Over the course of more than 125 years, MNCs have provided services essential to the improvement of the lives of San Francisco’s communities. We believe that supporting individual members of a family throughout each life phase, brings success and upward mobility for the entire family. Today, we have 21 campuses which are enhancing the lives of low-income seniors, youth, and families.

The Early Head Start Lead Teacher will primarily provide children with a positive learning environment and varied experiences that will help them develop in all areas in a manner appropriate to their age and stage of development. The Early Head Start Lead Teacher works in collaboration with the other teachers and site team to enhance the parent’s role as the principal influence on the child’s education and development. Promotes health, safety, nutrition, social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development of infant / toddler children enrolled in the program.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS / RESPONSIBILITIES

Interacting with Children

• Instruct children and parents (e.g. nutrition, self-care, social, motor skills, language skills, etc.) for the purpose of optimizing development of each child and helping to enhance parenting skills.
• Implements academic, behavior, family events, health and nutrition plans (e.g. literacy activities, stories, songs, math/science activities, art, etc.) for the purpose of achieving program objectives.
• Role-model and ensure center team support for the provision of specialized services for children with identified special needs in the classroom.
• Assists children with hand washing and tooth brushing for the purpose of modeling appropriate personal hygiene.
• Helps to carry out small groups’ activities and routines that support individual/group needs and/or delivering services in compliance with established guidelines.
• Use positive discipline techniques in guiding children’s behavior.
• Follows written policies and procedures for personal care routines such as feeding, diapering, toileting, hand washing and safe sleep.

Assessing Children

• Observe children in all developmental domains and document observations according to policy and procedures within the identified timelines.
• Monitors conversation, manners, cleanup activities, listening, etc. for the purpose of promoting and modeling appropriate social behavior.
• Demonstrates awareness of entire group, including number ratio while working with primary care children.

Curriculum Preparation

• Using the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) guidelines, develops curriculum plans with experiences based on children’s emerging interests and developmental stages.
• Organize indoor/outdoor and quiet/active activities appropriate to age group.
• Conducts home visits and parent-teacher conferences (ILP’s) in accordance with Head Start Performance Standards and program policies and procedures.
• Develop Individualized Learning Plans (ILP) for each child based on observations, screenings, parent input and the DRDP-2015 assessment results.
• Develop developmentally appropriate lesson plans based on children’s strengths, interests, and needs reflected in observations, screenings, and the DRDP-2015 assessment results.
• In collaboration with the Supervisor, prepare documentation to support referrals for further evaluation and specialized services for children with suspected special needs.

Communication with Parents

• Acts as a support and resource person for families in case managing specific needs, advocating for parents, and encouraging parent involvement in the program.
• Inform parents about daily classroom routine, expectations, policies, and volunteer opportunities.
• Communicate with parents about incidents that have been observed and recorded on-site regarding their child.
• Encourage and motivate parents to participate in all levels of the Head Start Program (e.g. classroom center committees, PPC, Policy Council and other district and/or city-wide committees), in accordance with Program Performance Standards.
• Obtain all required classroom parental signatures such as on all incident reports and field trip permission slips.

Supervision

• Assist volunteers and parents in working with children in the classroom with proper health practices, food handling and interactions/supervision of children.
• Assists other personnel as may be required for the purpose of ensuring an efficient and effective work environment.
• Responsible for assisting that all adults in the classroom follow schedules, routines and policies of the classroom, the campus, and the agency.

Administration

• May assume coverage in the absence of the Site Supervisor/Master Teacher and remain flexible about staffing schedule which may be adjusted as program needs change and may include working in another classroom.
• Ensure the maintenance and filing of appropriate forms and documents in children’s files.
• Track and complete daily forms including infant/toddler daily information form, infant safe sleep checklist, and other health and safety related documentation.
• Work with other teaching staff and parents to ensure that required dental exams, physical exams and screenings are completed for each child in accordance with Program Performance Standards and Plan of Action.
• Maintain flexibility in changing planned activities according to children’s interests.
• Conduct 45-day developmental screenings and three developmental assessments (DRDP-2015) for each child.
• Ensure that the timelines of 30, 45, and 90 days are met upon enrollment dates (e.g. homes visits, mental health notes, developmental screenings, ASQ-3, ASQ-SE, vision & hearing screenings).
• Assist in performing height and weight measurements of the children twice a year according to policy and procedure within the designated timelines.
• Complete monthly meal counts and monthly records of daily attendance for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) according to MNC’s policies and procedures.