Teacher Assistant

The Salvation Army USA Central Territory•Chicago, IL

30d•$17 - $20•Onsite

About The Position

The Salvation Army's North and Central Illinois Division is seeking a Teacher Assistant for their Head Start program within the Child Care department. This role reports to the Teacher/Site Director and is responsible for supporting the classroom environment and activities to promote child development in various areas including safety, health, learning, communication, creativity, social skills, and guidance. The position also involves working with families and assisting with program management and professional development.

Requirements

Associate of Arts degree in early childhood education.
Two years of experience in a pre-school setting.
Some experience with young children.
Some knowledge of social service programs helpful.
Good communication and interpersonal skills.
Demonstrated ability to use initiative and be a self starter.
A positive attitude and the ability to be flexible in light of changing job situations/priorities.
An attention to detail.
A commitment to support and uphold the mission of The Salvation Army.

Responsibilities

Demonstrates safety practices, minimizes potential hazards, provides adequate supervision, and offers safety instruction.
Maintains a healthy classroom environment and assists the teacher in planning and implementing activities that promote personal health and sound nutrition.
Maintains the learning environment and assists the teacher in planning and implementing activities that promote an interest in the learning environment, offering a choice of learning center activities for at least sixty minutes each day.
Assists the teacher in planning and implementing activities that promote the physical development of each child and maintains an environment conducive to development of physical skills.
Assists the teacher in planning and implementing activities that promote questioning, probing exploration, and problem-solving, and helps children develop conceptual frameworks for interpreting experiences.
Promotes children’s listening skills, clear articulation and language production, adult-child communication, and child-child communication.
Supplies equipment and materials that encourage creativity and encourages innovative uses of materials and divergent thinking.
Assists the teacher in assessing each child’s current skill level.
Writes observation notes weekly on C.A.R.
Summarizes child’s skills two times per year on C.O.R.
Plans and implements activities which maximize opportunities for success.
Provides positive feedback to children when appropriate.
Assists the teacher in planning and implementing activities that develop awareness of feelings and emotions, capitalizes on spontaneous occurrences of empathy, display of feelings and emotions throughout the day, and serves as a role model.
Maintains an environment conducive to preventive discipline, consistent discipline in the classroom, and sets and enforces appropriate limits.
Maintains a positive approach to classroom control and recognizes self-control as a learning process.
Organizes smooth and appropriate transitions.
Focuses on activity at hand rather than children’s behavior.
Ignores inappropriate behavior when possible.
Encourages children to make appropriate choices in controlling their own behavior.
Involves parents in the classroom program and in extending the classroom program into the home.
Assists the teacher in sharing information on child’s progress with parents.
Helps parents plan in-home activities to supplement the classroom program.
Makes home visits in September/October and April/May.
Serves as liaison between other components and parents.
Employs a wide variety of resources in implementing curriculum.
Assists the teacher in planning classroom programs in an organized timely fashion.
Completes weekly/daily lesson plans on time.
Submits records, requisitions, reports and plans when due.
Maintains accurate daily attendance and food count.
Makes use of program resource personnel in planning for children and their families.
Ensures team cooperation.
Supervises classroom aides.
Maintains a professional attitude.
Keeps abreast of early childhood education practices.
All other duties as assigned.