Peninsula School Hiring for Part Time Drama Teacher Full Time

Peninsula School

Specialist teachers work as part of the whole school team, sequencing and coordinating curriculum and managing miscellaneous logistics to serve our children. Specialist teachers are provided flexibility in their classrooms to enable them to best serve the needs and interests of their students while remaining true to the mission, values, and progressive pedagogy of the school.

Job Title: Drama Teacher 0.5FTE (with benefits)

Salary Range: $33,255-$44,880, depending on experience

The drama program is designed to nurture each student’s capacity for self-expression through the dramatic arts. Through emotional exploration, appropriate risk, and self-reflection, students develop self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-love. Students are supported as they work in small and larger groups to balance their own needs with the needs of the whole. They develop their empathy and their capacity to honor difference, and become engaged and loving community members.

Primary duties and responsibilities:

• Support and promote Peninsula School’s mission and values
• Provide a flexible, progressive program using instructional methods and materials that are responsive and appropriate to the intellectual, social and emotional needs of students and that fosters their positive learning and personal growth
• Maintain a cooperative classroom environment that encourages problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, and intellectual curiosity
• Create and maintain a welcoming, safe, equitable and respectful learning environment that honors and values the learning and cultural diversity of the student population
• Remain current on educational research, topics and progressive practices
• Participate in and contribute to the school’s process of continual reflection and evolution of its program
• Collaborate and communicate constructively with other teaching staff, AHOS, Director of E&B and Learning Specialists
• Recognize and address the unique needs and varied learning styles of all children, ensuring each child’s progress in all areas
• Develop and implement teaching units that explore and examine multiple cultures, ethnicities, perspectives, lifestyles, lived experiences and identities
• Monitor student learning
• Build class community by fostering students’ social/emotional learning
• Integrate anti-racist principles and practices into teaching and learning.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

• Teaching and Learning:
• Class Instruction -Develop, plan and teach developmentally appropriate drama units to K-4 classes.
• Annual Productions
• Choice – Implement choice units
• Upper School Activities as the schedule allows

• Communications with families:
• Clearly articulate program and developmental goals to parents
• Clearly communicate student learning to students and parents
• Maintain open lines of communication with parents

• Provide a model for positive leadership
• Reflect on Practice:
• Examine and evaluate classroom program and teaching regularly and adjust as needed
• Define at least one PD goal and complete a PD (in addition to in-service learning) according to your goals and in agreement with a supervisor

• Collaboration:
• Support an open door policy for classrooms and meetings for teaching colleagues and program administrators, appropriate to role
• Participate in coaching conversations and peer-review on an as needed basis
• Logistics:
• Be in the classroom with materials ready to teach classes in a timely manner

Other Responsibilities

• Attend and contribute positively at staff meetings, inservice meetings, and other meetings and school events as applicable
• Participate in school committees as needed

Qualifications and Requirements

• B.A. required.
• Experience with teaching drama to K-8 children
• Passionate about working with children
• Adept in facilitating group dynamics among mixed ages
• Ability to work with a diverse population
• Embracing progressive education ideals
• Caring, flexible, creative, organized, good judgment, sense of humor
• Current first aid, CPR, certification(s) a plus

Competencies

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging – A demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and an ability to work with and support a diverse population of students and families. An ability to remain sensitive to the experiences of students, parents and faculty in all situations and integrate feedback into practice.
• Growth Mindset – Recognizes the importance of learning and adopting and modeling a growth mindset. Stays abreast of best practices in schools and in supporting positive child and youth development, enthusiastically seeks out professional growth opportunities.
• Relational Skills – Ability to relate well to a wide range of people, including building rapport with students, parents, faculty, staff, and administrators. Willingness to work to understand the culture of the school. Knowledge of each child’s challenges and strengths. Skill with conflict resolution, consensus building and decision-making.
• Emotional Intelligence, Regulation, and Maturity – Ability to interact with individuals in heightened emotional states and navigate complex and emotionally challenging situations involving children and adults. A high degree of emotional stability, ability to separate one’s own emotions from a situation, and ability to maintain perspective in the midst of emotional situations is essential. A willingness to center children.
• Communications Skills – Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of constituents. Maintains open communications channels with teaching staff, parents and administrators. Able to present information formally and informally in an effective manner both through oral presentations or conversation and through written means. Has a strong understanding of the power of word choice and the need for a high level of tact and professional, accurate communication.
• Time Management Skills – Ability to manage many tasks and projects simultaneously and to prioritize them appropriately.
• Organizational Skills – Ability to balance many tasks and processes, including keeping track of progress on longer term projects or goals, managing details accurately, and following through in a timely fashion.
• Problem Solving Skills – Ability to consider a broad range of internal and external factors when solving problems. Grasps complexities and perceives relationships among different problems or issues. Uses various solution-focused problem-solving strategies appropriate to the situation, including enlisting and seeking advice from others when appropriate.
• Strategic Thinking Skills – Ability to work with others to gather, synthesize, and analyze quantitative and qualitative information and to develop plans for meeting short and long-range goals which support student learning and growth and advance the broader strategic direction of the school.
• Child-Centered: ability to center children, the Mission Statement and the values of the school.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, ability to adjust focus, and sound hearing. The ability to speak clearly and coherently is required. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands, talk and hear. The employee is frequently required to reach with hands and arms. On occasion, the employee is required to stand, walk, stoop, kneel, or crouch. Employee is required to operate a computer and office productivity machinery, communicate across a variety of media, and work in close proximity to others. The role may also require the employee to work in inclement weather during special activities and work at a desk for extended periods of time.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to listen, physically direct, and speak. The employee is required to sit (sometimes for extended periods); stand; walk on a variety of surfaces; climb stairs, bend and squat when communicating with younger students; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision and ability to adjust focus.

The noise and activity level in the work environment is variable, with times of quiet and times of high stimulation and activity.

The mental and emotional demands of the position are considerable. The employee will interact with individuals in heightened emotional states and will encounter complex and emotionally challenging situations involving children and adults.

Job Type: Part-time

Pay: $33,255.00 – $44,880.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Menlo Park, CA 94025: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

Experience:

• Teaching: 1 year (Preferred)

Work Location: One location