Grades Four and Five STEM Teacher at North Park Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois

Job Description:

Grades Four and Five STEM Teacher

A Full-Time Benefits Eligible Position beginning late August 2025

NPES is seeking an engaging, collaborative, and culturally responsive intermediate school STEM Teacher with a deep understanding of educating students ages nine to eleven-years old with subject-matter expertise in mathematics, science, and the purposeful integration of engineering, design thinking, coding, and robotics.

A successful candidate will be prepared to plan, implement, and maintain a challenging and relevant two-year STEM curriculum that teaches students to think critically and empathetically while applying the mathematical and the design-thinking processes to real-world problems. This is an exciting opportunity for a mathematics and science educator who understands and appreciates late childhood as a unique stage of human development. This understanding, combined with a passion for challenging, supporting, and including all learners, is essential to this role.

NPES' Grades Four and Five STEM Teacher works in close collaboration with the Four and Five Humanities Teacher (adjoining classrooms) and the Four and Five Associate Teacher in a partially departmentalized program that bridges our self-contained classroom model through third grade with our fully departmentalized Middle School (grades six, seven, and eight).

Responsibilities

• Teach two sections of mathematics, science, and technology/innovation, one to a class of fourth graders and another to a class of fth graders.
• Serve as an Assistant Coach of Middle School Science Olympiad program
• Implement a skills-rich two-year STEM curriculum that builds on our preschool through third grade curriculum and positions students for success in middle school.
• Collaborate with the Middle School science and math teachers to maintain an engaging, varied, and intentional scope and sequence over 4th through 8th grades
• Align instructional and assessment practices with the latest brain science on teaching and learning, including the need for collaborative learning spaces, risk taking, and flexible thinking
• Create and maintain a welcoming, affirming, and safe classroom environment in which listening, patience, respect, student voice, and adaptability are valued and practiced
• Plan eld experiences that allow students to practice the habits of scientists in authentic settings and develop appreciation for STEM, drawing upon the rich scientific diversity of Chicago
• Create an integrated, meaningful, and relevant service-learning program for grades four and five in partnership with the 4/5 Humanities teacher
• Employ clearly defined and equitable processes and structures for planning, teaching, assessing, and documenting (in trimester reports) student mastery and growth
• Differentiate instruction so all learners can grow their appreciation of mathematics and science, their understanding of key concepts, their ability to think mathematically and scientifically (a part-time Learning Support Teacher also supports this work across grades three, four, and five)
• Engage thoughtfully and respectfully with colleagues with an open mind during faculty meetings and professional development experiences
• Reflect continually on one's own practice and commit to professional growth informed by these self-reflections and the school's collaborative faculty evaluation process
• Establish a trusting partnership with parents/caregivers and communicate regularly via Google Classroom, email, phone calls, conferencing and reporting
• Create at least one opportunity per year for students to invite parents/caregivers into the classroom to share their learning and process
• Other duties as assigned by the Head of School

Qualifications

• Degree or relevant coursework in mathematics, science, or mathematics or science education; master's preferred (at least in progress)
• Experience teaching intermediate school students or early adolescents
• Exemplary teaching skills focused with intentionality on preparation, process, purpose, adaptability, skill development, and depth of understanding
• An understanding of the developmental needs of children ages nine to eleven (intellectually and social-emotionally) and the ability to structure and maintain a healthy, respectful, and positive classroom community
• A growth mindset, seeing mistakes as opportunities for growth, and a belief that learning, while it involves struggle and the need for resilience, should be joyful
• The ability to facilitate an intermediate school classroom positively and effectively
• An understanding of how to integrate STEM and the design-thinking process intentionally and creatively into teaching to deepen conceptual understanding
• Strong executive functioning and communication skills (both written and oral)
• Experience in and a commitment to including all learners in instruction regardless of ability or differences in how one learns
• A commitment to the cultural curiosity and literacy necessary to contribute with intention to an affirming, inclusive, equitable, and just community where all possess dignity and respect
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and administration to support and extend the objectives of the curriculum and the well-being of students

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