Lead Preschool or PreK Teacher

Lead Toddler or PreK Teacher

Children’s Community School is hiring preschool teachers to start working asap. Come join our amazing community of educators! We are seeking:

• A full-time head teacher in a TODDLER or PREK classroom

Detailed job descriptions, including hiring criteria, benefits details, and more available at

TO APPLY, please attach your résumé with a cover letter and send to Hiring@childrenscommunityschool.org. Your cover letter should include

• what you view as the role of the early childhood educator
• something specific from this ad or our website that makes you think you would be a good fit for our school

Responsibilities

• Ensure health and safety
• Relationships with children
• Assess children
• Work collaboratively with colleagues
• Continually improve practice
• Care for the school
• Communicate
• Demonstrate good work habits, including reliability, flexibility, and communication
• Other duties as assigned

Job Types: Full-time, salary

Salary: $41,000 - $48,000 / yr

Benefits:

• Employee discount
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Tuition reimbursement

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday
• No weekends

Experience:

• Early Childhood classroom experience: 4 years (At least one as a lead teacher)
• ECE degree 18 ECE credits & degree in a related field 30 ECE credits and a degree in an unrelated field. This is equivalent to a PA Keys Level B.

Work Location: In person

Position Summary

Lead teachers are committed educators and lifelong learners who work as a team to support children, families, colleagues, and the school. Head teachers hold primary responsibility for care of children in the mornings and early afternoons; creating and implementing high-quality curriculum; assessing and communicating about the needs of children; and communicating with families. They share responsibility for building relationships with and teaching children, as well as guiding their behavior.

Responsibilities

• Ensure health and safety—ensure that children are physically cared for and safe, including supervision, feeding, bathrooming, and ensuring a safe environment
• Relationships with children—build trusting, communicative, supportive relationships with children; actively engage children in learning and school activities
• Guide behavior—support children in learning to behave in self-controlled, socially-appropriate ways, using methods in line with the school’s teaching philosophy
• Create positive environments—create classroom routines and culture that support a learning community; create physical environments (materials, layouts) that support a learning community
• Create and implement curriculum—plan and implement developmentally appropriate, play-based, emergent, project-based curriculum that continually supports children’s growth in all learning areas; create documentation of learning. Write lesson plans.
• Assess children—observe and document children’s strengths and needs; communicate with families about their children’s development, both in planned formal contexts (conferences, written narratives) and unplanned or informal contexts (phone calls and meetings as needed); integrate plans to meet children’s needs through curriculum
• Build relationships with families—serve as the primary point of contact between the family and the school; communicate with families as a group (e.g. writing daily emails, school events) and as individuals (e.g. assessment and other communication as needed); work to build relationships between families and the school, and between families and each other
• Work collaboratively with colleagues—cooperate with other teachers (both on the teaching team and throughout the program) and administrators in implementing all aspects of the job responsibilities; collaborate with non-staff adults (e.g. subs, student teachers, service providers, etc.) to meet the needs of children and colleagues
• Supervise junior teaching staff—In classrooms with associate/assistant/student teachers, head teachers serve as mentors, supports, and direct supervisors
• Demonstrate leadership—Work toward the best interests of the school; model professionalism; actively seek opportunities for individual and collective growth
• Continually improve practice—In an ongoing manner, evaluate and improve existing teaching practices, and seek and implement new practices; learn collaboratively with colleagues and children
• Care for the school—Ensure that the school and its spaces stay clean, organized, safe, and prepared for children’s use
• Communicate—Participate in frequent, regular, prompt, and respectful communication with colleagues and families, including in-person, phone, and email communications
• Demonstrate good work habits—including reliability, flexibility, and communication

Hiring Criteria

Note: Additional criteria may be required for head teachers in classrooms that use PHLpreK funding; those criteria will be noted at the time of posting positions.

REQUIRED CRITERIA—We will only consider candidates who meet all of the following criteria.

• PA Keys Level B
• Demonstrated ability to form strong relationships with children and their families
• Experience working to meet the emotional, social, and cognitive needs of young children, preferably in a school setting
• Demonstrated ability to be reflective, adaptive, flexible, and resilient in work situations
• Demonstrated view of children as active, powerful learners
• Demonstrated ability to work closely and collaboratively with colleagues
• View of teaching as a lifelong craft and ongoing learning experience
• Clear written and verbal communication skills
• Minimum of CDA or 12 college credits in early childhood education or a related field
• 4+ years teaching in K or younger classrooms
• 1+ year as a lead teacher in a toddler room
• Meet the physical and licensing requirements of a preschool teacher:
• Ability to lift, move, and hold children and objects up to 40 pounds. Ability to engage in full range of motion to lift, reach, squat, climb, sit, and otherwise fully participate in classroom activities. Ability to supervise and interact with children in all learning spaces for extended periods, including outdoors in a variety of weather conditions.
• Will pass and provide mandated background checks before beginning employment.

DESIRED CRITERIA—The ideal candidate will possess most of the following qualities.

• An approach to teaching that centers on children as active, powerful, collaborative learners who can drive curriculum and learning (for instance, a constructivist or social-constructivist philosophy, experience with Waldorf or Reggio-inspired pedagogy, etc.)
• A demonstrated belief in the importance of children’s social and emotional development
• Demonstrated ability to guide children’s behaviors, as individuals and as a group, using positive approaches to communication, boundaries, and routines
• Experience working with children with disabilities and other needs, especially young children, in inclusive environments
• Knowledge of child development (for instance, developmentally appropriate expectations)
• Skill in observing children and interpreting their behavior, and using observations to show children’s learning and thinking
• Experience implementing emergent or project-based curriculum (i.e., curriculum based on developing children’s interests, Reggio-inspired curriculum, etc.)
• Experience working with communities of color, multicultural communities, or diverse groups
• Experience working with families or communities in West or South Philadelphia
• Strong skills and experience in communicating through writing
• Experience with reflective practices (for instance, mindfulness, yoga, teacher research, etc.)
• Ability to speak more than one language

CCS makes admissions and employment decisions without regard to race, color, religious creed, disability, ancestry, national origin, language, age or sex and provides reasonable accommodations for those who need them for religious or medical reasons, as required by law.

Pay: $20.00 - $24.00 per hour

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Tuition reimbursement

Work Location: In person