(2024-2025) Special Education Teacher (Mixed Resource & Inclusive Setting)

About the position

The position involves creating lesson and unit plans that support instructional outcomes and reflect important concepts in the discipline. The educator will provide clear and accurate classroom explanations, feedback to students, and work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure interdisciplinary connections are planned and practiced. The role requires ensuring that educational outcomes are challenging, allow for student choice, and utilize varied resources. Additionally, the educator must ensure that assessments adequately measure student mastery of the content and plan instructional outcomes that accommodate students of varied abilities. The educator is expected to create an environment of respect and rapport, encouraging respectful communication, acknowledging students' backgrounds, and modeling politeness and fairness. Establishing a culture for learning is crucial, where high expectations for learning and participation are promoted, and classroom routines are established to minimize loss of instructional time. Utilizing effective instructional strategies is key, including creating high cognitive challenge questions, facilitating student-led discussions, and creating learning tasks that invite students to explain their thinking. The educator must also display professionalism and commitment to the Audubon community by reflecting on their instruction, maintaining accurate documentation of student progress, and communicating effectively with families.

Responsibilities

• Create lesson and unit plans that support instructional outcomes and reflect important concepts in the discipline
• Provide clear and accurate classroom explanations
• Provide feedback to students that furthers learning
• Work with colleagues to assure interdisciplinary connections are planned and practiced
• Ensure educational outcomes are of a challenging cognitive level
• Ensure alignment of outcomes, activities and skills
• Ensure assessments adequately measure student mastery of presented content
• Plan and implement instructional outcomes which allow differentiation for students of varied abilities
• Encourage and model respectful talk, active listening and turn taking
• Acknowledge students' backgrounds and lives outside of the classroom
• Exhibit body language indicative of warmth and caring to students
• Encourage and model politeness and support for all community members
• Encourage and model fairness in all interactions
• Encourage high expectations for both learning and participation
• Create a culture that promotes high expectations for expression and work products
• Establish smooth functioning classroom routines
• Create classroom routines where students play an important role
• Create and pose questions of high cognitive challenge
• Facilitate and encourage high levels of student participation in student led discussion
• Create learning tasks that require high-level student thinking
• Create effectively paced lessons
• Gather and use evidence of student understanding to inform instruction and remediation
• Assist students in assessing their own work against established criteria
• Reflect and refine instruction based on feedback from others and self-reflection
• Maintain accurate documentation of student progress
• Communicate with families regarding the program and student progress
• Cultivate positive two-way communication between school and families
• Create frequent opportunities for families to engage in the learning process
• Regularly work with colleagues to share and plan for student success
• Participate in professional development opportunities that emphasize improving practice
• Regularly participate in or initiate school activities which further the mission of the school
• Support students even in the face of difficult situations or conflicting policies
• Fulfill organizational mandates regarding policies and procedures

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required
• Certification or ability to gain certification as a Teacher in instructional area
• Experience creating and successfully managing a classroom environment
• Experience in and/or understanding of the public school system including charter schools is desirable

Nice-to-haves

• Master's degree in education or related field
• Montessori or National Board Certification
• Certification in multiple instructional areas