Upper Elementary Homeroom

Upper Elementary Homeroom

KAS Elementary School is seeking a dynamic, caring, knowledgeable, and highly collaborative Upper Elementary Homeroom Teacher who creates rigorous, joyful, inclusive, and responsive learning experiences.

We value educators who balance explicit teaching of essential knowledge and skills with concept-based, inquiry-driven learning; build deep conceptual understanding, critical thinking, and problem solving; help students make meaningful connections and transfer learning to new contexts; foster purposeful student agency, reflection, and ownership; and use assessment evidence responsively to provide appropriate access, support, challenge, and growth for every learner.

Prior teaching experience in the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) is valued but not required.

We look for faculty members who bring a flexible “can do” approach to teaching and learning, a sense of humor, and a collaborative mindset. Our teachers are committed to continuous school improvement and actively contribute to our learning community through experiential learning opportunities beyond the classroom, including clubs and extracurricular activities. We also value a commitment to working in a diverse professional community and supporting the continued development of our DEIJ principles and practices.

Key Responsibilities

Teaching & Learning

• Plan, teach, and assess rigorous, responsive, developmentally appropriate learning experiences aligned with KAS curriculum expectations.

• Balance explicit instruction in essential knowledge and skills with purposeful inquiry, conceptual learning, critical thinking, and opportunities for transfer.

• Differentiate learning based on readiness, language profile, strengths, interests, and identified needs.

• Develop students’ ability to apply knowledge, skills, and conceptual understanding independently and in increasingly complex contexts.

• Assessment & Responsive Instruction

• Use multiple sources of evidence to adjust instruction, plan flexible grouping, provide intervention or extension, and monitor student growth.

• Participate actively in PLC and MTSS/RTI processes, contributing evidence, professional judgment, and responsive next steps for learners.

• Support students in using feedback, reflection, and goal setting to understand their progress and take increasing responsibility for their learning.

Classroom Culture & Wellbeing

• Establish a safe, inclusive, and well-managed classroom characterized by belonging, strong relationships, clear expectations, and high levels of student engagement.

• Integrate social-emotional learning and intentionally develop self-regulation, independence, organization, collaboration, and responsibility.

• Create a classroom culture in which students are expected to think deeply, take appropriate intellectual risks, reflect on their learning, and contribute positively to the community.

Collaboration & Community

• Collaborate closely with grade-level colleagues, teaching assistants, EAL and Learning Support teachers, specialists, coaches, and school leaders.

• Build proactive, respectful partnerships with families around student learning, growth, and wellbeing.

• Participate in professional learning, school events, collaborative planning, and the school’s After-School Activities (ASA) program, and contribute positively to continued school improvement.

• Uphold KAS child safeguarding expectations and all professional responsibilities associated with student safety and wellbeing.

Professional Disposition

• A flexible, solutions-oriented, and collaborative approach to teaching and teamwork.

• A growth mindset, versatility, adaptability, resilience, and a sense of humor.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to build positive relationships with students, colleagues, and families.

• Commitment to professional learning aligned with schoolwide and personal learning goals.

• Commitment to contributing positively to an inclusive professional community that continues to grow in its DEIJ principles and practices.

Pedagogical & Professional Profile

• Evidence-informed literacy instruction, including fluency, vocabulary, morphology and word study, comprehension, written expression, and increasingly complex reading and writing skills.

• Experience with Reading and Writing Workshop structures.

• Knowledge of foundational literacy and phonics intervention for students who require additional support.

• Mathematics instruction that balances conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, mathematical reasoning, problem solving, and application.

• Ability to design concept-based, inquiry-driven learning that develops critical thinking, enables meaningful connections across disciplines, and supports the transfer of knowledge, skills, and conceptual understandings to new contexts.

• Experience with inquiry and/or Project-Based Learning (PBL) unit planning.

• Experience applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and responsive differentiation to proactively reduce barriers and provide appropriate access, support, challenge, and extension for a range of learners.

• Experience with inclusive MTSS/RTI practices, including responsive Tier 1 instruction, intervention, progress monitoring, and appropriate extension.

• Assessment literacy: the ability to use multiple sources of classroom, formative, benchmark, and standardized assessment evidence to identify strengths and needs, differentiate instruction, provide appropriate intervention or extension, and monitor growth. Familiarity with NWEA MAP Growth is an advantage.

• Experience intentionally developing student agency, independence, organization, collaboration, goal setting, reflection, and ownership of learning while maintaining clear expectations for rigor and quality.

• Strong classroom culture and social-emotional practice, including positive relationships, belonging, clear expectations, self-regulation, and high levels of student engagement.

• Effective collaboration within PLCs and with teaching assistants, EAL, Learning Support, specialists, coaches, and other colleagues.

• Strong understanding of multilingual learners and culturally responsive practice; EAL experience or training is an advantage.

• Confidence using technology purposefully to support teaching, learning, collaboration, and communication.

About KAS:

Kaohsiung American School (KAS) is a private, not-for-profit international day school established in 1989 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), KAS offers the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP) and receives annual grants and sponsorship from the U.S. Department of State.

KAS moved to its purpose-built campus in 2015–16 and is recognized as a leading international school in southern Taiwan. The school currently enrolls approximately 790 students representing more than 40 countries. While many of our students have Taiwanese heritage and speak Mandarin as a first language, our community is internationally minded and multilingual, and all students are developing as multilingual global citizens.

The Elementary School serves approximately 300 learners from PK4 through Grade 5 and includes approximately 30 full and part-time teachers, 20 teaching assistants, and a professional Student Support and EAL team.

KAS is Committed to Child Safeguarding

KAS conducts rigorous background and reference checks on all candidates.

Employees and volunteers at KAS receive training to recognize signs of abuse and neglect and are required to report suspected incidents of child abuse and neglect.

Our child protection response team uses a team-based approach to respond to each reported incident in accordance with Taiwanese law and international best practices.

KAS is committed to supporting and recognizing the identities of all students. We foster an environment free of discrimination and other forms of identity-based harm.

• A recognized elementary teaching license/certification.

• A minimum of 2 years of successful elementary classroom teaching experience in a US curriculum program.

• A demonstrated commitment to excellence in a student-centered, inclusive learning environment.