2024-25 Middle School Teacher (Integrated Co-Teaching): Special Education

Salary: $58,267 - $97,191 *See attached "Compensation Overview" for more details

Instructional Staff for the 2024 - 2025 School Year

Start Date: Mid August 2024

Who We Are

Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School (BUGS), is a small, independent, progressive Middle School in South Slope/Windsor Terrace serving approximately 300 students of all abilities and backgrounds from across Brooklyn. 

BUGS is at the forefront of sustainability education, diverse-by-design and community-based schools movements. We feature a hands-on interdisciplinary education with a focus on real-world problem-solving and exploration of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Our Middle School students (grades 6 to 8) are prepared for success in high school and to become critical thinkers, lifelong learners, and thoughtful designers of a more socially just and sustainable world.

 

We are excited to welcome talented educators who are inspired by our mission and inclusion model, passionate about serving middle school aged adolescents, and eager to join a dynamic professional learning community. If our mission aligns with yours, we hope you will submit your materials for consideration for the 2024 - 2025 school year.

At BUGS, we value and respect teachers as educators, professionals, and individuals. As a growing faculty and community, we offer many opportunities for innovation, professional growth, and teacher leadership.  We feature a strong, supportive community of learners, an active parent-teacher organization, and a positive student and staff culture. Educators are supported in using project-based methodology and designing on-going fieldwork to enrich the units of study. 

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Vision Statement

At BUGS, we actively strive to repair the detrimental effects of racism, discrimination and systems of oppression that affect our students, families, staff, community and larger society. We do this work personally and collectively through in-house professional development with our Inclusion and Culture Departments and in partnership with outside organizations. 

We acknowledge that racism, discrimination and systems of oppression exist, and we are each a part of them and are affected by them - consciously and unconsciously.  Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are important, interdependent components of everyday life and are critical to the successful pursuit of our school vision and mission.

Our Key Design Elements

Inquiry-Based Study of the Science of Sustainability BUGS will be a middle school focused on the science of sustainability, which incorporates the natural sciences, math, economics, history, social sciences, and the humanities to examine the intersection of human and ecological systems.

Extended Time for Learning Longer blocks of class time, a longer school day and a longer school year will provide additional time to: maximize learning opportunities; implement innovative, cross-disciplinary approaches to curriculum, instruction, and assessment; and provide rigorous supports for ELLs, special education, and struggling students.

A Positive and Inclusive School Climate BUGS will create a safe, welcoming, and respectful school climate that supports equity and access for all learners. Through its advisory program, school-wide discipline program, positive behavior supports, and research-based interventions, BUGS will foster a college-bound, career-ready student body that respects and values the diversity of others in their community and around the world.

A Professional Learning Community A learning-focused, collaborative culture will be based on trust, shared instructional leadership, and mutual accountability. Daily common planning time and on-going professional development will enhance teachers‘ collective focus on student learning.

Authentic Assessments and Individualization Instruction is driven by ongoing, authentic assessment and analysis of academic and behavioral data, which will support students‘ individual needs and is facilitated by trained and supported teachers.

Use of Technology Computer-based instruction will allow for intensive, targeted remediation in basic skills, individualized learning and assessments, and the development of 21st century skills in visual, media and technological literacy.

Our Inclusion Model

At BUGS we believe that all students are capable of succeeding when consistently given the appropriate support. This, along with our sustainability integration, is core to our academic program. At BUGS we use various co-teaching models to meet students’ and lessons’ needs. We support an inclusion model that focuses on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which supports differentiated instruction and Specially Designed Instruction. We believe families are equal partners in this work and must have consistent communication. 

Within Our Inclusion Model, BUGS co-teachers are expected to…

Share the Workload. While one teacher is usually a certified special education teacher, both BUGS teachers are expected to serve all students fully. 

Utilize a variety of strategies at all times to reach all students. These include providing differentiated instruction, modifications, and accommodations in the form of small groups, graphic organizers, leveled texts, strong vocabulary support, adapted or leveled texts, multiple access points/opportunities to content, and more. This is rooted in a UDL approach that supports all learners.

Leverage Co-teaching. Teachers should review units/lessons and determine which co-teaching models are best suited for each lesson. It is expected that the parallel, station, alternative, and team teaching models be prioritized during lesson planning.

Conduct Routine Progress Monitoring. Teachers, co-teaching teams, grade teams and departments must routinely analyze data to support instructional decisions.

Know which students have mandated support. Teachers are expected to know the specific needs of students with IEPs, 504s, and ELL designations, supported by the Director of Inclusion and Assessment, and plan to meet the needs throughout the school day.

BUGS team members are reflective, open-minded, innovative, industrious self-starters who:

• regularly assess students and use data to inform instruction
• create and are excited to design coursework in the context of an interdisciplinary sustainability-focused hands-on learning and real-world problem solving curriculum
• commit to school-wide behavior systems that consider adolescent development and promote holistic, socio-emotional responses through restorative justice and collaborative problem solving in collaboration with our Office of Student Affairs
• communicate and collaborate regularly with families, colleagues, and students
• exemplify the BUGS Mission, Vision, and C.A.R.E.S. Values
• actively develop their professional practice
• actively pursue a deeper understanding of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and collaborate with colleagues to improve BUGS practices in DEI as we strive to repair detrimental effects of racism, discrimination & systems of oppression that affect our students, community, and country
  • research and implement culturally responsive classroom practices by participating in a PLC throughout the school year to identify best practices that would be embedded into the classrooms and curricula
• know, understand and apply the three pillars of sustainability that are at the foundation of all of their work at BUGS
• plan thoughtfully to connect the Interdisciplinary Sustainability Competencies (ISCs), EfS standards, C.A.R.E.S. values, and principles of design into their daily planning and execution of lessons, exploring different ways to make content accessible and relevant to students
• are passionate about environmental justice and stewardship

We’re looking for people who…

• have experience within an ICT setting utilizing a variety of co-teaching models
• for our Humanities Candidates, have experience implementing and/or familiarity with Teachers College Workshop Curriculum
• can show evidence of differentiation in their lesson plans
• utilize and/or are familiar with Standards Based Grading and Reporting
• have New York State Teaching Certification or NYS Special Education Certification
• have three years of teaching experience; highly preferred
• have a Bachelor's degree, required; Master's degree, preferred
• have experience working with middle school/young adolescents
• desire to work in a heterogeneous classroom with a range of ability levels and students of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds
• possess a commitment to student achievement, collaboration, co-teaching, sustainability, and ongoing professional growth

BUGS is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to building a culturally diverse faculty and staff. BUGS strongly encourages applications from minority candidates.

BUGS annual teaching salary is competitive with the New York City DOE salary matrix. For information about salary ranges at BUGS for the 2024-25 school year, please see our BUGS STAFF Compensation Overview 2024-25 SY. 

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Interviews for the 2024-25 school year will begin in March 2024. However, we are excited to start the conversation with you at your earliest convenience. Contact Leah Miles at careers@bugsbrooklyn.org to start the conversation today.

 

We look forward to learning more about you!