Learning Specialist/Teacher SY 2014-2015-Brooklyn, NY

The Lefferts Gardens Charter School (LGCS) opened its doors September 2010 with 150 students, kindergarten and first grade. This year we will have over 375 students, grades K-4. We are adding a grade each year until we reach full capacity at 450 students. Our school uses an experiential learning model with the scientific method of inquiry as its focus. We are looking for teachers who are interested in collaboration as well as personal development and growth. All teachers at LGCS must be willing to work with other teachers and help model the belief that learning is a life-long experience.

Our Mission: The Lefferts Gardens Charter School (LGCS) will utilize an environmental science program to develop academically motivated and civic-minded students to succeed in competitive high school and college programs. The proximity of several community-based environmental institutions provides a unique opportunity for learning that extends beyond the classroom. Graduates of LGCS will leave with an understanding of the relationship among science, the environment, and the everyday world.

School Model: Using the scientific method of inquiry as the basis for all learning, we will be able to give our students the skills that establish a foundation for learning any subject. Coming up with a hypothesis, testing it, examining the results and modifying the hypothesis are learning skills that can be applied to math, science, social studies, or even art. These skills will give our students the unique opportunity to become leaders of our community and stewards of the environment.

The Learning Specialist is responsible for ensuring that all students in his or her class are achieving at high levels both academically and socially, and is fully included while serving as a model for his or her colleagues on excellent instruction. To that end, he or she:

ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Believes that all students can learn and commitment to supporting varied learning styles and needs.
• Plans purposefully in order to provide individual students with opportunities for constructing meaning and developing understandings of new concepts.
• Utilizes developmentally appropriate and rigorous curricula and instructional materials that are tightly aligned to Lefferts Gardens Charter School benchmarks and New York State common core standards.
• Presents students with new ideas and concepts through a variety of strategies, and inspires and guides them to explore, express and uncover new ideas of their own.
• Administers, collects, and analyzes both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from a variety of assessments on each student.
• Reflects regularly on data from student assessments alone and with colleagues, administration, or students’ families in order to in order to inform his or her work, modify practices, and increase student achievement.
• Collaborates with other colleagues in designing and co-teaching lessons that integrate science into other content areas and classroom routines when appropriate in order to promote science and improve student achievement.
• Modifies existing instructional plans as necessary to accommodate individual student’s special need.
• Builds relationships with his or her students’ families through regular communication about students’ progress and ways in which families can support their children’s learning.
• Serves as a resource to all teachers on excellent instruction by providing feedback on their work in the classroom, modeling instructional approaches, and referring teachers to relevant resources.
• Builds relationships with his or her students’ families through regular communication about students’ progress and ways in which families can support their children’s learning.
• Regularly participates in school-wide student assessments in order to diagnose students’ needs. These include Tier 1 assessments administered to all students to screen for special needs, and Tier 2 assessments administered to targeted students to monitor progress.
• Refers students when necessary for special services through either the existing school resources, or the more formal Committee on Special Education.
• Attends CSE meetings to provide student updates on progress.
• Updates student’s progress in New York City SEISS database system.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

SCHOOL CULTURE

• Creates a classroom community that maintains the school’s high social expectations for students as defined by the Lefferts Gardens Charter School operating principles.
• Leads, in collaboration with the school’s leadership team, the on-going effort to establish a school culture that reinforces the school’s mission, goals, and operating principles within all aspects of the Lefferts Gardens Charter School community including, but not limited to, his or her classroom practices, model lessons, and efforts to build a model classroom community.

Human Resources and On-going Development

• Actively works to improve his or her own practice in order to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for excellent instruction and to generally increase his or her effectiveness in the organization.
• Actively strives to embody the operating principles in his or her work.
• Operates according to the professional standards of the school, which are defined in detail within the schools’ staff policies and procedures handbook.
• Takes responsibility for the success of the organization by maximizing all opportunities to further the mission of the organization within the school, broader Lefferts Gardens’ community, and New York City communities.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education, Master’s Degree preferred.
• Three years or more of teaching experience in an urban setting, preferred.
• Strong classroom management skills.
• NYS Teacher SWD Certification, required.

LGCS welcomes applicants to submit a thoughtful cover letter, resume to the attention of the Hiring Committee at[email protected].

Please place the position you are interested in on the subject line of the email. We will accept applicant until each position has been filled with the very best candidate.

TIMEFRAME:

• Teachers are required to be on-site from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm four days a week, and from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm on Thursdays for professional development.
• Teachers begin the year in mid-August for a mandatory two-week Summer Institute prior to the start of the year school year.
• Compensation is competitive and commensurate with experience. Benefits are provided in accordance with school policy.