Early Childhood Lead Teacher - Northbrook​/Bernard Weinger

Early Childhood Lead Teacher - Northbrook / Bernard Weinger

Job Category: JCC Early Childhood

Requisition Number: EARLY
005076

• Posted :
  December 8, 2025
• Full-Time
• On-site

Showing 1 location

Northbrook, IL 60062, USA

JCC Chicago is the largest JCC system in North America, with more than 800 staff in over 15 diverse locations across the metropolitan area. Our core program offerings include Early Childhood Education, Children and Family Engagement Programs, Aquatics, Arts & Ideas, Day Camps and Overnight Camp.

Classrooms are the first community. When we speak about community, we speak about places of sharing, learning, growing and connection. For some 800 young children in the Chicago area, the first community begins in JCC Chicago’s Early Childhood program.

We are committed to excellence, providing strong professional development opportunities and nature-inspired classrooms that allow our staff to be their most creative selves! With our ongoing commitment to maintaining the highest DCFS standards, we are looking for those who are enthusiastic about guiding each child to reach their full potential.

Job Summary:

The Lead Teacher is a critical member of a team of educators, social workers and specialists who support the whole child through a developmentally appropriate curriculum that embraces Jewish life and complements what happens at home.

As a Reggio Emilia inspired Early Childhood program, we support the individual needs and abilities of each of our students through an emergent, play-based curriculum. We are looking for professional educators who are interested in growing with us!

Key areas of responsibility:

• Be responsible for the safety and welfare of the children, supervising all children by sight and sound.
• Lead your teaching team in implementing a program that includes elements of the JCC Chicago’s integrated secular and Jewish curriculum.
• Provide and maintain an atmosphere which is conducive to emotional and cognitive growth.
• Establish and maintain good communication and a strong sense of community with directors, staff, and parents.
• Make families feel welcome by greeting them personally by name and be able to share specific information regarding their child.
• Foster a collaborative, team-focused atmosphere, both in the classroom, teaching site and the agency as a whole.
• Actively participate a minimum of 15 hours in staff meetings, trainings, and on-going development opportunities.
• Lead your teaching team in maintaining DCFS and Illinois state standards.

Additional responsibilities:

• Can speak to the developmental skills being targeted in learning experiences following discussions with parents, teaching team, and in documentation, including weekly newsletters.
• Maintains education in Early Childhood best practices through professional development, reading, and active communication with directors and social services team.
• Responsible for the written and photo content of all newsletters, portfolios, and mass communications to classroom families.
• Leads regular, and meaningful, communication with families, including, but not limited to, in-person conversations/meetings, virtual meetings, emails, Kaymbu communication, bi-yearly parent-teacher conversations, and portfolios.
• Takes initiative in, and has a global awareness of, all aspects of the teaching position including classroom management, daily tasks, social-emotional needs of children, moving effectively through daily schedule, adjusting to the needs in the classroom.
• Demonstrates awareness of classroom environment, and physically moving through the spaces.
• Responsible for classroom set up and preparation of lesson plans.
• Always maintains respect for children and team.
• Follows and successfully implements guidelines set forth by the Social Services department when raising any concerns about a child’s development or behavior in a classroom setting.
• Other duties as assigned.

Key Essential Job Duties/Physical Duties:

• Lift/move children up to 40 lbs.
• Demonstrate physical stamina and agility required to be mobile for long periods throughout the day.
• Move from sitting (chair and floor) to standing position easily and quickly.
• Stand for long periods of time and be able to run and actively engage physically with children.
• Use hands for grasping classroom equipment and play material.
• Supervise children by sight and sound; able to make quick, sound decisions for children’s safety.
• Diaper children in accordance with DCFS and NAEYC requirements.
• Be in a swimming pool up to one hour, 2 to 3 days per week observing children and participating in swim lessons as needed (at certain JCC sites).
• React with physical and mental alertness in emergency situations.
• Ability to maintain focus in a noisy environment / sustain high noise levels (children playing, crying, talking).
• Manage children’s challenging behaviors and tantrums.
• Demonstrate empathy and emotive ability to foster positive, supportive interactions with both children and parents.
• Balance multiple tasks at once; (feeding, teaching,…