Educational Mentor Coach

The agency has reached the 100-year milestone, and currently serves more than 7,000 people annually at over 70 program sites throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, Wisconsin and Indiana. Its wide range of services include Child Development & Youth; Employment & Community Support; and Behavioral Health & Clinical. Services rendered daily include tutoring, mentoring and college placement, foster care, housing opportunities, mental health, youth and family counseling, employment training and placement, and head start programs.

The vision of Ada S. McKinley Community Services, Inc. is for all people to have the opportunity for education and employment.

Program and Roles Summary: Perform duties related to assisting teaching staff with planning, coaching and implementing educational activities for children from ages 0- to 5-year-olds in Ada S. McKinley’s Child Development Program, complying with state Early Learning standards and federal performance standards from the Office of Head Start (OHS). Mentor and coach teaching staff. Observe and assess classroom activities. Participate in ongoing monitoring of the educational component of the Child Development Program. Assumes various regular and /or delegated tasks specifically in the area of education, growth and development. Must possess a car to perform role.

Reports To: Education Director

Principal Duties/Responsibilities:

• Support the teaching staff with planning, organizing and implementing the preschool education curriculum.
• Implement practice-based coaching in a collaborative way that supports teaching practices and leads to positive outcomes for the children.
• Engage in classroom observations; gather, record, and assess observations to provide teachers with constructive feedback and support for growth.
• Monitor lesson plans including nutrition activities, individualization, small and large group, and environmental checklists.
• Effectively coach and mentor teaching staff in implementing the curriculum with fidelity; implement coaching to fidelity-effective practices of observation, modeling, delivery of performance feedback, and use of relationship-building strategies.
• Maintain tracking and data entry for the Child Outcome Planning and Assessment (COPA) database and Teaching Strategies Gold child assessment system.
• Support and plan for the transition of child into/from the Child Development Program to kindergarten and/or other community-based service providers.
• Prepare and maintain work related reports and files; assist with facilitating the process of gathering monthly and annual program information and reports; assure accuracy of the content of such reporting.
• Enforce and implement safety procedures for environmental, child safety and confidentiality in all programs.
• Adhere to the Head Start performance standards, Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) childcare standards and all accreditation requirements.
• Maintain documentation of all site monitoring visits following the program’s established monitoring process.
• Attend meetings as directed and maintain written minutes for Education Meetings.
• Ensure teacher-child ratio is in compliance at all times and classroom supervision of children is enforced.
• *Perform other tasks related but not outlined within the scope of the position named and detailed above.

Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, child development or related field. Master’s degree is preferred.

Minimum of 5 years teaching experience in an early childhood education classroom.

3 years coaching experience in an early childhood education classroom is preferred.

Bilingual preferred

Current and up-to-date Interrater Reliability Certification for Teaching Strategies.

Be able to complete CPR/First Aid certification training successfully within 90 days of hire.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities (K/S/A):

• Training and experience with CLASS assessment of quality teacher-child interactions and scoring.
• Working knowledge of early childhood environmental rating scales; Knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices for preschool education; awareness with current educational practices relating to preschool-age development.
• Demonstrated understanding of The Creative Curriculum and Teaching Strategies GOLD.
• Familiarity of lesson planning, assessing and individualizing for preschool-aged children.
• Exhibit sensitivity to service population’s cultural and socioeconomic characteristics and needs.
• Effective and written and verbal communication skills.
• This position requires the individual demonstrate the experiences, beliefs, attitude and awareness that indicate cultural sensitivity to the client population served.
• Capacity to develop and maintain trusting and professional relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• This position requires the individual possess the ability to partner with clients individually and/or in family to help them mobilize resources and build resilience.
• This position requires the individual possess the ability to coordinate effectively with other team members, other Agency resources and outside services in addressing client needs.
• This position requires the individual possess an understanding of evidence-informed practices, engagement strategies, boundary setting, concurrent documentation, working in a community setting, organizing, motivational interviewing, and family systems.
• Must be familiar with the operation of but not limited to desktop computer systems, cell phone, laptop, notebook, netbook, and tablet type devices knowledge of community resources and ability to use a variety of applications on a computer.
• Staff are expected to have the ability to work remotely from home if necessary, and with Supervisory approval. Safety Protocols while at the office and within the community are to be strictly adhered.

Mental/Physical Demands:

Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagram form. Ability to deal with problems involving several concrete variables in standardized situations. Work requires prolonged concentration using a computer in analyzing and manipulating data. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands to finger, handle or feel and talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to sit. The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk. The employee must lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally life and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

Environmental Conditions: The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. Duties are performed in a typical office environment. No unusual or adverse working conditions exist.

This description documents the general contents and requirements of the job. It is not to be construed as an exhausted statement of duties, responsibilities, or requirements. The principal duties and responsibilities shown are all essential job functions except for those indicated with an asterisk (*). The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.