Employment

Attributes of High Meadow School Teachers

The Administration of High Meadow School is looking for teachers and staff that are intelligent, curious, passionate, committed to their own lifelong learning and have the capacity for hard work. We seek teachers and staff members who truly love and respect children, that are dedicated to working in innovative and creative ways, who can relate and work with colleagues using respectful and open communication and who will support and reflect the mission and philosophy of High Meadow School.

High Meadow School teachers are expected to:

…plan interesting, engaging, developmentally appropriate curriculum with input from the children and their colleagues and administrators. This process should entail research, preparation and the ongoing adjustment of the classroom space to suit the needs of the children and curriculum goals.

…continually challenge themselves to learn and grow. Staff enrichment and training enables the teacher to remain aware of research in the fields of education in general and their subject matter in particular and help to continually expand the appropriate tools and methods available for classroom teaching. Enrichment days are specifically set aside for this purpose, the topics of which are often determined by the staff. Staff may also request to participate in training opportunities and workshops provided outside of the school. In these cases, High Meadow School makes every attempt to pay for these opportunities in full or in part.

…develop and research classroom management skills and methods that are consistent with High Meadow School’s philosophy. All staff members are responsible for all the children at High Meadow School and thus we are all responsible for upholding the Code of Conduct in the most respectful manner we can. The Head of School and Finance Director are available resources for help in this area.

… help with the ongoing development and training of new staff members. We are all responsible for educating new members about critical information, High Meadow School rituals and values and teaching tools.

…ensure every child’s safety to the best of their ability. Students must always be supervised whenever they are outside. It is critically important for teachers to either directly supervise or arrange for the supervision of the children in their care during daytime recess. If the teacher must leave, do so only when certain that there is sufficient supervision.Teachers may be asked to cover lunchtime recess or bus dismissal should the need arise.

… keep their rooms and community spaces neat and tidy and cooperate with the weekly schedule of staff room cleanup.

…attend weekly staff and reflective team meetings as well as trimester staff development days. Part-time staff are expected to attend one meeting per week, depending on their schedule. Assistants may attend as their schedule allows or if asked to by their supervising teacher.

… make themselves available to colleagues who wish to discuss children and/or curriculum. Teachers will be provided team planning and meeting time within the school day. Teachers should also meet with arts teachers to plan curriculum and discuss the children’s work. Meetings can be scheduled either during that particular arts period or as is convenient for all parties.

Additional Responsibilities for Arts and Specials Teachers

Staff Meetings: Arts and Specials Teachers must attend 1 paid staff meeting per week. Arts teachers are also paid to attend a monthly arts meeting.

Reports: all Specials and Arts Teachers are required to produce end-of-year reports for 4th through 8th grade. Rubrics and narratives are acceptable. It is suggested that you look at past year reports to help you develop your reports’ structure and form.

Reflective Practice and Evaluation of Teachers

Evaluation: Teachers identify personal professional goals and classroom goals at the beginning of each school year. These are discussed with the Education Director and may be amended during this process. New teachers are formally observed in the classroom twice but are regularly informally observed. Evaluations are focused on 2 aspects of performance including the teacher’s progress on achieving his/her goals and the alignment of that teacher’s work with the mission of the school, developmental needs/ phase of the students, curriculum goals and progress on their own goals.

Reflective Practice: Each week teachers meet with their reflective team to discuss how work on their goals is proceeding, share work on curriculum, gain insights into particular students through discussion and observation and assess him/herself.

Probationary Teachers: These are teachers in their 1st and 2nd year at High Meadow School. Probationary teachers are expected to meet with the Education Director frequently. The Education Director will observe probationary teachers numerous times throughout the year and will produce 2 observations that include a narrative of the lesson and notes and discuss teacher’s goals. The Education Director will also provide resources to and advise teachers about select readings, methods and modes of learning to try in the classroom and perform additional observations as needed.

LINKS

Progressive Education Reference sites
www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html