Child Development Teacher (PCEP)

About the role

Responsible for providing a safe, nurturing, and developmentally appropriate environment that promotes each child’s cognitive, social, emotional, health, and physical development.

Develop individualized educational goals for each child and assess each child’s outcomes to monitor evolving progress, and the use of various teaching strategies with an emphasis on language and literacy skills to meet the needs of each individual child.

Maintain a high-quality environment with attention to safety and health prevention measures for infants, toddlers, and twos at all times.

Job Responsibilities

• Be familiar with and adhere to the Head Start Program Performance Standards, State of Texas Child Care Licensing requirements, and NAEYC regulations.
• Conduct daily screenings and assessments using Cognitive Toy Box Assessments, ASQs, and the AVANCE PCEP Framework tools, and conduct home visits as needed.
• Ensure a 1 Teacher to 4 Child ratios at all times with no more than 8 infants and/or toddlers in a classroom.
• Ensure all policies and procedures are followed when changing diapers for infants and toddlers.
• Report to supervisor any patterns of absences or any special circumstances surrounding absenteeism.
• Initiate and document appropriate family support procedures for all children with four or more consecutive unexcused absences.
• Participate in PCEP Recruitment efforts at events, in the community and the school district, pre-service training plans, AVANCE Inc. PCEP annual Training, and participate in start-of-the-year programming, conducting home visits to complete assessments and follow-ups, maintaining records, and conducting other duties as assigned.
• Encourage parents to participate in the program and to complete a minimum of six home visits during the program year for each child enrolled in the program.
• Plan and implement developmentally appropriate activities that promote children’s learning in literacy, language, cognitive, social/emotional, and physical/health development on a weekly basis and follow classroom daily schedule.
• Implement “best practices” approaches and learning materials.
• Establish positive, caring and nurturing relationships with children.
• Use a variety of strategies to flexibly group children for the purposes of instruction, promoting children’s development, supporting collaboration among children, and building a caring community of active enthusiastic learners.
• Conduct daily child observations and quarterly developmental assessments to collect information on individual children’s learning and progress.
• Plan individualized approaches to promote each child’s learning and development.
• Communicate with parents regarding children’s progress on a regular basis, both informally and formally.
• Encourage parents to be involved in the curriculum through weekly family activities, classroom volunteering, and attending monthly parent meetings, where they will be able to learn more about the curriculum and give staff feedback and suggestions on center and classroom activities.
• Conduct family-style meals, serving to promote good nutrition and food safety practices.
• Attend IFSP meetings, which result in incorporating IFSPs in the lesson plans.
• Report suspected neglect, abuse, medical conditions/illnesses to immediate supervisor.
• Report to work on time and work a flexible schedule when necessary, ensuring the needs of the children are met.
• Encourage and maintain hygiene in children.
• Ensure the classroom is organized and classroom equipment and materials are clean for the children to use.
• Attend workshops and trainings as scheduled by supervisor.
• Give directions to classroom volunteers.
• Supervise children at all times.
• May transport equipment, supplies, and materials in own vehicle.
• Attend and participate in staff meetings as scheduled and report accordingly.
• Able to travel for business-related activities.
• Perform any other tasks as assigned.

Requirements

• Education Required: Infant and Toddler CDA (Child Development Associate Credential)
• Preferred: Associate in Early Childhood Education or Bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education or related field with 18 hours in Early Childhood Education.
• Preferred: Six (6) months’ experience working in an infant and toddler setting.
• Additional Skills: CPR and First Aid Training, Must be computer literate, and have proficient working knowledge of assigned databases, software, and systems, Strong interpersonal and team-building skills, Spanish fluency is helpful, but not required, Strong organizational skills that reflect the ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks seamlessly with excellent attention to detail, Strong verbal and written communication, problem-solving and decision-making skills, Must have dependable transportation daily, a valid driver’s license, a clean driving record, current auto liability insurance, and be bondable by AVANCE, San Antonio, Inc.