Home Room Shepherd

Overview:
The Oaks is seeking nurturing and capable individuals with a background, education, and/or experience in school counseling, childhood development, early childhood education and/or childhood education to serve as a Home Room Shepherd. The successful candidate will be responsible for the social, emotional and spiritual development of students at The Oaks.

The Home Room Shepherd is responsible for cultivating the whole child – heart, mind, body and soul – as an image bearer of God.

The Home Room Shepherd is responsible for the social, emotional and spiritual development of students.

Responsibilities:
• To facilitate the development of age and developmentally- appropriate social behaviors
• to consistently enforce behavioral expectations
• to encourage and foster cooperation and empathy for one another.
•  to communicate, facilitate, and model developmentally- appropriate strategies for emotional growth, including mindfulness, healthy dialogue between students and their peers and students and faculty, and to promote a healthy self-esteem in their students
• to utilize appropriate Scriptural references and model a Biblical worldview
• to live out a mature and authentic Christian faith at all times
• to pray with and for their students in their care
• to foster discussion about faith, the relationship between content in learning environments and the “Heart Word” or other Biblical themes
• to build an effective foundation of Scripture, habits of prayer, and a love for God in their students.
• to equip students with tools to discover God’s Truth and allow them the joy in discovery and critical thinking
• The Home Room Shepherd will be responsible for knowing the children inside and out, including their gifts and their challenges and using this knowledge to guide all interactions and advocate for the students.
• The Home Room Shepherd will be responsible for leading Biblical curriculum during the Gathering time and for partnering with Environment Educators to facilitate Biblical integration in the classroom.
• The Home Room Shepherd will accomplish the above goals for the children
they shepherd by interacting, teaching, instructing, facilitating, assisting, role
modeling, imparting, actively participating and leading in The Gathering and hallways, and as appropriate, in the learning environments as well.
• The Home Room Shepherd will be responsible for assisting the Environment Educators with classroom management and for modeling and facilitating active listening during the direct instruction portions of class time and for modeling and facilitating appropriate social engagement during all hands-on, experiential learning as well.
• The Home Room Shepherd will be able to recognize a child’s strengths and weaknesses in academic environments and social settings and will work alongside the Environment Educators to ensure optimal student success.
• The Home Room Shepherd will identify the goals (social, emotional and spiritual for each of their students, devise a plan for achievement, and create an assessment system to monitor progress towards established goals.
• The Home Room Shepherd will be responsible for communicating with parents on a weekly basis through the Remind app.
• The Home Room Shepherd will meet with the parents of enrolled students prior to the start of school so that the HRS can properly advocate for and to get a more complete picture of the students in their care. This intake evaluation will be an in-depth interview designed to capture a detailed understanding of the student. In addition, the Home Room Shepherd will meet with parents quarterly to give a detailed progress report on accomplishments and concerns in the areas of social, emotional and spiritual growth.
• The Home Room Shepherd will devise specific questions to ask their students in order to assist them in discovering Biblical Truths to assist in integrating the Gathering curriculum in the material from that week’s lessons.
• Home Room Shepherd will develop a curriculum for upper elementary grades that will address gender-specific concerns and impart Biblical truth to girls and boys as distinct image bearers of God. Responsible for curriculum and implementation on a weekly basis in conjunction with curriculum in the Gathering.
• The Home Room Shepherd will be able to effectively demonstrate, communicate, and facilitate the development of a Biblical worldview to the children at The Oaks in a way that is insightful, impactful and developmentally-appropriate.
• The Home Room Shepherd is responsible for the implementation of the “heart word of the month” and the critical thinking and practical application of each month’s focus. The curriculum for the “heart word” will be developed in tandem by all Home Room Shepherds and the Head of School.
• The successful Home Room Shepherd will be: a team player, a visionary, an implementer, an effective designer and developer of curricula, and will be passionate about spiritual education.
• The Environment Educator is responsible for attending all faculty meetings and Professional Development days that pertain to their continuing education as identified by the Head of School.

Other:
All employees must successfully pass a criminal background check and complete all required training, online and in-person.

As is expected of all employees at The Oaks, personal work, personal phones and personal computers should not be out or in use when the Home Room Shepherd is with students, including but not limited to, Readiness Rooms, transition times between Education Environments, lunchtime, Gathering at the Grove, student supervision in the restroom, etc.

Phones should only be used for student-related emergencies.