Leave Coverage - Lower School

Dwight School is the first school in the Americas to offer all four International Baccalaureate programs from preschool to grade 12. Guided by our philosophy of igniting the spark of genius in every child, Dwight is an inclusive school that aims to meet the unique needs, abilities, and interests of each student. At the same time, Dwight challenges every student to develop intellectual independence, respect for diversity and belonging, and to become innovators and thought leaders. 

Known for its low student-teacher ratio, Dwight enrolls 1,100 students with 400 faculty and staff. Our School rests on three pillars: personalized learning, community, and global vision. As part of a leading global network of schools, Dwight offers employees exciting cross-campus opportunities. Additionally, with the support of The Dwight School Foundation’s generous grants, Dwight provides faculty professional development, enabling teachers to deepen their content knowledge and pursue their own sparks of genius to be shared with the community. 

At Dwight, we strive to ensure that our environment is welcoming — a place in which everyone can thrive — and an organization we are proud of. We recognize that this takes trusting relationships and ensuring that all individuals feel valued regardless of their backgrounds. At Dwight, we encourage diversity in all respects, including diversity of thought, and embrace innovation and foster collaboration and growth.

We consistently strive to advance the equity, diversity and belonging of our community in all domains, including the curriculum, admissions, environment, and hiring. Our goal is to achieve and maintain equal employment opportunities, with policies in place to maintain a work environment free from discrimination.  

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Position: Leave Coverage - Lower School
Hours: 8:00AM-4:30PM

Position overview

Dwight School, an innovative preschool-grade 12 co-educational school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is seeking an experienced and energetic Lower School Teacher for a maternity leave cover to begin in September 2026. The purpose of the Lower School Teacher is to create an educationally sound and developmentally appropriate learning environment that supports students in the lower school at Dwight School.  

Responsibilities of the position

Instruction and Assessment

• Demonstrates knowledge of content and a wide range of instructional pedagogies.
• Applies knowledge of varied approaches to learning in instruction, lesson planning, questioning, and assessment.
• Utilizes technology effectively, where appropriate, both in classroom, instruction, and for student assignments to advance the educational process and engage students.
• Ensures that all learning goals are clear and communicated effectively to students.
• Ensures that standards of conduct are clear to all students and appear to have been developed with student participation for example – a classroom Essential Agreement.
• Creates a classroom environment that is safe, engaging, student-centered, and inquiry-based 
• Documents each student’s progress consistently throughout the course of the year. Provides high quality and regular feedback that is an accurate reflection of the student. 
• Ensures that students have regular opportunities for reflection and self - assessment.
• Utilizes internal and external assessments to inform instruction.

Planning and Curriculum

• Ensures that the classroom contains all items on the PYP classroom checklist. 
• Designs learning activities that are differentiated in approach.  
• Utilizes a variety of assessment tools 
• Works with grade team to complete a PYP planner for every unit of Inquiry.

Communication and Community Participation

• Provides regular communication with members of the Dwight community, maintaining a professional tone.
• Provides information to parents, as appropriate, about the instructional program, student progress, both academic and developmental.  
• Communicates regularly to appropriate personnel about student’s academic, social, and emotional development, including counselors, administrators, Quest teachers, EAL teachers, and others.
• Works and communicates with Head of Lower School and Associate Head of Lower School to evaluate and reflect on curriculum and pedagogy. 

Professionalism and Collegiality

• Supports and cooperates with colleagues.
• Demonstrates genuine respect for individual students.  
• Honors deadlines.
• Acts as an active and positive contributor to grade team, department and school community.
• Abides by policies and procedures outlined in the Faculty/Staff Handbook.
• Participates in school events, making a substantive and healthy contribution in some aspect of school life outside of the classroom.
• Seeks out, shares, and participates in professional development opportunities
• Uses professional development to enhance and support classroom Instruction.
• Utilizes the resources and expertise of the community to enhance learning within the PYP.
• Attends and participates actively, productively, and enthusiastically in grade level team or departmental decision-making. 
• Demonstrates a willingness to be a team player, and to participate readily in any other duties, as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in education or relevant field. Master's degree preferred.
• Familiarity with a 1:1, student:device, school-wide program
• Experience or seeking experience with the IB PYP Programme
• Experience teaching to a range of learners
• Eagerness to contribute positively to the Dwight community
• Willingness to engage with and learn from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences
• Ability to bring joy, kindness, maturity, and flexibility to the school environment

We are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people or people with long-term health conditions. If you would like us to do anything differently during the recruitment process, or provide any information in an alternative format, please let us know.

Dwight School’s goal is to achieve and maintain equal employment opportunities. It is also the policy of Dwight School to maintain a work environment free from discrimination based on race, color, religious creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, genetic information, veteran/military status, marital status, or other status protected by federal or state law, with regards to any term or condition of employment.