Early Learning Teacher

General Summary

Under the direction of the director, the Lead Teacher is responsible for providing a warm, nurturing, stimulating, safe, and loving environment, where each child has the opportunity to develop cognitive, verbal, social, emotional, and physical skills appropriately.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Plans and implements a culturally sensitive educational program that is developmentally appropriate for each child’s age and language.
• Plans and implements daily lesson plans based on the approved curriculum to promote cognitive, verbal, social, emotional and physical development of children.
• Covers ongoing assessment and individualization documentation in a timely manner.
• Plans a balanced daily routine that encourages play, exploration and learning, and which includes teacher-directed and child-directed activities, both inside and outside.
• Provides a developmentally appropriate, stimulating learning environment that includes adding new and interesting materials each week, meeting the developmental levels of all children in the group, including children with special needs, over the course of their enrollment.

Children’s Health and Developmental Services

• Conducts daily health checks on each child.
• Plans weekly activities that promote a healthy lifestyle.
• Follows policies and procedures regarding medical and dental emergencies, short-term exclusion of children, and the administration, handling and storing of medication.
• Maintains sanitation and hygienic classroom.

Nutrition

• Eats with children, encouraging proper eating habits and conversation.
• Aids in kitchen duties, as assigned.
• Fulfills infants' individual feeding schedules and holds infants who cannot sit independently while feeding.

Family Partnerships

• Attends parent meetings as assigned.
• Informs parents concerning their children’s progress formally and informally, including parent notes, portfolios, and parent conferences.
• Plays a role in transition procedures for children moving from classroom to classroom, along with other appropriate staff.
• Plans and implements family involvement activities.

Training and Communication

• Participates in on-site and off-site professional development trainings and workshops; completes a minimum of 35 annual in-service training hours.
• Maintains confidentiality at all times.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Required

• Practicing Catholic in good standing with the Church preferred.
• Flexible, works well with others, and has excellent communication skills with parents or co-teachers.
• A minimum of a high school diploma or GED.
• DCF 45-hour training; National CDA, required for VPK. If currently holding a valid DCF Staff Credential, s/he may start the DCF 45-hour training within 30 days of hire and complete it within 6 months.
• Prior experience in a child care setting preferred.
• Knowledge of child growth and development as well as developmentally appropriate practices for children ages birth to 5 years.
• Knowledge of applicable safety and abuse reporting procedures.
• Must successfully pass the required criminal background check prior to employment and every five years; must complete Protecting God’s Children (PGC) workshop prior to employment.

Languages Skills

• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.
• Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.
• Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, vendors, employees, and the general public.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS

• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
• Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.

Reasoning Abilities

• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
• Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.

Physical Demands

• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
• Position may require some evening and weekend hours.