Pre-k Teacher (English/Spanish)

Position Summary:

 The 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, three to five year-olds learn through a project-based curriculum. Briya teachers draw inspiration from the pedagogical principles of the Reggio Emilia approach, as well as research about best practices for young dual language learners. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Planning, Teaching, and Assessment:

• Plan for and provide high-quality daily instruction that reflects knowledge of child development in a mixed age (three and four) classroom. Plan for and implementing experiences and activities that span developmental areas and content areas (language, cognitive, social-emotional and physical, as well as literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, etc.). Support children’s concept and skill development through thoughtful, playful and engaging instruction throughout all parts of the daily schedule. 

• Create and implement appropriate activities and interactions to advance children’s language and literacy skills in the language of instruction. Utilize research-based strategies and involve families to acknowledge and promote home language (L1) maintenance in addition to teaching the L2 in the classroom.  Follow a bilingual preschool model that helps children build a strong foundation in oral and written language.

• Document observations of children on an ongoing basis, link them to curriculum objectives and performance levels, and use them to guide planning and instruction. Maintain a complete online portfolio for each child as well as paper portfolios as necessary. 

• Consult with teaching team on a regular basis to review student progress, share strategies and resources, as well as make plans to involve families.  Participate in regular MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) data meetings to generate strategies to support children who struggle to meet assessment benchmarks and curricular expectations.

Family Support and Engagement

• Demonstrate understanding and competency for two-generation education by engaging in practices that show respect for parents as children’s first teachers. Examples include listening to parents, actively engaging families in children’s learning in the classroom by sharing children’s accomplishments and classroom information and finding ways to make comfortable sharing information about their child, asking questions, and participating in their child’s education.  

• Create parent-friendly reports that include work samples and photos to summarize information about children’s development and learning to share with families during informal meetings and scheduled parent conferences three times per year

• Plan with co-teacher the implementation of parent-child experiences in the classroom (Family Time) for thirty minutes per week. Model interactions that promote brain development, positive approaches to learning, and effective literacy and language strategies. Acknowledge and promote the parent-child relationship.

• Use home visits as opportunities to build or strengthen relationships with children and parents and provide authentic extension ideas or materials to support children’s learning at home. Treat home visits as opportunities to better understand and utilize each family’s strengths and goals.

• Demonstrate cultural responsiveness by considering funds of knowledge that each family may contribute as well as cultural and educational differences that may impact schooling. 

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Early Childhood or related field
• Bilingual and bi literate in English and Spanish, preferred.
• Minimum of two to three years’ experience working with young children preferably including children dual language learners and children with special needs.
• Native speaker of the modeling language

Physical Demands – Regularly required to sit; frequently required to reach with hands and arms, walk, stoop, kneel, crouch, talk or hear; must be able to lift objects up to twenty-five (25) pounds.

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

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