Category: Jobs

Queens Paideia School is a small, independent, highly regarded K-12 school located in Long Island City, NY. It is known for its 6:1 student-teacher ratio and innovative personalized approach made possible by a small team of teachers helping students achieve personalized learning objectives, often via projects and activities that motivate them. Instead of grades and classes, every student progresses along a customized learning plan at his or her personal best pace. We work with individual students rather than lecture or make presentations to classes. Our goal is to produce self-motivated, independent learners and to instill a long-term love of learning. 

The candidate must be familiar with available instructional resources for the K-6th grade range, and able to create and maintain individualized learning plans responsive to every student's unique learning needs and capabilities. Our teachers work with students individually and in very small groups, also mentoring them and helping them improve their interpersonal, self-management, and organizational skills. The candidate will be attracted by the opportunity to work with a small team of committed educational innovators on a demonstration project that has visibility in the educational community. 

A competitive salary will be offered to the right candidate. Responses must include an informative introductory letter and resume, and should be directed to  tqps@earthlink.net.

About the Schoolhouse:

The schoolhouse is an experiential, democratic learning environment where youth have the freedom to pursue meaningful learning, joy, and connection guided with strong and loving mentorship. Please learn more about our free-school inspired learning community at 9thstreetschoolhouse.org.

Position Overview:

The 9th Street Schoolhouse is hiring a teacher for the 2014-2015 school year. We are seeking a new team member who cares deeply about children, who is inspired by collaboration with other teachers, and is motivated to design innovative learning experiences. We are looking for someone who is visionary, creative, flexible, and hard-working in their approach to supporting life-long learners.

Primary Responsibilities:

Teach

Develop strong relationships with kids based on love and trust. Encourage their strengths and find ways to guide them to master challenges through Coyote Mentoring and inquiry-based interactions. Record observations of children through anecdotal records and photos. Share a love of the outdoors and encourage connection with nature. Provide opportunities for children to develop equally all parts of themselves, including social skills / conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, self awareness, and physical development, in addition to academic learning. Give meaningful feedback to students on their work through written, verbal, and visual means. Be light on your feet!*

*As Chris Mercogliano explains it: “Teachers who are light on their feet are able to see the goodness in every child and we continue to love them even when they are at their most annoying. We don’t get plugged in and instead we try to tease and use humor to change the channel. We respond in unexpected ways if at all possible and try to approach each situation as if it were brand new. This is because responding in patterned ways encourages children to try to drag us into power games… We are flexible and able to tolerate disorder and think on the fly.”

Design curriculum and build the learning environment

Identify children’s growing edges and design appropriate hands-on activities to help them progress. Use information from observations of students to prepare the learning environment and maximize student initiation of learning activities. Seek out community resources and non-traditional ways to encourage learners to follow individual and authentic learning paths.

Collaborate

Work as a team with other teachers through open, honest, and effective communication. Possess self-awareness, self-compassion, and a willingness to examine inner assumptions and patterned actions to continue personal growth as a mentor. Lead and take part in democratic decision making processes with students and staff. Contribute to building the program and give input about school decisions.

Work in partnership with parents

Spend time getting to know families through informal and formal channels. Communicate what’s going on at the schoolhouse and seek info about what’s happening at home. Identify parent skills and connections that can be utilized for learning opportunities and collaborate with parents to incorporate those talents into the school day.

Assist with outreach

Contribute to schoolhouse blog and facebook page, and table at events such as the ETA school fair. Be a positive representative of the schoolhouse and build community connections.

Requirements:

★      Minimum 3 years teaching experience in a classroom, outdoor education, or other learning environment.

★      Experience teaching project-based learning and developing curriculum or activities tailored to student interests.

★      Working knowledge of child developmental stages.

★      Ability and willingness to cultivate real relationships with children and parents.

★      Excellent verbal and written communication skills including being able to give and receive feedback.

★      A self-starter who can learn on the job, identify opportunities for creativity, take initiative, and follow projects and responsibilities through to completion.

Preferred qualifications:

★      Bilingual English/Spanish speaker.

★      Experience or trained in working with special needs students.

★      Experience using positive behavior support.

★      Experience teaching in multi-age settings, free schools, or Montessori schools.

★      Experience working with emergent readers.

★      Experience teaching student-centered or project-based mathematics.

★      Familiarity with Coyote Mentoring.

Start date

Mandatory paid training / planning / preparation weeks begin August 18th

First day of the schoolhouse Tues Sept. 2nd.

Pay and benefits

This is a full time position, with a salary range of $15,000-$20,000, depending on experience. Benefits include professional development opportunities, great coworkers, and the opportunity to contribute your voice, time, and talents to a growing, mission-driven radical learning community. Work in a beautiful building with lots of natural light and spend plenty of time outdoors. The potential for health insurance is being developed. Tuition waived for children of teachers. We take 3 months off June-August, one week at Thanksgiving, two weeks for Winter Holidays, and one week at Spring Break.

How to apply

Send your letter of interest including a statement of why you are drawn to work with us, your resume, and letter of references to caitlin.macklin@gmail.com. Please reference Teacher in the subject line. Position closes May 15th.

• Supporting the mission and daily practice of a free school with joy and creativity.
• Daily classroom set up, preparing materials for projects and clean up as directed by the teachers.
• Communicating with teachers about their needs. following their direction, and anticipating where help is needed in order to support the needs of the whole group.  This may include managing a variety of activities while the teacher works with a small group or working with individual children.
• Taking children to the playground every day or planning for indoor play in inclement weather.
• Supervising children’s lunch time.
• Supporting and facilitating conflict resolution mediation when needed.
• Occasionally longer days may be required to support group trips or special school activities.

• Experience working with groups of children preferred.
• Experience working with children between the ages of 4 and 10 preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred.