Lead Preschool Teacher

Jewish Community Center•Owings Mills, MD

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Lead Preschool Teacher works at the Stoler Early Learning Center on the JCC of Greater Baltimore’s Rosenbloom Owings Mills Campus, a 12-month early learning program serving children from 6 weeks through kindergarten. The teacher monitors children’s development and learning and creates a safe, nurturing, inclusive classroom grounded in child-centered, constructivist-inspired learning through exploration and play. They plan, implement, document, and reflect on engaging experiences that support each child’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical, spiritual, and literary growth, taking account of children’s individual interests, developmental abilities, cultural backgrounds, and family values. The role includes maintaining classroom safety and organization, communicating and partnering with families, documenting and assessing children’s progress, and supervising and developing assistant teachers and floaters. The teacher collaborates with colleagues and school leadership, participates in professional development and ongoing reflection, and follows school policies, Maryland licensing and safety requirements, and professional ethics standards. The position is based in an active preschool environment and includes indoor and outdoor activities in varied weather and temperatures. Lead Teachers work 35–40 hours per week, five days per week, between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. The program operates year-round and transitions to Noah’s Ark Preschool Camp in the summer. The stated starting pay is $22.50 per hour, depending on education and experience.

Requirements

90-hour certification.
Working knowledge of young children’s growth and development and ability to apply that knowledge in the classroom.
Strong organizational, interpersonal, and oral, reading, and writing communication skills.
Creative problem-solving ability and a can-do attitude.
Ability to be flexible, multitask, and prioritize workload.
Ability to work independently in the classroom and collaboratively with classroom teams, age-level teams, leadership, and specialists.
Ability to meet Maryland State Department of Education requirements for preschool employment and complete mandated coursework and ongoing continuing education requirements.
Ability to maintain First Aid, CPR, MSDE Basic Health and Safety, and MSDE COVID certifications.
Ability to work five days per week for a full shift and meet the role’s stated physical requirements, including occasionally lifting, pushing, or pulling up to 50 pounds; sitting and standing for extended periods; moving between floor-level and standing positions; walking extended distances and on uneven surfaces; and rapidly walking or running in an emergency.
Ability to bend, reach, retrieve items, assist children with clothing, shoes, toileting or diapering, clean classroom areas, and help set up classroom spaces.
Visual abilities including close and distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and adjusting focus; ability to talk and hear in a potentially loud and stressful environment.
Ability to maintain focus and complete tasks in a fast-paced, high-energy setting.

Nice To Haves

CDA, associate’s degree, or bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, education, child development, or a related field.
Experience working in early childhood or elementary education, particularly in a constructivist, child-centered setting.
Basic Judaic knowledge, including holidays, culture, traditions, and values, and ability to integrate it into lessons and experiences, or willingness to learn.
Interest in completing the credentialing process.

Responsibilities

Provide active supervision and maintain a safe environment, including remaining in required child-to-staff ratios and keeping children in sight and sound at all times.
Observe children’s play, reflect on their growth and learning, and respond to themes in their play and development.
Plan and facilitate child-centered learning experiences based on children’s interests, personalities, developmental abilities, cultural backgrounds, family values, and observed needs.
Document children’s play and learning through daily reflections, journey binders, blogs, weekly newsletters, and other school-established methods.
Provide opportunities for active participation, independent choices, experimentation, problem solving, social interaction, physical activity, creative expression, and Jewish experiences, indoors and outdoors.
Use positive guidance, modeling, high-level questions, and responsive interactions to support communication, reasoning, independence, classroom management, and conflict resolution.
Support children’s physical, spiritual, emotional, social, cognitive, language, literacy, and artistic development, and address individual differences and needs.
Use educational resources and the Creative Curriculum, Healthy Beginnings, Chageinu, and MSDE-approved kindergarten curricula to plan experiences across required state content areas.
Maintain a clean, organized, safe, healthy, and engaging classroom environment; inspect materials and equipment and take preventive measures against hazards.
Greet children and families, communicate with families at arrival and pickup, and maintain professional relationships with families and colleagues.
Maintain children’s files and complete accurate records and reports, including attendance, sign-in/out, safety and health records, and applicable meal and diaper records.
Complete beginning- and mid-year assessments, track children’s progress, and participate in family conferences and additional meetings or assessments when needed.
Supervise, train, and make constructive use of assistant teachers’ and floaters’ skills; communicate expectations and collaborate to plan and reflect on classroom programming.
Share observations about children’s interests, strengths, successes, and challenges with families, and maintain ongoing dialogue, including mid-year and year-end conferences.
Contribute positively to school-wide events and collaborate with colleagues and leadership as part of a learning community.
Participate in professional development, workshops, courses, meetings, self-evaluation, and school evaluation; complete required continuing education and maintain required certifications.
Follow school and JCC policies, MSDE and Office of Child Care rules, licensing and safety requirements, the school’s vision and agency mission, and the NAEYC Code of Ethics and confidentiality standards.
Work assigned days and hours, arrive prepared and on time, manage time and deadlines, communicate as needed, and perform additional program duties assigned by the director.