General Description of Position
The 1:1 Communication and Education Facilitator will be the daily partner to a male, 14-year-old rising 8th grader who is learning and thriving within a home-based school program. The student has significant receptive and expressive language challenges which make his expressive language (speech) difficult for peers and adults to understand. (His speech becomes understandable and decodable by an attentive listener within 2 weeks.) These language challenges, as well as his global apraxia, and learning differences, make it difficult for him to learn and thrive within a typical school classroom. Within this home-based school program, the student accesses learning, therapeutic, and social scenarios throughout the community and at home.
The 1:1 is meant to be his communication partner and educational facilitator - taking him to and joining him in his programming to support him with social engagement and conversation with peers, adults, and the community as well as being part of his teaching team for other academic curriculum when he is not with tutors or in educational programs. This involves supporting him in getting his voice heard, his feelings expressed and managed, his interests conveyed, and his learning and therapeutic programming accessed. The student sometimes gets frustrated within his learning process, and part of this job includes supporting his emotional regulation.
The student is part of a loving, fun, and flexible family who welcomes and actively supports the 1:1 as a joyful and creative partner to the student and the parents (as program facilitators). The 1:1 will be supported and trained by the child’s parents, highly skilled therapists, and tutors.
The student is very interested in playing sports, listening to music, learning about animals, seeing and engaging with people, and playing games. He is an extremely empathetic and socially aware teenager who is sometimes shy because he knows many people don’t understand his words and the way he “does life” differently than others. Once he is comfortable with a person, he opens up and is playful, kind, and curious. He also has his times of frustration and benefits from appropriate reminders and boundaries around choice-making and behavior.
Required qualifications and characteristics of a candidate:
Open-minded, kind-hearted, patient, curious, good listener and quick learner
Determined and creative problem solver
Strong ability to explain and re-frame ideas and concepts within the learning environment
Ability to be resilient, calm, and supportive while the student is having his own feelings and emotions
Ability to differentiate one’s own sensitivities and emotions from the student’s
Enjoys interacting with kids and teens
Experience working with middle school age and neurodiverse kids
Valid driver's license and clean driving record
Physical abilities: crouch and bend down, jog, move around, moderate hiking with relative ease and comfort
Preferred: Special Education experience
Responsibilities
School / curriculum:
Comprehensive approach to learning and engagement with age-appropriate and developmentally-appropriate materials for MS and HS learning
Curriculum development, as needed
Lead and/or support experiential learning (with partnership from parents when needed)
Support and enable learning and homework from speech, reading, and math tutors
Participate in some therapies and tutors
Social / engagement with the world:
Spark and encourage meaningful engagement in the world
Help navigate complex social situations within challenging communication processes
Transportation to activities and therapies using family’s vehicle
Do simple field trips based on mutual interest between teen and 1:1
Engage with the student when no official programming is happening in his day
Personal development:
Patiently support developing boundaries along with personal empowerment
Balance active in-moment support with thoughtful planning and awareness
Support growth in burgeoning independence
Hands-on investigation of the world and on educational materials
Support access to food during appropriate mealtimes
Benefits:
$30-$35/hour
32-35 hour week
5-6 weeks of paid vacation each year
Flexible, fun, and kind work environment
Opportunity to learn from and with a fantastic child with complex learning and speech challenges
Opportunity to observe and learn from a variety of teaching and therapeutic experts.
APPLICANTS: Employer will only reply to serious applicants who are appropriately qualified and who have submitted a non-AI generated resume and cover letter.
Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.