Lead Teacher

Company: Ada S. McKinley Community Services, Inc.
Location: Chicago
Posted on: April 15, 2024

Job Description:

Ada S. McKinley Community Services, Inc. is driven by its mission to empower, educate, and employ people to change lives and strengthen communities. The agency was founded as a settlement house in 1919 by Ada Sophia McKinley, a schoolteacher and social reformer, who saw the need to assist veterans returning from World War I and African Americans migrating from the South. Today, the agency serves more than 7,000 people annually at over 70 locations. - Services rendered daily include tutoring, mentoring and college placement, foster care, housing opportunities, youth and family counseling, employment training and placement, and Head Start programs.
Job Description Summary: Performs duties leading teaching staff with planning, coaching and implementing educational activities for 3 to 5 year old in the Child Development Program that comply with state early learning standards and federal performance standards from OHS. Assumes various regular and /or delegated tasks specifically in the area of education. Take the lead in helping the entire classroom team implement Creative Curriculum and TS Gold in alignment with Illinois Early Learning Standards to guide learning. -
-Reporting Relationship:
-Reports To: -Site Director
-Child Development & Youth Services Core Competencies:

• Adaptable: Adjust to new conditions, changes, challenges, and experiences.
  
• Communicator: Is understood by others (both verbally and in writing) and understands the ideas and perspectives of others.
  
• Uses a Growth Mindset: Embraces their potential to learn and grow and views successes and failures as development opportunities.
  
• Has Integrity: Honesty, trustworthiness, ownership, accountability, and respect are hallmarks of integrity.
  
• Collaborator: Cooperates and works well with peers, colleagues and team members by giving and receiving ideas, comments, and feedback with an open mind.
  
  Essential Responsibilities & Duties:
  
  
• Obtain written parental consent to screen the child. -
  
• Conduct developmental screenings to identify any issues or concerns that may limit learning and address them as soon as possible.
  
• Ages and Stages Questionnaire Developmental Screening (ASQ) for children in the Early Head Start Program (0-3 years old). -
  
• Early Screening Inventory-Revised (ESI-R) Developmental screening for children in the Head Start Program (3-5 years old). -
  
• Administer screenings in the child's native language. -
  
• Ensure parents complete the social emotional screening for their child. -
  
• Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Social/Emotional (ASQ-SE) for children in both Head Start and Early Head Start (0-5 years old). -
  
• Complete Developmental and Social Emotional screenings on all enrolled children, within 45 days from the child's first day of attendance in the program. -
  
• Share information from screenings with parents during home visits and the parent/teacher conference. -
  
• Assist families with locating services as a result of screening information, when needed. -
  
• Have no more than 17 children in class during each session. - Classrooms will be staffed with one Lead Teacher, one Assistant Teacher, and a PEL teacher. -
  
  Classroom Hours -
  
  
• Provide classroom instruction for at least 7 hours for full day programming, five days per week. - - -
  
  Curriculum - -
  
  
• Work with the classroom team to fully implement the Creative Curriculum using high-quality teaching strategies (through Teaching Strategies Gold) and ongoing individualization. - This includes helping children who are Dual Language Learners develop in all areas, while also increasing their abilities in English. -
  
• Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers and Two's for children birth through 60 months -
  
• Creative Curriculum for Preschool to five-year-old's -
  
• Model excellent teaching practices. - Work with children in large groups, small groups, and individually to ensure that their instructional needs are being met. - -
  
• Develop weekly lesson plans using the Creative Curriculum.
  
• Use planning time to discuss child assessment results and develop individualized instruction plans. - Modify lesson plans to meet individual children's needs. -
  
  Home Visits - -
  
  
• Conduct two home visits during the school year (1 spring, 1 fall) on each child in the class. - - -
  
• Use home visits as an opportunity to discuss the child's progress, results of developmental screenings, and desired goals for the child. -
  
• Observations/Assessments/Documenting Children's Progress -
  
• Provide thoughtful observation and intentional planning. -
  
• Complete regular assessments of each child's learning and development. -
  
• Maintain a portfolio of children's work that will be shared with parents and kindergarten teachers during transition from Head Start to kindergarten. -
  
• School Readiness -
  
• Complete Teaching Strategies Gold Checkpoints quarterly to assess each child's progress on school readiness. -
  
• Share information on children's progress toward the school-readiness goals with parents, by sharing highlights of the assessments during home visits and parent-teacher conferences. -
  
• Inclusion -
  
• Support children's learning through environments and experiences that are developmentally appropriate, individually and culturally meaningful and inclusive of children with disabilities. -
  
• Include children with disabilities and challenges so they may attain goals specified in the IFSP/IEP. -
  
• Nutrition -
  
• Include one nutrition lesson weekly in all lesson plans as required in the Performance Standards. *Not for Early Head Start classrooms*
  
• Ensure all meals are served Family Style. - Both staff and volunteers will participate in the mealtime experience with the children. *Not for Early Head Start classrooms* -
  
  Health and Safety -
  
  
• Prioritize health and safety of children in the program. -
  
• Ensure classroom equipment, furniture, materials, and supplies are properly maintained and stored. -
  
• Include lessons on Health and Safety in lesson plans. - -
  
• Lessons will include eating healthy; handwashing; tooth brushing; Pedestrian Safety and Safety Drills -
  
• Follow procedures for notifying parents in the event of an emergency involving their child. -
  
• Post emergency evacuation routes and other safety procedures for emergencies (e.g., fire or weather-related) which are practiced regularly. -
  
• Post policies and plans of action for emergencies that require rapid response on the part of staff (e.g., a child choking) or immediate medical or dental attention. -
  
• Post locations and telephone numbers of emergency response systems. Up-to-date family contact information and authorization for emergency care for each child must be readily available. -
  
• Adhere to the procedures for Mandated Reporters to report cases of suspected or known child abuse and neglect. -
  
• Foster safety awareness among children and parents by incorporating it into child and parent activities. -
  
• Hand washing- staff, volunteers, and children must wash their hands with soap and running water at least at the following times: -
  
• After diapering or toilet use. -
  
• Before food preparation, handling, consumption, or any other food-related activity (e.g., setting the table); -
  
• Whenever hands are contaminated with blood or other bodily fluids. -
  
• After handling pets or other animals. -
  
• Before and after giving medications. -
  
• Before and after treating or bandaging a wound (nonporous gloves should be worn if there is contact with blood or blood-containing body fluids); -
  
• After assisting a child with toilet use. -
  
• After returning indoors from outdoor activities. -
  
• Tooth Brushing -
  
• Establish healthy oral habits in the classroom with daily tooth brushing after each meal. - - -
  
• Replace the toothbrushes provided to all enrolled children by the grantee every 3 months. -
  
• Conduct safety checks of the classroom and outdoor environments on a daily basis prior to student's arrival and in between each session. -

Keywords: Ada S. McKinley Community Services, Inc., Oak Park , Lead Teacher, Other , Chicago, Illinois