Classroom Culture Lead Teacher – Middle/High School

Background/IRC Summary: Since 1999, the IRC has developed partnerships with New York City public schools, community-based organizations and local colleges and universities to support the positive development of refugee youth and their communities in New York City. The Youth Education Department provides year-round programming working directly with refugee youth, their parents and families, and their schools.

Job Overview/Summary: The Newcomer Youth Summer Academy (NYSA) is a six-week program that prepares newly arrived refugee youth to succeed at their grade level in the New York City public school system. Up to 130 students aged 5 – 21 from over 20 countries will participate in academic, creative arts, physical education, and social-emotional learning classes. Field trips are held on Fridays.

Classroom Culture Lead Teachers play an important role, leading classroom culture, rituals, and routines. Classroom Culture Lead Teachers work with a single class level (middle school or high school) providing support and continuity throughout the program. Classroom Culture Lead Teachers are responsible for planning and leading daily mindfulness, facilitating small-group instruction as per the Academic Lead Teacher’s plans, working with students one-on-one, and providing additional sheltered instruction support for multilingual learning.

Classroom Culture Lead Teachers are directly responsible for behavior management in alignment with Academy philosophy and classroom guidelines. They are primarily responsible for leading their classroom Peer Mentors, and they play a critical role in ensuring consistent, timely communication among Academic Lead Teachers, Peer Mentors, Administration, and students’ families.

Classroom Culture Lead Teachers are responsible for observing, assessing, recording, and monitoring students’ individual progress. This requires an understanding of the IRC School Readiness indicators, gathering input from other staff to assess individual students’ school readiness assets and needs.

Position term: July 1 – August 16, 2024

Hours:

• Training: July 1-3, 2024: Up to 24 hours of training
  • Foundational online training modules to be completed independently ahead of synchronous staff training dates
• Main Program: July 8 – August 16, 2024: 7.5 hours per day plus 1 evening of parent/teacher conferences.
  • Expect 1-2 hours per week of additional external planning, grading, and data analysis.

Major Responsibilities:

• Participate in mandatory school programing.
• Contribute to collaborative planning sessions for all staff training and program meetings.
• Plan and lead (15 minutes x2 – x3, daily) whole-group mindfulness lessons
• Lead weekly family-communication plan for all students in assigned class
• Collaborate with IRC Staff and the Academic Lead Teacher in the implementation of a 6-week curriculum
• Complete pre- and post-School Readiness observational assessments for each student in assigned class
• Collaborate with Academic Lead Teacher(s) in planning, coordinating classroom activities, and reviewing student progress
• Lead classroom climate and culture in accordance with Academy philosophy and protocols
• Manage dismissal protocols
• Supervise students during breakfast
• Engage in instructional coaching cycles and participate in weekly Classroom Culture Lead Teacher meetings

Job Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Education or related field required; candidate for Master’s degree preferred
• 2+ years of classroom teaching experience or experience working with youth strongly desired
• Experience teaching English Language Learners/multilingual learners is strongly desired
• Familiarity teaching in New York City public schools is strongly desired
• Certification/experience with Responsive Classrooms or Classroom Mindfulness desired
• Strong classroom management skills strongly desired
• Proficiency teaching social emotional learning preferred
• Experience working with refugee and/or immigrant populations strongly desired
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Highly organized, dependable, responsive, and collaborative work style
• Second language proficiency in relevant language highly desirable (Arabic, Dari, Farsi, French, Fulani, Haitian Creole, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian.)
• Strength in cultural competency-building

Working Environment:

• NYSA takes place in a centrally located school (TBD) in New York City. All applicants must be willing to relocate to the New York City area for the entirety of the Academy.

Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.

Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

US Benefits: The IRC offers a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. All US employees are eligible for sick time, a 403b retirement savings plans: up to 4.5% immediately vested matching contribution, plus an 3-7% additional IRC contribution, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support in times of crisis and mental health struggles.

In addition, full-time employees are eligible for 10 US paid holidays, 20-25 paid time off days, disability & life insurance, medical, dental, and vision insurance (employee contribution starting at $135, $7, and $5 per month respectively) and FSA for healthcare, childcare, and commuter costs. Part-time employees are eligible for a proportionate amount of paid time off. These additional benefits apply to employees who work at least 6 months within a 12 month time period.