Unique opportunity to join a gifted special education school with an expert team and innovative, neuroscience-based program!

We are looking for a Math teacher who is excited to join a startup, innovative educational environment and is passionate about real-world, cross-disciplinary project-based learning.

About our School:

Cajal Academy is a small, innovative non-profit school. We have developed new educational approaches that match to the science of how kids learn, socialize and grow--and that have the potential to revolutionize education. We empower kids to discover their gifts through small, discussion-based classes of just 1-6 kids, project-based learning, close teacher-student relationships and new differentiation and social-emotional approaches that help students understand and overcome the challenges that hold them back. For our teachers, this is an opportunity to learn effective new strategies to further your craft, within an extremely close-knit and supportive team that is passionate about moving education forward, and to collaborate with teachers and expert licensed therapists across disciplines to create bespoke, standards-aligned project-based learning curriculum that challenge our kids to solve real world problems.

We are looking for teachers who are passionate about using data to meet kids where they are--and that have the depth of subject matter expertise that's needed to provide challenge to kids having very high analytical reasoning and/or creative thinking skills. You will be part of a deeply integrated, multi-disciplinary team including experts in neuropsychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech and language therapy, and applying groundbreaking approaches developed by our team to remediate--not just accommodate--children's areas of special needs. We are the only school in Connecticut or Westchester, NY offering academic programs and therapies tailored to the needs of this cohort of kids, and have brought transformative results for many of them that allegedly "can't be done."

Cajal Academy was granted Candidacy status by NEASC in June, 2023 and is working towards full accreditation. Cajal Academy is growing towards a K-12 school of 50 students; enrollment is currently just 11 kids, spanning grades 2 through 12. Cajal Academy is not a behavior management program and does not admit students who display physical aggression toward others. Our social-emotional curriculum fosters a focus on fostering community, openness about one’s challenges and celebrating peers’ growth and development.

Responsibilities of the Position:

Specific responsibilities of the position include:

• Working in an interdisciplinary team to develop standards-based project-based learning aligned to CT state math standards, in ability-based groupings across grades K-12;

• Fostering a love of math and supporting students who have academic anxieties and/or freeze-fight-flight reactions to math through a trauma-informed approach to help them monitor and eventually reduce these reactions;

• Developing, modifying and delivering instruction to ability-grouped math classes, combining hands-on experimentation, multimedia sources, community-based field work and engagement of industry experts;

• Collaborating with other team members in the development of curriculum and written lesson plans implementing our protocols and approaches within the classroom, and documenting student performance;

• Differentiating classroom instruction based on each student's profile of strengths and weaknesses, following guidelines provided by our expert team of therapists;

• Designing and implementing competency-based assessments, including in-depth progress reports detailing students' progress, learning strengths and "not yet skills";

• Implementing Cajal Academy protocols for growth mindset and social-emotional coaching, and support children’s growth by prompting students to utilize personalized self-regulation strategies provided by our clinical team;

• Identifying and collaborating with outside, community and/or industry-based experts who can help to provide curriculum depth to our students, particularly at the high school level;

• Providing thoughtful, detailed written competency-based assessments of students' performance, growth, strengths and "not yet skills;" and

• Keeping parents and team members informed through written and oral communications, and expanding teacher and parent understanding of each child’s development.

Finally, Cajal Academy is a startup environment--so it is essential that all staff members are team players who are excited and committed to help build our school as a new educational leader. This may include developing lesson plans outside of school hours, participating in admissions events, supporting our accreditation process, and "pitching in" to help do what needs to be done within a lean startup environment.

Potential advancement opportunities include opportunities to become our future Director of Curriculum and/or positions in school administration.

Requirements:

Our math teacher must be comfortable teaching high school mathematics to intellectually-gifted students.

Our ideal candidate will be an educator who has experience developing and implementing high quality science instruction, including at the high school level, or a mathematician having in-depth experience in-industry and a deep passion for inspiring our next generation of scientific leaders. Teacher certification is desirable but not required.

Regardless of background, (s)he must be able to flexibly adapt curriculum standards and educational strategies to respond to the needs of a particular child. Experience and training as a special education teacher is not required.

All Cajal Academy staff members must be flexible thinkers with very high analytical and organizational skills, and strong attention to detail. Our model has brought transformative results for students, but it requires our teachers to think about differentiation, scaffolding, curriculum development, behaviors and social-emotional growth in a whole new way. This is an opportunity to be at the forefront of our work to modernize education but requires that you be open-minded to learning new instructional approaches.

All Cajal Academy staff must also be prepared to meet children where they are, and to support children struggling with anxieties, atypical neurophysiological regulation and/or prior school-based traumas. All Cajal Academy staff are accountable for supporting children's challenges through collaborative problem-solving and non-judgmental, unconditional support, applying our Neuro- and Trauma-Informed Approach and protocols for developing growth mindset, for which training will be provided.

The successful candidate must also be a team player who is comfortable working both independently and collaboratively in a fluid, startup environment. (S)he must be comfortable with the fluidity that is required to provide highly-responsive, quality education to children with complex needs.

All candidates must be fully-vaccinated against COVID-19 or have a valid medical exemption by the time of their start date.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $45.00 - $65.00 per hour

COVID-19 considerations:
All staff members must be fully-vaccinated for COVID-19 by the time of their start date.

How to Apply:

Interested applicants should complete the Employment Application available on the Cajal Academy website, including a resume and 3 references. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

See it in action!

It’s a bit of an understatement to say we do math a little differently. Use the arrows to the right to scroll through our gallery of Cajal Academy's approach to math instruction in action!