Blue Engine Teaching Apprentice (BETA)

Description

Blue Engine partners with school leaders, teachers, and Blue Engine Teaching Apprentices (BETAs) to create a powerful classroom environment for students in which teachers and BETAs teach together as a team, resulting in dramatic academic gains in gateway subjects. Blue Engine recruits, trains, and matches a team of three BETAs with a teacher in ELA or algebra in 8th, 9th, or 10th grades (where Blue Engine currently focuses). More adults in the classroom reduces the teacher to student ratio from about 30:1 to 6:1 enabling teachers to build authentic relationships with students, provides significantly more instructional hours during class and before/after school, and differentiates, individualizes, and personalizes instruction. The teacher-BETA collaboration enables daily student-centered reflection and learning that improves teacher practice. No student goes unseen or heard.

At the same time, Blue Engine's hybrid model helps a diverse, local wave of educators enter the teaching profession through an apprenticeship (as a BETA and AmeriCorps member), teaching alongside a team for one or two years with the opportunity to earn their teaching credential in their second year through Relay Graduate School of Education.

Blue Engine is more than an “equal opportunity employer.” We acknowledge the roles we play as  educators and leaders in the very tangible systems of oppression and racism that exist in our communities and classrooms and strive to be an actively anti-racist organization. We believe that by assembling diverse and inclusive teams, we can build alliances that fundamentally disrupt and dismantle these systems at their root.

Desired Skills

• Is curious about an apprenticeship model to implement a team teaching approach within public middle and high school classrooms

• Is motivated by building relationships and working on a team

• Is interested in  collaborating with others and learning & developing through feedback

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree.  You must have received your bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university by the first day of Blue Engine’s summer training institute in August.

• 2.50 Minimum GPA (undergrad).  You must have a cumulative 2.50 GPA on a 4.00 scale from an accredited college or university at the time we receive your application.

• US Citizenship or National / Permanent Resident Status.

• BETAs must be cleared through background and security checks prior to beginning their year of service.

• Interest in being a teacher and prior education or AmeriCorps experience is not required to become a BETA.

Responsibilities

• BETAs devote 1-2 years of service (as AmeriCorps members)  in partnership with certified Department of Education teachers in critical gateway skills; high school Algebra and English Language Arts.

• BETAs complete four weeks of training in August and receive consistent support throughout the school year.  

• While they are not the  lead teacher in the classroom, BETAs are responsible for many of the same things, including attending meetings, preparing for lessons, tutoring, grading, attending school events, and making parent phone calls.

• Upon completing the year of service, BETAs have the option to stay for a second year as a Team Coordinator, where they manage a team of BETAs,  and can choose to enroll in Blue Engine’s teacher residency program at Relay Graduate School of Education to become a certified, full-time teacher.