Urban Teacher - SALA (Summer Arts for Learning Academy)

About the Summer Arts for Learning Academy: 

Baltimore City Schools’ Summer Arts for Learning Academy (SALA), operated by Arts for Learning Maryland, offers students an opportunity to imagine, create, and express who they are through the arts. This is an action-packed, full-day, five-week program (Monday - Thursday) that introduces students to a wide variety of art forms —from illustration and spoken word to percussion, drama, and dance— which gives students a chance to work alongside students from across the city and be taught by professional Artists. Students’ work is celebrated through a student showcase on the final day of the program. Arts for Learning Maryland will host 6 Academy sites throughout the city, locations TBD.

Mission and Core Values: 

The mission of Arts for Learning Maryland’s Summer Arts for Learning Academy (SALA) is to provide students with an opportunity to spend summer learning from the best Teachers and Teaching Artists our state has to offer. Through a dynamic, creative, and supportive environment, students will explore math and literacy in a unique arts-integrated environment that allows them to develop socially and emotionally, expands their personal creative process, introduces them to different art forms taught by professional Artists, and allows them to experience math and literacy content from a different lens.

We... 

• believe unwaveringly that ALL students can achieve high standards in and through the arts.
• provide opportunities for students to develop powerfully articulate voices through art forms and honor their creative processes along the way. 
• create safe, brave learning environments for students to grow, make mistakes, and contribute to the community.
• collaborate and reflect by learning from and with each other at every step of the process, cultivating positive relationships between all ages. 
• encourage the development of critical thinking, problem solving, inquiry, imagination, and creativity, and provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate knowledge and mastery.
• learn about, honor, and leverage the cultural knowledge, experiences, and frames of reference of our students and community to make learning more relevant and effective. 
• ensure that our students are known, loved, supported, celebrated, and valued

SALA Urban Teacher 

Job Description:

The SALA grade level Urban Teacher is key to ensuring rigorous and meaningful learning in both literacy and math at SALA sites. Urban Teachers will be paired with a highly skilled Teaching Artist for the entire program (Monday - Thursday) to provide arts-integrated instruction daily. Together, they will co-plan and co-teach one class of arts-integrated math and one class of arts-integrated literacy to the same students each day. All Teachers are expected to lead a daily morning SQUAD session in partnership with their Artist.

Ideal Urban Teachers Have:

• A willingness to be flexible in service to our SALA community.
• A passion for students: an ability to build meaningful relationships, and a desire to “go above and beyond” to ensure each student’s success.
• A strong interest (with experience preferred) in arts integration and co-teaching.
• A willingness to use either the school office landline or their personal cell phone (number blocking is acceptable) to contact parents regularly.
• An ability to attend and engage in all required training and program dates.
• An ability to create inclusive environments where all students’ unique gifts and talents are discovered and cultivated, and where students’ identities (racial, cultural, social, gender, etc.) are acknowledged, affirmed, and reflected around them.
• An ability to examine biases and an understanding of the concepts of institutional and structural racism and its impact on policies and practices, especially related to the administration of public education.
• A commitment to seeing families as partners in education and communicating with them regularly.
• A strong desire to fully integrate into a non-traditional learning environment where flexibility is strongly valued and where new and innovative ideas are not only cultivated but expected from all staff.

Please note, staff working in SALA will need to be able to stand, walk, and be active throughout the entire duration of the program