Managers of Teacher Leadership Development (MTLD) are at the heart of Teach For America's work. MTLDs manage, coach, and develop our corps members from the moment they confirm to the Houston region through alumni hood to fundamentally transform the lives of students and inspire corps members to become lifelong advocates for educational equity. At the end of a successful year of work, MTLDs will see students on a new life path of extended life opportunities, due to major academic and personal growth. They will have built leadership and created a cohort culture focused on classrooms as well as the long-term movement. They will also be deeply involved in our communities, our schools; engaged with our principals, students and families. The consistently aspire to reach our regional vision, work in alignment with our regional mission, and strive to consistently live out our core values of Team, Diversity, Transformational Change, Leadership, and Respect & Humility - they are leaders in every sense.
To reach this vision, MTLDs work directly with a cohort of approximately 25-30 teachers during the academic school year. During the summer MTLD’s support Houston Huddle institute school sites in various roles. They regularly collaborate and problem solve with other team members and community partners to ensure the success of the Houston region. This collaboration can range from working with our instructional leadership team to align corps members on-going development and attendance at professional development sessions to collaborating with fellow MTLD’s, DTLD’s, and MD’s on various regional committees, to aligning with corps members certification partners (i.e. Effective Teaching Fellowship or Teaching Excellence). They play important roles in achieving critical organizational goals in multiple functional areas (for instance, selecting new corps members, recruiting prospects to join staff, or helping out at regional events and serving on various committees regionally and nationally). MTLDs report to a Managing Director or Director of Teacher Leadership Development who manages and develops them to achieve these goals.
Coaching and Empowering Corps Members Instructional and Personal Leadership – 75%
- Support and foster corps members' leadership development by helping them achieve their classroom visions.
- Observe corps member instruction in live action, requiring independent travel to school sites during business hours including occasional meetings on evenings and weekends.
- Provide coaching to corps members on instructional techniques, classroom management, and curriculum in order for students to reach expanded outcomes while also coaching toward corps members’ long-term leadership and helping them connect their values and beliefs to their work.
- Help corps members diagnose top needs in their classrooms based on student progress and student gaps in their learning.
- Create communities of collaboration among corps members.
- Build authentic relationships to connect with corps members' diverse styles, strengths, and needs.
- Ensure corps members build perspective and provide strategies for corps members to build meaningful relationships with the students, their students’ families, and the communities they serve.
- Support corps members in accessing professional development provided by our instructional leadership team.
Lead Across the Movement – 25%
- Communicate with principals, parents, and community leaders regularly to become an engaged member of the community, requiring independent travel to school sites.
- Continuously access ways to personally develop.
- Serve as an active member of the regional team in ways that help Houston push towards accomplishing the Regional Vision.
- Potentially travel to at least one Teach For America conference each year
Prior Experience
- Minimum of two years of experience achieving ambitious outcomes as a classroom teacher in a low-income community
- Deep knowledge of effective teaching practices
- Teach For America corps member experience preferred
Skills
- Have a deep commitment to Teach For America's mission and core values.
- Focus to constantly keep "eye on the prize" and remember the end goals- even when the going gets tough.
- Finds ways to build strong relationships with students, families, and community members.
- Make smart choices about what to prioritize and what matters most, especially when things get busy.
- Reflect and proactively work to grow and improve.
Work Demands
- Ability to work some weekends and evenings.
- Ability to travel independently to multiple school sites throughout the day that may be significant distances from one another.
- Ability to navigate school facilities that may or may not be ADA-compliant.