Instructional Aide

Position: Instructional Aide

Reports to: Director of Academics

Application Deadline: Until position is filled

Start Date:  July 27, 2023

Hours & Compensation: Full-Time (7:45 am – 3:45 pm, M-F, regular school year)

Answering the Call

Feeling trapped in the box of the traditional educational model? Ready to rethink high school?  Wouldn’t it be cool if you could work in a super school that cultivates students’ creativity and makes learning relevant through real-world experiences? A school in which the content standards are the floor and not the ceiling? A school in which relationships are valued more than compliance? Well, here’s your chance! 

We are searching for individuals who are comfortable working in an exciting, growing environment, who are risk-takers and are driven to imagine and explore the limitless possibilities for our students, and who are committed to providing an engaging, yet rigorous, project-based and competency-based approach to student-centered learning. Successful candidates will be highly collaborative, yet independent thinkers, and will be comfortable “co-working” with their professional peers across disciplines, as well as with community partners. Do you want to connect with your students on a deeper level and facilitate opportunities for them to develop their passions beyond the core content?  You’ll be able to do just that at Crosstown High. Our diverse-by-design, student-centered school is seeking educators who will facilitate “learning that encourages original thinking for an uncertain world,” and will work to develop our young learners as “generous collaborators for tough problems.” 

Crosstown High 

Crosstown High (XTH) is an innovative public charter high school which opened in August 2018 in Memphis’ city center with an inaugural class of 150 9th graders. In the 2020-2021 school year, we are serving 400 9th-11th graders, and will add a grade each year through the 12th grade, ultimately growing to just over 500 students. XTH is strategically and intentionally located in Crosstown Concourse, a 1.1M square foot vibrant, “vertical urban village” that houses retail, restaurants and residential  apartments. XTH students leverage the assets of this redevelopment and our greater community through hands-on partnerships and academic projects with participating Crosstown Concourse nonprofit and for-profit organizations that span health care, education, and the arts, to name a few.

The idea for XTH was born from an application to the XQ Super School Challenge submitted by a cross section of Memphis volunteers (young people, parents, educators and community members). The Challenge invited teams to reimagine how high schools can better prepare students for college, the workplace and life.

XTH’s approach to education is unique in a number of ways:

• Location: The school’s location in Crosstown Concourse provides students with the opportunity to build rich and ongoing relationships with each other and the Crosstown Concourse community.
• Curriculum: XTH’s curriculum is project-based and competency-based which provides students with real-world connections to what they are learning in school and allows them to broaden their understanding of content standards through real-world applications. 
• Support:  XTH utilizes a personalized and highly relational approach to accommodate the learning needs and social-emotional development of students. 
• Diverse by design: XTH recruits its students from a diverse cross-section of the city to ensure that a broad range of students can take advantage of all the opportunities this school offers. Our students learn with and from one another.

Instructional Aide Roles and Responsibilities

The person in this position will have two main roles. First, they will provide academic assistance to two students whose IEPs require one-on-one support. Second, they will serve as an in-house substitute teacher, managing classes when teachers must be out. 

Specific to the first role:

• Assist students with activities and assignments, typically with individuals and small groups of students
• Help students to organize, prioritize and submit class work
• Assist in establishing and implementing behavioral objectives, including observing students’ behavior and notifying teachers of behavioral changes, redirecting behavior, and working with individual students to help them adjust behaviorally and academically in the class setting
• Assist with parent communication

Specific to the second role:

• Serve as a substitute teacher on days when a regular classroom teacher is out
• When no teachers are out, provide additional support in classrooms that may need it because of the day’s activities

Pertinent to both roles:

• Attend staff meetings, and stay in regular communication with our instructional leadership team
• Work collaboratively with colleagues and community partners in a co-taught, interdisciplinary instructional setting
• Develop meaningful and supportive relationships with students through a positive youth development and restorative justice lens
• Develop and maintain positive relationships and communication with parents and families 
• Other duties as deemed necessary by the leadership team to support and strengthen the community
• Bring your “A game” and have fun. It’s what we do at Crosstown High!

Qualifications

The strongest candidates will have the following certifications, skills, and experiences:

• An associates degree
• An undeniable enthusiasm for teenagers and a commitment to authentically engaging them
• Be proactive in seeking to identify student needs and make and execute a plan to address them
• A highly collaborative approach to teaching and learning
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Willingness to learn, explore, experiment, question, create, critique, and enhance as we RETHINK HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION.

Compensation

Pay is commensurate with experience.

Apply

Email your cover letter and resume to jobs@crosstownhigh.org. Include the position you are applying for in the subject line.

In your cover letter, please address some or all of the following (no more than two pages, please):

• What about Crosstown High’s mission or learning model most speaks to you?
• What makes you a good fit for this role at XTH?