Join Us!
We are building an incredible team of early childhood educators. As a new school, we have positions to fill as we grow during our first year.
Big Wonder respects the rights of teachers.
We view teachers as collaborators and professionals and provide liveable wages, health benefits, paid time off, and retirement contributions.
Join a fun, nurturing, inspirational work environment. Together, we can change early childhood education for the better!
Assistant Teacher Position
Position type: Part-Time Pay range: $16-$18
Job Summary: As an Assistant Teacher, you will play a crucial role in creating the structure for a high-quality educational experience for young learners and their families and work to support the mission and values of Big Wonder. Assistants work closely with teachers to create a safe, welcoming, and joyful classroom environment for children 2.5 to 5 years old. As a staff person in the classroom, assistant teachers work to create an open and honest working environment that inspires creativity and learning as a collaborative community.
Assistant Teachers will receive mentorship and professional development from working in a professional early learning environment, the opportunity to engage with children, and develop the skills and training needed to become a lead teacher (if desired).
Duties/Responsibilities:
Assist in the daily care of young children, including preparing snacks, assisting with toileting, and preparing and engaging children in daily activities (going to the park, play, art, and Montessori activities).
Engage children in play, through modeling and asking questions.
Nurture and maintain healthy, loving relationships with children in your classroom.
Assist with daily organization and deep cleaning of materials.
Share input on classroom materials and programming by providing your reflection on the children’s needs and learning desires
Develop and maintain a healthy and appropriate working relationship with other staff members and parents, always maintaining discretion and trust.
Encourage a positive self-identity and an appreciation for differences and diversity through anti-bias education, diverse representations in the classroom, empathy building, and perspective-taking practices.
Other duties as assigned
Physical Demands and Working Environment:
This position requires active participation with children
May require walking or standing to a significant degree
Must be able to lift 30 pounds
We are looking for a candidate passionate about early childhood education and quality child care. If you are looking for a challenging yet rewarding opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children, families, and the community, we encourage you to apply.
Big Wonder is an equal-opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and experiences.
How to Apply: Please submit a cover letter and resume to Celeste Finn at celeste@bigwonder.org
Big Wonder Childcare is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
Key Qualifications:
Positive regard for children
Self-Regulation and Emotional Literacy
Willingness to learn
Willingness to engage in play with children
Ability to pass a Background Check
We are also looking for Substitute Teachers.
Meet Our Team
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Celeste Finn
(She/Her)
Executive Director
Celeste is the founder of Big Wonder. She has her Master of Arts in Teaching and over a decade as an educator working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary, middle school, and adult students. She has served as a curriculum developer, education coordinator, coach, and teacher supervisor of and volunteers in multiple roles. She has taught in eight countries, giving her extensive experience in diverse socio-economic, religious, racial, and cultural settings.
Celeste’s work as an educator is rooted in the belief that education is the most effective catalyst for societal change and that early childhood education is the most critical foundation from which all aspects of human development are built. To that end, she believes anti-bias and anti-racist values are best-practice in every classroom. She is a co-founder of The Arise Framework, which is designed to enable patterns of growth to create race-conscious early childhood communities. Celeste is a children’s book author and founder of Shining Lamp Press. She lives in Saint Paul, MN, with her husband and son.
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Hannah Longley
(She/They)
Program Coordinator
Hannah has a master’s in ECE with director qualifications from the Boulder Journey School’s partnership program with the University of Colorado Denver. Hannah is an early childhood and arts educator with over a decade of experience in teaching, mostly in Reggio-inspired, emergent learning settings. She is an Atelierista (studio director) at St. Paul School of Northern Lights, a unique, Reggio-inspired K-8 public charter school with foci on outdoor and place-based education and social justice. Prior to her current role at Northern Lights, Hannah taught in Montessori and blended programs. A strong proponent of accessible, quality preschool education, she developed a low-cost program for 3-5 year-olds. She has also led music (ukulele, voice) and theater programs with children. Hannah has led professional development on the 100 Languages of Children, observation & documentation, cycles of inquiry, and the history of the schools of Reggio Emilia. With the Reggio-Inspired Network of Minnesota, Hannah has led professional development presentations and is a volunteer member of two committees.
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Emily Northey
(She/Her)
Board President
Emily and her husband have two lively elementary-aged boys, but still remember the ups and downs of child care. When the center near their house closed suddenly, they worked with neighbors to try to buy the building and start a new childcare center there. Though it didn't work out, Emily learned a lot about the behind-the-scenes of starting a childcare center.
Emily Northey has 15 years in non-profit program administration focused on downtown revitalization. She currently co-owns the consulting firm Northey Government Services, LLC with her husband, where they assist grantees with their reporting. As the leader of Minnesota Main Street, after it restarted in 2010, Emily traveled throughout Minnesota, training local communities in downtown revitalization including: zoning, fundraising, economic development, property management, historic preservation, events and marketing, volunteer leadership development, record-keeping, and nonprofit management. She also provided direct technical assistance on these issues as well as procuring other experts to supplement. Emily evaluated programs annually and crafted custom training and TA based on programs’ needs.
Through this in-depth work with communities of all sizes in Minnesota, Emily became very familiar with the signs of volunteer-based programs that are healthy and those which are more likely to be at risk of failure or closing suddenly. After, Emily was Executive Director of the West 7th / Fort Road Federation for 4 years. She brings this in-depth knowledge of managing small or start-up nonprofits to the Board of Big Wonder.
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Nadia Milani
(She/Her)
Secretary
Nadia is drawn into the world of education by its possibility to be world-transforming. Raised by professors in Papua New Guinea who were committed to engagement in grassroots development work in rural villages, Nadia experienced firsthand the power of education to transform people’s personal and collective reality. She went on to study child and cross-cultural psychology at Macalester College, while also earning teaching licenses in Early Childhood, Kindergarten, and Elementary education. Nadia has spent the majority of her career working in schools in developing countries in the South Pacific islands, striving to offer high-quality, internationally standardized programs to students of diverse backgrounds. She has served on numerous education boards and advisory councils at the national, regional, and local levels, many of which supported the development of innovative, grassroots-led initiatives to develop educational programs suited to the needs of the population. Nadia is currently working towards a Master of Education in Parent and Family Education from the University of Minnesota. She lives with her family in an intergenerational home in Willmar, MN.
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Ambrosia Mosby
(She/Her)
Board Member
Ambrosia Mosby is currently employed at the County Attorney’s Office in Ramsey County, MN as part of the criminal division trial team. Prior to working in Minnesota, Ambrosia worked as a Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney in Chesterfield County, VA, supervising criminal cases that arose out of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court building, a prosecutor in the Richmond City office, Richmond, VA, working on prosecution and program development and a Senior Trial Attorney at the Public Defender’s Office in Richmond, VA, working as a defense attorney and also providing immigration advice to other public defenders in Richmond and throughout the state. Originally from Richmond, VA, she grew up in small-town MN, earned her BA from Carleton College, was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and received her law degree at The College of William and Mary. In her free time, Ambrosia loves traveling, garage sale shopping, attending festivals and sports events. She currently resides in Forest Lake, MN with her husband, 5 children and Labrador, Piña.
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Juan Carlos Wandemberg Boschetti, PhD.
(He/Him)
Board Member
Dr. Wandemberg is a USAID scholarship recipient. As an international consultant, Dr. Wandemberg has collaborated with the UNDP, USAID, ACDi/VOCA, and many NGOs in Europe, Asia, and North and South America in humanitarian missions. Dr. Wandemberg has been a professor of human behavior, sustainable development (social, economic, environmental), an analyst of managerial and geopolitical issues with extensive experience in critical-thinking skills development, strategic planning, academic leadership, budget and resource management, institutional efficiency, employee engagement, servant leadership, capacity building, and public relations. For the past 30 years Dr. Wandemberg has collaborated with communities, organizations, and corporations around the world catalyzing enhancive workplace cultures, integrating sustainability and tropophilia through self-transformation processes and Open Systems Design Principles, creating a culture of Trust, Transparency, and Integrity.
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Mike Munion
(He/Him)
Board Treasurer