Elementary School Educator Responsibilities
1. Classroom Culture & Student Well-being
- Foster Student Belonging: Cultivate a caring, joyful, and purposeful learning community where all students feel valued, respected, and motivated.
- Promote Social-Emotional Learning: Utilize principles like Responsive Classroom to support the physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being of every student.
- Uphold School Values: Model the school's Core Values of respect, responsibility, honesty, fairness, and compassion in all interactions with students, staff, and the community.
- Implement Culturally Responsive Practices: Create a learning environment that is culturally responsive and affirming of students identities.
2. Curriculum & Instructional Planning
- Standards-Based Planning: Use a planning framework to identify essential learning based on Common Core State Standards (CCSS), learning targets, and a culturally responsive curriculum.
- Interdisciplinary & Real-World Connections: Design curriculum that demonstrates an understanding of interdisciplinary teaching and connects learning to real-world issues.
- Collaborative Curriculum Development: Work with PLC teams and administration to develop cohesive curriculum materials, establish common goals, and participate in curriculum review and budgeting.
3. Pedagogy & Instructional Delivery
- High-Impact Instruction: Employ current, research-informed pedagogical practices and high-impact instructional strategies to deliver engaging lessons.
- Differentiated Learning Experiences: Design and implement collaborative and differentiated learning experiences that meet the diverse academic and social-emotional needs of all students.
- Flexible Grouping: Use data to flexibly group students based on their individual needs, abilities, and assets.
- Technology Integration: Integrate technology in innovative ways to enhance daily instruction and student learning.
- Responsive Interventions: Respond to learners diverse needs, including those related to emerging multilingualism and neurodivergent profiles, by using measurable, research-informed interventions and extensions.
4. Assessment & Data-Driven Practices
- Comprehensive Assessment System: Design and use a variety of quality formative, summative, and self-guided assessments to provide students with frequent feedback.
- Monitor and Adjust: Continuously monitor student learning through standards-based assessments and data analysis to make appropriate modifications to goals and strategies.
- Communicate Progress: Use assessment data to accurately communicate student growth and achievement.
5. Collaboration & Professional Growth
- Engage in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): Actively collaborate with team members to plan curriculum, give and receive feedback, and engage in professional reflection and learning.
- Practice Co-Teaching: Engage in co-teaching practices and utilize flexible learning spaces with intention and purpose.
- Commit to Continuous Improvement: Strive for self-improvement as a lifelong learner by actively engaging in professional development and feedback cycles with coaches and principals.
- Support School-Wide Programs: Cooperate with and participate in the planning and evaluation of the overall school program as needed.
6. Community & Family Engagement
- Extend Learning Beyond the Classroom: Engage students in meaningful extracurricular activities such as coaching, clubs, field trips, or service projects.
- Build Strong Partnerships: Connect with and be available to parents and students during and outside of school hours through in-person meetings and email communication.
Role Specific Responsibilities:
The Early Years Music Teacher designs, builds, and facilitates a developmentally responsive music program aligned with SAS's Institutional Commitments and the Reggio-inspired philosophy of the Early Learning Center. In this role, music is approached as a language for thinking, expression, and connection-supporting children's agency, curiosity, and sense of belonging.
Primary Responsibilities
- Pedagogical Design: Design and implement an emergent, inquiry-based music program that aligns with the Reggio-inspired philosophy of the ELC.
- Inquiry-Based Learning: Plan and facilitate play-based, inquiry-informed music experiences that are responsive to young children's interests and developmental needs.
- Inclusive Practice: Ensure all learning experiences are developmentally appropriate, inclusive, and accessible to the diverse needs of all learners.
- Student Agency: Support children's agency, creativity, and joy through the intentional exploration of sound, movement, and rhythm.
- Environmental Stewardship: Curate an open-ended collection of musical materials, instruments, and resources that invite exploration, provocation, and creativity.
- Documentation & Reflection: Observe and document children's learning processes to inform instruction, reflect on professional practice, and share meaningful learning stories with the community.
- Collaborative Culture: Contribute positively to a collaborative professional culture, maintaining a shared responsibility for student learning and well-being.
- Ethical Engagement: Demonstrate deep respect for young children as competent, creative, and capable learners.
Position Requirements & Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in relevant field (i.e. early childhood/elementary education or music, etc)
- Master's Degree in relevant field preferred
- Teaching license or a degree in education
- At least two years of full-time teaching experience is preferred.
- Proficient knowledge of early childhood learning environments.
- Understanding of a Reggio Approach to early years education preferred.
- A strong affinity for young children.
- Proven ability to design and implement effective programs for children with diverse differences.
- Experience teaching multilingual learners in general classroom settings preferred
- Excellent verbal and written English language skills
- Confident technology skills for teaching and administrative tasks
Working Requirements
- Sponsoring and/or coaching after school activities are part of the responsibility of the professional educator. Therefore, faculty shall be available to coach and/or sponsor an athletic team or other extra curricular activity. Each faculty member is expected to do a minimum of one category 1 activity or sport per year.
- Mandatory attendance of school orientation and participation in a minimum of four evening and/or weekend school activities each year, as assigned (including Back-to-School Night).
- Attend Responsive Classroom professional learning (virtual), specified by the school, in the months prior to the official start of employment.
