Middle School Learning Support Teacher

Role Overview:

The Learning Support teacher supports the scholars and professionals in providing the tools for success for each scholar. As the individual needs differ, the learning support teacher will be in charge of creating a yearly Individualized Learning Profile for each scholar on their caseload. The learning support teacher will assist teachers in following through with the accommodations in the classroom and collaborating with teachers for shared responsibility. Learning support teachers may teach small pull-out classes for targeted intervention as needed. As a model for differentiation and inclusion, learning support teachers serve as mentors for teachers in the general education setting.

Job Responsibilities:

Planning and Preparation for Learning:

• Demonstrates planning with consideration of differentiation needs, and scholar engagement, and anticipates scholars’ misconceptions and confusion.
• Collaborate and empower classroom teachers to feel capable of meeting the needs of all scholars within their class.
• Create a snapshot, a brief document of each scholar before the start of the school year and/or within 10 days of LS enrollment.
• Create an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) for each scholar within the first 6 weeks of school or within 10 days of time of LS enrollment.
• Providing teachers with strategies for engagement, representation, and expression that decrease barriers to learning and increase access for all.
• Matching the interventions and plans with the scholar profiles.
• Demonstrates content knowledge in the areas of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.

Monitoring Assessment & Follow-up:

• Create and interpret educational psychological assessments and academic assessments.
• Utilize various assessment tools to regularly obtain and monitor individualized goals.
• Frequently check for understanding and adjusting teaching, re-teaching, and follow-up from the data.
• Analyze and reflect on collected data to continuously ensure lesson, unit, and behavior plans are designed to meet scholar needs.
• Gives scholars a well-constructed diagnostic assessment up front and uses the information to fine-tune instruction.

Classroom Management:

• Is direct, specific, consistent, and tenacious in communicating and enforcing very high expectations.
• Shows warmth, caring, respect, and fairness for all scholars and builds strong relationships.
• Successfully inculcates class routines up front so that scholars maintain them throughout the year.
• Classroom expectations are posted in the classroom and continually referred to daily.
• Utilizes visuals for class and/or individual schedules as needed.
• Collects data on classroom and/or individual behavior.
• Gets all scholars to be self-disciplined, take responsibility for their actions, and have a strong sense of efficacy.
• Alert, poised, dynamic, and self-assured and nips virtually all discipline problems in the bud.
• Identifies potential reasons for the occurrence of behaviors and can match interventions to increase or decrease a given behavior.

Delivery of Instruction:

• Incorporating up-to-date interventions, practices, and support in and out of classes.
• Offer various co-teaching models to teachers to help facilitate success for all scholars.
• Groupings to involve and motivate all scholars.
• Gets all scholars highly involved in focused work in which they are active learners and problem-solvers.
• Successfully reaches all scholars by skillfully differentiating and scaffolding.
• The pace of the lesson allows processing time.
• Lessons entail a variety of materials to address learner variability.
• Accommodations are evident for those scholars who require them.
• Ability to meet each scholar at their specific level of need.
• Have scholars set ambitious goals, continuously self-assess, give feedback, and take responsibility for improving performance.
• Data-based decisions regarding placement, intervention, and supports.
• Individualized data collection tools to inform the multidisciplinary team.
• Create progress reports for parents on goals and achievements utilizing objective, asset-based language.

Specific qualifications required for this role:

• Teaching Credential/License
• Other Certification