A New Leaf School Nashville
Nashville TN
Start Date: July 23, 2023
A New Leaf is looking to hire an elementary school teacher. We are looking for a qualified and passionate individual who can inspire and educate a mixed age group of 12 young students who are together on a learning journey at our Farm Campus.
We are looking for a candidate who is creative, and has excellent communication skills to collaborate in team work. The candidate should be able to develop and implement effective teaching strategies that meet the diverse needs of our students, hold a Bachelor’s degree in Education or Special Education, and have prior experience in teaching elementary school students in a classroom setting and with small groups in a special education setting. We are looking for someone who loves animals from bees, spiders, and snakes to chickens and goats, a person who loves to be outdoors in nature and would be thrilled to combine explicit learning inside long term projects that involve ecology, gardening, and sustainability. The ability to build meaningful social emotional projects to grow self assured responsible humans who are culturally aware is also important.
**Responsibilities for the job position also include, but are not limited to:**
– Creating a positive and safe learning environment by enforcing classroom rules and procedures
– Read and train to work with the Reggio Emilia inspiration to education.
– Integrate the big picture of the emergent curriculum with activities and projects that address the Tennessee Standards and meet your students’ needs.
– Plan explorations, lessons, activities, and projects serve to enhance the education of the children following common observed interests or developmental needs.
– Writing lesson plans weekly, and assemble materials necessary as you prepare the environment for learning both indoors and outdoors in all kinds of weather.
– Build students’ social competencies and self-esteem.
– Create various types of documentation to reflect on your practices, and to make the learning visible to the students, families, and the community.
– Develop portfolios for each of your students.
– Assessing student progress. Communicate progress and delays with the director and with parents.
– Participate in weekly meetings with other educators at our school and in professional development.
– Prepare for parent engagement with different types of “homework”, parent-teacher conferences, evening events, and festivals.
– Collaborate with other teachers and farm educators to implement school-wide initiatives.
– Maintain clean and tidy learning spaces consistent with health and safety standards.
**Requirements**
– Bachelors, or Masters degree in elementary education or Special Education.
– Excellent communication.
– Excellent organization.
– Ability to work in teams as well as independently.
– Ability to act as mediator between children.
– Ability to integrate and isolate the teaching of language arts and numeracy.
– Stamina to hike on a hill and endurance for bug bites, ticks, and other wild-life.
– Certification in adult/child/infant first aid and CPR (or willing to get the training).
– FBI background and criminal check, health report (when you receive our offer).
**Schedule:**
– Monday to Friday, 40 hours a week.
– Most days at school are between 8:00am and 3:15pm.
– Planned work at home or school to finish documentation or weekly intentions.
– Faculty meetings on Mondays until 4:30.
– Occasional evenings with families and weekend festivals (all are posted ahead of time on the school calendar).
**Work Location:**
– Ability to drive to 4341 Pecan Valley Road 37218.
-Bachelors, or Masters degree in elementary education or Special Education.
Salary: $22.00 – $32.00 per hour depending on degree and experience.
**Benefits:**
– Paid planning time weekly
– Paid time off: 28 days
– Paid In-Service days: 22 days
– Monthly bonus of $265 to be applied to your choice of tuition, health care, IRA, or additional insurances such as Dental, Cancer, Life, Short Term Disability, or other.
– Sick/Personal discretionary time: 80 hours (not intended for vacations or leisurely travel).
– Worker’s Compensation Insurance.
– Accident at work medical coverage.
Please submit a resume with a cover letter describing 1- your teaching philosophy, 2- your understanding of the Reggio educational experience and project approach 3- your hobbies and passions, 4- your abilities and skills, 4- describe your relationship with the outdoors, 6-look at our website [anewleafnashville.org](http://anewleafnashville.org) and explain how your work with us would further our mission, and 7- describe your short and long term career goals. Please send all applications to admin@anewleafschool.org.
We work in the Reggio way spending vast amounts of time outdoors and inside our labs, ateliers and dens. We incorporate several compatible practices to create an emergent curriculum to engage as co-researchers.
Our approach is project based. Explicit instruction to meet Tennessee standards often takes the shape of games or scientific inquiry. Surrounded by plants, soil, water, and animals, we never lack for study systems! We encourage a naturalist way of life with environmental protection on local and global levels. We spend hours in natural settings aiming to connect with and love the inhabitants of our ecosystems. We become part of the environment, and our connections include humans. To connect with each other, we must also serve our community by developing social emotional competencies for ourselves and then take care of our city by participating in community events and projects.
Working at A New Leaf is a journey of discovery and experimentation. You are guaranteed to learn a lot about yourself and the world. A New Leaf is a breath of fresh air, it is also hot, beautiful, muddy, creative, head scratching, wet, engaging, frosty, laughter, challenges, relationship building, sweet moments, hands-on, inspiring, and filled with mentorship and leadership opportunities for all participants. This is what we do best: playfully and seriously learn, together in community, about things that are real, meaningful, at times enigmatic, and always powerful! Here you are part of something greater than yourself. Together we question and improve the means and goals of education.
Lisa Welgreen
admin@anewleafschool.org
Together, we are empowering exceptional education.