Teacher

Responsibilities

• Attends all required training and workshops to include but not limited to 21 hours of classroom focused professional development and methods that comply with applicable State and local laws for identifying and reporting child abuse and neglect.
• Remains up-to-date on information that pertains to the needs of the children in the program including Head Start Performance Standards, child care licensing regulations and other applicable regulations and practices.
• Works as a team member with the other education staff, parents and Parent Committee members to develop a curriculum that is meaningful and meets the individual and program needs.
• Develops an individual plan for each child to include goal setting based on identified needs and prescriptions for objectives and activities to meet established goals (outcomes).
• Schedules home visits and parent-teacher conferences with families as required and on an as-needed basis and documents these events.
• Maintains strict confidentiality with respect to Early Start children, families and staff in accordance with established policies and procedures.
• Prepares and maintains a safe, healthy learning environment for children that is positive, developmentally appropriate and experientially-based.
• Develops individual training plans for all staff supervised making it clear what is expected and what the time frame is for completion of short and long term goals.
• Shares pertinent information with family services/case management staff to ensure coordinated services that meet the needs of individual children and families.
• Supervises and eats nutritionally prepared meals with the children as a curriculum activity, to model good nutrition and proper social skills.
• Provides a stable classroom routine and environment.
• Ensures a well-run, purposeful program responsive to participant needs.
• Screens, observes and documents children as required.
• Records keeping
• Submits monthly progress reports to the supervisor as scheduled.
• Supervises or orders supplies as needed and takes inventory as requested.
• Maintains child records in cooperation with the family services/case management staff.
• Gathers and maintains individual, family and classroom data for documentation, on-going assessment, evaluation and record keeping for successful individual and program planning.
• Parent Involvement and Community Relations
• Sets up system to assure program's needs for parent involvement in each classroom are met.
• Establishes positive and productive relationships with families focusing on a relationship of trust and rapport with the parents of the children.
• Participates in the orientation of parents to Early Start throughout the year.
• Facilitates and supports monthly Parent Committee meetings at the center.
• Schedules and arranges meetings, and documents parent-teacher conferences as required.
• Participates in the training of parents as requested.
• Involves parents in the educational activities of the program.
• Emphasizes their role as the principal influence on the child's education and development;
• Assists parents to increase their knowledge, understanding, skills and experience in basic child development.
• Identifies and arranges for parents to participate as volunteers in the classroom and work as substitutes as well as other volunteer activities.
• Writes a classroom newsletter once every other month beginning in October and provides center news for the program newsletter as requested.
• Directly orients, trains and supervises all classroom volunteers assigned in cooperation with the position with the responsibility for program volunteers.
• Works closely with local school system(s), as appropriate, for shared activities, registration and smooth transition.
• Encourages the involvement of the families of the children in an Early Start program and supports the development of relationships between children and their families.
• Supervision
• Makes daily job assignments within the classroom, provides instruction in performing job duties and models appropriate classroom practices.
• Sets the standards of the classroom and goals for staff members supervised and other classroom staff, monitors progress toward goals, provides regular feedback and submits performance appraisals in a timely manner.
• Provides daily supervision of all classroom staff, monitors employee performance and classroom activities.
• Counsels and evaluates staff or volunteers supervised where applicable and other staff as assigned on at least a weekly basis.
• Determines appropriate training needs to meet the program goals and objectives and makes the necessary recommendations.
• Develops and supports the professional development plan for staff supervised.
• Maintains strict confidentiality with respect to Early Start children, families and staff in accordance with established policies and procedures.
• Makes appropriate personnel decisions that do not require higher approval and submits others as a recommendation to the supervisor.
• Monitors compliance with the content area work plans.
• Develops and implements a plan and system of continuous ongoing monitoring and evaluation of activities within the program.

Qualifications

• Current minimum qualification is one of the following:
• An associate, baccalaureate or advanced degree in Early Childhood Education;
• An associate degree in a field related to Early Childhood Education and coursework* equivalent to a major relating to Early Childhood Education with at least 1080 clock hours of experience in an early childhood setting teaching infant toddler and preschool-age children;
• A baccalaureate or advanced degree in any field and coursework* equivalent to a major relating to Early Childhood Education with at least 500 clock hours of experience in an early childhood setting teaching preschool-age children;
• A baccalaureate degree in any field and has been admitted into the Teach For America program, passed a rigorous early childhood content exam, such as the Praxis II, participated in a Teach For America summer training institute that includes teaching preschool children, and is receiving ongoing professional development and support from Teach For America’s professional staff.
• Coursework equivalent to a major related to Early Childhood Education includes but is not limited to the following:
• Teaching Credentials: licensure or certification by the state for Pre-K teachers recognized by the local school district or state education agency as qualifying teachers to teach pre-school children in that school district or state if the individual has at least 500 clock hours of experience in an early childhood setting teaching pre-school aged children.
• OR *Coursework: No less than 30 credits for the associates degree or 60 credits for the bachelors degree in courses that focus on child development, early childhood education and curriculum, early childhood teaching and assessment, psychology, family development, health and physical development, mathematics, science, and children’s literature.
• Such courses may have been taken in various departments, such as Education, Home Economics, Music, Art, Library Sciences, Physical Education and Recreation, Psychology, Family Studies, and others.
• For the associates degree no less than 15 credits of the total 30 credits required must be specifically in early childhood education or child development; for the bachelors degree no less than 30 credits of the 60 credits required must be specifically in early childhood education or child development.
• If applicable federal, state or local Head Start or child care regulations, now or as amended in the future, contain additional requirements or qualifications.