MS 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