Grades Teacher

Grades Teacher Job Description

Responsibilities regarding the curriculum: Grades teachers are expected to strive to understand the model of child development that underlies the Waldorf curriculum, and coupling this with study of the curriculum itself, the curriculum standards of the school, and an awareness of the Grades and community attributes, plan lessons for the grade level of their students. 

• Written plans should be prepared each year which include the order of main lesson blocks, goals for the students’ development of academic, artistic, physical, and social skills, and daily and weekly Grades schedules. 
• In addition to main lessons, Grades teachers are responsible for planning and teaching lessons in form drawing, music, painting, drawing, modeling, and skills or practice periods in which the main lesson learning is practiced and reinforced. Grades teachers may also be responsible for some handwork or crafts lessons. 
• Main lessons and special classes should be planned and taught such that attention is given to the following attributes: 
  • balance of thinking, feeling, and willing activities 
  • the conveyance of enthusiasm for the subject and for learning 
  • in-breathing and out-breathing rhythm 
  • a balance of directed and independent work 
  • presenting the children with challenging, age-appropriate work 
  • incorporating movement 
• Grades teachers are expected to work to deepen their understanding of the curriculum through the anthroposophical study of human development and the evolution of human consciousness, through discussion with colleagues and attendance of courses and workshops. 
• Grades teachers are expected to maintain an awareness and an interest in educational and learning developments going on outside of (or parallel to) Waldorf education. 

Responsibilities for the Children: Grades teachers are asked to provide for the children a conscious model of responsible behavior that together with loving authority and discipline, conveys to them a living sense of respect, reverence and gratitude. 

• Grades teachers are expected to always provide conscientious guidance of their students and extend this to all students of WSMF by sharing in supervision duties before, during and after school. 
• Grades teachers are to develop the ability to work with the classes as a whole, while concurrently being aware of (and tending to) individual needs. 
• Observations are to be made of the classes as a whole and of individual children, and working with these, the children are to be taken into the teacher’s meditative life. 
• The Grades teacher is responsible for keeping the children’s work in an organized manner, and developing methods of evaluation of the children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development through record-keeping (working with the guidelines of the school). 

Responsibilities to Parents:  Grades teachers are expected to work with the Enrollment & Communications Directors, following the school’s admission procedure, to interview and admit new students to the Grades. Home visits are made for new students. 

• Grades teachers are expected to interact with parents with honesty, courtesy, warmth and professionalism, working with them to promote awareness and understanding of their child’s school experience, as well as to foster the parents’ development as a supporting and protecting calyx around the development of the Grades as a whole. 
• Grades teachers are to actively employ good communication skills in working with parents. However, if difficulties in communication arise, the teacher is to seek assistance from the Head of School. 

• Grades teachers are expected to conduct parent-teacher conferences two times during the year according to the school’s schedule, at which time they strive to form a shared vision of the child with the parents, discuss all aspects of the child’s progress in school, mutually share concerns, and discuss means of working with concerns. 
• Parent evenings are to be held at least three times during the year, at which the Grades teacher is to share news of what is currently going on or planned in the classroom, foster understanding of the Waldorf curriculum through activities or discussion and share other school-wide information. 

Responsibilities regarding the School and Colleagues: Grades teachers are to work together with their faculty colleagues — sharing observations, questions and insights — to support each other’s professional and personal development. 

• Grades teachers are expected to take active roles in the administration of the school. After the first year, a Grades teacher is to serve on at least one committee. 
• Grades teachers are expected to take part in public relations aspects of the school’s work as follows: taking part in at least four All-School events per year and contributing to the BUZZ, the school’s newsletter. 
• Grades teachers are responsible for the physical environment of their classrooms — creating a place that is inspiring for learning by giving care to the beauty, artistic aspects, cleanliness and order of the room — and for the shared school building and grounds. 
• Grades teachers are expected to attend weekly faculty meetings, section meetings and in-service days as scheduled. 
• Grades teachers are on campus from 7:45 am – 3:30 pm, Monday – Friday, unless scheduled differently.