Morningside Center envisions a society where people are active participants in creating a culture of liberation, healing, and deep connection to their communities, natural environments, and the world. Our mission is to facilitate transformative experiences for members of the school community to co-create joyful, equitable, and rigorous learning environments.
Since our founding in 1982 Morningside Center has developed an array of programs, grounded in restorative practices and an anti-racist framework, to engage young people in learning essential social and emotional skills and to support educators in making their schools productive, supportive, and inclusive. Morningside Center’s programs provide sustained support for students and educators in New York City schools and in various school districts throughout the country. We are part of a nationwide movement to make high quality, research-validated social and emotional learning (SEL) an integral part of every child’s education.
Morningside Center is seeking experienced, resourceful individuals strongly committed to social and emotional learning, restorative practices, and racial equity to join our team of staff-developers in transforming schools. Our per diem staff developers provide ongoing support to schools in implementing our evidence-based programs for grades pre-K to 12. Morningside Center provides extensive orientation and ongoing support to our staff developers.
A staff developer’s responsibilities include the following and can vary to some extent from school to school depending on the program the school chooses to implement:
- Facilitate interactive workshops for teachers to prepare them to conduct restorative circles and teach Morningside Center’s evidence-based curricula to foster social and emotional learning, equity, and a caring classroom community.
- Plan and coordinate coaching sessions with school staff.
- Coach teachers and other school staff in teaching lessons from our curricula by providing demonstration lessons in their classrooms, co-facilitating lessons, conducting observations, providing feedback, and conducting conferences.
- Provide consultation and strategic support to help schools establish restorative practices programs, peer mediation programs, and advisory programs.
- Regularly assess the needs at partner schools to identify and provide necessary coaching and professional development support.
- Maintain regular communication with partner schools to establish ongoing relationships with partner schools.
- Communicate regularly with supervisory staff at Morningside Center about progress, highlights, and challenges, including written reports, and provide required documentation of the work.
Our ideal candidate has the following qualifications:
- Demonstrated commitment to fostering social responsibility and social and emotional learning (SEL) through education.
- Deep understanding of and commitment to racial equity and promoting an anti-racist perspective in education.
- Knowledge and experience in the complex power, racial dynamics, and intersectionality in schools.
- Excellent listening, group facilitation skills, and ability to work well with people of diverse backgrounds.
- A professional, flexible, and resourceful style with the ability to work both independently and as a team player.
- Ability to assess a situation, create a viable plan, overcome obstacles, and make it happen.
- Highly effective in time-management, organization, goal-setting, and problem-solving.
- High attention to detail in order to accurately capture staff developer activities with school partners in accordance with Morningside Center’s systems and school district requirements.
- Experience in facilitating workshops for adults in the school community including teachers, administrative staff, support staff, and parents.
- Experience in coaching teachers and other school staff.
- Experience in facilitating workshops with children and young people.
- Three years or more of classroom teaching experience.
- Experience in facilitating restorative circles for adults and students.
- Experience in facilitating training and coaching sessions virtually using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Classrooms.
Please email a resume and thoughtful cover letter, outlining how your skills, experience, and outlook meet the qualifications of the position and stating how you heard about this opportunity. Address to Doris Lo at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Morningside Center is an equal opportunity employer. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.