Special Education Teacher - The Mill School

WE'RE GROWING! And we're looking for a Special Education Teacher to be a big part of our growth!

Here's the Details:

Special Education Teacher -The Mill School

The Mill School
Who We Are. What We Do.

Our approach to education is simple. We are committed to providing flexible, caring, and proactive educational and vocational opportunities to young people who often struggle with the day-to-day necessities of life. Every student who attends our program is treated with dignity and respect. We listen to them and behave in ways that let them know that they've been heard and we collaborate with them to make plans to achieve outcomes that are important to them. We have very real and very frank conversations that can sometimes be difficult, but we believe that these conversations are necessary to the identification of meaningful outcomes and the development of academic and personal success. We care.

The population we serve has been historically unsuccessful in public school settings. Our students are often identified as behavior problems, at risk for failure, emotionally disturbed, or worse. They arrive at our door cynical, combative, with minimal interest in school and little hope for a positive future. Their educational experiences have been negative, difficult, and rife with broken relationships and conflict, and the services that they have received are typically provided in a reactive and controlling manner. Our methods are different, and based on years of research that we've published in the professional literature and that we've successfully applied in schools around the world. We teach students how to manage themselves, to work on projects and activities that they find useful and interesting, and to integrate these projects into the daily school routines. We are proactive.

Our students have long histories of making poor decisions and we respond with understanding and support. We help them to learn how to make plans and follow their plans, and to honestly evaluate the results of their plans once they're completed (or not). We realize that each student is an individual with unique needs so we encourage them to be themselves and explore multiple options to create an educational program that will work best. We are collaborative.

Our place is a safe haven for our students. A place that they can use our kitchen to make or get a hot meal and get much as they can eat (and bring home for their families if they need to). Access to a caring ear to listen whenever it's needed. The comfort of knowing that no matter how they are feeling or behaving, they are accepted for who they are. We don't restrain kids, we don't call the police when things get difficult. We work it out together. We understand that everyone has bad days and that no one is at his or her best when having a bad day, so we adjust and adapt and teach the students to do so as well. We help our students to learn how to judge "big deals and little deals" in a reasonable way, to recognize when they are "ready" or "not ready" to take on a task or interaction with another person, and we support them to learn how to respond to life in a positive and pro-social way. We are positive.

We are committed to a small program - no more than twenty-seven students supported by 13 clinical and educational staff - so that we can focus on each student's interests and ideas in a very personal way. We are a safe haven to try things out, to fail without feeling like a failure, to learn how to be resilient and successful in ways they never experienced in school before. We believe in our students.

We prepare students for life after school by helping them to develop the ability to regulate themselves. We help students learn to be successful in school and life. As a result, we provide a flexibly integrated school day that includes formal classroom activities, individual projects that are undertaken in the school setting and the community, vocational activities, and weekly community activities designed to create opportunities to establish positive connections with others. We are relentlessly optimistic.

Join our journey! It will be hard. It will be fun.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• A WELL DEVELOPED SENSE OF HUMOR

• Licensure as Special Education Teacher

• Interest in working with a diverse student population with difficult behaviors

• Valid Driver's license and reliable transportation for on the job travel

• Minimum of Bachelor's Degree (Masters Preferred) in Special Education or related field

• Experience in the implementation of positive behavior supports and proactive engagement with difficult students

• Work positively in collaborative teams

• Implement age-appropriate teaching methods utilizing a curriculum framework, understand education and special education law, and teach appropriate instructional subjects across a spectrum of traditional and non-traditional courses

• Co-teach with peers in a diversity of classroom and community settings

• Develop positive relationships with community services in the effort to develop meaningful practicum and internship opportunities for students

• Develop and implement Behavioral and Functional Assessments for students

• Develop and implement IEPs for students with a variety of special education classifications

• Develop and implement an objective system for assessment and development of individualized goals and objectives

• Intervene when students demonstrate behavioral challenges
  ESSENTIAL SKILLS:

• A WELL DEVELOPED SENSE OF HUMOR

• Demonstrated ability to work flexibly and effectively with a diverse student population, with community school partners, and with the families of students

• Assist staff and parents in the development, implementation, and revision of student behavior intervention plans

• Facilitate team processes including problem-solving, pre-referral intervention, and IEP development for special needs students

• Use approved methodology to provide for the health and safety of students

• Collect appropriate student performance data for determining the extent to which student IEP goals and objectives are achieved

• Excellent interpersonal skills to consult effectively with teachers, local school staff, social service agencies, and parents

• Very good command of oral and written English language and ability to present effectively to large groups

• The ability to assert one's opinion in a constructive manner

• Write valid IEP's and follow IDEA and 504 procedures

• Maintain the integrity of confidential information relating to students, families, and staff

• Seek out opportunities for professional development to enhance content knowledge and pedagogical skill

• A WELL DEVELOPED SENSE OF HUMOR!

If you think this is the right opportunity for you, then please email the following:

A brief cover letter explaining your job history and the reasons for your interest in the position;
A copy of your resume;
Copies of your undergraduate and graduate transcripts;
Copies of all relevant license(s)

to Tim Feeney, Ph.D., Founder, The Mill School (tfeeney@millschoolvt.org)

And, if you'd like to talk to Tim about the job, the work that we do, or anything else you can think of (really, just about anything!) then go ahead and give Tim a call at 802-423-0111 anytime between 7 am and 6 pm EST.

Thanks for considering working with us!