Notice to Potential Team Members at 5IN

Thank you for your interest in joining the 5IN team, where a new paradigm of education aims to prepare students and society for the future. As a member of the team, your time with us will be challenging, enlightening, and fulfilling, but requires that you fully understand and share our educational beliefs and values, agreeing to follow and implement our system and policies. Those seeking to become a member of the 5IN team should be aware of the following differences between 5IN and a more “traditional” educational organization.

• An instructor’s most important mission at 5IN is to guide and mentor student growth. “Growth” does not only pertain to what is traditionally referred to as “academics”. The purpose of education should not be simply to “go to the next level of school” or “enter a top university”. In addition to other areas, the purpose of education is to prepare youth to have the habits of mind, utilization of work processes, computational thinking, and basic familiarity with professional media tools necessary to achieve personal, professional, and social goals that they may set for themselves.

• Subject content is a means with which to provide the necessary background, scaffold, and context in which students utilize and train thinking and work processes. Knowledge in itself can be valuable and enjoyable, but is not the end goal of the 5IN program. Simply acquiring pure subject content is not the goal of 5IN.

• Growth and learning at 5IN happens at all times. The potential for maturation and improvement does not end at the end of a class. As such, instructors should not hold on to the concept of “teaching hours”. Instructors are expected to be engaged with the learning process at all times. This will include identifying and making use of any student growth opportunity that may arise through the normal process of the day (also referred to as “life”) and communicating with students about these happenings. More often than not, these discussions will pertain to personal, social, behavioral, communication, teamwork, and identity issues.

• Teaching staff at 5IN are stationed inside the main classroom of the learning unit they are leading. The teacher’s “office” is inside the classroom. This allows teachers to observe their learning group while not in charge of leading a class. Behaviors and unique student traits can be more easily identified and observed, leading to further opportunities with which students can be assisted in growth.

• Teaching staff at 5IN are responsible for being the main record keeper of student performance and behavior. The records kept will serve as the basis of any communication regarding needed adjustments to behavior, attitude, or performance, and will also contribute to formulation of progress reports and assessment.

• Regular communication and periodic meetings with parents is an important part of an 5IN teaching member’s duty. Up to (but not exceeding) three weekend/night school events will take place throughout the semester. An after-school meeting with each individual student’s parents will be scheduled once a semester, in which teaching staff will facilitate and record.

• 5IN teaching staff will at times need to learn or familiarize themselves with new skills, technology, or methods of instruction. Teachers will need to continually grow together with the students.

• Students at 5IN will be formatively and summatively assessed on a wide range of criterion, which includes but is not limited to teamwork, citizenship, athletics, communication, arts, and etiquette. Teaching staff should handle and emphasize these points as possessing equal importance to academic development.

• Live, active interaction with students is required for each and every class period. Classes should refrain from falling into lecture-style one-sided content transfer. Students must be forced to interact with the material presented at all times.

• Assessment (simple assessment) should be ongoing in all class sessions whenever possible.

• Semester curriculum design will need to factor in a degree of flexibility with outside industry and non-profit partners. The semester plan needs to respond to and adjust to actual student learning and work process, and realities of work situation with partners.

• An important part of an 5IN teaching staffs’ duties is to give immediate, specific, direct, and strategic feedback to students regarding their work, and more importantly, their behavior. It should be kept in mind that identifying opportunities to praise students for positive performance in any area that brings value to the class or environment is just as important as suggesting students adjust their behavior when they make mistakes. Feedback regarding social behavior, reflection of moral values, and displays of empathy are very effective and valuable feedback opportunities.

• Negative feedback, when the situation does not involve malice or willful dishonesty, should focus more on solving problems before making judgments of right or wrong. Students should understand that making mistakes is normal and acceptable, but taking responsibility for and personally rectifying mistakes is a necessity.

• In order to provide students with a stable and open social and learning experience, learning groups stay together with their respective teaching teams for three years at a time (middle and high school level are three years each). This also means that whenever possible, teachers at 5IN are requested to serve at least a three year tenure with 5IN. As one who develops, learns, and grows with their own group of students from start to finish, 5IN teachers can achieve a level of accomplishment and influence in lives that is unmatched in the teaching profession. More importantly, students are provided with a level of academic, social, and psychological support that is impossible to find anywhere else.

• Whenever possible, 5IN teachers are required to join the students in “doing what they do”. This means that teachers will participate in any and all activities that students go through during the day, from having meals to performing morning yoga, from giving public presentations to biking along the riverside park. Not only does this support and encourage to take all daily activities seriously as growth and learning opportunities, it also builds rapport between students and teachers in a way that is non-existent in other educational organizations.

The above list is only a small sampling of elements of the 5IN program which may differ from traditional educational organizations, but are ones which may most directly influence expectations about responsibilities of a 5IN teacher. If you have considered and agreed with the logic and methods of these points, if you truly wish to be a part of shifting the paradigm of education, we encourage you to continue with the process of joining our team. We look forward to hearing further from you soon.