Floater (Head start)

General description

Work collaboratively with the Teacher to ensure the successful operation of a classroom of children. Work with a team of other classroom Assistant Teachers and family members to implement the curriculum to achieve outcomes for children of all abilities. 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 employees.

Tasks and essential job responsibilities

1. Use knowledge of the principles of child growth and development to work with children and communicate with internal and external stakeholders.

2. Maintain 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.

3. Address 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.

4. Use observations of children and anecdotal notes to document children’s progress and individualize curriculum.

5. Perform tasks such as

a. Communication and Service Coordination

b. Record Keeping and Reporting

c. On-going Monitoring/Self-assessment

d. 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.

e. Establishing and maintaining a safe, healthy learning environment.

f. Supporting the social and emotional development of children.

g. 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.

h. Participate in assigned meetings, events and training as required.

i. Performs any and all other duties as assigned.

Experience, education, skills & knowledge required

• CDA or enrolled to complete within 2 years; or have a degree in any field or be enrolled in a program leading to such degree.