Teacher Teacher/Advisor
Job Description
Position Title: Advisor
Position Type: 10 month, salaried teaching position + benefits
About Big Picture Philadelphia
Big Picture Philadelphia (BPP) challenges systemic inequities in education by providing transformative learning experiences at two public high schools in North Philadelphia — El Centro de Estudiantes (El Centro) and Vaux Big Picture High School (Vaux). As proud members of the Big Picture Learning network, we build on students’ strengths, help them identify their interests, and connect them to their passions– within and outside the school building. Our integrated, community-focused approach to education and personal development ensures students build the skills, confidence, networks, and credentials needed to achieve their personal, academic, and career goals.
Position Description
A Big Picture Philadelphia advisor (teacher) is a three-pronged position. An advisor is a social and emotional leader, an academic teacher and project manager, and an internship manager. First and foremost, the advisor is the “point person” for their 18 students and those students’ families. The successful advisor creates a safe, trusting, and collaborative learning environment that enables students to learn through school and community experiences and develop as mature, able, knowledgeable, and responsible individuals. An advisor is often responsible for a multi-year educational journey of 18 students, including their successful graduation and transition to a meaningful post-secondary activity.
Responsibilities
Personalization
- Builds a strong, supportive small community of learning within their advisory and celebrates students’ accomplishments.
- Asserts students’ educational and social progress through periodic narrative reports, phone calls to parents, and regular student meetings.
- Is accessible to students and parents for education-related purposes outside normal school hours as negotiated with students and their families.
- Actively enlists parents and family members in the life and learning of their children.
- Creates learning plans with students and their families that encompass the individual student’s personal interests and developmental needs.
- Facilitates learning plan meetings with each student and their family, plus their internship mentor when applicable.
- Updates and modifies students’ learning plans every term.
Academics
- Teaches students how to learn, and gather and filter information through personal interaction, print, and web-based sources.
- Plans a program of instruction that challenges students and meets the individual needs, interests, and abilities of each student.
- Guides students into learning experiences and activities that focus on the mastery of the specific content area.
- Provides supplemental and educational resources in order to support students’ growth.
- Employs a variety of educational techniques in pursuit of educational goals and establishes clear objectives for each student.
- Attends advisor and peer meetings to plan and work collaboratively to share best practices and critique each other’s work, and to view all the students in the school as their own.
- Creates a safe and healthy learning environment and responds to emergencies in accordance with established safety and emergency policies and guidelines.
- Actively participates in all staff meetings, retreats, and summer training sessions.
- Shares the leadership role with other staff members in organizing and conducting new student and new staff orientations.
Real World Learning
- Facilitates student learning outside of the school building via internships and its attendant preparatory work, service learning, group internships, and real-world learning experiences.
- Incorporates formal Learning Plans and Learning Through Internships (LTI) experiences into each student’s learning journey.
- Works collaboratively with the Internship Coordinator to ensure each student has an internship by following the determined LTI path.
- Monitors students’ internships through regular site visits, phone calls, and mentor meetings.
Qualifications
- REQUIRED: Pennsylvania Department of Education High School Teaching Certification.
- Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree (MA/MS/MBA) or equivalent preferred.
- Two or more years related experience and/or training is a plus.
- Experience teaching and/or leading in an urban school or other large system is strongly preferred.
- Understanding of and enthusiasm for the Big Picture Philadelphia mission
- Commitment to practices that foster diversity, equity and inclusion
- Sense of humor
- Passion for working with youth
Skills and Abilities
- Enthusiasm for establishing and promoting effective working relationships with staff across all levels and functions of the organization, as well as with outside consultants and vendors, and members of the larger Big Picture Philadelphia community of partners and stakeholders
- Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a diverse, complex, and fast paced work environment
- Understanding of federal, state, and local school law
- Commitment to communicate proactively and regularly with supervisors and colleagues around progress, obstacles, and needs
- Proficiency in common computer software applications and willingness to learn new applications and systems as needed
- Strong analytical, oral, and written communication skills
- Excellent organizational skills, including time management, attention to details, and the ability to balance competing priorities and meet deadlines
- Strong problem solving and strategic thinking skills
- Commitment to professional growth
Required Clearances
- Act 71
- Act 126
- Act 168
- ePATCH
- FBI Fingerprints
- PA Child Abuse Clearance
COVID-19 considerations
All Big Picture Philadelphia employees work on-site, in-person Monday through Friday. BPP follows the Covid-19 mitigation guidance of the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Employees are strongly encouraged to get fully vaccinated and boosted.
Compensation
The Advisor is a full time employee eligible for a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, vision, dental, optional long term disability insurance, and a 401k retirement plan with employer matching. Salary is commensurate with experience. Big Picture Philadelphia provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.
