ESL Teacher (Independent Contractor)

ESL Teacher: Women's ESL/Life Skills Program:

Timeframe: Immediately Beginning 8/12/2024:

Position Description: ESL Teacher: Women’s ESL/Life Skills Program

Timeframe: ‘24-’25 school year

Overview

The Women’s ESL/Life Skills Program was created over a decade ago to meet the English language and acculturation needs of low-income, mostly Arabic speaking women living in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.

The program is funded by OCEIA (Office of Community Engagement and Immigrant Affairs) and supported and housed by Chinatown Community Development Center in a low-income housing building at 201 Turk Street (CCDC). The building is a busy, active residence with an array of services and activities provided for residents and community members.

The program is supervised by the Arab Resident Services Coordinator and designed as a “One-Stop” for immigrant women, many of whom are mothers, arriving in San Francisco with few resources and little knowledge of the city. Resident Services can provide light case management and/or referrals for students to a variety of outside resources including housing, childcare, higher education, immigration services, work, and culture. The ESL program provides English and Life Skills training to suit the daily and future needs of participants as well as a structured schedule and connection to other women to help stabilize and acculturate the students in their new city.

The program has been in-person, except between 2020 and 2022, when it was held online only using Zoom, Remind and our YouTube Channel. A remote reading class was offered as an extra evening program in tandem with the in-person classes starting August 2022.

The ideal applicant will be comfortable working in the Arabic-speaking/Muslim community and with adult women students who have low literacy/education levels, many needs and few resources. This position requires creativity and flexibility plus excellent communication, class management skills and a lot of patience. The candidate should have a sincere interest in empowering women through promoting life-long learning, acculturation and community/civic engagement and longer term, have a sincere interest in assuming program management responsibilities as well as teaching.

Knowledge of community resources in and around the Tenderloin, as well as familiarity with SFUSD, San Francisco Public Library, and City College of San Francisco is a plus.

Childcare is provided on-site for babies and toddlers. The childcare workers are supervised by the Arab Resident Services Coordinator. While the teacher does not provide childcare, some knowledge of early childhood development and education and parenting is helpful.

Position Requirements

Education: While an M.A in TESOL/Applied Linguistics is preferred, candidates with a B.A./B.S in English or Linguistics plus a teaching credential in teaching English as a second language from an accredited university will be considered. No online or TEFL certificates will be considered.

Experience: At least 5 years experience teaching adult ESL students and/or immigrant family literacy in a multi-level classroom with excellent curriculum planning and class management skills. The class is not online, but could be moved to remote if the situation required it. For this reason, experience using Zoom, Remind, Google Apps and Google Drive and technology in general is required.

Experience with and a passion for teaching low-literacy, low-income adult immigrants is highly desired. Familiarity with the concepts of Structured Literacy is a plus. Knowledge of Arabic is not necessary but it is helpful and desired to have an understanding of Middle Eastern culture and customs. The Arab Resident Services Coordinator and other advisory staff are available for consultation, assistance and interpretation as needed.

Position/Compensation: This is a part-time annual contractor position and although benefits are not included, compensation is competitive with CCSF pay scale and based on education and experience. The candidate reports to the ESL Program Manager and will work closely with the CCDC Arab Resident Services Coordinator and advisory staff.

Schedule

Contact hours: 6-8 hours per week:

The program is a semester offering that follows the SFUSD Academic calendar. There is currently one multilevel class that meets 4 days a week, Monday-Thursday.

Non-contact hours: 2-4 hours:

A weekly one-hour staff meeting on Friday morning via Zoom is required.

Prep, communication with students, and some weekly administrative responsibilities are necessary, while amount of time varies depending on duties such as cyclical grant reporting requirements.

Teaching Responsibilities: Because this is an open-enrollment multi-level program, the curriculum design will depend on the number and skill level of the enrollees. The successful candidate will be responsible for: curriculum development, student assessment, lesson planning, sourcing materials (text, digital, etc.), field trip planning, communicating with students via Remind.

The teacher works closely with an Arabic-speaking Teacher Assistant.

Administrative Responsibilities

Register new students with an intake form and provide them with school supplies.

Assist new students in downloading the Remind app and joining the class on Remind.

Conduct registration days at the start of each semester.

Maintain, organize, and inventory school supplies.

Maintain enrollment and attendance records.

Write monthly progress reports for funders (OCEIA and CCDC).

Contribute to a mid-year (December) and final (June) funder report in collaboration with the Arab Resident Services Coordinator.

Submit monthly time sheets and program expenses to CCDC.

Collaborate with Program Manager/CCDC staff on grant proposals, budgeting and programming as needed.

Participate in open communication with other building staff and colleagues regarding shared office equipment, building space, and events.

Life Skills Program

This portion of the program is managed by the Arab Resident Services Coordinator as part of the ESL Program, in collaboration with the teacher. Because program participants are young, minimally educated mothers who have never worked or lived independently, they have not acquired the skills needed to live in a large, multicultural American city, so teaching life skills is an integral part of this program.

The candidate will need to be sensitive to and be able to identify issues or problems and coordinate with staff who will find community resources to help address their needs which include parenting, early literacy, domestic violence prevention, personal safety and healthcare/healthy living, citizenship/immigration and group social activities.The teacher may engage in communication with outside service providers who conduct workshops or open their facilities for field trips.

Contact Information

Qualified applicants should submit a resume detailing education and experience with a cover letter to the current Program Manager via email to: [email protected].