Mill Valley, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
El Cerrito, California
Mill Valley, California
Posted: 13-Jan-26
Location: Mill Valley, California
Type: Full Time
Salary: $29,000 - $40,000
Categories:
Salary Details:
Beginning End of February through June 12
Mount Tamalpais School seeks a dedicated Parental Leave 1st Grade Homeroom and Humanities Teacher. This educator will empower students as readers, writers, and students in social studies, nurture social-emotional growth, and partner with families, while working collaboratively with colleagues to uphold MTS’s Vision, Mission, and Values.
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Key Responsibilities
Teaching & Learning
- Teach 1st Grade Homeroom and SEL and two sections of 1st Grade Humanities (phonics, reading, writing, social studies).
- Professionally partner with and attend Mid-Year Conferences with the first grade team.
- Track student progress and prepare end of year Growth Reports (report cards) for families.
- Design and deliver clear, well-structured lessons with measurable objectives, aligned to developmental benchmarks and standards, while ensuring learning goals are transparent to students and families.
- Maintain high expectations for effort, achievement, and behavior, fostering a growth mindset and confidence in every student.
- Maximize learning time with well-established routines and engaging, purposeful activities.
- Differentiate instruction through a variety of strategies, scaffolds, and enrichment opportunities to ensure every student is appropriately challenged and supported.
- Use a range of formative and summative assessments to monitor progress, adjust instruction, and provide timely, actionable feedback that helps students improve.
- Foster student ownership of learning by promoting voice, choice, goal-setting, and reflection.
- Encourage rich academic discourse where students explain their thinking, use evidence, and listen respectfully to peers.
- Integrate technology and innovative tools in ways that enhance clarity, efficiency, and student engagement, while aligning with MTS’s Mission and Values.
- Integrate social justice and equity principles into teaching by nurturing positive identity development, honoring diversity, fostering critical thinking about fairness and bias, and empowering students to act with empathy and courage.
Community & Belonging
- Serve as a primary point of contact for 1st-grade families.
- Build a classroom community where every student feels seen, valued, heard, and safe.
- Model and teach empathy, inclusion, and kindness.
- Support and participate in schoolwide assemblies, events, and field trips.
- Share in collective faculty responsibilities, including recess/lunch duty and admissions support.
Professional Growth & Collaboration
- Collaborate with colleagues to strengthen curriculum alignment and teaching practice.
- Engage in MTS’s Talent Development growth cycle: observations, feedback, and reflective practice.
- Participate in ongoing professional development supported by MTS’s robust PD budget.
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Successful Candidates
We welcome candidates who bring a combination of professional expertise, personal qualities, and lived experiences that will strengthen and enrich our community. We recognize that not every excellent educator will match every listed qualification—if you bring authentic passion for teaching 1st grade students and many of the strengths below, we encourage you to apply:
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
- Lead-teaching experience, preferably in lower elementary.
- Commitment to continuous learning, innovation, and a growth mindset, with joy for teaching elementary students.
- A strong foundation and passion for phonics, reading, writing, and social studies instruction, and a belief in every child’s capacity for success.
- Commitment to cultivating equitable, inclusive, and identity-affirming learning environments, and contributing to a community that is actively anti-biased and anti-racist.
- Ability to balance academic rigor with joy and curiosity, honoring childhood while preparing students for future challenges.
- Capacity to work independently and take initiative, while also being collaborative, adaptable, organized, and creative.
- Excellent communication and relationship-building skills with students, families, and colleagues.
- Experience facilitating executive functioning and social-emotional learning as a homeroom teacher.
- Familiarity with research-based Humanities pedagogies (e.g., Orton-Gillingham, Fundations, PAF, Writing Revolution, InquirEd) preferred.
- Experience with standards-based and competency-aligned curriculum design, including project-based learning integration, is a plus.
- Experience integrating SEL, equity and inclusion practices, and community building into classroom teaching.
The School
Located fifteen minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Mill Valley, Mount Tamalpais School (MTS) is a departmentalized K-8 co-educational independent day school serving ~270 students.
At MTS, we envision a world in which Education Inspires Action. We get closer to our vision by creating the conditions in which Learning is Revered, and Education is Joyful. With open arms, hearts, and minds, we:
- Lead With Kindness
- Honor Childhood
- Practice Active Inclusion
- Celebrate The Journey
- Ask, “What’s Possible?”
MTS students, well prepared for their future while remaining young at heart, bring a multitude of diverse and unique backgrounds to our community. They are motivated learners who love engaging in learning.
MTS Professional Community members are passionate about both what they teach and who they teach. Our departmentalized program allows all teachers to share their passion while focusing on their professional growth. Regardless of department, MTS educators are dedicated to the social-emotional development and wellbeing of our students. Likewise, all adults on campus share a continual commitment to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive school community.
Our Equal Opportunity Employment Policy
As an academic institution, the School strives to provide equal opportunity for all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, age, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions, and breastfeeding), reproductive health decision-making, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law. The School prohibits discrimination or harassment based on these classifications. Discrimination and harassment based on a perception that anyone is in any of these protected classifications, or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as being in any of these protected classifications, are also prohibited. This policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits and other stated conditions of employment.
Pay Range
Salary will be determined by education, years of experience, and will range from $29,000 - $40,000 based on years of experience.
To Apply: Send a cover letter and resume to jobs@mttam.org