Pre K Lead Teacher

Position Summary:

The Bilingual Pre-K Lead Teacher is part of the early childhood education team at Briya Public Charter School a leading two-generation education program serving parents and their young children. Briya is a Tier One Public Charter School, consistently achieving the highest educational outcomes through its innovative, family-centric programming.

Briya's early childhood program serves children from six weeks through pre-kindergarten. In Briya's dual-language Pre-K classes, children gain proficiency in both English and Spanish through an inquiry-based curriculum. Briya teachers draw inspiration from the pedagogical principles of Reggio Emilia and offer culturally sustaining education for emergent multilingual children. This involves collaborative work and daily play-based assessment of children in inclusive bilingual classrooms. While children attend the early childhood program, their parents attend classes comprised of three highly integrated areas of study: English, child development, and digital literacy. Briya also offers workforce development programs for advanced students to pursue career-ready certifications.

Briya has a strategic partnership with Mary's Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center, further strengthening student families with comprehensive medical, dental, and social services. At three of its four campuses, Briya is co-located with Mary's Center.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Position may include, but is not limited to, the following tasks and responsibilities:

Teaching and Learning, Reflective Planning, and Environment

• Plan and carry out learning experiences across developmental and content areas (language, cognitive, social-emotional and physical, literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, etc.). Support children's concept and skill development through thoughtful, playful and engaging instruction.
• Create and maintain an indoor and outdoor learning environment that is organized, comfortable, safe, non-commercial, non-stereotypic, facilitates multi-sensory learning, and is responsive to children's changing interests, abilities, and needs. Set up interest areas for children and modify them to connect them to children's evolving ideas and projects. Utilize the framework of the Creative Curriculum, principles of the Reggio Emilia approach, and Anti-Bias Education principles to inform design.
• Develop reflective and responsive weekly written plans that build upon children's emerging interests, ideas, skills, languages, cultures, and incorporate the goals and objectives of the program into planned experiences, modifying plans as necessary to accommodate teachable moments and opportunities.
• Guide learning experiences and interactions that advance children's language and literacy skills in the target language of instruction. Follow a bilingual planned language approach and utilize evidence-based strategies to help emergent multilingual children build a strong foundation in oral and written language. Utilize research-based strategies and involve families to acknowledge and strengthen children's home language.
• Use evidence-based strategies to establish caring connections with children, use co-regulation to help them regulate their emotions, and support children's overall social emotional development.
• Demonstrate strong knowledge and implementation of assessment practices; principally through Teaching Strategies GOLD to engage in ongoing cycles of documentation and reflection across content areas. This includes:
  
  
  
  • Taking and entering objective observations
  • Linking observations to curriculum and setting preliminary checkpoint levels
  • Using performance data to guide planning and instruction
  • Completing progress checkpoints in consultation with co-teacher according to checkpoint due dates.
  • Use portfolios and information about children's progress during family conferences to build strong parent-teacher collaboration.
  
  
  
  
• Consult with teaching team to review student progress and share ideas and resources on an ongoing basis using an MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) framework. Through this process, identify and use culturally responsive strategies and plans to support children who struggle to meet assessment and developmental benchmarks.
• Confer regularly with the Pre-K inclusion team including therapists or related service providers as needed/able to identify teaching practices that support children with special needs. Adjust or enhance learning environment as it relates to specific students learning profiles or goals.
• Utilize effective and proactive strategies to ensure excellent attendance and retention outcomes for Pre-K students.

Family Engagement

• Demonstrate understanding of and competency for two generation education by interacting with parents as children's first and most important teachers and building strong connections with families. Actively engage families in children's learning and collaborate with them to promote children's development in all areas.
• Learn about and honor families' various funds of knowledge and encourage them to contribute to the life of the classroom community. Approach difficult situations with compassion and curiosity about cultural and educational experiences that may impact formal schooling.
• Partner with classroom and site team members to help families overcome barriers that may impact children's academic or social development. Listen to families' observations about their children and collaborate with co-teacher to provide ideas that support children's learning at home.
• Organize the planning and implementation of Family Time experiences and help parents feel comfortable and engaged in the Early Childhood classroom. During Family Time, model and promote language and literacy strategies and play based interactions.
• Use home visits as opportunities to build or strengthen relationships with families.
• 
  
  
  

  Create parent-friendly newsletters and other family communication that provides key information about children's learning experiences and ways that families can partner in the learning. Prepare for and lead family conferences three times per year and regularly converse with families about children.

  
  

Contribution to a Community of Practice

• Contribute to creating a culture of learning and reflection in the school by engaging with research on early childhood education and strive to apply knowledge into daily practice.
• Communicate and collaborate regularly with co-teacher/s about classroom practices, routines, the environment, and children. Use time with other teachers to reflect and plan and support each other as team members.
• Set learning and performance goals, communicate about goals and activities with supervisor and coach on a semi-regular basis, and seek support when necessary
• Participate actively in professional development learning communities, demonstrate self-reflection and growth mindset, offer and accept constructive feedback.
• Utilize communication strategies with co-workers that address conflict in a proactive, productive, and collaborative manner.
• Assist in recruitment of Briya students, field trips, student recognition ceremonies and other celebrations

Briya Values:

Successful employees will demonstrate the school's five core values:

• Learner-Centeredness: Student agency and voice are foundational to high-quality education.
• Inclusiveness: People of all countries, races, religions, cultures, genders, sexual orientations, languages, abilities, and life experiences are integral to the Briya community.
• Trust: A space of safety and mutual respect among students and staff promotes optimal growth and belonging.
• Collaboration: Strategic, agile collaboration on all levels-among staff, students, departments, and community partners-increases the holistic success of student families.
• Equity: The pursuit of equity drives Briya's work. Through our comprehensive, two-generation educational model, we seek to overcome systemic oppression and partner with students to create opportunities for all to thrive

Competencies:

Employees are also expected to excel in the following competencies:

• Professionalism - Treats others with respect and consideration regardless of their status or position. Follows established policies and procedures to support the overall function of the organization.
• Safety and Security - Observes safety and security procedures, reports potentially unsafe conditions, and uses equipment and materials properly.
• Attendance/Punctuality - Is consistently at work and on time, adhering to a schedule pre-determined between the employee and the supervisor.
• Dependability - Follows instruction and responds to management direction. Takes responsibility for own actions.
• Teamwork - Can work well in multidisciplinary team setting with a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds and experiences. Contributes to building a positive team spirit, puts success of the team above own interests, and supports colleagues' and students' efforts to succeed.

Qualifications:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education and/or Experience -

• Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Education or related field
• 2-7 years experience working directly with young children preferably including children who are dual language learners and children with special needs.
• Native or fluent speaker of the modeling language (English) and bilingual English/Spanish a plus
• Excellent communication skills and ability to create written weekly plans and use online software to document learning
• Current Pediatric First Aid and CPR certification.
• Demonstrates flexibility, knowledge and enthusiasm for working with children of various ages.

Reasoning Ability - Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out moderately complex, multi-step instructions and make appropriate independent decisions as necessary.

Physical Demands - Regularly required sitting; frequently required to reach with hands and arms, walk, stoop, kneel, crouch, talk or hear; must be able to lift objects up to fifty (50) pounds. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Work Environment - Mostly in a typical office setting with quiet to moderate noise level.

Salary bands: https://briya.org/policies-notices/salary-bands