Assistant Teacher

Education: Early Childhood Care & Development

Reports To:                Director and Lead Teacher
The assistant teacher assists in ensuring the development of the children in his/her care by providing a safe, healthy and nurturing environment.
 
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Assist in ensuring the classroom’s compliance with applicable Federal and District of Columbia laws and regulations; NAEYC accreditation standards and Center policies.
• Assist in the development and administration of procedures for classroom in conjunction with Director’s and based upon the developmental needs of the children.
• Assist in the development of the Center’s curriculum, implement the curriculum through planned daily activities and child observations.
• Assist in maintaining communication and positive relations with parents using the Center through daily personal interactions (such as informal conversations), written daily communication (such as “Our Days, Infant, Toddler Charts), posted lesson plans, monthly newsletter articles, and annual parent-teacher conferences (or as needed) to provide periodic progress reports on children.
• Assist in observing children on a daily basis and recording observations.
• Assist in maintaining a clean and attractive room.
• Attending continuing education workshops (21hours annually) and attending at least 10 staff meetings per year.
• Keeping current with educational research through journal articles, books and/or workshops.
• Serves as primary contact in absence of teacher.

NON-ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Attending meetings pertaining to issues in the District of Columbia relevant to childcare.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Assume the role of Teacher when teacher is absent and supervise assistant teachers assigned to help in the classroom; assign duties as necessary.
• Supervise children for safety and for developmentally appropriate activities.
• Assist with planning for long-term and short-term goals for the classroom through observations of children and the environment and through meeting with other staff integral in the classroom.

 
TECHNICAL SKILLS & REQUIREMENTS

• Basic familiarity with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and email

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE & ABILITIES

• Maintain on-going continuing education (21 hours annually) to be aware of new trends and information that is relevant to the field. 
• Understand communication techniques to ensure a smooth classroom operation is also necessary.