Middle School Academic Technology Specialist

BB&N is seeking a Middle School Academic Technology Specialist. This position is responsible for supporting the Middle School faculty with innovative integration of technology into their classroom and curriculum. Additionally, this role was created to encourage, facilitate and support faculty and staff in their professional growth goals around educational technology.  All teachers and students are equipped with Mac laptops. This position is based out of our Middle School (grades 7-8), but also supports certain Upper School needs. We seek an experienced educator with contagious enthusiasm for using technology in creative, collaborative, and inquiry-based learning. This is a one year full-time 11-month position (with the possibility of being re-hired) reporting to the director of information technology. This position also has indirect reporting to the middle school campus director.  

Job Goals:

• To ensure that students, faculty, and staff are effective users of ideas and information
• To empower students to be critical thinkers, creative designers, and problem solvers.
• To instill a love of learning in all students and ensure equitable access resources
• To collaborate with classroom teachers to design and implement lessons that elevates the skills and lessons through appropriate use of technology.
• To provide the leadership and expertise necessary to ensure that the school’s use of technology is aligned with the mission, goals, and objectives of the school and is an integral component of the learning/instructional program

Roles and Responsibilities:

Leader

As a leader the academic technology specialist creates an environment where collaboration and creative problem solving thrive. The Academic Technology Specialist  is an excellent communicator who instills enthusiasm in others by making them feel that they are important members of a team. Strong leaders foster an environment of creativity, innovation, and openness to new ideas, welcoming and encouraging input from others to create consensus. They anticipate future obstacles and continually retool to meet challenges.

The Academic Technology Specialist demonstrates his or her role as a visible and active leader within the school community, an advocate for appropriate use of technology, and a professional member of the school technology team by:

• serving on decision making teams in the school
• taking an active role in school improvement and accreditation activities
• sharing expertise by presenting at faculty meetings, parent meetings, and board meetings
• creating an environment that is conducive to active and participatory learning, resource-based instructional practices, and collaboration with teaching staff
• encouraging the use of instructional technology to engage students and to improve learning, providing 24/7 access to digital information resources for the entire learning community
• collecting and analyzing data to improve instruction and to demonstrate correlations between technology and student achievement
• maintaining active memberships in professional associations
• remaining current in professional practices and development in technology and digital tools

Thought Partner

As a thought partner the academic technology specialist works with teachers, librarians, and other educators to build and strengthen connections between technology tools and the academic experience at BB&N. The Academic Technology Specialist demonstrates his or her role as an essential and equal partner in the instructional process by:

• participating in the curriculum development process at both the building and all-school level to ensure that the curricula include the full range of technology skills necessary to meet content standards and to develop lifelong learners
• collaborating with teachers and students to design and teach engaging learning experiences and foster critical thinking skills
• joining with departments to plan and implement meaningful experiences that will promote active and appropriate use of technology
• providing and planning professional development opportunities within the school for and with all faculty and staff, including other school Academic Technology Specialists
• supporting school programs such as global education and library learning center initiatives as an active partner with leaders of those programs, and using technology tools and resources to advance shared goals

Maker Education Leader

As Maker Education leader the Academic Technology Specialist provides leadership and expertise in the selection, acquisition, evaluation, and organization of materials and technologies, as well as expertise in the design and vision for the Middle School Maker Space. The Academic Technology Specialist ensures equitable access and responsible use of maker materials and tools  by:

• developing and maintaining a collection of resources appropriate to the curriculum, the learners, and the teaching styles and instructional strategies used within the school community
• cooperating and networking with other maker space educators to provide access to resources outside the school
• modeling effective strategies for incorporating maker education skill sets across the curriculum
• evaluating, promoting, and using existing and emerging technologies to support teaching and learning, supplement school resources, connect the school with the global learning community, communicate with students and teachers, and provide access to maker education resources
• providing guidance in software and hardware evaluation, and developing processes for such evaluation
• organizing the maker space and a resource budget for maximum and effective use

Teacher

As a teacher, the Academic Technology Specialist empowers students to become critical thinkers, creative designers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of digital tools.

The Academic Technology Specialist supports students’ success by guiding them in:

• teaching a technology elective and support student technology clubs and student helpers
• seeking out and sustaining connections to local organizations and schools to leverage the growth of our academic program and to provide real-world learning opportunities for students
• managing student technology orientation for the opening of the school year
• developing, promoting and supervising a fun and innovative makerspace design projects during free blocks
• teaching a coding/robotic activities/club

Community Member/Advisor

As a fully integrated Community Member, the Academic Technology Specialist will be involved in the School’s Community Events and serve on an Advisor Team as an advisor to a small group of students.