BECOME AN EDUCATOR
Looking to Join Our Team? Become an Educator Today!
- Competitive Wages
- Fitness Membership
- Health Insurance
- Paid Time Off
- Employee Discounts on Tuition and Classes
- Professional Development
Learn and Grow in a Supportive Environment!
Our School
The JCC’s Early Childhood Development Center is a year-round early learning center for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. Our ECDC programs are housed in dedicated, fully secured wings of the JCCs in Squirrel Hill and the South Hills. ECDC children make use of facilities in the entire JCC campus including indoor heated pools, full-size gymnasiums and outdoor playgrounds.
ECDC’s approach to early learning is inspired by the ideas and practices developed in Reggio Emilia, Italy, for the education of young children. This program— based on the principles of respect, responsibility and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment—resonates with the JCC mission. ECDC’s curriculum recognizes each child’s voice and strives to provide a beautiful environment, small groups for children to do their work, and access to a wide variety of learning materials.
Our Educators Make the Difference
Our talented and dedicated staff is committed to ensuring each child’s happiness, safety and growth. It is our priority to employ experienced and creative staff who meet our high standards and reflect our value of lifelong learning. Our educators work together as a team to ensure all of our children are highly engaged in the education process for our school.
Skilled JCC specialists teach aquatics, physical education, music, and Jewish and Israeli culture. ECDC is visited weekly by a counselor from Jewish Family & Children’s Service to support educators and children in the classroom environment.
Supporting Early Childhood Educators Elevates Early Learning
By Liza Baron
The JCC’s Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) has been on a journey of excellence for a number of years, committed to the long-term exploration of the Reggio Emilia Approach and best practices in early learning. As a Sheva Lab Community for the Jewish Community Center Association, ECDC applies this constructivist approach to early learning through a Jewish lens.
Integral to the success of this approach is supporting our educators’ growth and lifelong learning. Over the years, we’ve learned that fostering our educators’ growth in the field inspires educators who are dedicated professionals who engage deeply in the vision, inquiry and powerful potential of children.
Our program, which serves 200 children from infants through pre-kindergarten in the JCC Squirrel Hill and South Hills facilities, is a recognized national leader in the field of early childhood education. Our school philosophy – “Inspired Exploration, Universal Values & Collaborative Journeys” – is the framework for everything we do.
Elevating the field of early learning is critical to this framework, and we are intentional with how we view and what we offer to educators. We strive to make teaching in the JCC’s ECDC a viable and appealing early career choice in the educational field, with opportunities to grow and make lasting contributions.
Our knowledgeable and dedicated educators put the needs of children first, and ongoing professional development provides opportunities for their continued investment in the social and emotional growth of the young citizens they serve.
We recognize the importance of trained and supported educators to our entire learning community of children and staff by creating a curriculum for professional development. We care about the well-being of our educators and staff by providing compensation that is well above average in the field. ECDC’s average hourly wage is 36% more than the average for child care workers in Pennsylvania; 100% of ECDC’s full time educators receive benefits.
Our journey requires transparency about our goals, our vision and our questions about how children learn. Simply put, we seek to create confident and engaged lifelong learners, and what better way to do this than to invest in the team of educators leading the way for our youngest citizens?
Educator’s Testimonials
Our educators have told us that they value the intentional curriculum and the professional educational opportunities, and they feel that their thoughts and ideas are truly heard. “It’s very rewarding for me,” said Tracy Smith, veteran Assistant Educator at the JCC’s South Hills location, who added, “We also work hard to engage parents and create a partnership that prepares children for elementary school as well as life beyond the walls of any future classroom.”
Suzann Morris, Fellow within the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Early Childhood Initiative, recently spoke about our efforts, “The JCC Pittsburgh is leading by example in putting their early childhood educators at the heart of their programs,” said “By prioritizing early childhood educators, the JCC can serve as a model for programs across the country. Policies around compensation and professional development like the JCC’s are important now, more than ever, as families both return to in-person work environments and need stable childcare for their children, and as new federal resources aimed at stabilizing childcare programs will be accessible to local communities.”
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