High School Spanish Teacher

EF Academy Pasadena Spanish Teacher

(residential or non-residential role)

EF Academy is an international day and boarding high school serving international students from over 30 countries. EF Academy Pasadena opened in September of 2022, joining sister schools in New York and Oxford. EF Academy Pasadena currently enrolls 217 students, but is on a growth pathway towards 1000 students (700 boarders and 300 local day students) over the next many years. EF Academy Pasadena faculty members are exceptional educators who are fully committed to a competency-based learning (CBL) approach to education. Our faculty constantly pursue learning to refresh their understanding of pedagogical best practices for student engagement and agency, with a special focus on project-based learning (PBL). Our faculty work collaboratively on implementing CBL with fidelity to the guiding values for equity and personalization and PBL in alignment to the Gold Standards defined by the Buck Institute.

Our signature Innovation & Impact (I2) program provides a "pedagogy playground" for faculty, as every faculty member teaches one section using a fully PBL model. I2 offers students the opportunity to use the design thinking process to propose, prototype, and implement an actionable solution in alignment to one of the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals.

As both a start-up and a boarding school, at EF Academy Pasadena our faculty are guided in their practice by an educator competency architecture with four domains that define how to be and become inspiring educators, committed caretakers, courageous innovators, and relationship builders. Working on this team of faculty requires a commitment to best practices, a comfort with iteration, and a fervor for collaboration!

EF Academy Ethos:

We teach students not classes. We customize every student's learning journey to maximize their full potential. They gain critical knowledge and skills and put theory into practice through hands-on experience.

Professional Qualifications and Qualities:

• Bachelor's degree in teaching or relevant field, advanced degree preferred

• A minimum of 3 years' experience as a teacher

• In-depth knowledge of student-centered teaching methods

• Proven interest in learning about and adopting CBL best practices in design of curriculum and assessment

• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills

• Well-organized with excellent leadership abilities

• Exceptional interpersonal and presentation skills

• Growth mindset

Key Responsibilities in each domain:

Inspiring Educators

• Teach a full timetable of classes (generally 4 classes in alignment with subject area expertise and 1 section of the signature Innovation & Impact program).

• Implement student-centered pedagogies, inclusive of project-, problem-, inquiry-, place-, and/or research-based approaches.

• Collaborate with the full faculty on creating appropriate formative and summative assessments in alignment with CBL values.

• Partner with the Learning Support Specialist and the Director of English Language Learning Support to create inclusive classrooms for students with learning differences or with lower English proficiencies.

• Support students outside of the classroom through office hours and evening study hall.

• Help to grow experiential learning through thoughtful cultivation of field study, service learning, trips, or internship opportunities in alignment to course curriculum.

• Thoughtfully reflect on practice via the professional portfolio process annually.

Committed Caretakers

• Act as an advisor to a group of students meeting as a group and individually as scheduled to build a sense of community, support, and family within a small student group.

• Support residential life on a weekend duty team.

• Coach a sport or mentor a club each season across the school year.

• Contribute to execution of student welcome and departure days.

• Embrace responsibilities as a trained Mental Health First Aider to support student well-being.

Courageous Innovators

• Commit to the CBL vision of academics and experiment boldly with curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment.

• Serve on a faculty team to help drive the implementation of the academic vision ('23-'24 include: CBL Implementation, Competency Mapping & Curriculum, Professional Portfolio, Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Pedagogy, Academic Integrity & Technology, and DEIBJ).

• Participate in professional learning opportunities offered by the school.

Relationship Builders

• Actively engage with team meetings, faculty meetings, department meetings, and all community meetings.

• Work cooperatively with colleagues on planning, gathering and sharing resources, and cross grading/rubric tuning.

• Maintain open communication and build trust with families of advisees; lead advisor/parent conferences twice yearly.

• Take actions that demonstrate commitment to helping students feel known, seen, and valued. Attend events that celebrate students accomplishments - Arts night, Culture Fair, I2 symposium, etc.

Job Status

This is a 10-month, exempt position. As an international boarding school, we believe in the importance of a strong community spirit of support and care. Therefore, all members of the school faculty and staff, regardless of residential status, are expected to engage in life beyond the classroom through clubs, activities, excursions and celebratory events, as well as duties on campus. Residential faculty (those with campus-provided housing) complete a more robust set of evening and weekend duties than non-residential faculty (those without campus-provided housing).

Salary will be paid on the faculty pay scale and range from $66,560 to $90,500 based on years of relevant experience and highest degree earned. Non-residential faculty are paid an additional $5,000 annual stipend for their performance of residential duties.

About EF Education First

At EF we believe that the world is better when people try to understand one another. Since 1965, we have helped millions of people see new places, experience new cultures, and learn new things about the world and about themselves. Our culturally immersive education programs-focused on language, travel, cultural exchange, and academics-turn dreams into international opportunities.

When you join EF, you join a multicultural and diverse community working across more than 600 schools and offices in 50 countries, all with one shared mission of opening the world through education. Whoever you are, whatever you are passionate about-we welcome you and want you to bring that to work every day. EF is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to inclusion and belonging across race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, caste, parental status, identity, experience and everything else that makes you unique.

Founded in Sweden in 1965, EF has schools and offices around the world, including hubs in Boston, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Shanghai, Stockholm, Zürich, and more. Learn more at https://www.ef.com.