5th Grade Content Leads (SY26-27, Middle School)

Purpose

The Content Lead is a teacher leader collaborating closely with the Principal and Assistant Principal. They are responsible for creating a culture of high academic expectations and ensuring teacher support and development around teaching and learning, e.g., lesson planning and data-informed practices. The Content Lead receives a stipend for additional work outside of their teaching role and hours.

What You’ll Do

Lead Planning Meetings

• Facilitate weekly planning meetings to support teachers in their intellectual prep and understanding targeted standards for a unit (or the text and standards if ELA)
• Lead unit launches to ensure the team utilizes backwards planning, is grounded in exemplars, and prioritizes appropriate standards
• Collaborate with an AP to prioritize pacing for the unit and to clarify where individual teacher choice points exist in daily lesson plans
• Model the use of exemplars to drive discussions about planning
• Utilize an anti-racist lens when facilitating discussions about curriculum, instruction, and planning

Lead Data Meetings

• Use See It, Name It, Do It structure to facilitate weekly data meetings grounded in standards and student work, such as exit tickets, interim assessments, unit assessments, etc.
• Support the team in prioritizing which student assignments to review each week
• Actively use Jumprope to understand trends in student learning and mastery of standards
• Collaborate with an AP to identify strengths and gaps in student learning
• Keep academic goals front and center and report out regularly to the team around progress and challenges
• Utilize an anti-racist lens when looking at data to help identify equity strengths and gaps: ensure student data compilations, meetings, and reports provide data for subgroups including but not limited to race, gender, language learners, and students with learning disabilities

Curriculum Materials and Calendar Management

• Ensure the team has access to curriculum materials, unit and daily lesson plans, and all assessments (NOTE: The focus here is on making sure people have access to the unit plans, lesson plans, and assessments that already exist. Any new units will either come from a professional curriculum site or from paid curriculum writers on our team who get a lot of feedback. This is materials management and organization, with small tweaks, and supporting the team in intellectually prepping.)
• Create a curriculum and assessment calendar in close collaboration with an AP so teachers know what to teach when and are prepared for administration of assessments
• Collaborate with the Director of Operations and/or AP around test administration (e.g., ANet, MCAS, ACCESS)
• Keep Dropbox and/or Google drive organized so teachers can easily access needed materials (if we do not adopt curriculum materials that are already posted somewhere).
• Ensure teachers are clear about priority standards and key resources to use for tutoring.
• Internalize Veritas Anti-Racism Standards and utilize them to ensure curriculum reflects our students’ lives and that assessments are intentionally developed and selected with anti-racism principles in mind.
• Be available to support teachers who need extra guidance around intellectual prep

Communication

• Effectively communicate clear grade-level academic goals at each meeting
• Ensure space for multiple voices/perspectives at all grade-level meetings while also being transparent about decision-making, leading to concrete decisions, next steps, and progress toward goals
• Model positive, assets-based communication around student strengths and growth areas
• Use the delegation cycle effectively to ensure team has access to curriculum and assessment materials and resources they need
• Send weekly forecasting emails or meetings to help teams prioritize and manage the workflow

Team Development

• Encourage team collaboration around anti-racism and equity work at Veritas using key tools such as the Veritas Anti-racism Standards and the Teaching for Equity Framework from Leading Educators
• Model how to effectively partner with Special Education and MLL Teachers to support student needs
• Support team members in learning how to navigate and utilize tech platforms, e.g., Edulastic, Nearpod, Actively Learn, ANet, Dropbox, etc.
• Model a solutions-oriented mindset when tackling challenging issues and decisions
• Ensure assessment and consideration of preferences, traditions, and requirements (from The Management Center) as it relates to team meetings, workflows, and delegation
• Develop skills around facilitating difficult conversations
• Be available to support teachers who need extra guidance around intellectual prep

Requirements

What You'll Need (Key Qualifications)

• Ability to hold a high bar for grade-level academic standards and academic performance
• Ability to collaborate across teams (culture, operations, etc.)
• Ability to utilize data to make decisions
• Ability to positively influence and support peers
• Commitment to creating clear, simple systems for organization
• Solutions-oriented mindset when navigating challenges
• Excitement to grow one’s leadership skills with a community of other teacher leaders
• Willingness to learn from and alongside other grade level leads
• Ability to take feedback in order to improve one’s meeting facilitation skills
• Ability to see themselves as a change agent who can influence the practices of peers
• Commitment to anti-racism and ability to utilize the Veritas Anti-Racism Standards to promote change

Time Commitment (In School and Out of School)

• There will be two summer training dates scheduled 7/14 & 7/28
• After-school meetings with other Content Leads (monthly or bimonthly)
• Quarterly after-school professional development
• Weekly tasks and preparation related to the role, as described above

Benefits

What You’ll Get

• $3,000 stipend
• Training and coaching from the APs and/or the Principal
• Regular feedback from peers around facilitation
• Access to additional professional development from outside providers