8th Grade Science Teacher

The Learning Community, a vibrant public charter school that centers the voices of students, families, and teachers seeks a collaborative, dedicated 8th Grade Science Teacher passionate about supporting students to grow academically and socio-emotionally.

In this role, you will mentor your students to explore and apply science through technology, researching, and collaborating while also utilizing hands-on learning such as labs, field trips, and connecting science to everyday life and global challenges to deepen their understanding and prepare them for learning beyond a textbook.

Day to Day Responsibilities:

• Planning for and executing high-quality lessons that move students toward academic and socio-emotional learning outcomes.
  • teaching content classes for all sections of 8th grade 
  • leading an advisory and teaching SEL lessons 
  • teaching DEI/Seminar class once a week for advisory 
  • teaching Accelerated Learning Lab (a time for students to get targeted support in learning gaps) 4 times per week for a small group of students. 
  • supporting with study halls and recess each week 
  • collaborating with grade level and content teams 
• Collaborating with fellow colleagues to review student data and use it to improve instruction;
• Completing teacher’s administrative tasks that help the school move forward like student attendance, behavioral data entry in Kickboard, and similar work in a timely and accurate manner;
• Building relationships with families through positive phone calls, updates about student progress and behavior, and being responsive to concerns;
• Participating in school-wide and middle-grades-wide responsibilities and events as needed (ranging from arrival/dismissal duties, an advisory period each day, and parent-teacher conferences to whole-team planning meetings, in-service learning days, and our summer in-service in August);
• Meet with coaches, your manager, and others as needed to receive feedback on your performance, and act on that feedback.
• Other needed duties to support the success of your students and our school (no more than 5% of your role).

Minimum Qualifications:

To be considered for this position, all candidates must be certified or in the process of certification in the state of Rhode Island and must be U.S. citizens or residents or have work visas. In addition, they must demonstrate:

• Strong teaching abilities, especially with middle-grades students. We need our teachers to create safe, fun, and rigorous learning environments, manage student behaviors, keep high engagement, and reset the classroom when things go off-track. In addition, we’re looking for individuals who are skilled in communicating with students and tailoring their teaching approach to the needs of their learners. Lastly, middle-grades students are masters at pushing boundaries and asserting and advocating for their needs. The right candidate is able to be a warm demander: to build deep and trusting relationships with students, while creating accountability for how they show up and contribute to their own learning and the learning of others.
• Deep knowledge of the subject matter you’ll be teaching. Our science teachers understand the content they are teaching and push themselves to stay current on their content area in order to raise the bar for their teaching and our students.
• Being a reliable, collaborative, and consistently strong colleague and teammate. Our teaching teams work closely together, share some planning time weekly, and build on each other’s insights and strengths with students to meet their shared achievement goals. To excel at the Learning Community, teachers must be great at communicating with others, working through conflict, supporting their team, and asking for the support they need. They also need to keep their commitments - showing up for themselves, their students, and their colleagues as they promise they will.
• Strong problem-solving skills, judgment, and resilience. As a teacher in an urban school setting, things don’t always go to plan: a lesson fails with students, a fellow teacher goes on sick leave, a facilities issue happens, a parent expresses feedback in a rough way, a policy you don’t love gets introduced - it happens. Teachers that thrive at the Learning Community are excellent at rebounding from setbacks, shaking off a mistake, and learning and problem-solving to meet their goals. They bring creativity, problem-solving and an adaptable approach to most challenges, while keeping student safety and respect for our students, parents, and school community front and center in their choices.
• Strong emotional intelligence and communication skills - especially in conflict or for trickier decisions. The Learning Community aspires to be a space where we are all self and others aware, speak the truth directly to each other, fix mistakes quickly and own and repair any harm if it happens - whether with leaders, team members, students or families. We aim to communicate in a way that builds trust, makes decisions and organizational changes clear, and builds with our community - not just for them. We are hiring teachers and other team members that have skills in these areas and are committed to grow in their ability to work effectively with others across lines of difference and power.

Salary, Benefits and Other Details:

Workday. This position is a full-time, teacher of record role based at the Learning Community Charter School in Central Falls, Rhode Island. All teachers are expected to work 7:45-3:15 pm most days except for Wednesdays where the hours are 7:45am-4:45pm due to whole team meetings, with 1.5 hours of planning daily, including shared team prep time and lunch/break time every day. Additionally, the individual will be required to attend Summer Institute in August prior to the start of each school year.

Salary. For this role, our budgeted compensation range is $46,798-$91,038, with $46,798 representing the junior-most step in our scale and $91,038 representing the senior-most step in our scale.

Vacation and Benefits. In addition, we are proud to currently offer:

• Medical Insurance: 82% of annual premium paid by Learning Community for single or family plans.
• Retirement: Participation in the State of RI Teacher Pension Plan.
• Life Insurance: $50k life insurance plan free of charge while employed by LC.
• Time off: 8 weeks of vacation throughout the school year; 12 paid holidays; 13 paid sick days/2 paid personal days per year.
• Optional Insurance: Vision/Dental/Additional Life/Short Term Disability- 100% employee paid.