Louisiana is a State as a Model Employer for People with Disabilities.
The Louisiana Special Schools are experiencing a critical shortage of certified teachers, school counselors, interpreters
and educators of the Deaf or hard of hearing.
The LA SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT is seeking applicants for an
ASL (AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE) TEACHER
This is an Unclassified 9 months and 7.5 hours per day position.
To be filled for 26/27 School Year / Position #41205
Louisiana School for the Deaf
The Louisiana School for the Deaf (LSD), established in 1852, has a long proud tradition of educating deaf and hard of hearing children in the state of Louisiana. We are dedicated to providing a quality education for all deaf and hard of hearing children by incorporating innovative teaching methods, rigorous curriculum, state-of-the-art technology, and the American Sign Language/English Bilingual Approach throughout our program. Children who are hard of hearing or have cochlear implants benefit from auditory access via spoken English language instruction. LSD provides extracurricular activities, leadership opportunities, and mentoring by successful deaf and hard of hearing adult role and language models. Students directly interact with teachers, staff, and peers daily.
LSD will continually work to ensure full communication access in all settings; to present instructional materials in a bi-lingual environment utilizing both American Sign Language (ASL) and English; to ensure that we are driven by research in best developmental practices for learners that are deaf and hard-of-hearing; to value and recognize the diverse language learning styles of our students; and to use advances in audiological and educational technology.
LSD strives to be an educational environment that encourages students to become literate/analytical thinkers; that encourages families to develop reciprocal communication with their child and to share in decision making about their child's education; that promotes teachers who are experts/specialists in language and literacy instruction and who reflect on their students' progress; that is led by an administration that supports and advocates for innovation, expansion of curricular and dormitory residency programs and over-all school improvement; with the full collaboration of the school's core stakeholders. Our mission is:
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To enhance the academic, vocational, physical, emotional, social and cultural development of each student.
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To enhance the academic, vocational, physical, emotional, social and cultural development of each student.
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To provide a visually accessible, positive and nurturing environment that emphasizes literacy and effective communication skills.
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To be a caring community where students can achieve personal excellence and become independent lifelong learners.
Teacher Positions – American Sign Language (ASL)
All of our teachers are leaders with unique opportunities to create pathways for success for every student and other teachers in the years to come. This is a rare opportunity for teachers who are looking to increase their responsibility and impact within a school and across our state.
Specific Courses
The Louisiana Special Schools do not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in our programs and activities, and we provide equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. Inquiries regarding non-discrimination may be referred to Mary Gloston, Human Resources.
RELEASE OF ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION INFORMATION: La. R.S. 17:3884(D) requires that any school board wishing to hire a person who has been assessed or evaluated pursuant to the Children First Act, La. R.S. 17:3871, et seq., whether that person is already employed by that school system or not, shall request such person's assessment and evaluation results as part of the application process. Please be advised that, as part of the mandated process, your previous assessment and evaluation results will be requested. You have the opportunity to apply, review the information received, and provide any response or information you deem appropriate.
Physical Activity Level:
The employee must be able to perform assigned duties without significant risk of substantial harm to his/her own safety/security and the safety/security of others. Some work is performed in physically comfortable positions with little or light physical effort, and some work requires moderate effort. Physical requirements are subject to reasonable accommodation in accordance with ADA standards.
There is no guarantee that everyone who applies to this posting will be interviewed. Specific information about this job will be provided to you in the interview process, should you be selected.
To apply for this vacancy, click this link -https://jobs.la.gov/and complete an electronic application, which can be used for this vacancy as well as future job opportunities. Applicants can check the status of their application at any time by selecting the 'Application Status' link after logging into their account.
Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed application. You must include all relevant education and experience on your official State application. Responsibilities
In addition to addressing communication challenges, ASL teachers understand that the language is embedded in the culture of deaf people. ASL teachers play a key role in helping their students fully participate in deaf culture, while enabling communication between deaf and hearing people. ASL teachers also empower their students to become more independent and to grow socially in the broader tapestry of cultures that make up our world. They will:
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Teach deaf students how to function
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Help deaf students become increasingly independent
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Inspire deaf students to dream big and to challenge themselves
The employee must be able to perform these assigned duties without significant risk of substantial harm to his/her own safety/security and the safety/security of others.
Planning for College and Career Ready Bar
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Plan rigorous lessons aligned to the national ASL standards and the school’s internal curriculum to align all of your planning.
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Utilize curriculum assessments at the daily, weekly, and unit level to measure what your students learned: Daily Exit Tickets (formative) to know if you were successful in teaching that day; Weekly or Unit Assessments (summative) to assess students learning. For each assessment, create your ideal student response or mastery response to clearly define the bar of rigor your students must reach.
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Utilize curriculum summative assessments to test overall mastery at the unit level that are aligned to the end of year assessment for your course.
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Know your content and standards deeply. Ensure lessons demonstrate your knowledge and passion for your content. Lessons must drive mastery and investment in your content from every student you teach.
Culture That Builds Strong and Positive Student Identities and Investment
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Ensure your students know that you believe in them as well as know what you expect from them and why.
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Create a classroom culture where 100% of your students are engaged in your lesson and doing rigorous thinking at every moment throughout your lesson.
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Create and leverage a classroom narrative along with the school system of positive behavior support and positive discipline to build strong and positive student identities. Use praise and recognition to ensure your students know what you value. Use corrections and consequences to teach expected behavior while holding students accountable to high standards.
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Build relationships with students that let them know you care about them as individuals. Leverage those relationships to push your students to the highest heights academically and as people.
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Use Restorative Approaches with every student when approaching corrections and consequences. Work hard to keep your students in class and only send a child out when he or she needs time to step back, re-center, or reflect on something that needs improvement behaviorally.
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Incorporate best practices received in trainings on social and emotional learning for students and model the use of these strategies.
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Check in with students monthly to support positive student relationships and to identify potential concerns. For example, attendance, grades, discipline and other concerns.
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Ensure regular communication every month with parents so they also know you are invested in their child.
Lesson Execution Using Data Throughout the Lesson Cycle
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Execute the lessons you’ve planned with fidelity and at the highest level, ensuring 100% of your students are engaged in your lesson and doing rigorous thinking at every moment.
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Bring passion, joy, and energy to your execution. Ensure students reflect the level of passion, joy and energy you feel as a result of your execution.
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Gather data throughout your lesson to ensure students at all levels in your classroom are mastering the material. Use these Checks for Understanding to pivot your lesson in the moment.
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Ensure your lessons drive towards both mastery of the Exit Ticket for that day and mastery in the larger themes of your unit: The Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions.
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Reflect on your data daily to know what your students learned and what they didn’t learn. Make a plan to fill in those gaps the following day and retest later on.
Interventions and Supports to Meet the Needs of All Students
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Teach to the diverse learning needs of every student you teach. Take action on and responsibility for every student in your classroom regardless of incoming achievement level or diverse learning needs.
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Plan and execute strong Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions within the Response to Intervention (RtI) framework to ensure every child can master the material in your class every day.
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Track data to assess the efficacy of your interventions. If interventions aren’t working, find new interventions to test out to ensure all students are growing as fast as possible towards their goals.
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Ensure all students have high quality accommodations and modifications in place to meet their unique needs.
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Commit to a minimum of one hour, two days per week of tutoring. Additional compensation will be paid for actual hours spent tutoring.
Teamwork that Drives the Success of our Whole School
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Actively participate in all team meetings including but not limited to: our daily Morning Meeting, Weekly Grade Level and/or Department meetings, Professional Development, Network Wide Data Days on a quarterly basis, and Monthly Professional Learning Community meetings.
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Collaborate with others to drive the success of your grade level and school.
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Seek solutions to problems you see constantly. Constantly look across the school and ask yourself, “How can our school be better tomorrow?”
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Proactively propose solutions and ideas to improve the school.
