Making Waves Academy Hiring for Teacher, Special Education Full Time

As a staff member at Making Waves Academy, you will find:

• Mission accountability: We intentionally track our students to and through college.
• Professional development: We invest in training and professional development for teachers, including weekly sessions onsite and opportunities to attend external trainings.
• Holistic support for students: Students receive a variety of supports and services including extended day academic support, clinical psychological counseling, social-emotional development, and social work services.
• Technology-connected classrooms: We engage in a 1:1 Chromebook model with advanced teacher technology resources, programs, and applications for the classroom. Mobile smart boards support classrooms that are technologically connected, flexible, and that support differentiated learning.
• State-of-the-art facilities: Our school is newly built and features and includes open learning areas adjacent to classrooms that support collaboration, science labs, art and music rooms, a Maker Space, a parent resource center, dedicated space for restorative justice and holistic support, a playground, turf field, a gymnasium, and a performance art space.
• Competitive compensation and benefits: Teachers and staff at Making Waves Academy receive a benefits and compensation package that is nearly unparalleled in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Benefits

Teachers and staff at Making Waves Academy receive a benefits and compensation package that is nearly unparalleled in the San Francisco Bay Area. Highlights include:

• COLA Stipend – Making Waves Academy offers a significant COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) stipend (in addition to competitive base salaries) for all full-time employees, intended to help employees supplement income to address Bay Area housing costs, student debt, and/or child care.
• Medical Benefits – Our medical benefits include full coverage (medical, dental, vision, and chiropractic & acupuncture) for you and a spouse/domestic partner OR you and any number of children/dependents.
• Retirement Benefits – We offer retirement benefits (CalSTRS for instructional staff and an elective 403(b) matching program for non-instructional staff).
• Tuition Assistance Program – MWA offers tuition assistance for employees taking college courses in pursuit of additional advanced degrees (employees are eligible after two years of service with MWA).
• Tenure Bonuses – MWA employees are eligible to receive bonuses after 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 years of service.
• Employee Children Education – Children of full-time MWA faculty and staff will be moved to the front of the lottery list for 5th-8th grades.
• Electric vehicle charging: Free charging for electric vehicles on campus

Position Summary
The role of the Special Education Teacher is to work with students who have special needs in their regular classroom or a separate, designated classroom. As a Special Education Teacher, you focus on providing extra help and individualized learning techniques to students with disabilities or special needs. Your job duties include collaborating with general education teachers to determine how to best accommodate and modify lessons based on each student’s individual needs, working with your students to enable them to learn at their pace, and communicating progress and challenges to parents. Students on IEPs are included in the general education environment for a majority of the school day. Teachers are expected to actively engage and participate in culture building, including but not limited to the classroom, lunch and recess/break supervision, and hallway norm expectations. Teachers are also expected to invest and engage in the work of developing a results-oriented, data-informed, collegial, and productive, team-oriented approach to the work.

Primary Responsibilities

Instruction/Support

• Create and revise culturally relevant, effective, best practice, and MWA-compliant unit and lesson plans aligned with Common Core and California State curricular standards; these lesson plans and unit plans are differentiated and designed to engage and challenge middle and high school students.
• Support students in a manner that enables them to learn at their pace, also communicating progress and challenges to parents/guardians.
• Plan, prepare and deliver differentiated curriculum based on content standards and grade-level expectations.
• Provide targeted academic intervention to support students’ progress toward IEP goals.
• Implement and maintain a positive behavior support program using appropriate techniques that complement treatment for the students.
• Participate in collaborative meetings with the SPED department and grade-level general education teachers to support the caseload of students with IEPs.
• Complete required documentation for IEPs and Progress s in a timely manner.
• Differentiate instruction according to varied learning styles, including child cognitive and social development.

Assessment

• Create and consistently use Formative and Summative Assessments that embed and provide students practice for unit tests, finals, and standardized tests such as the PSAT, SAT, and SBAC.
• Manage a formalized student and parent engagement plan that details engaging students and parents, as well as provides metrics to measure growth and development, socially and academically, on a quarterly basis.
• Administer, analyze and reflect upon quantitative and qualitative student data (school wide benchmark data and classroom data) to inform instructional practice.
• Administer academic assessments as part of education specialist duties pertaining to IEP evaluations (initial and triennial).

Additional Responsibilities and Expectations

Mission Alignment

• Communicate with, teach and build relationships with staff, faculty, students, and their families in the culturally and linguistically diverse MWA community.
• Commitment to become an active participant in the school community – attend weekly division-specific professional development sessions, school performances, school assemblies, extracurricular activities, and field trips if needed.

Other

• Perform additional duties as assigned.

Work Environment

This job operates in a classroom environment. This role routinely uses standard classroom equipment such as art-related supplies, laptop computers, photocopiers, whiteboards, and Chromebooks.

Physical Demands

While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be required to adhere to the following:

• Frequently walk across the middle and upper school campus.
• Participate in campus supervision duty each week – Monday through Friday frequency may vary based on the supervision assignment each semester.
• Lift files, open filing cabinets and bend or stand on a stool as necessary, and sit for long periods.

Travel

Some travel is required for MWA-related events, such as workshops or conferences.

Qualifications

Experience

• Teaching experience is desirable, but related work experience may be considered
• Knowledge of child cognitive development and different learning styles
• Experience working with students and families from historically underserved communities
• Dedication, commitment, and resilience to succeed in an urban public school
• Ability to create lesson plans
• Familiarity with reading and analyzing data
• Previous mentorship experience desirable
• Understanding and ability to implement restorative justice practices
• Strong understanding of California’s A-G college readiness requirements

Skills

• Highly effective communication skills
• Skills in designing and revising authentic, culturally relevant, standards-based lesson plans for high school students
• Ability to adapt and align with school-related initiatives
• Highly organized, goal-oriented, and focused on outcomes
• Ability to communicate with, teach and build relationships with students and their families in the culturally and linguistically diverse MWA community
• Demonstrate an understanding of technology and literacy learning platforms (PowerSchool, Canvas, Blackboard, Google Drive and Calendar, Khan Academy, Newsela, Zinc/Springboard, etc.)
• Professional orientation – appearance, communication, organization, and attitude

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree required
• California Education Specialist Instruction Credential (Mild/Moderate) or current/eligible enrollment in a CTC-approved program required
• RICA Certifications
• English Learner Authorization Certificate – CLAD/BCLAD or current/eligible enrollment in a CTC-approved program required
• Passing scores on CBEST and CSET required
• California Commission on Teacher Credentialing Certificate of Clearance (COC) required

Preferred

• Advanced Degree desirable
• Spanish language proficiency preferred but not required
• Strong desire to work in a team-first setting where colleagues hold one another accountable and support one another to be at their best in lesson preparation and instruction

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $58,436.00 – $127,458.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Professional development assistance
• Referral program
• Retirement plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Supplemental pay types:

• Signing bonus

Ability to commute/relocate:

• RICHMOND, CA 94806: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

License/Certification:

• Special Education Certification (Preferred)

Work Location: One location