Inspiring Minds Job Description
Job Title: ResilientKids Instructor
Job Status: Part-time, Non-exempt, Seasonal-School year only.
Location: Statewide
Reports to: Program Director, ResilientKidsTM
Inspiring Minds Mission: Inspiring Minds empowers students to succeed and thrive in school and life by developing trusted relationships with community members who are knowledgeable of the culturally responsive, academic, and socio-emotional needs necessary for student success.
About Us: Inspiring Minds is a non-profit education agency founded in 1963. We are a student-centered organization, ensuring our programs focus on promoting positive outcomes for the youth we serve.
Vision: Inspiring Minds is an antiracist organization committed to closing equity gaps based on race, ethnicity, first language, and economic status that impact RI students and families. We believe in the power of relationships, and that caring and committed adults can empower our students to achieve with the right guidance, training, and support.
Inspiring Minds delivers effective programs that build academic and social-emotional skills using a developmental relationships framework. We serve a diverse population of exceptional, intelligent, and resilient students. We believe all students deserve an educational environment that fosters a sense of belonging and purpose shared with everyone who is part of the school community and the community at large.
We recognize the impact that systematic barriers such as racism, poverty, housing insecurity, and hunger have on learning, especially in under-resourced schools. Therefore, we work in partnership with school districts, higher education institutions, civic groups, and the community at large to provide quality programs that empower students to succeed and thrive in school and life.
Only extraordinary people work here. Our goals are ambitious but achievable. We have high expectations for ourselves, our students, and our volunteers. We do whatever it takes to achieve our mission ethically. Our ideal candidate is someone who works hard and will have fun while dreaming big.
Main Duties/Responsibilities: The primary function of the ResilientKidsTM instructor is dedicated to classroom facilitation of social and emotional learning through mindfulness-based techniques, as outlined in the ResilientKidsTM curriculum, while also drawing upon their own meditation practice.
Our ideal candidate possesses an influential and welcoming communication style, high integrity, and a positive attitude. Responsibilities include:
- Facilitate instruction at specifically assigned schools.
- Write classroom-specific lesson plans for each session, keeping in mind our goal of seeing each student and differentiating instruction within each lesson while maintaining fidelity to the ResilientKidsTM
- Be on time, present, and prepared for class.
- Build relationships with School Administrators & your Classroom Instructor(s):
- Attend school orientation.
- Communicate regularly with classroom teachers.
- Participate in faculty meetings per school request.
- Participate in parent night or wellness fair, per school request.
- Attend monthly ResilientKidsTM Team meetings.
- Observe your peers teaching at least once each year. Provide feedback; challenge and lift both successes and areas of improvement.
- Engage with the Instructor Community:
- Use the office space.
- Reach out to other RK instructors or the Program Director with questions or concerns.
Other Required Responsibilities
- Participate in antiracist and department professional development. Recognize vulnerability, both in yourself and in others.
- Adhere to organizational policies and protocols. Challenge them by lifting your voice and the voice of the community.
- Listen and learn from our community. Research and implement best practices.
- Support the organization’s fundraising events. Inspiring Minds pays all staff for working at fundraising events.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
Qualifications:
- You exemplify our core values of continuous learning, antiracism & equity
- You can describe your personal and professional racial equity journey related to undoing racism and dismantling forms of oppression that exist in marginalized communities. You can readily share your learnings from various resources that have most profoundly led you to learn about antiracism and anti-oppression.
- You are skilled at lifting up the power and promise of marginalized groups vs focusing on the problems and pathologies put on them by the dominant society.
- Minimum of two years of experience leading youth in a formal setting.
- Access to transportation to travel between schools if you choose to teach at more than one location
Skills and Knowledge Required:
- Excellent verbal and written communication.
- You know how to slow down and help your colleagues pause to disrupt any false sense of urgency or push for productivity at the expense of personal and collective well-being.
- You are skilled at prioritizing and setting boundaries so you can focus on each project with clarity and a feeling of accomplishment.
- Mindfulness training or certification
- Bilingual is an asset.
Experience:
- Minimum of two years of experience leading youth in a formal setting.
To Apply: Email your resume and cover letter to Shannon Smith at ssmith@inspiringmindsri.org.