Infant/Toddler Teacher - Head Start

• High School Diploma or General Education Degree (GED)

• Associate Teacher: An Infant/Toddler CDA or one-year equivalent certification
• Level I: An Associate's degree in Early Childhood Education or a related degree with a minimum of 18 credit hours of Early Learning coursework.
• Level II: A Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education or a related degree with a minimum of 18 credit hours of Early Learning coursework.
• One year of experience working in early childhood programs.

• Driver qualifications are required for this position. Valid driver license, insured vehicle available for use on the job, and a satisfactory drive record for the previous three years are required.
• Successful registration with the Central Background Registry of the Child Care Division.
• CPR/First Aid Certification or the ability to obtain within 60 days of hire.
• Food Handlers Card or the ability to obtain within 30 days of hire.
• Candidate must pass pre-employment physical examination, renewable every two years.
• Candidate must pass pre-employment and random drug/alcohol screenings.

• Demonstrated proficiencies in Microsoft Office (including Outlook), videoconferencing platforms, and web tools.
• Effective interpersonal communication skills, in both oral and written form.

• Utilizes infant and toddler curriculum and lesson planning procedures to create and implement flexible learning opportunities based on children's needs, strengths, and interests.
• Develops close relationships with children through nurturing and responsive interactions, along with consistent routines to maintain a continuity of care.
• Supports the social-emotional growth of infants and toddlers by using individualized responses and approaches based on their temperaments and needs.
• Utilizes consistent responses to infants' and toddlers' actions and behaviors to support learning and provide positive redirection.
• Builds social-emotional growth and language development through engaging and connecting with children during large- and small-group time, meal times, diaper changing, and bottle-feeding.
• Integrates developmentally appropriate movement and physical activities and routines that support health and learning.
• Assesses and modifies the learning environment to support the changing ages, interests, and characteristics of infants and toddlers.
• Ensures safety in the classroom at all times, with appropriate supervision of children, utilizing the transition and counting form and procedure. Ensures children are released only to parent/guardians or authorized adults.
• Records children's daily attendance, working with site team to determine the cause of absences.
• Conducts developmental and social-emotional screenings for each child, with input from parents. Provides follow up to concerns, including the provision of resources, or referrals for children with identified developmental or social-emotional needs.
• Conducts and records child observations to utilize in setting goals, individualizing and creating assessments.
• Creates a supportive climate and positive environment with opportunities for children to make connections with other children and staff.
• Works with parents whose children require potty training support.

• Effectively uses the ChildPlus and Teaching Strategies Gold databases to enter or obtain information.
• Completes Progress Checkpoints for child assessment, using information obtained from child observations. Shares information with program administration and parents.
• Writes an article for parent newsletter each month.
• Uses office time efficiently to make and receive parent phone calls, order supplies, preparing children's work to go home, preparing materials for activities, and other office work as needed.
• Verifies and submits weekly Meal Counts and Attendance forms.

• Attends a variety of classes, workshops, seminars, pre-service training and other Head Start Teacher trainings, and keeps current on developments in early childhood education, and developmentally appropriate practices.
• Attends a variety of meetings including individual reflection meetings, region meetings, site team meetings, debriefing after observations, and other meetings as necessary.
• Attends IFSP meetings or Triage meetings when necessary to support children with social-emotional or developmental concerns.
• Keeps current on and complies with program and agency policies and procedures, Head Start Performance Standards, and other applicable regulations.

• Maintains daily communication with parents by providing information about their child's day, including information about diapering, toileting, meal times, rest times, and activities.
• Conducts home visits twice per month per family, presenting child development materials and providing resources to Early Head Start families.
• Supports parents as children transition to and from the program through a variety of transition activities.
• Provides regular opportunities for parent participation by training parents who volunteer in the classroom.
• Participates in planning for and implementing monthly parent meetings.
• Develops and maintains relationships with parents/guardians, to ensure consistent and frequent communication.

• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close and distance vision and ability to adjust focus; hearing abilities required.
• Regularly lift and/or move 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Frequently reach with hands and arms; regularly required to climb or balance; occasionally required to stand; walk; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• Ability to remain calm and quickly evacuate children from the classroom in an emergency.
• Manual dexterity for handling office equipment.
• Frequent driving in all weather conditions between Agency and family home sites.
• Requires planning and problem-solving skills, including resourcefulness and creative thinking.

• Mostly indoor classroom and bus riding environment.
• Frequent outdoor supervision of children and monitoring pick up/drop off.
• Occasional exposure to cleaning chemicals, creative substances such as paints.

Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency