Description

Reports To: Lead Teacher and/or Site Director 

FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

Customary Work Days: Monday through Friday

Customary Work Hours: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Hours are extended when work load is increased)

Position Summary

Teacher Assistants for Early Childhood and Head Start programs assist Lead Teachers in planning and implementing learning experiences that advance the intellectual, emotional, social, and physical development of children within a safe, healthy learning environment. They encourage the involvement of the families of the children of the program and support the development of relationships between children and their families. 

Duties & Responsibilities

Interact With Children:

• Utilize appropriate language, interactions, and positive discipline. 
• Model positive behavior. 
• Assist in instructing and supervising children in classroom activities.
• Implement age appropriate activities that support the Head Start standards, the NAEYC standards and the Creative Curriculum. • Implement and model family style eating during meal times. 
• Continuously monitor children to ensure safety at all times, and report child abuse and neglect when necessary. 

 Assess Children: 

• Assess children on a regular basis. 
• Take pictures and maintain anecdotal notes, written observations, and other approved forms of documentation for each child. 
• Administer ESI-R screening, NRS, Creative Curriculum, Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Ages and Stages SE Questionnaire. 

 Curriculum Preparation:

• Utilize research library, research, plan, and develop age appropriate activities for lesson plans in conjunction with the Lead Teacher. 
• Assist the Lead Teacher in incorporating required activities into lesson plans that support children’s development.
• Help Lead Teacher prepare activities that support lesson plans. 

Communicate With Parents:

• Maintain open communication with parents by scheduling and conducting parent/teacher conferences and home visits. 
• As a parent advocate, help resolve issues or concerns that are raised. 
• Inform parents about daily classroom routine, expectations, policies, field trips, and volunteer opportunities. 
• Communicate with parents about incidents that have been observed and/or recorded on site. 
• Obtain all required classroom parental signatures such as on all incident reports and field trip permission slips. 

 Documentation:

• Design and complete documentation panels for the classrooms and hallways. 
• Complete all necessary paperwork for classroom activities including meal count sheets, attendance, screenings, parent/teacher conferences, and home visits in a timely manner. 
• Maintain up to date and accurate education folders to include complete incident reports, permission slips.
• Maintain accurate and up to date portfolios. 
• Maintain classroom supply lists and inventory. 
• Complete all assessment paperwork, such as Creative Curriculum checklist, and ESIR screenings, according to specified timelines. 

 Supervision:

• Support volunteers, teacher aides, and foster grandparents with the learning of classroom requirements in. 
• Under direction of Lead Teachers delegate duties as necessary, and give constant feedback to facilitate professional growth.

Administration:

• Work closely with Site Director, Head Start Manager, classroom teaching team, and other content area specialists. 
• Head Start Manager and other content area specialists. 
• Actively participate in meetings which may include management, teaching team, center, committee, parent, parent policy, family reviews, city/state, agency, and board meetings. 
• Participate in team meetings. Communicate and share ideas and concerns with Lead Teacher, Site Director, Education Coordinator, and other management team members. 
• As an advocate for children, parents, and staff, participate in agency committee meetings i.e. health advisory committee, advocacy, etc. 
• Participate in staff In-Services. 
• Engage in continuing education and professional development activities such as trainings, workshops, and classes to meet required qualifications. 

 Classroom Maintenance:

• Help to maintain a clean and organized learning environment. 
• Sanitize all surfaces, equipment, and classroom toys. 
• Maintain a quality room arrangement in compliance with curriculum standards. 
• Routinely check classroom equipment and materials to ensure they are in good repair. 

 Other Duties As Assigned

Requirements

Education and/or Experience:

Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from an accredited college with a minimum of one year of experience. 

 OR 

2 years of college with 6 semester hours in Child Development, working to earn 30 hours in Child Development and 2 years work related experience.

Incumbents must be willing to participate in the CDA program if deemed necessary. 

Assistant Teachers in the Pre-K classrooms are mandated to have 30 hours of college credit with 15 hours of Child Development. 

Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

• Ability to maintain confidentiality. 
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentational skills. 
• Demonstrated capability to interface and maintain effective relationships with administration, staff, consultants, regulators and founders in a team-oriented environment. 
• Capacity to assume responsibility for own professional development. 
• Detail oriented, logical, and methodological approach to problem solving. 
• Ability to plan and schedule the work of others. 
• Flexible, with the ability to work in a highly demanding, stressful environment. 
• Proficiency using word-processing system. 
• Ability to cooperate successfully as a member of a team. 
• Ability to communicate effectively with others, including giving and receiving feedback on the quality of services. 
• Meet any specific content area requirements. 

Language Skills

• Ability to read and speak English proficiently. 
• Bilingual-Spanish preferred. 

Physical Demands  

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. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

•  While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk, hear, and see.
• The employee frequently is required to stand, walk, sit; use hands to handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 30 pounds.
• Specific vision requirements include the ability to see at close range.
• At times, may require more than 40 hours per week to perform the essential duties of the position.
• Fine hand manipulation (keyboarding). 
• Transportation time spent commuting between sites for meetings, trainings, in-services and home visits. 
• The employee may be required to work at multiple agency locations if necessary.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

•  Internal office space and classroom. 
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate to high.