Expeditions Wilderness Teacher

Summit Public Schools is searching for talented Wilderness educators to join our team in California. This is a great opportunity to join a vibrant, growing organization that is dedicated to transforming public education for its students! This is a certificated role, and a current CA, out of state, or willingness to earn a credential is required.

California Bay Area- South Loop

South Loop includes Redwood City, Sunnyvale, and San Jose, CA

Who We Are

What if all students graduated high school with not only content knowledge, but the habits and skills to successfully navigate college and career, with a sense of purpose to anchor them? This is the question at the core of Summit Public Schools. Summit is a leading charter management organization serving heterogeneous communities in the Bay Area and Washington state. We operate 11 schools serving over 3,600 students.

Are you looking for the opportunity to lead change? Do you want to help re-imagine what schools should be? We put students in the driver’s seat, empowering students with the skills and habits they need to be successful in college and life. We need diverse, driven, and dynamic teachers to join our growing team to help realize our educational vision.

Summit’s Expeditions Program:

The Summit approach to elective courses - in the form of Expeditions - is unique. Expeditions occurs at each school site four times throughout the year in two-week intervals. Students take a morning and afternoon course every day for two and a half hours each for a daily, immersive experience in the area of study that they would like to explore or already have passion for. They continue this exploration for each two-week Expeditions interval in a school-year.

The Expeditions faculty is the team of teachers who rotate through four school sites for the year, leading two sets of students at each school through this immersive experience for two weeks, and returning to that group four times each year. You can see an overview here, and view past year’s calendar here.

The areas of study, or clusters, which students can explore include but not limited to:

• Cooking
• STEM related courses
• College Readiness
• Music
• Engineering (Mechanical, Environmental)
• Dance & performance
• Community Service
• Pre-Med fields

Over the course of their time at Summit, students have the opportunity to explore passions across these clusters or to craft a pathway of deep study that may lead to an internship or independent study.

Using the Framework for 21st Century Learning, the skills, knowledge and expertise that students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st century vary by areas or study or cluster.

The role of the Expeditions teacher is to empower students to discover and deepen their passions. We believe that connecting to one’s passion is essential for success in college and a career. Students can make better choices about “best fit” colleges based on an understanding of the course of study for possible careers. They can begin college with a career goal in mind that is connected to their passion, and can immediately apply their decision-making and self-direction skills to continuously set and achieve goals that are connected to working towards that career.

With your own passion and expertise, you will execute this vision by doing the following:

• Designing and teaching high-quality, challenging, project-based curriculum which guide students towards explorations of potential passions.
• Facilitating learning experiences which lead students through deep exploration of fields of study connected to potential majors, hobbies and careers.
• Creating and guiding students through real-life experiences in the field, through guest speakers, field trips, and other connections to community groups.

What you need:

• Commitment to uphold Summit’s values, belief that all children deserve a rigorous and equitable education that prepares them for college and for life
• Teaching Credential in California or another US State (or a commitment to obtain a credential by completing an educator preparation program within 2 years of starting at Summit)
• Bachelor’s Degree (a Master’s Degree in Education is preferred but not required)
• Clear health and background check
• Teaching experience in your subject preferred but not required
• Experience in and ability to design and execute courses in the chosen “cluster”

Who you are:

• You maintain high expectations for all students and believe all students can find success in school, college, and life.
• You’re deeply dedicated to social justice and feel motivated by the challenge and impact of teaching in a heterogenous community and working to close the achievement gap
• You believe in every student, and can maintain and reinforce Summit's graduated discipline process, recognizing that student growth in all areas—academic, behavioral and community—are an investment and part of the work
• You facilitate learning experiences, using a variety of method: project-based learning, direct instruction, small group and individual tasks, formative and summative assessment, direct teacher feedback, public presentation, and more
• You are empathetic and culturally competent. You design and implement social and emotional learning experiences in all courses, and you’re open to having hard conversations
• You thrive in innovative environments, and are comfortable with the ambiguity that can come with a dynamic and progressive workplace
• You are a leader, and actively participate as a member of weekly faculty meetings
• You’re committed to continuous improvement, see feedback as a positive, and have a growth mindset
• You thrive while collaborating and are excited to work with colleagues to maintain academic integrity of planned lessons and learning experiences for students. You find positivity in share successes
• You use data to track and provide updates on student achievement to faculty, directors and families
• You're excited to learn Summit’s technology platforms that organize instructional materials and data

What you get:

Summit offers competitive salaries and benefit options, including covering 75% of the health, dental and vision plan costs. We fully cover life and disability insurance. We have a “take what you need” PTO policy, 11 paid holidays, 4 weeks of vacation during the year, and a summer break. We value our teachers’ Summit experience, offering stipends for teachers who have been with us for three or more years and helping teachers grow with us through designated time for paid professional development and regular coaching.

We strive to recruit a diverse team. Summit Public Schools is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, military status, pregnancy, parenthood, citizenship status, creed, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Summit will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.

People from all diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. Spanish language proficiency is a plus.