vacuum cleaners to our disposal). Many people there are two-faced, especially the ladies up front, who will say that it's unprofessional to carry a thermos around but will straighten each other's hair and say nasty things about co-workers without care at the front desk. You are promised a decent pay but never get it and let me tell you...wiping butts for $8-9 an hour gets old real quick. I could be flipping burgers at a better buck and get benefits. Yeah, you don't get any insurance here. NONE. Which is almost hilarious considering the fact that it's a childcare facility so you know you're going to get real sick from time to time. Don't bother asking for a raise because they'll only bump it up to fifty cents max and then coincidentally you'll lose your job the next week because your services are no longer needed (HA! Do you realize how short-staffed we are when you pull that stunt, managers?). Also, they have phones in all the classrooms for teachers to contact the front desk or whoever for whatever the reason. God forbid you should ever have an emergency because the front desk blows off half the phone calls (what if a child was
A typical day of work at Kiddies Academy was as follows: I used to get there at 3:00 pm. when some of the kids were just coming out of their school. When they arrived I greeted them and gave them snacks. We had to wait until the rest of the kids came back from their school, so in the mean time they did their homework. I checked their homework and made sure that they finished it. If they had any questions or if they needed help regarding their homework I supported them. After homework time was over we used to go outside to the playground for 45 minutes. Afterwards we came back inside and did crafts or fun dynamic activities until their parents came to pick them up.We had a monthly staff and professional development meetings given and hosted by the school. I learned how a daycare center runs, which activities it provides, and sometimes I subbed in other classrooms; therefore I was able to meet and get to know all of the children and their parents. I had a great relationship with my co-workers and I was lucky to have made good friendships with most of them. Currently I am working in their summer camp. The hardest part of the job was that some of the students were very disrespectful, so at the beginning it was hard for me to control the class and to get the child's respect. However, as time went by and the kids got to know me I was able to manage the classroom and build a great respecting and friendly relationship with my students. For that reason the most enjoyable part of my jo
ProsOpportunity to meet a lot of students and parents that I also saw in MECC
ConsI was asked to move to another classroom, I wasn't in my classroom with my students, and was not able to work with them with the material I had prepared.
At first I thought this was going to be a great place to work but the longer I was employed the more I realized it was quite the opposite. There is a clear divide between leadership and the staff. The majority of staff do not care for the leadership for many reasons. Leadership will say they are here to support and that they want to see you grow. Not true. They consistently have an attitude that reaps superiority and beware of the constant eye rolling They constantly sit in the office and gossip about employees and they talk about teachers as if they’re robots and not people with feelings. They keep telling everyone else how to be a great leader when they themselves don’t know how to be good leaders. Staff morale is low, no one feels heard, no one feels safe, and no one feels like they care at all. They send out staff surveys but when you fill it out and they don’t like what you have to say or don’t agree with it then they just chalk it up to being your fault. Emails are monitored, photos are monitored, and everything is micromanaged. The director seems really kind at first but the more you’re around the more you start noticing things that are not okay. They preach about low turnover which is a lie. Turnover is high and it’s not because of the pay. It’s because of the leadership team and their lack of quality leadership as well as a lack of company benefits. Insurance is not enough. Not when there are companies providing 401k matching, better PTO, and maternity leave. How do
ProsCo-workers are wonderful
ConsLeadership/management, lack of comprehensive benefits, toxic work culture
Fun workplace if you love working with babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
My typical day at work consists of arriving at 6:30am to prepare and open up my room for the young infants that are dropped off by their parents to leave in my care. Greeting the parents with a smile is very important. Also, you must have lots of patience, be helpful and self-confident. After all, these hard working parents are entrusting you with the care of their most precious children.
In order to do this job and be good at it, you must truly love taking care of young babies. This is a very demanding, and at times, a little frustrating job, but the rewards can be very sweet and satisfying. To be able to make a tiny little baby laugh, smile and trust you enough to fall asleep in your arms with their little head on your shoulder is the sweetest thing ever.
I have been fortunate enough to have great co-workers at this job. We work as a team and that's very important, especially when taking care of young babies that are crying at the same time!
That is definitely one of the biggest challenges to this job. Crying babies! After all, this is their only form of communication. It's the only way they let you know that they need to be fed, diapered, or they want your attention, or they want to be held and loved or put down for a nap. One or two crying babies, not a problem; but when it's three of more, Yikes! Definitely one of the hardest parts of this job.
Like I said before, you must truly love taking care of young infants or babies in general to do this job well and
ProsEnjoying the babies smiles and laughter.
ConsNo breaks, half hour lunch, at times very long workdays.
Initially, I loved working here. I’ve worked with some amazing children and parents. Not only that, but I’ve met the most genuine, amazing teachers and I loved working with them. The problem is in management. No support, no acknowledgement. The handbook says they offer pay raises. They pay you poorly (or in some cases, below minimum wage) while you do slave labor. The employees are constantly experiencing burnout and are overworked. I’ve witnessed petty drama between the manager and fellow coworkers, because of this, in the time I’ve been working in this particular facility, EIGHT people have left. Constantly short-staffed and employees are expected to pick up the slack, leading to even more mental and physical exhaustion.
Besides the lack of support and miscommunication between manager and employees, the facility is outright filthy and run down. Bacteria growing in the soap dispensers that we use to wash the poor children’s hands, ant infestations, broken equipment (classroom phones, broken paper towel dispensers, sinks, there was only ONE working toilet in the facility for over two months, dirty and/or broken toys) — all these things ignored or unnoticed because the owner of the facility is too concerned with purchasing Teslas with money earned from parents who expect the very BEST for their child, considering the high cost of tuition.
If you love the feeling of burnout and working in a toxic environment for little to below minimum wage, this job is for you!
Here is what you should know about Kiddie Accademy of Charlottesville, Virginia
Some of the staff at the Charlottesville Kiddie Academy really cared about the children they worked with and were a joy to work with. Some of them were there because of a paycheck and would rather not be there.
I started working there in April of 2013 and left in August 2015.
The second director and her first assistant did their best to run the place. However, morale was low with this director in charge. Support was minimal for teachers. The teachers had to network with one another and work together on making sure all the tasks were done each day. When the second, assistant started working there. Morale took a nose dive she was not the easiest person to work with. After the second director and her assistant left, we had a third director and assistant. They were nice and helpful and morale went up. We had a fourth director and assistant and morale went up again. However, at that point, the school was clearly having financial difficulties and people's paychecks would bounce. They started losing staff that way. After, I left I found out that they had a sinkhole in the backyard and they were given 3 days to shut down and evacuate the building. They were able to find other places that would accept their children and left the building. The building is still up and not occupied. I also understand that they were not following standard protocol and that is one of the reasons that shut them down.
Working at Kiddie Academy taught me a broader sense of leadership skills and how to build a classroom curriculum each week; I was also trained to work with a wide range of age groups of kids, this helped me gain more experience when it came to learning their different behavior skills, where they needed advancement, how well they were learning, etc.
A typical work day for me was to come in early and greet my teacher assistant whom had already started the crock pot for the infant bottles (as I worked in the infant room) and I would prep the daily infant charts for the infants that had already been dropped off. My assistant, at that point, had already begun feeding breakfast to those infants that were present. Each morning I came into work, like clockwork, I set up every crib with a new sheet, I also set up the diaper pails with diapers and wipes for the infants. All of the toys were set up and clean. Music was playing to stimulate them. I started an art project for the day.
The hardest part of my job was transitioning my infants to the toddler class as it was a "graduation" point for them. I did not want to see them go, yet I loved seeing them reach that milestone and felt blessed that I was able to help them grow and learn in the process.
Prosworking with all of those kids and making them smile everyday.
ConsI know all the kids that I have worked with may be in a dire, or needy situation and I want to help every one of them out.
I was fresh out of high school and had this job for the summer and figured I would get some experience working with children. Approximately 2 or 3 weeks into working as a TEACHER’S ASSISTANT, I get put in charge of the classroom. I had no clue as to what I was doing. I would try my best and get yelled at for it. I was ALWAYS out of ratio and management didn’t seem to care at all. Don’t get me wrong, the children were great, but it wasn’t easy entertaining them all at once by myself. The staff was absolutely terrible, not only to each other, but the kids! It’s was this one 2 year olds birthday, and she was wearing a dress that day that she was very proud of, and the staff would say that she looked stupid and that the dress was ugly and that she had “thunder thighs” just like her mother. How much more horrible can you be??? The food is so bad that I wouldn’t even feed it to my dog. Management sucks, and they don’t know how to talk to their staff like human beings. They DEFINITELY have their favorites. They are extremely rude. Do they really think that people are going to keep working for them if they keep this up? I don’t know how they are with parents, but they’re the worst bosses I’ve ever had and I’ve had 3 in the past. If you are thinking about enrolling your child or working for kiddie academy of bethpage, i suggest that you run the other way and find somewhere else. This place needs to be shut down.
If you love working with kids I would recommend working at a center just not this one.
If you like having to talk to the director about why your pay is off this is the place for you.
If you like having someone talk to you like your one of the children in the daycare and not an adult, this is the place for you.
If you like drama and being accused of it welp this is the place for you.
If you like spending your money on supplies and having to hunt down the director for reimbursement this is the place for you.
If you like working in a place thats always low staffed because people are aloud to call out for any little thing, or come in when they feel like it, or just up and quit because of working conditions this is the place for you.
If you like working with people who brag about how they got their poistions on the job by back stabbing their friends definitely a place for you. (Definitely not speaking from experience)
ProsGreat kids and families, some staff members are awsome.
ConsRude staff, always had to remind the owner to either pay you/correct your pay, unfair management, people always calling out which vauses more stress on other staff, meals are gross for children, say the reimburse for supplies but have to keep on the director to get your money back, drama always from other teachers, and major issues arise their swept under the rug.
Questions And Answers about Kiddie Academy
What would you suggest Kiddie Academy management do to prevent others from leaving?
Asked Mar 25, 2017
Take COVID seriously and err more on the side of caution to help ensure the safest environment for all
Answered Aug 18, 2020
Learn to be respectful and not manipulate your staff.
Answered May 28, 2020
Why did you leave your job at Kiddie Academy?
Asked Mar 25, 2017
Environment went from inviting to toxic. Over a dozen teachers left during my time there. No real support from management.
Answered Sep 13, 2021
Loved being a teacher there. Given a job to revamp into order my class and with MUCH support from not only owners, upper management and other teachers, I was able to grow way beyond what I thought I could do. I really enjoyed being there. Unfortunately COVID-19 happened and things just went south for everyone. Permanent furloughed, Richmond TX
Answered Aug 16, 2020
What is the best part of working at Kiddie Academy?
Asked Jan 3, 2020
Besides all the kids. The staff getting along and no catty drama.
Answered Nov 12, 2020
The children.
Answered Sep 10, 2020
How flexible are your working hours at Kiddie Academy?
Asked Apr 16, 2020
If you let them know in advance they are very willing to work with your schedule.
Answered Nov 12, 2020
Sometimes good sometimes they get mad if you ask for a day off, or ask to leave early for important appointments or so. ( again unless you’re a favorite)
Answered Oct 17, 2020
What is a typical day like for you at Kiddie Academy?
Asked May 30, 2020
A typical chaotic day in childcare. If you know, you know.
Answered Aug 16, 2021
A typical day would depend on your job title. But no matter what you will be loving and caring for children.
