Career Center

Ashbrook Independent School is seeking an enthusiastic, caring, and creative Theater Arts Specialist to teach Theater classes to students in grades 5-8 and produce schoolwide productions for students ages 5-14. 

Major Duties and Responsibilities: 

The Theater Arts Specialist will:

• Plan flexible learning opportunities and curriculum to develop skills, attitudes and knowledge needed to provide a good foundation for theater appreciation.
• Create and maintain a positive and caring classroom environment favorable to learning and personal growth to motivate students to become lifelong learners
• Supervise and ensure the safety and health of children in the classroom.
• Collaborate with staff throughout the school.
• Communicate proactively and positively with parents.
• Be passionate about developing student theater experiences and growing the whole child through theater education.
• Model joy and excitement for theater production and encourage this love for drama within all of their students.
• Be able to teach, engage, and support students of all theater abilities and skill levels for ages 5 through 14.
• Understand how to creatively create a production with ample or limited resources.
• Be able to work as a strong team player with staff members and parent volunteers eliciting input and participation from the whole school community in production design.

An Ashbrook Educator will:

• Be passionate about working with students of this particular age group.
• Know the appropriate knowledge and skills regarding developmental characteristics and needs of the specific age group with whom they work.
• Create a safe and secure environment in which students grow in both autonomy and the ability to work and play together, including providing specific programs that establish a bias-free environment inclusive for all, which focuses on eliminating cliques and establishing a climate where bullying is unacceptable.  
• Design and implement programs that actively engage students in making connections, solving problems, and thinking independently.
• Teach to a variety of learning styles and intelligences and assess learning in a variety of ways, including teaching to growing intellectual and social abilities of students as they mature and move up through the school.  
• Employ a wide range of pedagogical techniques and assessment strategies to ensure all students are successfully challenged.
• Understand children’s patterns of physical, intellectual, social, and emotional growth in order to support each child’s emerging identity, to respect and provide for each student’s voice, and to build a relationship with each student in which that student feels understood, nurtured, and challenged.
• Defend the dignity and worth of each member of the community and create an environment that fosters respect, understanding, and acceptance of differences.
• Work to create a relationship with parents that facilitates the exchange of information necessary to ensure the child’s progress including recognizing the implications of significant changes in children as they grow older.  It is important that parents and teachers interact, especially in programs that address issues affecting student development.
• Help students learn to make responsible choices and understand the consequences of their actions.
• Create age-appropriate opportunities for children to develop a sense of belonging and to become increasingly responsible for the many communities in which they live as well as their role in an interconnected and global society.

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Theater Arts or related field. 
• Knowledge of developmentally appropriate teaching strategies and curriculum designed to promote learning for elementary and middle school students in theater.
• Well-rounded production design experience preferred with experience acting, directing, and behind the scenes management of student actors and theater technicians.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Able to use current instructional technology.
• A minimum of two years of successful teaching experience in an elementary, middle, or secondary theater or the equivalent in a private theater program.
• Experience working with parent volunteers, music directors and theater tech directors.
• Experience designing, creating, and managing the materials associated with theater productions, including props, costumes, and set pieces.
• Successful candidates will also be able to demonstrate success working with colleagues to select appropriate productions, schedule rehearsals, communicate heavy commitment dates such as tech week, be flexible with respect to students commitments more broadly, and partner with parents, while also balancing the need to hold students to their theater commitment to the production.  
• Ability to use innovative approaches to production in order to include all interested students.