Do you think there is more to education than the same old same old? Do you want to be part of a team that transforms students' lives inside and outside the classroom? If you answered YES to these questions, you might be one of the few creative and dynamic interns for whom we are looking.

As a place where everybody knows your name and where each person is genuinely accepted for who they are, Franklin Academy seeks an energetic and innovative interns. We are a friendly and welcoming community. We celebrate differences and work hard to enhance student performance, influence behavior, and build self-esteem. Our curriculum is competency-focused and product-based, utilizing a teaching methodology incorporating hands-on, real-life applications.

We support thinking outside the box and focusing on ingenuity and innovation. We believe in making space to follow our passions and being patient with the process, even when it is messy or complex. We are building practical, real-world skills and seeing the potential in each person. We believe meeting students where they are is essential instead of making them fit into a preconceived paradigm. The bottom line is that we want our teachers to have fun, enjoy their collaboration with peers, and, most importantly, be proud of helping our students succeed inside the classroom and in life!

Franklin Academy is a boarding school with a different type of college-preparatory program that serves neurodiverse students with unique learning styles. From the classroom to the dorm, the library to the student center, or the local coffee shop to international travel, all staff works with our students in an academic and residential capacity. This position includes serving as a teaching team member that designs and implements a comprehensive program for a group of eighteen to twenty-five students, teaching Core and Applied Classes, and working residentially.

The Professional Intern position at Franklin is designed to help train future professionals in related fields such as special education, psychology, communication disorders, social work, adaptive physical education, or occupational therapy. Therefore, the intern position has a limited tenure of up to two years before pursuing graduate school or other training. Interns are expected to contribute in their area of interest by working closely with their supervisor and performing assigned tasks. In addition, interns are expected to teach one to two specified courses, usually in their area of interest. Finally, interns participate in supervision and training designed to further their career aspirations.  

Full participation in the program by interns requires developing skills and obtaining knowledge of working with students with unique learning styles and Autism Spectrum Disorders. The skills include specialized teaching strategies and a willingness to educate the whole child, including the social, emotional, behavioral, and academic areas. Specific roles include:

• Teaching assigned courses
• Performing residential duties including dorm duties, coaching life-sports, extracurricular activities
• Tutoring/Life Coaching
• Helpful to have a CT Driver’s License or if coming from out of state eligible for a CT license

A bachelor's degree is required.

About Franklin Academy

Franklin Academy is located in East Haddam, Connecticut, along the beautiful and scenic Connecticut River. Our 75-acre rural campus is situated next to the 700-acre Chapman Pond Preserve, which runs along the river. We are halfway between Old Saybrook on the Long Island shoreline and Middletown, the home of Wesleyan University. We are 40 minutes to Hartford and New Haven and 90 minutes to New York City and Boston. Our staff is the "heart and soul" of Franklin Academy, and we look for professionals who are eager to serve students with special needs. Our students are dedicated to learning but learn differently than typical students; most are auditory learners who struggle with visual/spatial and visual/motor demands. Given the needs of our students and the round-the-clock responsibilities of a boarding school, we acknowledge that Franklin Academy is not the right school for every educator. However, for aspiring educators who want to make a positive difference in their students' lives, Franklin Academy is a great place to live and work. Our students present a unique set of neurological and behavioral characteristics that make success unlikely in a traditionally structured schoo...l environment. Franklin Academy's task has been to develop a program that allows our students to thrive. Our program does not fit neatly into a traditional boarding school paradigm, a language-based learning disabilities program, or a more therapeutically structured setting. We have borrowed elements and best practices from all three types of programs, molding useful components into a thoughtfully integrated structure to produce a "gestalt-based program." We do not compartmentalize program areas, such as differentiating the academic and residential programs. Instead, we embrace a holistic philosophy to address each student's social, emotional, behavioral, and intellectual functioning, identifying what a student needs to learn to be successful in college and life. If you want more information about the school, please visit our website at www.fa-ct.org. Thank you very much for your interest in Franklin Academy. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Connections working at Franklin Academy