Pre-K Assistant Teacher - Girls Prep Bronx Elementary (Available 2024-25)
Bronx, NY
1. 2024-25 Teaching Opportunities /
Full-time /
On-site
An Invitation to Apply for the Position of
Pre-K Assistant Teacher (Available 2024-25)
Girls Prep Bronx Elementary School (Grades Pre-K-5)
Bronx, NY
What Sets Public Prep Apart?
Public Prep is a network of single-gender K-8 schools and co-ed PreK rooted in the belief that all scholars can and will achieve exemplary academic results. In addition to rigorous, joyful and engaging academics, Public Prep emphasizes social-emotional learning as critical to supporting the whole child. Strong learning partnerships between families and staff are key to living out our core value of community and building the collaborative structures needed to ensure that our scholars are loved and supported both at school and at home. Each school has a deeply committed leadership team and staff that strives to work collaboratively to build a warm, joyful, and rigorous culture.
Public Prep is committed to investing in our adult learning culture. As a team member at Public Prep, you can anticipate a learning environment where the best interest of scholars, their growth, and success is at the center of everything we do. As such, we tailor adult development opportunities to ensure that high expectations, the embodiment of a growth mindset, displays of humility, and data-informed decision-making is evident in our work. Our professional development takes place within coaching cycles, ongoing observation and feedback, and targeted professional development opportunities within the network and from outside providers.
Public Prep offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience, qualifications, and internal equity. The salary for this position starts at $45,000. We know that the quality of our benefits is important for our adults and their families, so we offer a comprehensive total rewards package that includes Oxford Medical, United Dental/Vision, life insurance, wellness benefits, a flexible spending account, paid time off/leave benefits, commuter benefits, referral bonuses, professional development, student loan repayment assistance, homeownership programs, and a 403(b) package with a 5% employer match. Our employees also qualify for both NYS Teacher Loan Forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Public Preparatory Network is an Equal Opportunity employer. Public Preparatory Network is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment.
Primary Function & Position Overview
At Public Prep, we start early with the end in mind. Public Prep Network, a dynamic single-sex, K-8 charter network, expanded to include pre-kindergarten for the first time in 2014-2015. We are seeking an outstanding early childhood educator to be a Pre-K Assistant Teacher.
In our PrePrep program, we privilege play as the means through which young students develop foundational academic habits and spark student curiosity, creativity, and a love of learning. With a deep focus on social-emotional development, we recognize that every moment is an opportunity to learn and teach as well as cultivate strong relationships. We are responsive to student individual needs and interests and use student data to inform and expand instruction. We believe that increasing student agency and resilience is central to our work both in and outside of the classroom and at home. PrePrep is committed to a high-quality whole-child education and is a place where students, families, and staff feel safe to explore ideas, relationships, and decision-making skills that lead to self-efficacy in a variety of ways.
Pre-K Assistant Teachers at Public Prep are responsible for supporting Pre-K Lead Teachers in addressing the social, physical, and intellectual needs of each of the students in their classes. Pre-K Assistant Teachers meet regularly with their grade-level team members and other collaborators in order to address access to curriculum and developmentally appropriate practices for all students. They also help to support classroom and school-wide systems (e.g., student pick-up, transitions) that help to provide students and families with a seamless and enriching day-long experience. Pre-K Assistant Teachers leverage multiple modalities of learning to ensure that all children receive the small group and individual attention they need to maximize growth. At Public Prep, we use the Sesame Workshop Curriculum, which integrates language development, literacy, socio-emotional learning and science and social studies content knowledge. We also use the Building Blocks Pre-K Curriculum, which embeds mathematical learning into daily activities.
The Instructional Leadership Team supports Pre-K Assistant Teachers in maximizing their performance and that of their students. Pre-K Assistant Teachers also receive coaching and feedback from the Pre-K Lead Teacher with whom they work.
The Pre-K Lead Teacher reports to the Academic Director or Principal and is responsible for not only leading their own instruction, but also supporting Pre-K Assistant Teachers on their team in developing and executing comprehensive, integrated units across all parts of a student’s day.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Knowledge of the requirements for providing the type of care and supervision young children need, and the ability to communicate with such children as well as his/her parents
- Working with individual and groups of students to support their cognitive, social and emotional growth
- Promoting independence and problem solving for individual or small groups of students
- Supporting lead teacher in maintaining accurate records of students
- Maintaining a safe and organized classroom so that student learning is maximized
- Supervising students during lunch, recess, the arts, or other times of the day
- Supporting classroom communications by updating bulletin boards, writing family newsletters, etc.
- Support Lead Teacher with regular meetings with and outreach to families, including daily documentation and notes, unit celebrations, and family informational sessionsImplementing school-wide positive behavior incentive policies and logical consequences
- Working collaboratively with the Director, colleagues, Public Prep academic team members, external agencies, community partners, and others to strengthen programming
- Engaging in coaching cycles and implementing research-based strategies that maximize their own performance and that of their students
- Reflecting on their own progress as educators and seeking out professional resources to continuously improve their practice
- Celebrating student progress and effort each day in their classrooms and through bi-weekly, school-wide Unity Meetings
- Communicating with families regularly, responding to emails and phone calls within 36 hours
- Attending IEP meetings and support in ensuring appropriate accommodations are given to students during assessments as needed
- Actively participating in school and network-led meetings and professional development workshops as laid out in the school and professional development calendars
- Supporting the school as directed by the Principal/Academic Director.
Qualifications
- Desire to support early childhood social, emotional and cognitive development
- Belief that play can be cognitively-rich
- Excited to tackle the challenging work of supporting a classroom inclusive or learning experiences that balance academic rigor and developmentally appropriate practices
- A Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
- An M.A., Ed.M or Master’s degree in relevant content area preferred
- Progress towards New York State Certification in Early Childhood Education or demonstrated process towards receiving reciprocity for certification from other states preferred, but not required
- A minimum of 2 years of demonstrated success in an early childhood setting preferred
- Demonstrated success working in a high-performing, urban school setting preferred
- Exceptional organization and planning skills
- Superior communication skills
- An ability to work collaboratively
- A commitment to single-sex education
- Conversational or Fluent Spanish is a plus but not required
