English/Language Arts Teacher

At EAR, we are looking to create and reinforce middle and high school 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 isn’t in saying the right things but 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 middle- and high-school-aged young adults. In the best environments, students are hyper-engaged risk-takers who are interested in everything and growing over time to become passionate about a few things. Good middle schools are filled with positive humor and open-ended opportunities for kids to learn through passion projects and deeply engaging discovery. Good high schools prepare students for college by helping them to become broadly knowledgeable, skilled, and articulate through projects that include elements of advocacy and deeply engaging discovery. 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 middle and high schools understand individual students deeply and engage with each according to her or his needs. Some will need scaffolding at first. This should be done mindfully so that we are teaching them to scaffold for themselves. Increasingly, we will help them to become independently capable learners who understand how to break down and successfully complete complex tasks.

Good middle and high schools understand that kids’ ideas about themselves and the world around them can change quickly while at the same time, they grow increasingly sophisticated. Teachers find a gentle and affirming way to challenge students’ platitudes and regurgitated thought. In good schools, students grow as critical thinkers empowered with an increasing understanding of the dynamics of their worlds and a belief in their efficacy to effect change. These skills and attitudes are cultivated by a pedagogical approach that often offers students choices 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. Teachers view themselves as student intellectual coaches, and students and teachers are working together to help students achieve the desired standards. It is a partnership.

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

This person will understand that literature is a lens that we can use to understand ourselves and our own words, especially as we compare ourselves and our worlds with the people and environments that are constructed by authors. They will understand that text (in all its forms) and subtext create meaning for us that can be just as real, important, and life-changing as our experiences in life. A great English/Language Arts Teacher relishes the power of language and endeavors to infuse an appreciation of that power in their students as they help those students to harness that power.

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.

• BA in Literature, Communications, or a similar field (required by the local Ministry of Education)

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

• AP and/or pre-AP curriculum experience

• SEL background

• Experience with second-language learners in the classroom

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