We’re looking for a couple of great teachers….
My school, St. Andrew’s School in Delaware, is looking for both a full time physics and a full time math teacher for 2013-14. St. Andrew’s is an outstanding coeducational 100% boarding school situated on 2500 acres of farmland, 1 hour from Philadelphia.
Here are a few other tidbits about my school:
- The culture of the school is unique, and really must be experienced to be believed. 300 students and 80 faculty living and working together to find deep joy in learning, working to make the world a better place, and to create a compassionate, caring community that rejects the culture of pettiness and cynicism that infect the traditional high school.
- The school draws students from all over the world and is 100% need blind in its admissions. Nearly half of the student body receives financial aid (this is almost unheard of in the independent school world).
- The school is led by a visionary headmaster, Tad Roach. To get a sense of what an incredible educational leader he is, I encourage you to read a few of his chapel talks.
- The faculty are incredible. They are experts in their fields, deeply committed to the craft of teaching, collegiality and continuous improvement.
- You’ll have a great opportunity to shape the future of the science curriculum at our school. We use a modified version of the modeling curriculum in physics and chemistry, along with standards based grading, and very open to your ideas for how we can continue to experiment and improve science education for our students.
- Similarly in math, you’ll have a great opportunity to help re-imagine math instruction at the school. We’re in our 3rd year of having all incoming students start in a integrated problem solving class that stresses collaborative work and has really changed the way students view mathematics, and are now looking to further incorporate this approach into upper level courses.
- Clasess are very small, usually around 12 students, and a typical load is 3 or 4 sections.
- Both the math and science departments have tremendous resources. The physics department has a special endowment to bring leading scientists to campus to deliver a lecture and speak to classes (past speakers have included Brian Green, Bill Phillips, Janna Levin and this year, Jill Tarter. We have resources to bring teaching experts to campus to observe classes and offer coaching, like Rhett Allain, and to provide for almost any professional development opportunity you can imagine.
- As a small school, we’re also very flexible. If you have interest in teaching another subject, this can likely be accommodated in the future. In my time here, I’ve taught multiple levels of physics, computer science, mathematics and worked as a college counselor.
In short, the community is truly inspiring. If you’ve never considered boarding school teaching, you’ll be amazed by the connections you can form with students and the things they can accomplish when you encourage their interests outside the school day. Just last week, students led a 2 hour discussion of climate change and the economic and environmental impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline one evening, in order to prepare for sending over 90 students to the Forward on Climate Rally this past weekend in Washington DC.
Here’s the link to the job description. Please feel free to ask questions (confidentially) in the comments, and I’ll try to answer them or connect you with those who can.
