Child Care Floater at PENFIELD CHILDRENS CENTER

Description

Mission Statement:

Ensuring children have positive early experiences from pregnancy through age 5 when the foundations for lifelong development are established.

Job Summary:

The Floater Assistant Teacher will work collaboratively with the Teacher to ensure the successful operation of a classroom of children. The Floater Assistant Teacher also works with a team of other classroom Assistant Teachers and family members to implement the curriculum to achieve outcomes for children of all abilities. The Floater 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 Penfield Children’s Center employees. 
 

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

The Floater Assistant Teacher’s responsibilities chiefly fall within the following core functions, although s/he may perform other tasks as needed:

• Child Growth & Development: Uses knowledge of the principles of child growth and development to work with children and communicate with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Maintains 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.

• Communication and Service Coordination
• Record Keeping and Reporting
• On-going Monitoring/Self-assessment
• Planning and implementing learning experiences that advance the intellectual and physical development of children, including improving the readiness of children for school by developing their literacy and phonemic, print, and  numeracy awareness, their understanding and use of language, their understanding and use of increasingly complex and varied vocabulary, their appreciation of books, and their problem solving abilities.
• Establishing and maintaining a safe, healthy learning environment.
• Supporting the social and emotional development of children.
• Encouraging the involvement of the families of the children in a Head Start program and supporting the development of relationships between children and their families.
• Participates in assigned meetings, events and training as required. 

Non-Essential Duties:  

• Performs any and all other duties as assigned.  

Qualifications

Job Specifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to carry out each essential duty in a satisfactory manner. The job specifications listed below are representative of the education and experience as well as the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

Requirements:

1. CDA or enrolled to complete within 1 year; or have a degree in any field or be enrolled in a program leading to such degree. 
2. Prior experience with children ages 0-5 years.      
3. Physical exam and background checks are required for this position.
4. Must have a valid driver’s license and reliable transportation.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:

• Ability to interact effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
• Ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing.
• Demonstrated computer literacy skills, using MS Office applications and other basic data systems including internet navigation.
• Must be honest, dependable and able to meet deadlines.
• Self-motivated and able to work independently.

Physical Requirements: 

• Ability to sit most of the time with some bending and reaching.
• Ability to stand, walk, and bend periodically.
• Ability to engage in repetitive movement of wrists, hands, and fingers – typing and/or writing. 
• Ability to work frequently at close visual range (i.e. preparing and analyzing data and figures, accounting, transcription, computer terminal, extensive reading).
• Ability to receive and respond to oral communication.
• Able to lift a child weighing 40 pounds, 20 times a day if needed.

Maintains a professional commitment to program excellence:                                       

• Model appropriate classroom behavior 
• Maintain prompt hours and notify the supervisor of illness/absence.
• Monitor and appropriately utilize earned time off.
• Attend and participate in department staff meetings.
• Meet State requirements for in-service training and continuing education.
• Is familiar with Head Start Standards of Practice, Licensing Rules and NAEYC Accreditation Criterion.
• Comply with Penfield Children’s Center personnel policies.
• Is familiar with emergency procedures and is able to calmly apply them.
• Maintain a neat and orderly classroom including assisting with daily cleaning, disinfecting, laundry and general cleaning and repair of equipment.
• Provide direction and guidance to volunteers assigned to the classroom.
• Maintain accurate records of daily attendance, accident logs, food counts, food intake, and medication and weight as needed.
• Maintain a professional representation of the classroom daily activities in the classroom portfolio for accreditation.