ELA - Charter Middle School

“When we actually do it, we actually learn it.” - Declan P. Class of 2014 MISSION The mission of the Christa McAuliffe Charter School is to cultivate within each member of a diverse student body an intense commitment to self and community, the courage and insight to set high standards for academic and personal success, and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to achieve those standards. ABOUT THE SCHOOL The Christa McAuliffe Charter School is an EL Education school for 300 scholars in grades 6-8 with a hands-on curriculum that inspires achievement through active learning, character growth, and teamwork. The school is committed to ensuring that all students grow as learners and as ethical people through meaningful work and a strong community, WHAT IS EL EDUCATION? EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) is a national school transformation organization operating in 165 schools in 30 states and reaching over 45,000 students. EL partners with schools to improve student achievement through an inquiry and project-based approach. EL schools inspire the motivation to learn, engage teachers and students in new levels of focus and effort, and transform schools into places where students and adults become leaders of their own learning. POSITION OVERVIEW Everything that we do at McAuliffe is intended to meet the needs of students in their early adolescence. This means that you must be someone who finds sixth, seventh, and eighth graders much more entertaining than aggravating! You must be compassionate, have the ability to develop meaningful connections with students, have strong classroom management skills, and feel confident in your ability to create a psychologically safe classroom culture in which individuals are respected and valued for what they bring to the group. As an English Teacher, we hope that you feel excited about coaching students to grow as readers, writers, and thinkers. You will collaborate with other teachers, not only on English curricula but also to build interdisciplinary projects, investigations, and expeditions already in place. We hope that you'll bring your own knowledge and interests to engage in this ongoing curriculum development. You will be expected to plan and deliver instruction aligned with the Massachusetts / Common Core standards and assess students’ mastery of the standards. Teaching students the skills and strategies that will make them effective readers, writers, and thinkers is what matters most, and we are looking for someone who can design curricula that balance the teaching of literacy skills with higher-order exploration and synthesis of content. We expect you to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of students at various ability levels to challenge them and help them improve as readers, writers, and critical thinkers. As a crew leader, you'll lead a crew, similar to an advisory, of about 12 students. You will be the mentor/advocate for each student in your crew -- their McAuliffe parent away from home. You'll engage them in team-building activities, facilitate conversations rooted in social-emotional learning, guide the development of crew and individual goals, and prepare students for student-led conferences and exhibitions of learning. RESPONSIBILITIES - Building on existing curricula, plan and deliver engaging lessons and units that build students’ reading, writing, and critical thinking skills -Collaborate with colleagues to create highly engaging, cross-curricular learning expeditions - Employ a variety of teaching methodologies that guide students to engage in critical thinking: use of protocols, simulations, workshops, Socratic seminars, cooperative learning, experiments, hands-on projects, and other inquiry-based activities - Implement formative and summative assessments to track student progress; engage students in the assessment and tracking process - Analyze data on student performance to effectively inform instruction - Provide differentiated support including accommodations and modifications to ensure all students are able to meet and exceed standards - Integrate work with expert professionals during fieldwork, via video conferencing, or in-person on-site interview - Participate in ongoing professional development - Implement school-wide positive behavioral systems to effectively manage the classroom - Continually communicate with students' families regarding performance and progress - Serve as a Crew adviser to 10-12 students which includes leading a daily advisory, called crew, supporting advisees and regularly communicating with parents - Serve as an active member of the McAuliffe Community including attending evening celebrations of student learning QUALIFICATIONS - Appreciation for the Expeditionary Learning (EL) design model -- a commitment to develop curriculum and implement EL core practices, including in-depth learning expeditions - Appreciation for the life and mind of the adolescent scholar - Personal qualities that exemplify the school’s emphasis on character development and community - Teaching experience (ideally in grades 5 through 9) consistent with McAuliffe’s progressive, constructivist, exploratory, and project-based educational philosophy - Strong subject area background; highly qualified or ready to get qualified; licensed in Massachusetts with relevant content area expertise - Reader, writer, critical thinker, and attentive to current events and opportunities to create a curriculum that guides scholars to make sense of the world - Skillful at using a variety of assessment methods and data to pinpoint students’ strengths and weaknesses and skillful at applying instructional practices to address diverse learning needs - Strong interpersonal skills, commitment to teamwork, and readiness to reflect and grow - Values a collaborative approach to working with a diverse population of children and adults - Sense of humor and a high level of energy, enthusiasm, flexibility, and spontaneity - Exemplary organizational skills including the ability to prioritize, complete tasks (such as grading) efficiently, keep grade-book up to date, and document lessons, materials, and assessment Salary scale for Christa McAuliffe Charter School available upon request