This position serves as a teacher for a Head Start classroom with a direct focus on children 3 to 4 years of age. The teacher will work collaboratively with one other teacher to ensure the successful operation of a classroom with a total of 17- 20 children. The teacher also works with a team of other teachers, family advocate and family members to implement the curriculum to achieve outcomes for children of all abilities.
The teacher will ultimately be evaluated on a combination of skills, dispositions and behaviors, some of which are related to the specific service area of this position and others that represent general expectations of all our program employees. The teacher will demonstrate competency to perform functions that include:
- Child Growth & Development: Uses knowledge of the principles of child growth and development to work with children, collaborate with related service areas, and communicate with internal and external stakeholders.
- Implements a child-centered curriculum and learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation to promote development in all domains for children of all abilities.
- Addresses challenging behaviors by observing to determine possible causes of the behavior, implementing preventive measures, teaching the child new social and communication skills and partnering with families to support the child at home.
- Uses observations of children and anecdotal notes to document children’s progress and individualize curriculum.
- Creates partnerships with families to establish positive interaction patterns in program, school, and home.
The classroom teacher’s responsibilities chiefly fall within the following core functions, although s/he may perform other tasks as needed:
- Planning
- Program Implementation
- Family Partnerships
- Communication and Service Coordination
- Record Keeping and Reporting
- On-going Monitoring and Self-assessment
- Supervision and Human Resources
- Planning and implementing learning experiences that advance the intellectual and physical development of children, including improving the readiness of children for school by developing their literacy and phonemic, print, and numeracy awareness, their understanding and use of language, their understanding and use of increasingly complex and varied vocabulary, their appreciation of books, and their problem solving abilities.
- Establishing and maintaining a safe, healthy learning environment.
- Supporting the social and emotional development of children.
- Encouraging the involvement of the families of the children in a Head Start program and supporting the development of relationships between children and their families.
- 90 Training Hours
- Head Start classroom experience, preferred
- Core Knowledge Curriculum experience, preferred