Sabot at Stony Point
Richmond, Virginia
Start Date: August 15, 2021
THE OPPORTUNITY
Sabot at Stony Point, a Reggio-inspired preschool through 8th grade school in Richmond, VA, seeks a Teacher-Researcher for its Lower School. This teacher will join a cohesive, committed, and talented team whose members are garnering national attention for their ground-breaking work.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Constructivism: Recognize that there is an important dialectic between the individual and the group – the individual is responsible to the group and the group is responsible to the individual. Recognize students as independent learners, intrinsically motivated to generate, discover, build, and enlarge their own frameworks of knowledge. Guide students’ processes of discovery and understanding rather than simply transmitting knowledge to them. Encourage the development of meta-cognitive skills such as reflective thinking and problem-solving techniques.
Differentiation: Recognize that students have various learning styles and types of intelligence. Employ a variety of teaching styles (visual, aural, tactile, kinesthetic, etc.) and provide a variety of learning opportunities (independent and group work, project-based learning, experiments and investigations, representations in various modes and media).
Documentation of Learning: Facilitate and document students’ development and learning through ongoing assessment, daily planning, and portfolio development and review.
Student Assessment: Assess student understanding as an ongoing and cumulative process. Allow students to participate in their own assessments. Use the results of assessments to augment and solidify student learning.
Student Support: Respond to and manage student concerns and issues, and collaborate with the Division Director and School Counselor, when necessary, to develop and adhere to student support plans. Effectively communicate with families about student concerns and well-being, and mediate any disagreements or misunderstandings. Maintain student confidentiality.
Research: Engage in action research by generating hypotheses and questions, documenting student work, and reflecting individually and collaboratively.
Planning: At the start of school, provide students and parents with a clear set of expectations regarding behavior, class work, and homework.
Communication & Connection with Children: Observe and listen to the intentions of the students in order to support learning in both individual and collaborative work.
Communication with Parents: Be visible, approachable, and available. Collaborate with teacher-researchers and administrators to ensure that parents are engaged, participating, and respected members of our learning community. Maintain open and regular communication with parents.
Communication & Collaboration with Other Teacher-Researchers: Teacher-researchers will share their work with other teacher-researchers, both informally and – occasionally – formally. This will help create a community of learners and of colleagues and will also facilitate both continuity and innovation across the grades and across the curriculum.
Engagement: Engage with the Sabot at Stony Point faculty through faculty development and community-wide events to forward the work of the school. Engage with the larger field of progressive education to disseminate Sabot’s work and remain conversant in best practices.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity: We nurture a learning environment where diversity is valued, respected, and celebrated. Diversity, and the variety of experiences and perspectives it provides, is central to our approach to education. Our emphasis on co-construction – an environment where everyone teaches and everyone learns – is strengthened by a community that includes diversity in all ways.
Supervision/Safety: Ensure the physical and emotional health and safety of students both inside and outside the classroom by providing active and appropriate supervision and guidance.
QUALIFICATIONS
Applicants will generally have the following qualifications:
– Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university
– Knowledge of childhood development including best-practices in social, emotional, and behavioral learning and development
Knowledge of the Reggio Emilia Approach
– Understanding of social-constructivist theory and practice
Knowledge of research and best-practices of curriculum and instruction
– Deep interest in students as learners
– Excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to manage personal and professional relationships with tact, sensitivity, respect, compassion, and openness
– Ability to work both indoors and outdoors
– Ability to lift 40 pounds, bend or kneel to facilitate communication with children, climb two flights of stairs while supervising children, and maintain a high level of activity while supervising children
– Upon employment, the ability to pass criminal background checks
TO APPLY
Candidates must submit the following materials electronically (as separate PDF attachments) to HR@sabotatstonypoint.org with the subject of the email as “Lower School Teacher-Researcher Application”.
– Letter of interest
– Resume
– Statement of educational philosophy
– Contact information for three professional references
Sabot has about 180 students and roughly 40 employees. As we grow, we are dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic team committed to working in a multicultural environment. This faculty member will join a cohesive, committed, and talented community. Our Reggio-inspired, social-constructivist curriculum is inquiry-based and driven in part by the children’s interests. We emphasize collaboration and recognize the gifts that each child brings to the group. Our approach is one that recognizes the whole child and focuses first and foremost on social and emotional learning and relationships as the necessary foundation for education. Sabot is an educational home for teachers drawn to relationships and practices that are rooted in unifying beliefs about children and learning, are based on current neurological and educational research, and are reliant on our teacher-researchers’ collaborative problem solving and creativity. Sabot teachers are both guides and fellow travelers in the collaborative learning process and make students’ learning visible to themselves and others. We view teaching not as a static set of skills, but as a dynamic process, manifested in our culture of research and our commitment to teacher development.
Please email HR@sabotatstonypoint.org with questions and inquiries.
Together, we are empowering exceptional education.