Associate Teacher, Lower School

Job Description

Job Description

Title: Associate Teacher, Lower School

Reports to: Division Head 

Employment Type: Faculty; Full-time, Exempt

Projected Start Date: Immediate Start

Work Location: 5 Hanover Square, New York, NY 10004

The IDEAL School of Manhattan is an inclusion school dedicated to creating a diverse community that affirms and accepts the full identities of all people, while inspiring academic excellence, creative leadership, and a desire to build a more just and equitable world.  

Position Description

IDEAL’s Associate Teacher program provides a unique opportunity for emerging special and general educators to gain experience as educators through collaboration with established classroom teachers, therapists, and administrators. IDEAL’s Associate Teacher Program is designed to be a three-year program in which they will develop the skills and experience necessary to grow in the field of education and ultimately to take on a lead role in a classroom or in another aspect of school life. Over the course of their three years in the program, Associate Teachers will be asked to work with a range of students and will, in general, be assigned a new student annually. Associate Teachers at IDEAL are required to develop the skills necessary to work with any student at IDEAL.

Associate Teachers at IDEAL fill two equally essential roles. 

The primary role of an IDEAL Associate Teacher is to provide an assigned student in IDEAL’s Dylan Program the individualized support to promote personal and academic excellence and full inclusion in all aspects of IDEAL’s educational program.  Under the direction of and with support and instruction from lead teachers and related service providers, Associate Teachers will work individually with an assigned student to:

• Implement differentiate instruction to promote academic growth and achievement;

• Establish and implement routines to strengthen executive functioning skills; 

• Cultivate positive behaviors that build relationships and trust; and

• Facilitate social and emotional growth and connections.

• Facilitate supports to enable students to be in the classroom

The individual work of an Associate Teacher with their assigned student is not limited to specific classes and activities, but rather intended to extend throughout the school day as benefits their individual student’s goals and as determined in consultation with the lead teachers, related service providers, and administrators who work with their assigned student.

The secondary role of an IDEAL Associate Teacher is to contribute to the broader work of lead teachers in the classroom and of students within the larger community. Associate Teachers will contribute to school’s overall academic and extracurricular programs by:

• Providing additional academic support inside and outside of the classroom for all students;

• Supporting the students’ participation in school programs and activities; and

• Fostering a positive and peaceable culture within all school settings

In general, over the course of their three years in the program, responsibilities for the position of Associate Teacher include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Work as member of co-teaching team in an inclusive classroom to implement differentiated curriculum, establish classroom routines, and support all students

• Will become familiar with and implement the individual goals of their assigned student within the specific context of each of that student’s classes and activities

• Partner with lead teachers, related service providers, and other professionals on the implementation of support strategies across settings

• Implement differentiated materials designed by the lead teacher to support assigned students access to the curriculum in all classes and activities

• Gather all necessary tools and facilitate their utilization 

• Communicating proactively on a regular basis with the family of assigned student

• Provide support for Activities of Daily Living, as needed

• Demonstrated flexibility supporting multiple different students who will offer new opportunities and pose new challenges

• Attend meetings as required by the school 

In their first year, Associate Teachers will learn, develop, and apply techniques for 

• Implementing differentiating curriculum

• Fostering academic, social-emotional, and executive-functioning skills of children 

• Integrating the individual goals of students across all school settings

• Collaborating with colleagues in a wide variety of roles

• Crafting communications for with parents and caregivers in routine and specific circumstances

• Contributing to the daily activities of the school in which their student is involved

• Associate Teachers may also be asked to support other students and to substitute for lead teachers or other associate teachers as needed.

In their second and third years, in addition to the above, all Associate Teachers are expected to develop a “passion project,” in collaboration with their division head that supports both their own growth and that of the school as a whole. Examples of two and three-year projects might include:

• Designing and leading advisory activities

• Developing a specialized workshop

• Planning experiential learning opportunities

• Working closely with a lead teacher in a chosen discipline to develop a unit or differentiated materials