3 Challenges in the Preschool Classroom and How to Solve Them

Preschool teachers have many challenges in the Classroom in addition to teaching children. It’s estimated that the average preschool teacher spends 45 minutes or more per day on administrative tasks, including daily attendance, lesson plans, meal attendance, assessments, etc. That’s nearly four hours a week and 75 hours a month just doing paperwork!

Here are three of the top challenges preschool teachers face and how they can overcome them, saving themselves tons of time and stress. 

Challenge 1: Communicating with Parents

One top challenge for preschool teachers is communicating with the parents of the children they care for. Besides seeing a parent at drop-off or pick-up, teachers must also communicate with parents during the day. 

Most parents want to see what their children are learning and how their behavior is. Getting a “bad report” at the end of a long day can be a drag for tired parents and uncomfortable for teachers. 

There’s also the issue of incidents, parent-teacher conferences, emergency closings, school announcements, etc. Trying to communicate with parents about these can be daunting. Isn’t there a better way to do teacher-parent communication than using a conglomeration of media like emails, newsletters, letters, etc.?  

Solution 1: SMS Texting

Yes! It’s called in-app communication with SMS texting. People now check their phones once every four minutes. Texting has become the best medium for reaching busy parents. 

With Enrollsy’s SMS texting feature, teachers can easily send text messages to all parents in their classes without sharing their personal phone number. 

Text messages can be sent in a group or individually, but all texts are received by the parent separately within their messaging app. 

Teachers can send messages throughout the day about a child’s behavior, incidents, emergencies, announcements, etc. 

Challenge 2: Recording Children’s Activities

Another challenge related to the first is recording children’s activities and sharing them with parents. Activities can include a variety of events, including:

• Class Attendance Sheets
• Meal Events: Breakfast, lunch, snack, supper
• Daily Reports
• Progress Reports
• Lesson Plans

Documenting these activities and sharing them can be difficult, especially if the teacher uses paper copies. How many copies does a teacher have to make of an attendance sheet? How much money and time is being wasted doing that?

Solution 2: Activity App

A solution to the activity chaos is an in-app platform that allows a teacher to easily and quickly attach an activity to one or more children’s timelines. 

Enrollsy can accommodate the variety of Classroom Activities that teachers need to handle on a daily basis. 

Parents receive these activities in the Enrollsy app (Customer Portal), all in one place. The activities feature makes it super easy for teachers to post daily activities, saving time and money on printed copies. 

Challenge 3: Daily Sheets & Other Administrative Tasks

A third but equally important challenge for preschool teachers is finding the time to create lesson plans, fill out daily sheets, and complete other administrative duties.

Any teachers find themselves scrambling to fill out a paper lesson plan sheet during nap time or, worse, when they’re off the clock. 

Daily sheets for infants and toddlers are essential for parents as they show instances of feedings, diaper changes, naps, the child’s health and/or mood, and any supplies needed. This information can be challenging to keep straight when you have half a dozen or more children in the classroom. 

Solution 3: Activity Forms & Class Content

A practical solution for keeping track of daily toddler activities is by creating an Activity Form attached to an activity. An Activity Form, such as “Toddler Daily Sheet,” can be filled out and added to the child’s timeline anytime during the day. 

Other Activity Forms that can be created for teachers to quickly and efficiently access such as:

• Infant Feeding
• Skill Tracking
• Meal Count
• Behavior
• Vaccine Card
• Size Chart

Class Content is another powerful tool preschool teachers can use to ease their administrative burden. This feature allows a variety of content to be attached to a Program that parents have access to on the customer portal. Content such as (not limited to) the following:

• Zoom meeting link
• YouTube video
• Classroom Supply lists
• Class Schedules
• Medical forms

Conclusion

Today, three top challenges facing preschool teachers include parent communication, recording children’s activities, and keeping up with various administrative duties. Enrollsy can solve these issues (and more) with SMS texting, activities, forms, and class content, all within one convenient app. 

To learn more about these solutions in Enrollsy, check out these support articles in Enrollsy’s Support Center:

• How an Instructor can use the Enrollsy app
• How to text Primary Account Holders
• How to view & log Activities in the Instructor Portal
• Viewing Activities and Shared Content
• How to add a Form to an Activity

If you’re not a current Enrollys client and want to learn more, schedule a demo to find out more.