Primary (Preschool) Lead Teacher (Anticipated Openings) - Houston, United States - The Fay School

Description

Job Description

Lead Teacher Opportunity

Founded on the principle of building a school "where children come first," The Fay School serves approximately 300 students aged three years to Fifth Grade in the Uptown area of Houston, Texas. It is among the best independent elementary and primary schools in the competitive Houston marketplace. By fostering their emotional intelligence and leadership development while providing challenging and engaging academics, The Fay School prepares its fifth-graders to matriculate to Houston's most sought-after middle schools.

The school is a joyful educational oasis that sits on 8.5 acres of naturally landscaped property where children frequently work and play in its beautiful outdoor setting. Many Fay families speak of the immediate calm they feel as they drive onto the campus, delivering their children to this unique student-focused learning environment. To adapt to the evolving landscape of education and plan its direction for the next three to five years, The Fay School engaged in a partnership with Ian Symmonds & Associates, a leading firm in facilitating innovative strategic planning. The plan was unveiled during the school year, making this an exciting time to be part of a community focused on the future of education and innovative thinking.

The Fay School seeks a candidates who will step into a highly functioning faculty and inspire our school community by advancing the school's strategic priorities. The position is a stellar opportunity for an ambitious, motivated, and visionary teacher, eager to join an evolving school at a critical time in history. The target start date for this permanent ten-month position is August 1st, 2023.

School Mission:

The Fay School is a nonsectarian, not-for-profit, co-educational school in which children of diverse talents and backgrounds with strong academic abilities are offered a high-quality education in a secure, enriching, and academically challenging environment. Here children learn and grow intellectually, physically, socially, ethically, and artistically while developing self-confidence and a lifelong love of learning through an active partnership among educators, parents, and students.

School Vision:

Anchored to a challenging, engaging, and relevant academic program, The Fay School's Leadership Development Program distinguishes itself among all other schools in Houston. Grounded in both emotional intelligence and human capital strategy, The Fay School's vision is to deliberately build and educate the next generation of leaders for our world. Our students experience leadership training and curriculum reserved for Fortune 500 companies, and they graduate from Fay with skills that will serve them for a lifetime.

Signature Programs and Differentiators:

Leadership Development through Emotional Intelligence: A successful leader is someone who inspires growth in self and others. This requires a high degree of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, social-awareness, and relationship skills. The Fay School's Leadership Development Program engages students to cultivate these abilities through reflection, study, communication, and real-world problem solving. By providing opportunities to practice these skills across the curriculum and in real-world settings, we foster student leadership to positively impact the world. At Fay, we believe that humans will undoubtedly be measured by the success of our relationships and our ability to think creatively. The Fay School is committed to the development of these skills and to intentionally empower the next generation of leaders for our world.

Outdoor Education and Environmental Responsibility: The Fay School enjoys one of the most beautiful landscapes in the city of Houston with our very own habitat of abundant green space, including nature trails in our 3-acre Fay Forest. Situated on Buffalo Bayou just upstream of Buffalo Bayou Park, the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, and Memorial Park, The Fay School's ideal location allows for an Outdoor Education curriculum that cultivates both a love and understanding of nature and the encouragement to act on an ethos of environmental responsibility. The Outdoor Education curriculum at Fay, along with other developing initiatives, empowers children with a hands-on experience to explore and learn through our natural world. Children learn how to use tools to discover and gain a science-based understanding of plants and animals in our habitat. Equally as important, our students learn to appreciate the sensory aspect of our habitat, with exposure to art and poetry that is inspired by nature. Ask any child at The Fay School about Outdoor Education and watch them light up with joy and enthusiasm.

Ethnic Diversity: The Fay School's nonsectarian mission, coupled with Houston's status as one of the most diverse cities in the United States, allows for an inclusive student body that is over 34 percent racially/ethnically diverse by NAIS definition.

Position Summary:

The Lead Teacher position is a benefits eligible, full-time position for the term of the school year, typically ten months from August to June. This position reports to the Principal. Lead Teachers create a flexible program and class environment favorable to learning and personal growth. They build rapport with students and motivate them to develop skills, attitudes, and knowledge in accordance with each student's ability. Lead Teachers establish positive relationships with parents and other Fay employees.

Responsibilities include the following:

• Uses a variety of teaching techniques and learning structures suitable to the age and needs of the students and subject matter.
• Maintains daily lesson plans and updates curriculum maps to reflect current student learning.
• Implements curricula within the context of the School's overall program and strategic planning goals such as incorporating the use of the outdoors, experiential learning, and leadership development through emotional intelligence.
• Seeks opportunities to increase students' time in the outdoors and bring the outdoors in.
• Utilizes the Assistant Teacher as outlined in the Assistant Teacher Performance Profile.
• Initiates regular parent communication through class newsletters, progress reports, report cards, individual emails, and phone calls so parents are well informed of events and student progress.
• Uses classroom technology effectively and according to the developmental appropriateness of the grade level. Technology usage is primarily active and creation oriented.
• Maintains and continuously expands pedagogical knowledge using various resources.
• Sets annual goals and works toward them.
• Attends and contributes to weekly team planning time and aligns teaching with grade level team members.
• Attends weekly department meeting prepared to collaborate.
• Attends semi-monthly faculty meetings until 4:30 and in-service days.
• Willing and able to routinely and appropriately use personal smartphone to utilize school apps to communicate, collaborate, and fulfill responsibilities as outlined in this Performance Profile.

Competency Profile:

• Celebrates diversity and is proactively inclusive of all racial, cultural, socio-economic, religious, and gender groups.
• Embraces the four domains of Responsive Classroom: Engaging Academics, Positive Community, Effective Management, and Developmentally Responsive Teaching.
• Exhibits self-awareness and self-monitoring in identifying and solving student, curricular, and school problems. At the same time, the teacher understands the vision, the mission, the strategic plan, and all policies of the school and, when questions or concerns arise, raises them with appropriate colleagues and supervisors.
• Demonstrates effective written and oral communication skills.
• Differentiates instruction to meet the needs of all learners.
• Fosters collaboration among team to build curricula and ensure others are well informed of changes, initiatives, and progress.
• Embraces feedback and a culture of continuous improvement.
• Displays attitudes and actions that contribute to a healthy and collegial teacher culture.
• Supports and actively promotes the organization. Positively reflects the organization's core values and addresses actions that don't align with those values.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree
• Ability to enthusiastically work both indoors and outdoors in various weather conditions including rain, cold, heat, etc. and on various surfaces, some inclined, including grass, dirt, trails, decking, pavement, and concrete.
• Ability to perform sustained standing and walking, navigating stairs, kneeling, lifting, and carrying up to 20 lbs., monitoring children and the immediate environment visibly and audibly and the ability to give audible instructions that can be understood by English speakers in a loud environment.
• Commitment to ongoing learning including participating in at least eight hours of summer professional development such as a conference, book or research on a topic approved by the Principal.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office and Teams