Digital Media Arts Teacher and Residential Dorm Parent
Darrow School
Application
Details
Posted: 09-May-23
Location: New Lebanon, New York
Type: Full Time
Salary: starting at $38,000.00
Required Education:
4 Year Degree
Darrow School seeks a Digital Media Arts Teacher who will demonstrate enthusiasm and creativity while teaching and mentoring students in grades 9-12. The Digital Media Arts Teacher is responsible for designing hands-on learning activities that include the creation of various types of digital media. The successful candidate should be able to teach high-school-level courses related to digital imaging, computer animation, digital photography, multimedia presentations, graphic design, and digital video. They should also be proficient in using Adobe Creative Suite.
Applicants should have a degree in Digital Media Arts or a related discipline. Digital photography experience is necessary since this position will be tasked with providing a photographic record of the school year and working with the Director of Marketing and Communications to effectively tell the Darrow story through digital media.
At Darrow, we feel that it is important for our students to see art faculty as professional, working artists. All of our visual arts teachers are able to use the Joline Art Center studios for personal studio work during the academic year and also when school is not in session.
Darrow School is searching for candidates with a proven track record of actively collaborating with teens to solve problems. Our college-preparatory curriculum engages students in all types of subject matter through discussion inside the classroom and direct experience outside the classroom, where they conduct experiments, perform project-based assignments, and use the Darrow environment as a living laboratory. Supported by our expert faculty, Darrow students actively participate in their own education.
Responsibilities of this position include:
Plan and teach the curriculum in accordance with the school’s mission and the philosophy and values of Darrow’s Active Curriculum
Design lessons that teach students effective visual communication through digital photography, graphic design, image manipulation, video production, and/or digital animation
Create a student-centered learning environment and teach according to the educational needs of students
Provide continuous student assessment, quarterly, semester, and year-end progress reports, and hold teacher-student-parent conferences.
Collaborate with the Learning Skills program to understand and respond to students’ learning needs by differentiating instruction
Inform advisors, mentors, and other relevant support staff of notable changes in student performance in a timely fashion
Meet deadlines for submission of grades and comments
Promote the general progress and well-being of students
Attend weekly faculty meetings and participate actively in discussions in an ongoing exchange of information and support with a close-knit staff
Attend faculty in-service sessions, as well as opening and closing meetings
Work closely with other faculty and staff to ensure cross-curricular approaches, continuity, and progression across grade levels
Capture photographs of campus life throughout the school year; this may mean attending sporting events, performances, and weekend activities
Collaborate with the Director of Marketing and Communications to effectively tell Darrow’s story through digital media
Responsibilities of all Darrow faculty:
Residential duty one night per week and one weekend approximately every four weeks
Serving as an advisor to up to 4 students
Facilitating approximately 7 student activities per year (dependent on other assignments and responsibilities)
Coaching - The coaching requirement for this position is fulfilled by capturing photographs of campus life throughout the school year. This may mean attending sporting events, performances, and weekend activities.
Physical Requirements:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential responsibilities of this position.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear
The employee is required to sit, stand, walk, use hands to find, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms
Must frequently lift and/or move objects up to 20 pounds safely and consistently; may need to lift and carry objects greater than 50 pounds
Must be able to work in the heat and cold as well as environments with adverse conditions, including dirt, dust and pollen, odors, sun, wetness, humidity, rain, and noise
The position requires extensive walking around campus and through buildings, climbing stairs, and driving
Must be able to bend, reach, stoop, stand, and/or walk for extended periods of time
Benefits of this position include:
On-campus housing, including utilities
Generous paid time off
Medical and dental insurance
403(b) retirement plan (Darrow will match 2% of gross salary after one year of service)
Health Savings Account
Health Reimbursement Account
Basic Life and AD&D coverage
Required skills/qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in Digital Media Arts or a related discipline required; state teaching certification not required
Demonstrated ability to forge strong relationships with students and colleagues with a mindset of unconditional positive regard
Experience in a setting that required instructional practices to address a range of learning needs preferred
An understanding of the developmental and emotional needs of students
A desire to be part of a close, diverse, and vibrant boarding school community with roles that extend beyond the classroom, thereby strengthening relationships and student learning.
About Darrow School
The Darrow School, an independent, co-ed, boarding and day school for grades 9-12, offers a comprehensive and individually focused college-preparatory curriculum that features a unique combination of classroom instruction, experiential learning, and environmental consciousness. The School is located on 365 acres in the Town of New Lebanon, located on the New York State side of the Berkshires, and comprises 26 buildings, 16 of which are Shaker-built and designated as Registered National Historic Landmark buildings.
Why Work at Darrow?
There is something indefinable and remarkable about Darrow School. Perhaps it’s our historic Shaker Heritage or our location nestled between the Berkshire Mountains and the Hudson Valley. Or maybe it's our community of individuals where everyone feels welcome and celebrated. Darrow is a place that draws people together, connects them, and stays with them forever.
Darrow offers a generous benefits package that includes retirement; health, life, and disability insurance plans; and generous paid time off. Some positions are year-round; others offer an academic-year schedule. Given the residential responsibilities of a boarding school, housing is provided for numerous positions either in a dormitory or residences on campus.
There's so much to enjoy about living and working at Darrow, and the community offers something for everyone. Our faculty and staff have said that some of the reasons they love working at Darrow include meaningful work, feeling of inclusion and acceptance, and friendly and familiar faces on campus. Darrow is a small community with a big heart.
Living, Breathing History
With just over 100 students from around the world, Darrow offers faculty, staff, and students a dynamic boarding school experience. Founded in 1932 on a beautiful 365-acre Mountainside campus, we are the only boarding school community on a National Historic Landmark. Our campus was once home to the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, renowned for its commitment to social and racial justice, community planning, architecture, and entrepreneurship.
Mission and Values
Darrow serves diverse backgrounds and abilities, building on individuals' talents and interests to deepen thinking with specialized programs, providing opportunities to explore the creative spaces where ideas intersect and solutions emerge. Our Active Curriculum, rooted in the liberal arts and sciences, is individually focused and combines innovative classroom instruction with project-based learning to educate future generations of global citizens who understand the wider world and their place in it.
Our Guiding Values
Growth
We prioritize growth over perfection, recognizing that each individual has their own gifts, challenges, and goals to build from. Our students are safe to fail creatively, which is essential for true learning. They routinely revise and reflect on their work on their way toward mastery.
Diversity
We believe that the opportunity to learn and grow in a small, diverse community during your formative years is irreplaceable. We actively cultivate and celebrate a student body that is diverse along many dimensions, including racial and ethnic diversity, diversity of gender identity, and neurodiversity.
Community
Like the Mohicans and Shakers who inhabited this place before us, we believe in the power of an intentional community built around shared work and shared values. Darrow is deliberately small, which means that each community member is valued and influential.
Compassion
We seek to treat each other with compassion, recognizing that we may only know a small part of someone else’s story.
Authenticity
We aspire to be a place where young people become comfortable in their own skins and empowered to understand and share their authentic selves.
Campus Life
There's always something exciting and thought-provoking happening at Darrow. Enjoying a lively campus culture, faculty and staff have opportunities to regularly attend and participate in a diverse array of year-round events, including Hands-to-Work, Winterm, Tuesday Night Community Programming, fitness classes, concerts, performances, talks, lectures, live theater, and art exhibitions. Additionally, there are countless opportunities for collaboration on several campus-wide projects and initiatives for those seeking to serve their community.
World-renowned Arts and Culture
Darrow is at the center of world-renowned arts and culture. Our location at the edge of the Berkshires is home to music and performing arts venues in the summer, dozens of museums, and various historic sites. Cultural festivals and concerts speak to the region's diversity, while art colonies and craft villages offer inside views of skilled artisans at work. One of America's first art movements started in Hudson Valley. Today, Modern art is well represented with venues such as MassMoCa, Storm King Arts Center, and Dia: Beacon, all international destinations.
Darrow School is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed (religion), color, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, age, disability, predisposing genetic characteristic, marital status or domestic violence victim status, and shall also follow the requirements of the Human Rights Law with regard to non-discrimination on the basis of prior criminal conviction and prior arrest.
Darrow School does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation in the administration of any of its admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, educational, athletic, recreational, and other school-administered programs.
Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume.
Darrow School, a small independent, co-ed, boarding/day school for grades 9-12, located on the New York State side of the Berkshires, offers an innovative, individually-focused college-preparatory curriculum, featuring a unique combination of dynamic classroom instruction, active learning, and environmental consciousness. Students learn within an atmosphere that supports intellectual curiosity, creativity, and experimentation. The School emphasizes differentiated instruction and student-centered, active learning as key teaching philosophies.
Darrow School faculty and staff are fully engaged in the life of a boarding school beyond the academic day as well, supporting students in a range of co-curricular programming, including athletics, residential life, weekend activities, and signature programs like Hands-to-Work, Winterm, and Spring Term. Darrow School’s mission is to create a community of learning able to empower students with a wide variety of backgrounds and abilities, building on each student’s individual talents and interests to inspire enduring confidence for success in college and life.
Darrow School’s mission is to serve students with a wide variety of backgrounds ...and abilities, building on each student’s individual talents and interests to inspire enduring confidence for success in college and life.