Spanish Teacher - Middle School

POSITION: Spanish Teacher- Middle School

REPORTS TO: Head of the Whitby Middle School

START DATE: 2024-25 School Year

SUMMARY OF POSITION:

Whitby seeks an experienced, innovative Spanish teacher to join our middle school team of passionate educators in grades 5-8. We strive to provide excellence in Spanish language acquisition, as well as literature and culture instruction to students with a range of experiences, abilities, and passions.

At Whitby, students are active participants who drive the learning process through inquiry and reflection. In order to help students engage to their fullest potential, the Spanish department employs a holistic approach, committed to helping all students discover not only the skills, concepts and broader ideas surrounding language and literature, but also who they are as learners and as people.

Whitby offers differentiated Spanish instruction to all students from our toddler classes to grade 8. Classes are flexibly grouped at each grade from 5 – 8. Classes focus on improving each student’s ability to comprehend and produce orally and through writing. Ideas presented in Spanish classes are rooted in a deep conceptual framework and placed within larger global contexts to help students make sense of the world around them. Students examine multiple genres and text types through reading and writing. Peer and self-assessment, teacher conferencing, and total immersion are key components of our program.

A willingness to collaborate with colleagues, a love of middle school, and a passion for Spanish language and Hispanic culture are a must.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Holds a Bachelor’s degree in elementary/secondary education, Spanish, or a related field
• Native or fully bilingual Spanish speaker
• Has a minimum of two years of experience teaching
• While not essential, IB MYP experience would be a plus
• Willingness to engage in IB MYP training and professional development
• Satisfactory completion of pre-employment background check

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Teaching

• Engages students in active learning
• Promotes a “hands-on and minds-on” culture of thinking, stimulates inquiry into local, regional and global issues from multiple perspectives and develops the understanding that the opinions of others may also be right.
• Challenges students to become life-long learners by taking risks and reflecting on their experiences
• Delivers differentiated instruction based on identified student needs and learning styles
• Utilizes a range of teaching techniques effectively and inquiry-based instruction whenever appropriate
• Engages collaboratively with members of the World Languages department and the school faculty
• Integrates a variety of resources effectively to enhance instruction
• Communicates in a clear, inviting, respectful, and caring manner with students
• Institutes effective classroom management routines; utilizes positive discipline techniques and displays awareness of the whole classroom
• Builds a strong sense of personal and social responsibility that sets the foundation for a balanced lifestyle and encourages service to others, our community and our environment.
• Promotes international-mindedness throughout our curriculum by exploring our diversity of culture, language and experience while gaining insights from the unique perspectives of our host culture.
• Develops the use of technology as a learning tool within the classroom and as an extension of the classroom when appropriate.