English Teacher and Director of Communications at Lakeside School – Seattle, Washington

FTE: 1.0 FTE

Appointment Year: DTS Schedule August 1 - June 30

Appointment Status: Regular, Exempt

Job Description

SY Campus Role

The Downtown School is seeking an experienced, dynamic, and collaborative educator who is passionate about teaching English. The ideal candidate will have a passion and expertise for language and literature, strong interpersonal and team-building skills, loves working with teenagers, and has a positive outlook and growth mindset. Experience with interdisciplinary study and/or teaching is considered an asset. A willingness to collaborate and engage in a dialogue about instructional practices with peers, a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and an interest in taking on administrative leadership at a schoolwide level are essential. The Downtown School’s organizational model also allows and requires all faculty to serve in an administrative capacity.

Responsibilities

English Teacher

• Teach four sections of English
• Advise a group of 12-14 students
• Provide academic support outside of the classroom for students with different learning styles and strengths
• Provide regular feedback to students through the form of formative and summative assessments as well as writing quarterly comments
• Regularly meet with other humanities faculty to discuss issues related to humanities curriculum and instruction at The Downtown School
• Serve as member of the admissions committee
• Participate in the life of the school community, admissions events, faculty meetings, grade-level meetings, and general engagement with student life
• Team teach an interdisciplinary, intensive course at the beginning of the school year.
• Use the City as a Lab, integrating curricular partnerships and excursions into their curriculum
• Take on a major administrative role in the school.

Director of Communications

• Maintain website content and manage SEO strategy
• Coordinate, proof, post, and sometimes write Internal editorial and school communications
• Support the admissions team with updating materials and executing our advertising efforts
• Leading social media strategy, with support from others to design the visual assets
• Lead or outsource creative production and asset management (photo and video library)

Requirements and Qualifications

1. A bachelor's degree (masters preferred) in English, Language Arts education, or a related field
2. Experience teaching writing, research, and advanced topics in a middle and/or high school setting.
3. Experience designing and implementing curriculum across multiple English courses
4. Demonstrated ability to collaborate with faculty both in and out of the humanities department
5. Comfort working with technology to present daily lessons and online learning platforms for tracking assignments and grades (e.g., Canvas is a plus, but experience is not required)
6. High level of organization skills with an attention to detail and deadlines
7. Demonstrated cultural awareness, including knowledge of themselves and the cultural lenses they bring to interactions. The candidate will understand different perspectives; interact respectfully with cultures other than their own; and cultivate meaningful relationships with people that have different cultural frameworks.
8. Satisfactory completion of three criminal background checks.

Application Process

Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, and work history via the online application. Candidate cover letters should address the following questions: What attracts you to this job opportunity and what questions do you have about our community?

Salary and Benefits

Salary Range: $105k - $110k based upon experience and education.

The Downtown School is committed to attracting and retaining outstanding candidates and provides a competitive compensation package. Benefits include:

• Employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance (based on FTE)
• Dependent medical and vision subsidy
• Retirement with generous employer contribution
• Life/disability insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Flexible spending accounts
• Free parking
• Employee discount program
• Computer loan program
• Paid holidays and vacation

Working At The Downtown School

The Downtown School was founded by Lakeside School in 2018 with the interest in making a world class independent school education more economically and geographically accessible for more families. At capacity, the school enrolls 160 students in grades 9 -12 from diverse ethnic, racial, religious, and economic backgrounds. The school’s mission and shared commitment of all Downtown School faculty and staff is to develop intellectually capable young people with creative minds, healthy bodies, and ethical spirits to contribute wisdom, compassion, and leadership to a global society.

The Downtown School has a distributive leadership model in which all faculty members have a major administrative role in running the school.

We provide a rigorous, dynamic academic program through which effective educators lead students to take responsibility for learning. We use the City as a Campus for learning, and regularly take students to meet with businesses and organizations in the area to contextualize the work that is happening in the classroom. Our curriculum focuses on five core competencies including learning how to learn, thinking critically, thinking creatively, communicating effectively and collaborating with others.

At the Downtown School, we are committed to sustaining a school in which individuals representing diverse cultures and experiences instruct one another in the meaning and value of community. To learn more about working at The Downtown School, please visit our Careers page.