Assistant Teacher

Position Overview

The Assistant Teacher is responsible for assisting a classroom of children from all backgrounds and identities in accordance with the policies and philosophy of CDLS and the Institute of Child Development. This includes assisting in establishing a learning environment that is inclusive and developmentally age-appropriate, developing emergent curriculum, supervising, and monitoring child development, providing high-quality care, maintaining classroom materials, first aid, and daily health checks.

The Assistant Teacher also supports and advances the school's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The Assistant Teacher works in collaboration with the classroom lead teacher to plan and implement a high-quality, responsive, enriching, and supportive learning environment that is respectful of each child's background, development, and needs. The weekly curriculum and learning experiences are rich with relational experiences designed to support the development of a range of social, emotional, self-help, language, literacy, cognitive, and motor skills.

This position is based on campus. All UMN employees are expected to follow applicable public health and safety procedures. This position is for 40 hours per week (100% full-time equivalent). The University offers employees total rewards with meaningful benefits, including medical and dental, life insurance retirement savings, flexible spending accounts, tuition benefits, and an award-winning Wellbeing Program.

• Classroom Support (30%)
• Assist in establishing and maintaining an inclusive, professional, and safe learning space for children of all backgrounds, identities, abilities, and developmental stages in compliance with MN DHS licensing and NAEYC accreditation standards, as well as relevant federal laws.
• In conjunction with the lead teacher, plan and execute a consistent daily visible schedule of routines and activities.
• In the absence of a lead teacher, plan and execute daily curriculum routines.
• Conduct daily checks of the environment; assign, monitor, and follow up on the health and safety of the children and ensure the supervision of children are within sight and sound as per NAEYC and MN DHS Licensing (indoors and outdoors).
• Maintain and secure the confidentiality of information and records regarding staff, children, and families.
• Participate in ongoing reflection (monthly and yearly) on the evaluation of the program and personal professional development aligning with performance and job responsibilities.

• Curriculum (30%)
• Participate in planning and implementing emergent curriculum for children in a developmentally appropriate and inclusive environment.
• Use small groups, reflective practice, and observations when supporting the planning and implementation of learning experiences.
• Collaborate with the lead teacher to help plan and implement curriculum, centering the educational work with children on their emerging interests and on their learning.
• Assist in developing the child's role as an integral member of their learning community through developing the child's self-image and competence.
• Assist in preparing materials required for daily instruction and classroom environment for the children.

• Documentation and Assessment (20%)
• Assist in collecting data, including photos and quotes about individual children's learning and development
• Partner with the lead teacher to complete regular assessments about children.
• Assist in reviewing assessments and documentation of children's learning to revisit, reflect, and extend emergent curriculum, investigations, and small group explorations.
• Update and extend documentation to reflect children's work, processes, questions, and dialogues between teacher-to-child, child-to-child, with encounters, investigations, and projects.

• Communication (20%)
• Assist in maintaining open verbal and written communication with parents regarding child development, behavior issues, parent education, and other child-related issues.
• Regularly communicate parent, child, and/or staff issues with the classroom teachers (i.e., concerned parents, a child's behavior problems, or an employee's performance issues).
• Uti…