Grade 5 Humanities Teacher (Anticipated)

Peabody School seeks an experienced, creative, energetic, collaborative educator to serve as its Grade 5 Humanities Teacher.  Responsibilities would include teaching 5th Grade English and/or Social Studies, advising, and participating fully in the elective and extracurricular programs of the school.  

BASIC FUNCTION:
The ideal candidate will have at least three years of experience teaching English or Social Studies, a strong academic background, a passion for teaching upper elementary or middle School students, the ability to develop student interest and enthusiasm for the subject matter, and the acumen to provide challenging and skillfully differentiated instruction for gifted and academically advanced students.  Additionally, strong and demonstrable skill in teaching academic writing is essential.  

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Understands the academic, social, and emotional needs of academically advanced/gifted learners, and creates a learning environment that allows them the opportunity to activate their creativity and ingenuity

• Develops lesson plans, instructional objectives, and instructional materials, and provides individualized and small group instruction to adapt the curriculum to the needs of the students

• Creates and maintains a learning environment in which all students are actively engaged and are contributing members

• Facilitates, monitors, and assesses student learning appropriately and effectively

• Uses a broad repertoire of teaching skills and techniques 

• Establishes and maintains standards of student behavior to achieve an effective learning atmosphere

• Works with middle school language art/social studies teachers to ensure continuity of subject matter

QUALIFICATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS:

Qualified candidates should have an understanding and the ability to respond to the distinct needs of middle school students as well as:

• A bachelor’s degree in Middle School or Secondary English or Social Studies Education or an English, writing, or literature related degree. Advanced degrees preferred.


• 3-5 years of teaching experience, preferably at the middle school level

• A desire to work with gifted and academically advanced students


• Superior written and verbal communication skills 


• An interest in academic writing and the ability to convey research writing skills to students


• An in-depth understanding of traditional grammar


• An understanding of best practices for teaching content area skills: reading comprehension, literary analysis, written response to literature, argumentative writing, and grammar application


• Ability to manage a classroom while pulling small groups to differentiate instruction


• Familiarity with independent school culture


• Knowledge of and desire to utilize authentic, age-appropriate technology integration


• Creative, energetic, and positive approach to teaching


• Ability and willingness to customize instruction within an established curricular framework