Middle School Spanish Teacher

Full Time – February 2023 to June 2023

The Overlake School, Redmond, WA

The Overlake School seeks a temporary full-time Middle School Spanish Teacher to provide leave coverage in 2022/2023 school year. Expected start would be mid to late February, 2023 and continue through to the end of the school year in early June, 2023.

Founded in 1967, The Overlake School is an independent, nonsectarian, coeducational, college preparatory day school. Each Overlake community member is committed to the school’s mission to inspire excellence, develop intellectual curiosity, teach responsibility, embrace diversity, and foster a compassionate community.

The Overlake School is committed to diversity and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national or ethnic origin, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation, or disability in the administration of its educational policies, financial aid, employment, and other school-administered programs. Our school is committed to the strategic goals of developing our collective capacity in areas of well-being for all, the attraction and retention of talented and qualified educators, integration of diversity, equity & inclusion into the life of our school, and defining our institutional identity.

Interested candidates are invited to apply online through our website www.overlake.jobs.

The Overlake World Languages Department strives to instill enthusiasm, passion, and a lifelong appreciation for language learning. We believe that the study of world languages broadens students’ understanding and appreciation of the world’s diversity. We empower students to be active participants in a global society, interacting with cultural competency in multi-lingual communities both at home and around the world.

Job Responsibilities

This opening is a full-time teaching position in the Middle School with the following major responsibilities:

Teach 3 to 4 sections of Middle School Spanish

• Expectations for teachers include course and lesson design in collaboration with department colleagues, communicating with students via our learning management system (Canvas), and providing feedback to families via quarterly rubrics and reports.
• Standard class section size is 12-16 students.
• For more information on our Spanish Curriculum, please visit our department website: https://www.overlake.org/academics/curriculum/languages

Serve as homeroom advisor for a group of 8-10 students.

• Advisors care for students’ social, emotional, physical, and academic well-being, and serve as advocates for their students.
• Homerooms provide opportunities for students to learn about themselves and develop as young adults through, for example, discussions and activities in support of our social and emotional learning curriculum.
• The advisor also serves as a point of contact between families and the school, and is sometimes called to facilitate meetings between families, students, and teachers.
• Study hall periods are organized by homeroom, and homeroom advisors serve as facilitators during those periods.

Be a leader in the school’s co-curricular program by leading middle school clubs.

• Middle school clubs are teacher driven, though often in response to student demand or requests.
• Clubs meet twice every 8-day cycle and last for a quarter. Typically, each middle school teacher leads a club every quarter.
• Clubs provide an opportunity to engage with students outside of the classroom and to model a passion for life-long learning and development of personal interests.

Support the Overlake experiential education program as a Project Week leader.

• Every year, Overlake students embark on week-long (or sometimes longer) experiential education experiences during Project Week. Projects include service trips, outdoor hiking and camping, our exchange program to Paris, working with our sister school in Cambodia, or learning to sew, scrapbooking, or parkour.
• All Overlake teachers lead or co-lead a project every year. New teachers often serve as co-leader in an established project with an experienced leader and develop and lead new projects in the following years.
• See our website for more on Project Week, including past and current projects: https://www.overlake.org/academics/experiential/project_week

Requirements:

We are looking for teachers who…

Have experience teaching people under the age of 18 using best pedagogical practices.

• Preferably, but not necessarily, with students in the 11 to 15 age range
• While Overlake language classrooms lean towards a more traditional classroom setting, we welcome applicants with experience in other settings.
• We seek someone who has effective classroom management skills.

Demonstrate a history of an open and collaborative approach to teaching and learning.

• All of our middle school teachers work collaboratively in grade level and departmental teams and sometimes team teach specific units.
• There is a wide variety of skill and comfort levels in our student body, and our teachers need to be proficient in differentiated instruction and a variety of assessment styles.
• All teachers at Overlake are required to work with our instructional coaches or be a part of a Professional Learning Community.

Demonstrate a growth mindset as a professional.

• Our community puts a high premium on collaboration and learning from others. We expect our teachers to demonstrate evidence of ongoing professional development.
• We have an established curriculum, but one we are continually growing and developing. We want a teacher who can jump into existing courses and work with the teaching partner(s) and department to continually improve the design of our curriculum.

Possess the cultural competency necessary for working with a diverse population in an inclusive and equitable community.

• We have a diverse student body, and we want all our teachers to have the skills necessary to ensure that their classrooms are safe, inclusive places for everyone.
• We seek a teacher who is aware of the racial, socio-economic, gender, and many other inequities present in the world, and actively works to eliminate them in their classroom.

Can communicate well, both in writing and verbally, with colleagues, students, and families.

• Much of our work involves clear, frequent communication with the students and their families on student progress, recommendations, and program information.
• We incorporate much student feedback in day to day practice. We use direct feedback during activities, rubrics, assessments, and comments/grades to help them improve.

Model a culture of flexible, continuous learning for students.

• We want our teachers to be people who are excited to learn and try new things.
• We are always looking for ways to strengthen and improve our craft and we want teachers who have a broad background of disciplines and/or interests.
• New Overlake teachers do not need to come in as experts in the specific technologies or methods we currently use but should have the flexibility and ability to learn and improve on them.

The ideal candidate will also possess the following attributes:

• A familiarity with contemporary literature, art, music and film in the Spanish speaking world
• An ability to recognize different cultural values and practices across the Spanish speaking world
• A thorough understanding of early middle school second language acquisition
• A deep understanding of linguistics and the desire to incorporate linguistic approaches in their curriculum
• Flexibility to teach beginning level Upper School classes if necessary

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• Ability to successfully pass required background checks

• Fully vaccinated against Covid-19 (including booster if eligible)

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