Job Description – Teacher at Spark Academy

Spark Academy, named among the top 4% of schools in Massachusetts as a "School of Recognition" by the state, seeks excellent teachers and those who are committed to becoming excellent. We are an innovative public school that consistently strives to create an educational environment where all of our students thrive. In our extended day program, our students have six core academic periods, physical education, and one intervention period every day. As highlighted on NPR’s Only a Game, our students also have several opportunities per day to exercise and participate in other beneficial movement-focused activities that serve to promote students’ physical well-being and academic learning. Our teachers have a strong growth mindset for both their students and themselves, and as such, they are constantly working to improve their lessons and their craft. We seek teachers who have a consistent positive mindset about children and their colleagues, and who have a strong work ethic to create excellent lesson plans that utilize research proven teaching strategies. Our teachers have two to three periods per day devoted to collaborative and individual lesson planning, student support and time to build strong relationships with students and families.

Spark Academy teachers teach 180 days of school and participate in 5-7 professional development throughout the school year. Teacher hours are from 7:40-3:05 pm. Teachers also participate in professional development mostTuesdays from 3:05-4:30.

Note: Teacher candidates must be willing to become ESL certified within the first few years of employment.

Responsibilities:

• Take responsibility to be a strong, positive force daily in their classroom - consistently and thoughtfully motivate students to work hard and want to learn;
• Design and implement high quality curricula that incorporate research-based strategies to help students master Massachusetts and Common Core standards;
• Motivate students to reach high achievement by setting class-wide and individual goals and provide specific and actionable feedback to students on their progress towards academic goals;
• Build supportive working relationships with fellow teachers as well as associate teachers, and provide regular feedback to help develop associate teachers;
• Engage in weekly professional development and intensive coaching with administration and colleagues and embrace a growth mindset to actively improve instruction, curriculum, and management;
• Wholeheartedly embrace school-wide systems to ensure consistency within the school learning community to ensure smooth transitions between classes and grades for all students, e.g. school-wide writing rubric, annotation strategies, behavior system;
• Use school-wide behavior system to establish strong classroom culture, consistent routines, and high expectations for students to ensure that culture is uniform throughout the school and thus ensuring the least amount of learning time is wasted;
• Build trusting relationships with students and families in an advisory setting of up to 14 students while also supporting students to gain a deeper understanding of our school values: Seeking Justice, Perseverance, Active Living, Reason, and Kindness.
• Other responsibilities as needed and assigned by administration.

Job Types: Full-time, Contract

Pay: $56,330.00 - $83,938.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance

Grade levels:

• Middle school

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

School subjects:

• English

School type:

• Public school

Education:

• Bachelor's (Required)

Experience:

• Teaching: 1 year (Preferred)

Language:

• Spanish (Preferred)

License/Certification:

• Teaching Certification (Preferred)

Work Location: In person