Elementary Counselor

Expectations and Qualifications Comprehensive School Counseling and GreenWood Charter School recognize the importance of early intervention in elementary school and the elementary school counselor position is intended to support the design and implementation of a systemic counseling program across all grade levels in the elementary system. The elementary school counselor is expected to play an active role in the school improvement process, aligning data-driven systemic counseling program goals with the school and district goals. The elementary school counselor works as a leader and collaborator in the school to provide academic, personal, social, and life skills development opportunities that are necessary for student success and lifelong learning. This focus on alignment plays an integral role in preparing students to be college and career ready students. The approach of the elementary school counselor should be preventative and proactive in nature. Leadership: Serve as part of the school leadership team and work with with the team to develop plans to address school goals and challenges in working towards meeting the district goals of graduation and literacy. Work with school leadership to implement a College and Career Readiness School Counseling Program Model at the school site. Essential Functions School Leadership Team: Be an active leader in the school, contribute to the development and implementation of the school improvement plan. Counseling data projects need to align with and support school goals. Support Tiered intervention including academics, attendance and behavior. Work with school leadership to create, and facilitate an intervention program to address issues within the school environment including, Child Assistance Team, PBIS Team, Attendance Interventions , etc. Collaborative Classroom Instruction for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is developed based on targeted gaps and identified needs. Administrator will assist counselors to ensure that this is delivered in collaboration with the classroom teacher who can then reinforce the skills and lessons delivered. Counselor will support Tier 1 instructions, provide Tier 2 small group re-teaching and work with Tier 3 ChAT to ensure that individualized needs are met for students as needed. School counselor is available for responsive services as needed and is able to collaborate with school and outside resources to meet student needs as identified. Counselor should always be made available as a first priority for any crisis support request. Implement and provide as needed groups for identified needs: bully, grief, transitions, mental needs (SEL), divorce, etc. (work with outside resource if available or if necessary, however counselors can be trained to provided these groups and individualized goal focused counseling as short term interventions) Tiered intervention approach support for attendance. Work with school leadership to create, and facilitated an intervention program to address chronic absenteeism within the school environment. College and Career Readiness Program: Provide multiple opportunities for students to participate in college and career readiness/awareness activities. All 6th grade students will participate in a Parent/Student Individualized meeting with a focus on next step planning.This includes the transition to Junior High, an introduction to college and career planning and course selection for Junior High School. Collaborate with school staff to reach all students. Ensure that Career Literacy standards are sequenced throughout K-6 and that they become an integral part of the whole school curriculum. Work as a leader to support teacher knowledge of the Career Literacy standards. Other Functions Alignment with feeder cone schools to collaborate for effective transitions to secondary programs. Alignment with programs to provide information and coordinate information including CTE Pathways, Gifted and Talented, Bilingual Education/Immersion, STEM, etc.

What Comprises a GreenWood Education? The GreenWood School of Harrisville is a dynamic Expeditionary Learning community dedicated to fostering each child’s unique potential and spirit of adventure through exemplary standards of health and wellness, environmental stewardship and collaborative student achievement. With 400 students in grades K-8, our school's holistic approach to educating our students will integrate student and family focus on our HEALTH Values: Healthy Habits, Environmental Stewardship, Academic Achievement, Leadership, Thinking Creatively and Honoring Diversity. Students are organized by "Communities of Learners:" Early El, Middle El and Upper El. Committed to a diverse community, GreenWood Charter School recruits staff, students and their families to honor their heritage and foster a sense of “family” and belonging at our school.

Why Teach at GreenWood? Teaching at GreenWood is a holistic work experience: teachers will model for their student our HEALTH values in and out of the classroom. Gone are the days of rote lesson planning and test-driven teaching. At GreenWood, teachers work collaboratively in teaching teams to organize their curriculum around multidisciplinary learning expeditions to dive deeply into core concepts and explore “big ideas.” The GreenWood faculty enjoy a high degree of autonomy and responsibility in all aspects of the school program, including team-teaching; caring for students; developing curriculum and standards; leading students in service on and off campus; experiential methods of learning in environments outside the classroom; participating in the governance of the school; and engaging in meaningful professional development.

What Makes a Great GreenWood Teacher? Each GreenWood teacher is committed to the mission of GreenWood. A GreenWood teacher has a profound respect for the life of the child and believes that all young people are capable of great intellectual achievement and profound compassion. GreenWood teachers are familiar with research on the teaching of reading, writing, math, and science and they are comfortable with collaborative curriculum planning, working with students from various learning backgrounds, team-teaching, multi-aged, multi-year classrooms, and working together with parents to help students achieve academic and personal success. In addition, the GreenWood faculty is creative, innovative, and caring. The school community actively encourages teachers to remain intellectually engaged in their individual content areas as well as creatively inspires faculty to take on new intellectual and social challenges while continuing to hone their practice as teachers.

Compensation The GreenWood Compensation Model is competitive and commensurate with education and experience. All positions include benefits similar to those offered by area public schools including health, dental, vision, 401k and Life benefits.

Additionally, we at GreenWood prioritize the ongoing professional growth of each member of our faculty. GreenWood’s partnership with the EL network prioritizes ongoing and relevant professional development of all our faculty including EL school visits, institutes, National Conference and strong instructional coaching with our EL School Designer. These principles animate our research-based model for transforming teaching, learning, and the culture of schools:

1. The Primacy of Self-Discovery Learning happens best with emotion, challenge, and the requisite support. People discover their abilities, values, passions, and responsibilities in situations that offer adventure and the unexpected. In Expeditionary Learning schools, students undertake tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement. A teacher’s primary task is to help students overcome their fears and discover they can do more than they think they can.

2. The Having of Wonderful Ideas Teaching in Expeditionary Learning schools fosters curiosity about the world by creating learning situations that provide something important to think about, time to experiment, and time to make sense of what is observed.

3. The Responsibility for Learning Learning is both a personal process of discovery and a social activity. Everyone learns both individually and as part of a group. Every aspect of an Expeditionary Learning school encourages both children and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collective learning.

4. Empathy and Caring Learning is fostered best in communities where students’ and teachers’ ideas are respected and where there is mutual trust. Learning groups are small in Expeditionary Learning schools, with a caring adult looking after the progress and acting as an advocate for each child. Older students mentor younger ones, and students feel physically and emotionally safe.

5. Success and Failure All students need to be successful if they are to build the confidence and capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important for students to learn from their failures, to persevere when things are hard, and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities.

6. Collaboration and Competition Individual development and group development are integrated so that the value of friendship, trust, and group action is clear. Students are encouraged to compete, not against each other, but with their own personal best and with rigorous standards of excellence.

7. Diversity and Inclusion Both diversity and inclusion increase the richness of ideas, creative power, problem-solving ability, and respect for others. In Expeditionary Learning schools, students investigate and value their different histories and talents as well as those of other communities and cultures. Schools and learning groups are heterogeneous.

8. The Natural World A direct and respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit and teaches the important ideas of recurring cycles and cause and effect. Students learn to become stewards of the earth and of future generations.

9. Solitude and Reflection Students and teachers need time alone to explore their own thoughts, make their own connections, and create their own ideas. They also need to exchange their reflections with other students and with adults.

10. Service and Compassion We are crew, not passengers. Students and teachers are strengthened by acts of consequential service to others, and one of an Expeditionary Learning school’s primary functions is to prepare students with the attitudes and skills to learn from and be of service.