Job Details

Full-Time and Permanent; Exempt; 7.33 Hours/Day; 220 Days/Year; 11 Months/Year

DESCRIPTION

Academy for Discovery at Lakewood serves grades 3 - 8, with students in grades 6 - 8 participating in

the Middle Years Programme. Lakewood's current MYP Coordinator works in an eleven-month position and serves as Instructional Specialist to all grade levels and as IB coordinator for grades 6 -8 with those roles each representing 50% of her assigned duties. In the combined roles of coordinator and instructional specialist, Lakewood's MYP coordinator spends approximately 75% of her time each week with MYP staff or on MYP tasks and 25% of her time with grade 3-5 staff or duties. Lakewood's MYP coordinator reports directly to the building level principal or head of school and is proficient in the IB working language of English.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS (KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND/OR ABILITIES REQUIRED)

• Bachelor's degree with preference given to individuals with some leadership experience, and/or higher degree.
• Must have at least three years of successful teaching or counseling experience.
• Organizational, managerial, and administrative skills for effective leadership of the program
• Personal characteristics conducive to working effectively with students, teachers, parents, school personnel, community groups, and the International Baccalaureate community.
• Presentation skills focused on recruitment for the program, professional development of members, and development of students overall learning.
• Thorough knowledge of the International Baccalaureate Program and Practices.
• Effective oral and written communication skills to facilitate the program and to provide frequent communication with all stakeholders.
• Knowledge of academic standards, curriculum development, and implementation.
• Considerable knowledge of current research and trends in education and the International Baccalaureate Approaches to Teaching and Learning.
• Understanding of international, national, state, and local initiatives concerning secondary education.
• Ability to form positive relationships and work collaboratively with adults and students.
• Ability to manage a yearly budget and keep accurate and up-to-date records.
• Ability to design and implement a safe and secure testing schedule and environment.
• Effective computer skills with multiple programs/platforms

NATURE OF POSITION

MYP Coordinator contributes to the understanding of MYP philosophy and serves in a leadership role to provide the support, structure and resources required of an IB Middle Years Programme by:

• Building and maintaining awareness of MYP standards and practices for administration, teachers, students and parents
• Providing copies of relevant IB MYP publications for staff and supporting staff in the utilization of MYP online curriculum center support materials
• Coordinating and facilitating meetings for staff in preparation for authorization as an IBO World School
• Ensuring the school's action plan is a collaboratively developed tool for promoting continued growth through MYP candidacy and application for authorization
• Developing systems for communication within the entire professional staff to promote and facilitate implementation of the MYP in grades 6-8. These include, but are not limited to a shared drive on the school's intranet and collaborative use of Google Drive.
• Serving as liaison between the school and the IB, especially the school's IB consultant
• Coordinating IB related professional development through regional organizations and making arrangements for required and supplemental IB Americas recognized training for teachers and administrators
• Providing introductory information on the MYP to parents and community members
• Supporting the principal, assistant principal and other school leaders to ensure that all parent meetings concerning the MYP are organized and communicate a clear, consistent message
• Informing staff of all requirements and deadlines related to IB
• Leading the development, understanding and implementation of policies for Academic Honesty, Assessment, Language, and Inclusion/Special Education Needs.
• Serving as an active member of the school's Instructional Leadership Team
• Participating in the selection of MYP teachers
• Providing clarification to leadership regarding scheduling needs to meet MYP requirements
• Supporting the school librarian, administration, and lead teachers to ensure that required instructional materials, resources and facilities are available

MYP Coordinator supports collaborative planning and the development of written curriculum by:

• Developing a weekly and monthly schedule for both vertical and horizontal collaborative planning
• Working with teams to establish agendas for each collaborative planning meeting
• Providing needed resources for collaborative planning (IB documents, curriculum support materials, etc.)
• Supporting teachers in the development of subject overviews and unit plans by providing feedback and/or introducing these planning processes to teachers new to IB
• Developing teachers' abilities to utilize the tenets of Lynn Erickson's concept-based curriculum with a focus on the structure of knowledge utilizing key and related concepts and generalizations or statements of inquiry
• Leading collaborative discussions on the rationale for using global contexts in the MYP planning process and how these connections deepen student understanding
• Helping teachers recognize opportunities for a focus on international awareness in the subjects they teach
• Facilitating and/or supporting collaborative team meetings - both vertical and horizontal
• Utilizing collaborative review protocols such as Critical Friends with teams to look at teacher work as an opportunity to provide feedback promoting new understandings and continual growth for both the presenting teacher and participating teachers (grades 3 - 8)
• Maintaining awareness of teachers' unit plans to Identify possible interdisciplinary connections between subject groups
• Developing, with staff, a strategic approach to embedding and using Approaches to Learning within planning, instruction, and assessment
• Collaborating with teacher teams to develop methods for sharing written curriculum with students, parents and community members
• Maintaining awareness and understanding of the MYP policies developed to support teaching and learning and how these policies overlap to meet learner needs
• Utilizing planning and collaboration to identify opportunities for teachers to recognize or build IB learner profile attributes in their students (grades 3 - 8)
• Introducing long-term substitute teachers to the MYP planning process and supporting them in the implementation of the written curriculum
• Helping teachers interpret the MYP objectives when designing performance assessments as culmination to unit planning
• Ensuring that teachers develop a common understanding of the targeted learner needs for their subject/course (grades 3 - 8)
• Communicating the opportunities for action and service within all subject groups to establish a growing understanding for possible avenues for students' community project for full implementation in 2018-19 school year
• Maintaining a shared drive for online collaboration by staff (grades 3 - 8)
• Maintaining a focus with Instructional Leadership team members on the development of unit plans and the development of a process for providing teachers with feedback on written curriculum (grades 3 - 8)

MYP Coordinator supports teaching and learning by:

• Conducting classroom observations noting areas requiring additional support, professional development, or resources (grades 3 - 8)
• Modeling lessons and co-teaching to support novice teachers (3-8) and teachers new to MYP
• Providing feedback to teachers and students (grades 3 - 8)
• Monitoring teaching and learning to provide feedback regarding the implementation of global contexts to facilitate transfer
• Conducting MYP staff meetings to discuss strategies for strengthening inquiry, critical and creative thinking, use of global contexts differentiation, and instruction for target approaches to
• Coordinating Instructional Rounds training, observations and interpretation of data organized around a school-identified research question. (grades 3 - 8)

MYP Coordinator supports the effective implementation of assessment as addressed in Lakewood's Assessment policy by:

• Helping parents understand the MYP assessment criteria and the school's assessment policy and procedures
• Working with teachers to develop assessments which provide evidence that students meet their unit's intended goals and their teaching provided the instruction needed to support students in meeting those goals (grades 3 - 8)
• Supporting teachers' development of authentic assessments through Project-Based Learning and/or performance assessment tasks (grades 3 - 8)
• Collaborating with MYP staff on strategies and protocols for ensuring students understand MYP criterion for assessment and are able to use related rubrics
• Establishing practices for standardizing use of criterion for subject area, interdisciplinary and community project assessments

Examining student work with teams to determine strengths and weaknesses to determine next instructional steps (grades 3 - 8)

LICENSE:

Eligible for, or in possession of, appropriate Virginia Teaching License

PHYSICAL EFFORT:

Above-average amount of walking, bending, standing, stooping, and lifting in a classroom environment and laboratories.

HAZARDS:

Work involves exposure to normal everyday hazards.

UNUSUAL DEMANDS:

Work is performed in a school setting which requires no unusual demands. Planned events for