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Cottonwood ALC seeks full-time facilitator

Announcement of Job Opportunity

Cottonwood ALC in Helena, MT is hiring a full-time facilitator to work with its Branches students (roughly ages 8 – 16) and in partnership with the rest of the school’s staff team, students, and parents. Agile Learning Facilitators act as models, space-holders, and mentors of self-directed living and intentional culture creation. Above all, facilitators need to be grounded in the perspective of trusting children, partnership-based relationships, and personal responsibility.

Basics: terms, hours, compensation

  • This full-time facilitator role would be primarily fulfilled Monday – Friday from the hours of 8am to 4pm.
  • The term of employment begins on January 21st, 2019 and will conclude June 7th, 2019.
  • Compensation is $15-$18/hr. depending on experience with the opportunity for a salaried position for the 2019-20 school year.  

Opportunities for additional compensation are available through the ability to organize formal or informal after-school classes, camps during school breaks and/or over the summer.

This is the perfect role for you if…

  • You have experience cultivating authentic, respectful, and partnership-based relationships with people of all ages and will take great joy in leading a Spawn Point (small group of mixed-aged students) that meets each day to connect, set intentions, and reflect together
  • You are a passionate, curious, and joyful person with a variety of interests and abilities that you will enjoy sharing with young people through Offerings made at our Set-the-Week meeting and through spontaneous, self-organized activities
  • You are excited to practice the art of “maximum support with minimal interference” in the context of working with young people
  • You are ready to challenge conventional stereotypes of what it means to go to school
  • You understand and are aligned with the basic principles of Self-Directed Education
  • You are comfortable self-starting, adapting to changing circumstances, not always having the answer, navigating interpersonal relationships, coordinating logistics, and communicating effectively in multiple forms
  • You are, yourself, self-directed: You don’t need to be told what to do in order to be productive in your role; you can notice what needs to be done and take action, while communicating effectively with team members along the way
  • You live in, or are able to relocate to, Helena, MT in the next three months
  • BONUS: You have a driver’s license, are a safe driver, and are comfortable driving a 15-passenger van for field trips
  • BONUS: You are excited to develop a long-term role as an Agile Learning Facilitator
  • BONUS: You can speak multiple languages

How to Apply:

If you have not already done so, read through the entire Agile Learning Centers website and read both volumes of the ALC Starter Kit.

Email us at play@cottonwoodalc.org and send us:

  • A video of you sharing more about yourself, your experience/background, and why you’re excited about the idea of joining the team at Cottonwood ALC. In your video, please answer the following questions:

    • How did you hear about this opportunity at Cottonwood ALC?
    • What unique skills and perspectives would you bring to our community?
    • How does deschooling and/or Self-Directed Education look in your life lately?
  • A very simple written outline of your work/life/learning experiences (no formal resume needed)
  • Two or three relevant references and their contact info
  • Links to any other work or creative projects you’ve contributed to and are proud of

Candidates from all cultures and communities are encouraged to apply.

Cottonwood ALC does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, culture, religion, nor national or ethnic origin.
Priority deadline for applications is Monday, January 7th 2019.

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Another Update on Jerry’s Eye Surgery

Many thanks to the nearly 100 people who were interested in the eye surgery and lent their good wishes. They say the surgery was successful. I took the bandage off my eye in the office. The lens was back where it is supposed to be. They had to drain most of the gel in the back of my eye to find it. It went there through a tear in the capsule. I was conscious through most of the surgery. For example. I remember the macular surgeon saying, “We’re in business!” when he found the lens! It looks like no macular damage in the process, which was a possibility. It is still sore three days later but the vision is getting clearer all the time. I am having trouble putting the two images together but that is getting better, too. They say this was more serious and recovery will take longer. The image was yellowish at first from remaining blood from the process, but that is mostly gone. The other eye is good. And overall, I’m happy. If everything will be OK, I can be patient.

-Jerry Mintz

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Derry Hannam Response To Guardian Story

Derry’s response –

The Guardian has a story about the new East Kent Sudbury School this morning – claims it is a ‘bohemian’ and elitist private school in an area of social deprivation.

Here is my just published letter to the supposedly progressive paper –

“I am a retired state school teacher. I attended a Kent grammar school from a working class background (dad a London bus driver). Most of my primary school friends went to secondary modern schools. I ended up at Oxford University – my primary school friends from secondary moderns did not. In my opinion the 11 plus exam was largely luck so I chose to work as a teacher in a secondary modern school. I was a year 7 Humanities teacher with the same class for half the week. The kids arrived in my class with a terrible sense of failure and having let their parents down. I encouraged them to study things they were interested in and ran the class as a democratic community with a weekly meeting to make and enforce class ‘laws.’ Their confidence began to recover and I had a lot of support from parents. I am still in touch with some of these 60 year-old ‘kids.’ Some, against all the odds, went on to get degrees and one ended up as head of a primary school and a strong believer in ‘student voice.’

It has become very hard for state school teachers who want to work in this way to develop the creativity and curiosity of their pupils. The desperately underfunded state system has become obsessed with testing and is driving many of the best teachers to leave the profession – and many more would if they could.

I am opposed to most private schooling in the UK which functions to reproduce a social elite – (often used by Guardian journalists.) I am deeply attracted to the systems of Finland or Norway where private education is almost non-existent yet innovation is encouraged within their state systems. We need more innovation in our state system and less rigid ‘fear-of-Ofsted’ conformity. Until we have this I support small experiments such as the East Kent Sudbury School which is not aiming to produce a social elite but merely to see what happens if kids are allowed to follow their own interests in a community that is run democratically and grounded in respect for human rights.”

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Complications from Eye Surgery

The cataract surgery for the first eye went well. Frustratingly, the lens in the second eye has rotated and they need to go in again on Wednesday to re-position it. Thanks to all who sent me positive notes. Wish me luck.