What are the responsibilities and job description for the Head of English Department position at Trinity School?
Trinity School, a co-educational, K-12 institution located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, seeks candidates to lead its English Department, beginning September 2020.
In brief, the English Department Head is responsible for (1) direct oversight of English Department curriculum and instruction, grades 5-12, ensuring appropriate coherence, continuity, consistency and quality; (2) appropriate coordination between the English Department curriculum in grades 5-12 and Lower School language arts curricula; (3) oversight of English Department members’ professional growth, including routine discussion with department members about their professional goals and performance; (4) collaboration with colleagues, principals, Assistant Head, and Head of School in hiring and mentoring new English teachers; and (5) supervision of departmental staffing and scheduling, budget, book orders, substitute teaching arrangements, and other departmental policies and procedures. While the English Department head routinely works with Middle and Upper School principals and reports to the principals, the English Department Head is directly supervised by the Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs.
The school seeks candidates who will embrace both the challenges and opportunities implicit in honoring the multiple educational commitments and aspirations expressed in the school’s mission statement, “Our Idea of Excellence.” The next English Department head will also be focusing sustained attention on developing curriculum attuned to the school’s intensified focus on diversity, equity, and student well-being. The school also seeks candidates eager and able to foster robust professional conversation about teaching and learning, attentive to students with differing learning needs, and informed by relevant research as well as effective professional practice.
The ideal candidate is a strong English teacher whose education and experience have generated wisdom and vision about curriculum as well as pedagogy; a skilled administrator attentive to the needs of the department and its members as well as to the needs of students and the larger School; an approachable colleague who possesses intellectual and professional curiosity, openness to others’ ideas, eagerness to extend himself / herself for others, and an unfailing sense of humor.
