Instructional Support Curriculum Writer & Editor
Job Description
Position Overview:
Morningside Center works in schools to build the social and emotional skills of educators and students, strengthen the classroom and school community, and make our schools more caring and equitable through restorative practices and brave conversations on race. Find out more about Morningside Center on our website, www.morningsidecenter.org.
Morningside Center is looking for a preK-12 curriculum writer/editor to update and enrich our three curricula, which are used widely by educators in public schools across New York City and beyond. In particular, we seek a curriculum writer with expertise in social and emotional learning (SEL) and restorative practices, and who has a deep knowledge of issues related to racial equity and equitable classroom practices. The writer will work collaboratively with our staff to revamp our curricula and integrate a racial equity focus throughout, informed by Morningside Center’s racial equity framework.
The three curricula are:
The 4Rs (Reading, Writing, Respect & Resolution) (preK-5). The 4Rs engages the imagination and creativity of children in grades preK-5 to help them develop critical skills including empathy, community-building, and conflict resolution. Each unit begins with a read-aloud of high-quality literature that dramatizes social and emotional skills applied to “real life” situations. Children are guided through writing exercises, role-playing, and meaningful discussion, as the teacher poses questions about how the characters handled conflict and other situations, how they might be feeling, and what alternatives exist for making new decisions.
C Squad: Together for the Journey (grades 6-8). C Squad helps teachers build a safe and joyful space where students can strengthen their relationships with each other, address crucial issues in their lives, develop social and emotional strengths, and have fun. C Squad uses a circle format to encourage a sense of belonging and connection, enabling students to have constructive conversations about challenges in their lives, including everything from friendship to stress, standing up to discrimination, cliques, social media, bullying, gender identity, and becoming a successful student.
Building Belonging (grades 6-12). The Building Belonging curriculum helps teachers create a sense of community in their classrooms that honors and supports each student, while developing their social and emotional skills. Within a weekly classroom circle (typically in advisory), participants develop and practice skills in communication, relationship-building, empathy, racial awareness, democratic decision-making, conflict resolution, and problem-solving – and find joy in each others’ company. Over time, the skills and community students and adults build in circle lead to a more positive and collaborative classroom environment and to fewer conflicts and discipline incidents, creating a more equitable and caring classroom community.
Key Responsibilities:
- Develop and manage a project plan for collecting input, updating, and finalizing curriculum changes according to a clear timeline
- Convene and collect input from Morningside program staff and field staff (i.e., staff developers) to inform the approach and the updates needed to curricula
- Draft, seek input, and finalize updates to the curricula, ensuring a clear scope and sequence, consistency, and quality across all curricula from grades preK to 12
- Support communications team with curriculum-related writing and dissemination of short curricula online, as appropriate, and as time allows
Skills/Experience Required:
- Minimum of Bachelor’s Degree in a related field such as education, social work, or creative arts therapy, and at least five years of related experience
- Knowledge and experience with curricula related to social and emotional learning and restorative practices, and deep knowledge of issues related to racial equity and equitable classroom practices
- Experience writing curricula for students throughout preK-12 is desired
- Ability to absorb and reflect back in writing the input of a diverse base of staff, classroom teachers, and trainers in our curricula
- Self-directed: ability to take initiative, anticipate actions needed, and manage within timeline and budgets
- Excellent writing and editing skills
- Experience teaching in a classroom is desired, but not required
Contracting Information:
We are seeking to hire someone full-time for a 1-year contract, with the opportunity to extend longer-term. The work would begin immediately. We will consider applicants living in remote locations, though NYC area residency is a plus.
We are open to either a full-time, 1-year salary contract that would include employee benefits like health insurance, or a freelance contract. We will structure compensation based on which option is preferable for the candidate. We are ideally looking for someone who can work full-time and update all three curricula, and will give preference to candidates with that availability and expertise.
However, we are open to applicants who are interested in a part-time freelance contract to work on 1-2 of the curricula (e.g., a freelancer focused on the early childhood education curriculum). When you apply, please indicate in your note if you are applying for the full-time role, or as a part-time freelancer. If the latter, indicate which curricula you are more interested in working on. We offer competitive salary and benefits.
