Early Childhood Educator

As an Early Childhood Educator with Down East Community Partners, you will be responsible for planning and implementing a comprehensive early childhood education program for preschool children in accordance with agency policies, procedures, and best practices. You will promote school readiness, parent engagement, and ensure the health and safety of children in our care.

• Curriculum Development and Implementation:
  • Assist in the implementation of a High Scope curriculum, utilizing agency resources and feedback from content area specialists.
  • Ensure all classroom practices are developmentally appropriate and meaningful to children's learning.
  • Track and plan classroom experiences using data from COR Advantage, ensuring timely and complete ongoing child assessment.
• Parent Engagement and Support:
  • Provide a welcoming environment for parents at the center, encouraging and fostering parent engagement in children's school readiness.
  • Work with parents to set realistic long- and short-term goals, fostering their growth and financial independence.
  • Work in partnership with the classroom team to ensure recommendations from content area specialists, mental health consultants, and special needs providers are implemented.
• Learning Environments and Safety:
  • Ensure constant supervision of children at all times, conducting double verification during transition times.
  • Assist in ensuring all learning areas are present and engaging to children, displaying and rotating materials that encourage independence and reflect children's interests.
  • Responsible for daily visual checks of the classroom and playground environments to detect hazards, remedying or reporting unsafe conditions to the responsible manager immediately.
  • Ensure environments are aesthetically pleasing to children, minimizing the use of adult space in classrooms and maintaining a clean and orderly environment.
• Observation, Analysis, Planning, and Documentation:
  • Consistently and accurately enter data weekly in ChildPlus and COR Advantage software.
  • Assist in completing developmental assessments, including hearing, vision, social-emotional, with parent input within a timely manner.
  • Complete documentation on time, recording documentation observing good grammar, clear communication, and objectivity.
• Communication and Collaboration:
  • Complete a minimum of two home visits annually and two parent conferences according to agency policy and procedure.
  • Directly communicate children's individual progress and needs to parents through daily individual contacts, phone calls, notes home, home visits, and parent/teacher conferences.
  • Ensure consistent communication among classroom staff, ensuring appropriate planning and follow-up occurs.
  • Maintain confidentiality of families by limiting conversations and information about families with only those who need to know in order to provide services.
• Professionalism and Leadership:
  • Responsible for knowledge of and compliance with all agency policies and procedures.
  • Provide active supervision of all substitutes and volunteers assigned to the classroom in accordance with agency standards.
  • Maintain professional boundaries in relationships with families and staff members, distinguishing between other needs and one's own.
  • Serve as a role model for families and other staff by making sound daily decisions and reflecting on and assessing one's own practice, taking advantage of opportunities to improve skills and knowledge.