Instructional Assistant - PreSchool

General Summary Of Duties

The Early Childhood Development Assistant provides support in an educational environment, performing paraprofessional work in assisting teachers and students.

The Early Childhood Development Assistant works with children individually or in small groups by providing basic instruction in abilities and skills developmentally appropriate for Early Childhood aged children.

The Early Childhood Development Assistant is responsible for supporting a variety of developmentally appropriate activities, as well as assisting teachers with escorting children to various scheduled activities, i.e., lunch, rest time, restrooms.

Essential Functions

• Maintains accurate and complete records of a variety of student information which may require the use of a computer to enter scores and other children's data.
• Monitors activities and behavior of children during the absence of the classroom teacher(s) to ensure their physical and environmental safe keeping, as well as adherence to appropriate conduct and disciplinary controls.
• Assists the teacher(s) in the supervision of learning activities, circulating within the classroom and providing assistance and learning support to children.
• Provides instruction to children as prescribed by the supervising teacher(s) and reinforces skills introduced by the teacher(s); may utilize games, stories, or other constructive activities to enhance the students learning skills.
• Aids in the preparation of lesson plans; may be asked to provide input and assistance in the development of classroom activities and learning tools.
• Assists the teacher(s) by noticing students potential learning, language and/or communication deficiencies; monitors children's progressive learning skills; makes the teacher aware of students possible learning deficiencies; documents records of learning activities and diagnosis.
• Prepares or assists in the preparation of instructional materials; performs support tasks such as photocopying materials, laminating items, typing correspondence, and filing paperwork and documentation.
• Coordinates with media center staff for classroom learning resources; sets up equipment in the classroom for teachers instructional studies.
• Assists in preparing classroom bulletin boards, classroom decorations, displays of children's activities, and other classroom objectives.
• May be assigned monitoring duties, i.e., hallways, lunchroom, restrooms, and bus duty; ensures appropriate student conduct during these periods; escorts students to designated activity areas (i.e., music room, computer room, art classes, assemblies, etc.).
• May be assigned to various labs providing assistance to teachers and instruction/information to students.
• Responsible for keeping up to date on current technology, as job appropriate, being used by Warren.
• Attends training to ensure skill level in various technologies is at the level required to perform in current position.
• Responsible for timely and accurate information they maintain as part of their job responsibilities.

Entry-level Requirements

• High school diploma or GED is required; an Associates degree or higher; or at least sixty (60) semester hours from an accredited institution of higher education is preferred (Official transcripts are required to validate education.)
• Previous vocational training or work experience with preschool or kindergarten age children is preferred.
• Able to meet the requirements of a paraprofessional as outlined in ESSA.
• Pass the required Expanded Criminal History Check and Expanded Child Protection Index Check.
• Must have at least an associates degree or two years of college or passed the ParaPro Assessment.
• Highlander Park offers the ParaPro Assessment at no cost for all Warren Township prospective employees. Testing is offered Monday through Thursday at 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. To register for your free assessment, email adulteducation@warren.k12.in.us or call 317-532-3000.

Other

• Ability to perform the essential functions, meet the performance aptitudes, and fulfill the physical/sensory/environmental requirements of the job (with or without reasonable accommodations) is required.
• Data Utilization: Requires the ability to arrange, compare, count, differentiate, measure and/or sort data and/or information.
• Human Interaction: Requires the ability to provide guidance, assistance, and/or interpretation to others on how to apply procedures and standards to specific situations.
• Equipment, Machinery, Tools, and Materials Utilization: Requires the ability to operate, maneuver and/or control the actions of standard office equipment.
• Verbal Aptitude: Requires the ability to utilize a wide variety of reference data and information.
• Mathematical Aptitude: Requires the ability to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
• Functional Reasoning: Requires ability to carry out detailed but uninvolved written or oral instructions. Involves routine work according to clearly prescribed standard practices, with some latitude for independent judgment.
• Situational Reasoning: Requires the ability to exercise judgment, decisiveness and creativity in situations involving a variety of generally pre-defined duties which are often characterized by frequent change.

Physical Requirements

• Tasks involve the ability to exert very moderate physical effort in light work, typically involving some combination of stooping, kneeling, crouching and crawling, and which may involve some lifting, carrying, pushing and/or pulling of objects and materials of moderate weight (12-20 pounds).

Sensory Requirements

• Most tasks require visual perception and discrimination.
• Some tasks require oral communications ability.
• Some tasks require the ability to perceive and discriminate sounds.

Environmental Factors

• Tasks are regularly performed without exposure to adverse environmental conditions, such as dirt, dust, pollen, odors, wetness, humidity, rain, fumes, temperature and noise extremes, machinery, vibrations, electric currents, traffic hazards, animals/wildlife, toxic/poisonous agents, violence, disease, or pathogenic substances.