Kindergarten Teacher

About the role

Reston Children’s Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit Early Childhood Education Center located in Reston, VA, is seeking an enthusiastic individual to lead our private Kindergarten class. With an average class size of 10 children and a backdrop of lush green trees on 1.3 acres of natural terrain, RCC offers a unique landscape for education, focusing on social-emotional skills and placing the child's experience first. Reston Children’s Center opened its doors in 1967 and has been NAEYC accredited since 1988.

Responsibilities

Administrative Responsibilities

• Coordinates with other programs.
• Attends supervisory staff meetings.
• Serves as a liaison between parents and directors and reports potential problems immediately.
• Records and tallies daily children attendance.
• Submits daily absences.
• Maintains attendance form in a highly visible and accessible place in home base area.
• During fire drills, takes attendance to outside meeting place.
• Administers and records parent conferences.
• Writes weekly parent newsletters.

Programming Responsibilities

• Conducts a daily health check of children.
• Plans daily schedules and routines for children.
• Plans developmentally appropriate programming to include activities that support children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical growth and development.
• Continually assesses student achievement and maintains appropriate assessment and evaluation documentation for classroom use and for use in quarterly report cards.
• Encourages acceptable behaviors by modeling appropriate behaviors.
• Uses a wide range of strategies and techniques to ensure smooth transitions from one activity to another.
• Uses a wide variety of appropriate guidance and classroom management strategies and techniques.
• Supervises bathroom routines daily, maintaining awareness of children with difficulties.
• Eats lunch with children and, when needed, assists with food preparation, service, and clean-up.
• Implements schedules and routines that are flexible and smooth, and that respond to the needs of children.
• Provides a balance between active and quiet activities.
• Ensures that the majority of activities are child-initiated rather than teacher-initiated.
• Displays children’s arts and visuals at children’s eye levels.
• Conducts daily inspection of indoor and outdoor areas to ensure cleanliness, organization, health, and safety of children.
• Maintains supplies, materials, and equipment:
  • On a daily basis, materials and supplies are kept sorted; locates missing pieces and returns them to proper places.
  • Promptly reports equipment repair needs.
  • Teaches children respect for property and instills in them a sense of “ownership” by involving them in maintenance and decoration of areas.
• On a daily basis, cleans and repairs toys, manipulatives, and equipment.
• Maintains interest areas (mirrors, soft places, spaces for large/small motor development, and spaces for privacy, housekeeping, art, books, blocks, table toys, science, dramatic play, and board games).
• On a daily basis, prepares the environment for children by setting out and rotating a variety of toys and materials, ensuring materials, supplies, and equipment are readily accessible to children so they can make their own selections and have a variety of choices.
• Ensures that children are picked up only by persons designated by parents as alternative pick-up persons.

Interactions with Children

• Engages in many one-to-one, face-to-face interactions with children.
• Uses pleasant, soothing voice tones and appropriate language.
• Holds/nurtures children in a comforting/appropriate manner.
• All interactions are characterized by gentle, supportive responses.
• Respects children’s food preferences.
• Models appropriate behaviors for children.
• Uses appropriate guidance/discipline techniques.
• Uses a wide variety of discipline techniques to fit individual children and their behaviors.
• Demonstrates an understanding of children’s social-emotional, cognitive, and physical levels of development.

Relationships with Parents

• Communicates (positively and non-defensively) in a wide variety of ways with parents.
• Listens to parents’ points of view and responds with information on how concerns can be addressed and problems can be solved.
• Is available, on an ongoing basis, to communicate with parents.
• Keeps conversations with parents brief during times that attention should be focused on the children.
• Supports parents and works with them to build confidence as parents.
• Recognizes that parents are partners in their children’s program experiences and plans, and implements a variety of ways to help parents become involved.
• Refrains from giving advice to parents but responds with open-ended questions which allow parents to explore and generate their own solutions on child-rearing issues.
• Responds to parents’ questions with information based on research on children’s growth and development rather than responses based on personal opinions.
• Schedules and conducts parent conferences.
• Plans and attends parent/center events.

Professional Development Responsibilities

• Keeps abreast of research and new developments in the field of early childhood education and childcare services.
• Attends and participates in professional conferences, lectures, and other educational events.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in early childhood education or elementary education.
• Virginia teaching license.
• Three years of experience in early childhood education.
• Excellent references from former employers.
• Clear criminal record check.
• Negative TB test.

Nice to Haves

• Master’s Degree.

Benefits

• Health Insurance with Kaiser Permanente.
• Dental Insurance.
• Life Insurance ($15,000 base life insurance).
• Short Term and Long Term Disability insurance.
• Paid Vacation, Sick, and Personal leave.
• Retirement plan with up to 3% matching.
• Tuition Assistance for furthering education.
• Child Care discount for your children.
• Opportunities for professional development.