Inner Fire Academy is a new microschool going into our 3rd year. We have two mixed age classes (K-2 and 3rd-5th) of 4-8 students each. Learn more about us at www.innerfiresf.com
We are looking for a full time lead teacher for our 3rd-5th pod. Our school year runs Aug 21-Jun 6: we've already started but could use the help mid-year. You will work closely with the lead teacher of the K-2 pod, and with the head of school. You will be responsible for curriculum planning (a lot of this is in place already that you can use), lesson delivery, and class management within your pod.
Inner Fire is different from a traditional school in several big ways:
Challenges:
- The entire staff is two teachers and a TA. That means you are also the nurse, the janitor, the recess monitor etc.
- There are no 100% full break periods during the day, the students are always with us. But there are many independent, asynchronous work periods and recesses as partial breaks.
- Our students have diverse levels, gifts and challenges, so education is highly personalizedyou will often need to prepare different versions of a lesson plans, or additional enrichment
Advantages:
- You only have max 8 students, so you can give each a lot of your attention. Also less work to correct.
- We have a lot of flexibility over the daily/weekly/annual schedule, and can easily make changes mid semester if helpful
- Lots of flexibility in what we teach and how we teach it. Your only administrator is the other co-teacher if you're doing something that works well no one will tell you to change it
Candidates MUST meet the following baseline requirements:
- Prior experience managing groups of 5-10 year olds. (Does not have to be a classroom. Camps, tutoring, homeschool pods, are okay. Having raised your own family is even better.)
- Genuine passion for learning and a strong academic record. You will be teaching ambitious, gifted kids who know a lot and want to work hard to do well. You are their academic role model.
- An understanding of the shortcomings of traditional school classrooms and eager openness to doing things differently in a microschool environment. We exist for the kids that don't do well in a typical class, so we are not a typical class.
- Legal ability to work in the US.
An IDEAL candidate will also have:
- Prior classroom teaching experience at any TK-5 level. (Credential not required, but at least a year leading a classroom.)
- Passion and expertise in the STEM fields, especially math. The other co-teacher has a strong arts background that this would complement well. Ideally you would be able to teach math to both pods.
- Fluency in Mandarin Chinese is a big plus. Our students all speak English, but we offer Spanish and Mandarin as second languages. The K-2 teacher is a native Spanish speaker and can support that side, we'd love more help with Mandarin.
This is a salaried position. Compensation is $60,000-$85,000 depending on experience and qualifications. Unfortunately we are unable to offer benefits at this time.
If interested, please indicate in your response 1) Why you are interested in a microschool; 2) Your approach/philosophy for effectively managing a 3rd grade classroom; 3) What are your strongest academic and what shows your passion for them.