Job Overview
The Head Start Assistant Teacher shares responsibility for a Head Start classroom of 3- to 5-year-old children. S/he works collaboratively with the teacher, family members and other staff to achieve positive outcomes for children of all abilities.
Job Responsibilities
The Assistant Teacher will ultimately be evaluated on a combination of skills, dispositions and behaviors, some of which are related to the specific service area of this position and others that represent general expectations of all AVANCE employees. The assistant teacher’s role encompasses effective practices in the following (as outlined in our Assistant Teacher Success Rubric):
- CLASS™ teacher-child interactions
- Learning environment
- Curriculum
- Child assessment
- Meeting all children’s needs
- Working with families
- Professional growth and collaboration
Child Growth and Development
- Uses knowledge of the principles of child growth and development to work with children and communicate with internal and external stakeholders.
- Implements a child-centered curriculum and learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation to promote development in all domains for children of all abilities.
- Addresses challenging behaviors by observing to determine possible causes of the behavior, implementing preventive measures, teaching the child new social and communication skills and partnering with families to support the child at home.
- Uses observations of children and anecdotal notes to document children’s progress and individualize curriculum.
- Creates partnerships with families to establish positive interaction patterns in program, school, and home.
- Ensure use of the written curriculum to identify the following: goals for children’s development and learning; the experiences through which children will achieve these goals; what staff and parents can do to help children achieve these goals; the materials needed to support the implementation of the curriculum towards achieving the stated goals.
- Will assist in the development of individual plans for each child including goal-setting based on identified needs and prescriptions for objectives and activities to meet established child outcomes.
- Follow program curriculum providing developmentally and linguistically appropriate experiences appropriate to age, language and culture of children served.
- Implement experiential learning activities advancing the intellectual and emotional competence of infants and toddlers.
- Provide positive guidance and discipline supporting children as they acquire readiness skills for kindergarten and beyond.
- Implement daily lesson plans in response to children’s needs and interests incorporating observations, anecdotal record keeping, knowledge of early childhood development and the key experiences.
- Implement Individual Family Services Plans (IFSPs) for children with disabilities.
- Supervise and eat nutritionally prepared meals and/or snacks with the children as a curriculum activity, to model good nutrition and proper social skills for infants and toddlers.
- Assess children on an on-going basis. Gather and organize anecdotal notes into the key goals and objectives and documents in CreativeCurriculum.net.
- Work with the teaching team to analyze child outcomes on a classroom basis twice yearly, consult with the education coordinator and make adjustments to curriculum planning and implementation as needed.
Communication and Service Coordination
- Share pertinent information with Family Advocate ensuring coordinated services to meet the needs of individual children and families. Participate in case conferences as appropriate.
- Maintain regular contact with parents and complete appropriate documentation.
- Forward classroom updates to the Teacher to be included in the monthly newsletter.
- Direct developmental concerns to the Early Learning and Inclusion Leaders.
- Work with the Teacher to schedule and complete two home visits per year and at least two parent-teacher conferences per year.
- Participate in parent orientation and AVANCE’s Parent-Child Education Program as required.
- Identify and refer parents wanting to volunteer in the classroom, work as substitutes or in other volunteer activities to Family Advocate. Support parent volunteers in the classroom as needed.
Record Keeping and Reporting
- Request supplies as needed and participate in classroom/program inventory as requested.
- Gather and maintain individual, family and classroom data for documentation, on-going assessment, evaluation and recording keeping for successful individual and program planning.
- Responsible for collaborating with the Teacher in the preparation of daily lesson plans. Post lesson plans for parents, volunteers and visitors in the classroom.
Ongoing Monitoring/Self-assessment
- Conduct daily health checks.
Planning and Implementation
- Responsible for collaborating with the Teacher in the preparation of daily lesson plans. Post lesson plans for parents, volunteers and visitors in the classroom.
- Provide children with a consistent classroom routine.
- Supervise all classroom field trips and outdoor activities.
- Understand regulations associated with prevention of disease and injury, including the exercise of universal precautions and the prevention of contamination.
Establish and maintain a safe, healthy, and positive learning environment
- Provide supervision and ensure the safety and security of children at all times in accordance with Early Head Start and day care licensing requirements.
Support the social and emotional development of children.
- Establish positive and productive relationships with families focusing on building trust and rapport.
- Invite parent involvement in the development of the program’s curriculum and approach to child development and education.
- Provide opportunities for parents to increase their child observation skills and to share assessments with staff that help plan the learning experiences.
- Encourage parent participation in staff-parent conferences and home visits discussing their child’s development and education
Other Duties
- Performs any and all other duties as assigned.
- Model appropriate classroom practices.
- Work with the Center Director and Teacher to develop and support the individual development plan for assigned volunteers.
- Assist the Teacher in devising work methods and procedures that support improvements in existing work practices; supporting the volunteers you supervise in developing and setting goals, priorities and timelines.
- Maintain the plan to meet changing or emergent program requirements within available resources and with minimum sacrifice to quantity or quality of work.
- Participates actively in bi-weekly Team Meetings to reflect on performance, generate solutions and ensure high-quality classroom operations.
- Participates actively in bi-weekly Assistant Teacher Meetings.
- Participates in assigned meetings, events and training as required.
AVANCE Core Competencies
- Execution & Accountability
- Problem Solving & Decision-Making
- Communication & Influence
- Collaboration & Teamwork
- Stakeholder Focus
- Adaptability & Continuous Learning
