Substitute Preschool Teacher - Head Start
Community Action
- Salem, OR
- Permanent
- Full-time
- High School Diploma or GED; and
- Associate Teacher: Pre-School Certificate or CDA, and enrollment in an Early Childhood Degree program.
- Teacher I: Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Education or a related degree with a minimum of 18 credit hours of Early Learning coursework.
- Teacher II: Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education or a related degree with a minimum of 18 credit hours of Early Learning coursework.
- Two years of experience in early childhood programs.
- Driver qualifications are not required for this position.
- Successful registration with the Central Background Registry of the Child Care Division.
- CPR/First Aid Certification or the ability to obtain within 60 days of hire.
- Food Handlers Card or the ability to obtain within 30 days of hire.
- Candidate must pass pre-employment physical examination, renewable every two years.
- Candidate must pass pre-employment and random drug/alcohol screenings.
- Demonstrated proficiencies in Microsoft Office (including Outlook), videoconferencing platforms, and web tools.
- Effective interpersonal communication skills, in both oral and written form.
- Ensures safety in the classroom at all times, with appropriate supervision of children, utilizing the transition and counting form and procedure. Ensures children are released only to parent/guardians or authorized adults.
- Records children's daily attendance, working with site team to determine the cause of absences.
- Provides for the development of children's cognitive, physical, social-emotional and language skills through implementation of curriculum, lesson planning and individualization.
- Conducts developmental and social-emotional screenings for each child, with input from parents. Provides follow up to concerns, including the provision of resources, or referrals for children with identified developmental or social-emotional needs.
- Conducts and records child observations to utilize in setting goals, individualizing and creating assessments.
- Creates lesson plans utilizing a variety of curriculum to address children's individual goals, taking into account each child's characteristics, strengths, and needs.
- Works with classroom team during pre-service, to set up classroom environment, and maintain the environment by regularly changing/rotating materials, supplies and props, utilizing the Creative Curriculum, and the Monthly Environment Checklist.
- Creates a supportive climate and positive environment with opportunities for children to make connections with other children and staff. Uses positive redirection and strategies to provide children with a safe, secure and enjoyable experience at school.
- Prepares materials, activities, and projects for class.
- Participates in family style meals, taking USDA required meal counts, and leading conversation at the table to enhance the social and emotional growth of children.
- Conducts, in the classroom, monthly emergency drills to prepare children and staff for fires, earthquakes, secure campus, and lockdown situations.
- Supports team by providing coverage for breaks, lunches, and illness, at home site as well as other sites in the program.
- Works with parents whose children require potty-training support.
- Acts as a bus rider as needed, making the bus an extension of the classroom and supporting a positive environment during bus rides.
- Effectively uses the ChildPlus and Teaching Strategies Gold databases to enter or obtain information.
- Completes Progress Checkpoints for child assessment, using information obtained from child observations. Shares information with program administration and parents.
- Uses office time efficiently to make and receive parent phone calls, order supplies, preparing children's work to go home, preparing materials for activities, and other office work as needed.
- Verifies and submits weekly Meal Counts and Attendance forms.
- Attends a variety of classes, workshops, seminars, pre-service training and other Head Start Teacher trainings, and keeps current on developments in early childhood education, and developmentally appropriate practices.
- Attends a variety of meetings including individual reflection meetings, region meetings, site team meetings, debriefing after observations, and other meetings as necessary.
- Keeps current on and complies with program and agency policies and procedures, Head Start Performance Standards, and other applicable regulations.
- Attends and contributes to child/family staffing meetings.
- Complies with MWVCAA safety and personnel policies, including punctuality and attendance.
- Provides regular opportunities for parent participation by training parents who volunteer in the classroom.
- Participates in planning for and implementing monthly parent meetings.
- Participates in classroom orientations at the beginning of the school year.
- Provides tools, resources and opportunities for parents to observe and practice appropriate redirection skills with their child.
- Develops and maintains relationships with parents/guardians, to ensure consistent and frequent communication.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close and distance vision and ability to adjust focus; hearing abilities required.
- Regularly lift and/or move 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.
- Manual dexterity for handling office equipment.
- Incidental driving tasks may be requested for employees with a personal vehicle and proof of current auto insurance.
- Ability to remain calm and quickly evacuate children from the classroom in an emergency.
- Mostly indoor classroom and bus riding environment.
- Frequent outdoor supervision of children and monitoring pick up/drop off.
- Occasional exposure to cleaning chemicals, creative substances such as paints.
- Occasional exposure to body fluids/biohazards such as saliva, vomit and urine.