Elementary School Teacher

At EAR, we are looking to create and reinforce elementary programs that combine a challenging, intellectually stimulating academic environment with a student-centered, choice-driven and modern approach to teaching and learning. It is our belief that the critical activity of a classroom is not teaching—the critical activity is learning, and the linchpin of professional educational practice is in designing the most powerful learning experiences, and then guiding students and adapting those experiences for individuals so that learning for all students is deep, powerful, relevant, and lasting.

Our teachers seek to meet the particular needs of elementary-aged children. In the best environments, students are hyper-engaged risk-takers who are interested in everything. In great classrooms, students are growing over time to become passionate in their learning about the world around them. Good elementary schools engage students through scientifically-supported best practices so that they become intrinsically engaged learners. Great classrooms are based on strong, nurturing student-adult relationships and propagate a classroom culture that makes students feel safe, included, valued, and capable. A teacher who straddles these domains must be a master of each of them.  

Great schools find ways to engage all of their learners, as individuals and through collaborative learning, so that they are all progressing along that continuum in a self-affirming and empowering way. Good elementary schools understand individual students deeply and engage with each according to her or his needs. Although elementary students need scaffolding for complex tasks, good teachers are attentive to the data when they determine how much scaffolding each child needs in order to give them as much freedom as possible to cultivate their intellectual and academic independence.

Good elementary schools understand that kids’ ideas about themselves and the world around them can change quickly, while at the same time, they grow increasingly sophisticated. In good schools, students grow as critical thinkers empowered with an increasing understanding of their worlds and a belief that they can make a positive difference. Students in good schools are empowered with a balance of independence and support in how they engage with topics and how they proceed with their work. Classes and classrooms are designed so that students are doing most of the talking, thinking, and constructing.

EAR is looking for an inspired (and inspiring) elementary educator who can help us to challenge ourselves and our students to grow as independent, motivated, inspired learners across disciplines. We are looking for a teacher who can set high standards even as she or he creates the nurturing relationships that help students to meet those expectations.

We are looking for a lower elementary teacher who hasexperience with or willingness to learn Responsive Classroom and who is a literacy expert who knows how to differentiate for a wide range of readers. EAR is working hard to hone our collective practice when it comes to student-centered learning and Understanding by Design, so experience with these models would be persuasive. Finally, experience helping kids to learn in a high-ELL population would impress.More broadly, we are looking to create an inspiring place for learning, and we understand that we need to create an inspiring place for teaching in order for this to happen. We have dedicated ample funds for professional development for teachers so that they, too, can be empowered and inspired learners, and so that they can bring that spirit of inspiration to their classes and students.

Teaching, evaluating and reporting progress, communication with families, other typical commitments for an educator.

• Two full years of full-time teaching (required to secure a work visa)

• BA in Elementary Education or a similar field (required by the local Ministry of Education

• SEL background

• Strong background in early literacy

• Experience with second-language learners in the classroom

We reimburse or cover all fees related to obtaining a Brazilian work visa