ABOUT THE LITTLE VILLAGE:

The Little Village is a diverse-by-design Montessori-style early learning center for children 12 months and up. The Little Village offers affordable, accessible, inclusive care for families of all backgrounds. Through a two-generation approach to ECE, we support the whole family in building wealth, worth, and well-being. In addition to supporting kids and families, we also provide refugee and immigrant women with hands-on training to become exceptional educators, working alongside lead teacher/trainers and earning their certifications to become lead teachers, assistant directors, and center directors.
The Little Village is part of a larger non-profit called The Village Institute, a holistic family development center providing wraparound support to female-led refugee and immigrant families.

GENERAL POSITION DESCRIPTION

Our Lead Teachers have two critical roles within the Little Village - ensuring a high-quality learning experience for their students, and mentoring refugee and immigrant teaching assistants and trainees as they work towards greater leadership roles in Early Childhood Education. The Lead Teacher is responsible for developing a cohesive infant room team, coordinating the curriculum, and managing the day-to-day operational activities of the classroom. Teachers must understand children’s cognitive, social, emotional and physical development in order to ensure a safe and stimulating classroom environment where children are actively engaged and encouraged to succeed. The Lead Teacher must have extensive experience working with infants and collaborating with parents in order to ensure high quality care.
This position reports to the Center Director

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

• Infant Nursery Supervisor (INS) qualification required.
• minimum.
• Child Development Associate (CDA) and/or Early Childhood degree strongly preferred.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Ability to lift 30 lbs.
• Ability to stand for long periods of time.
• Ability to move as the position requires.

ADDITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

• Minimum of 2 years of professional child care experience with infants and/or toddlers.
• High energy.
• Excellent leadership, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work well with teammates and families from many different backgrounds.
• Strong oral and written communication skills and basic computer skills.
• A strong understanding of child development.
• Infant/child CPR and First Aid certification or ability to acquire within first 90 days.
• Strong preference to bilingual abilities in English and one of the following languages: Kiswahili, Kinyarwanda, Arabic, Tigrinya, Burmese, Farsi, or Dari.
• Must clear full background check and must pass health screening.

• Oversee feeding, diapering, and other infant and toddler care tasks according to established guidelines and children’s needs.
• Coordinate and implement educational curriculum by developing classroom activities based on developmentally appropriate practices and early learning standards.
• Lead by example; encourage teaching team success through modeling and coaching.
• Plan individual and group age-appropriate activities to actively engage children and encourage social, cognitive and emotional growth.
• Maintain frequent communications with parents through informal discussions, progress reports, and parent-teacher conferences.
• Ensure all center policies and state regulations are met.
• Ensure a healthy classroom environment – including maintaining appropriate hygiene
• and cleanliness standards and safety and security of children.
• Supervise teaching assistants and classroom volunteers to ensure they are following planned activities, hygiene and safety standards.
• Maintain accurate records, forms and files.
• Maintain personal professional development plan to ensure continuous quality improvement.