Science Teacher, Grade 8

Carlisle Public Schools is seeking a dynamic and passionate Middle School Science Teacher to join our dedicated team of educators in grade 8. This is a full-time (1.0 FTE) teaching position at Carlisle Middle School, starting in the 2025-2026 school year. The ideal candidate will have a deep commitment to fostering a positive and inclusive learning environment and the skillful ability to engage and inspire middle school students in their journey to becoming effective communicators and critical thinkers. Applicants must have a comprehensive understanding of middle school science curriculum and early adolescent development, and the ability to inspire and educate middle school students to achieve academic excellence. Primary Job Responsibilities: Teaching and Learning 1.Create a positive and inclusive classroom atmosphere that encourages student participation, collaboration, and scientific inquiry by implementing a “learning-by-doing” approach that engages students as active learners and makes science come alive in ways that research has shown best supports the broad range of learners. 2.Facilitate student-centered investigation of questions relevant to their own daily lives by conducting experiments, collecting and analyzing data, developing and using models to explain phenomena, and engaging in evidence-based discussions. 3.Assess students’ understanding regularly with appropriate learning goals in mind, taking ownership of making necessary modifications to align with the requirements of IEPs and 504s. 4.Scaffold and differentiate instruction to support all students in complex thinking, rigorous academic work, and active participation, and implement the Carlisle Public School’s vision, mission, and Portrait of a Graduate. 5.Build a productive learning environment where every student participates and is valued as part of the class community. 6.Create cognitively demanding tasks and model the belief that all students can master challenging material through effective effort. Curriculum, Assessment, and Feedback 1.Design and implement a comprehensive Science curriculum for grade 8 students that aligns with the Science Curriculum Frameworks from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, using core units of the IQWST curriculum 2.Teach engaging lesson plans, specifically focusing on Earth, Life, and Physical sciences that include concepts of exploratory learning and hands-on learning, that cater to all ability levels for early adolescent students by differentiating instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners, specifically: a.Earth Science Unit: How Is the Earth Changing? Students investigate how the Earth has changed in the past and continues to change today, learning how the theory of plate tectonics was developed through the social processes of evidence gathering, modeling, and explanation in the scientific community. Students explore the modern explanation for why plates move on Earth’s surface by applying their understanding of convection to the Earth’s mantle. They uncover how these internal earth processes drive plate motion and how that motion leads to events, such as earthquakes and eruptions, and shape major surface features on Earth, including volcanoes, mountain ranges, islands, and oceanic trenches. b.Physical Science Unit: How Will It Move? This unit focuses on forces and motion in a variety of contexts: tug-of-war, baseball, planetary motion, chemical bonds, and others. Students generalize from specific examples to construct principles commonly known as Newton’s laws of motion. The differences between force and energy are emphasized and the crosscutting concepts of system models, energy and matter are addressed. The unit integrates several focal scientific practices: planning and carrying out investigations; data gathering, organization, and analysis; developing and using models; constructing explanations, and engaging in argument from evidence. c.Life Science Unit: Why Do Organisms Look The Way They Do? Students study how similarities and differences between individuals and populations are influenced by the inheritance of traits. Students examine how changing environmental conditions can influence variation in a population. Students generalize their explanations to develop a model of natural selection as defined by naturally occurring variation in inherited traits, changing environmental conditions and differential survival, addressing most notably the crosscutting concepts of patterns, and of stability and change in systems. d.Chemistry Unit: How Does Food Provide My Body with Energy? Students study chemical reactions and the energy transformations associated with them and address their relevance in their own lives and to their own bodies. Students investigate food at the molecular level and explore how cellular respiration, as a chemical reaction, allows organisms to use the energy in food. They also examine photosynthesis as the chemical reaction in which plants transform light energy into chemical energy to store in food. Finally, following the flow of matter and energy, students consider what happens in a system during cellular respiration and photosynthesis. 3.Regularly assess student progress using a variety of assessment tools 4.Provide timely and constructive feedback to students, and collaborate with colleagues to analyze assessment data for continuous improvement. Collaboration, Parent, & Community Engagement 1.Establish open and effective communication with parents/guardians to keep them informed about student progress and classroom activities. 2.Actively participate in parent-teacher conferences and other related school events for the wider parent community. 3.Collaborate with members of the Science Department as well as the Special Education Department and wider CPS faculty (K-8) to support student learning and growth using shared lesson materials and assessments. 4.Actively engage in ongoing professional development to stay current with best practices in education. 5.Contribute to a culture of continuous improvement within the Science department and among the middle school faculty and CPS district as a whole. Qualifications: 1.Bachelor's degree, or higher, in Middle School Education preferred, or Science, or a related field (Master's degree preferred). 2.Valid Massachusetts teaching license in grade 8 science. 3.Strong background knowledge of science. 4.Ability and desire to work collaboratively with colleagues and parents.