First Grade Lead Teacher

• Location: Miami, Florida
• Position Type: Full-Time, On-Campus
• Schedule: Approximately 7:45 a.m.–4:00/4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
• Faculty Meetings: Tuesdays until approximately 5:30 p.m.
• Start Date: ASAP
• Salary Range: $50,000–$69,000, depending on experience, education, and overall fit
• Relocation: Relocation assistance may be available for an exceptional candidate.

Thrive Education Partners is partnering with a growing independent school in Miami that believes exceptional education develops the whole child—not just academic achievement. Every aspect of the student experience is intentionally designed to foster intellectual curiosity, emotional intelligence, physical well-being, creativity, and personal responsibility.

As a First Grade Lead Teacher, you'll play a pivotal role during one of the most formative years of a child's education. You'll join a highly collaborative faculty that values exceptional teaching, meaningful relationships, high expectations, creativity, and continuous growth while helping students become confident, capable, and increasingly independent learners.

This is an especially exciting opportunity for an educator who loves the craft of teaching but also wants to help build something—someone who brings ideas to the table, embraces feedback, solves problems collaboratively, and is energized by being part of an innovative and evolving school community.

The school's educational philosophy begins with a simple belief: children learn best when their academic, emotional, and physical development are intentionally supported together.

Students experience a challenging academic program enriched by social-emotional learning, entrepreneurship, project-based learning, wellness practices, and meaningful real-world experiences. The school places a strong emphasis on helping children develop not only academic skills, but also self-awareness, emotional regulation, resilience, creativity, initiative, and independence.

Families are viewed as trusted partners in their children's education, and teachers are expected to build thoughtful, proactive relationships with parents.

The culture is both high-expectation and highly supportive. The school's strongest teachers describe the environment as collaborative and creative: educators are given meaningful autonomy, encouraged to bring ideas to the table, and supported closely by school leadership and instructional specialists.

As the First Grade Lead Teacher, you will:

• Design and deliver engaging, developmentally appropriate first-grade instruction that balances academic rigor with creativity, inquiry, and hands-on learning.
• Create a student-led classroom that is organized, bright, positive, and calm—but active, with students meaningfully engaged in their learning.
• Differentiate instruction to meet individual learning needs while maintaining high expectations for every student.
• Help students develop independence, confidence, curiosity, emotional regulation, and strong learning habits alongside academic skills.
• Work within an established core curriculum while using your professional judgment, creativity, and imagination to bring learning experiences to life.
• Design meaningful learning experiences through project-based learning, entrepreneurship, cross-curricular connections, and authentic real-world applications.
• Consistently integrate longer-term projects into classroom learning rather than treating project-based learning as an occasional special activity.
• Monitor student progress through formal and informal assessment, including formative classroom assessments, curriculum-based assessments, and NWEA MAP assessments administered three times per year.
• Use assessment data and classroom observations to continually adjust instruction and support student growth.
• Build strong partnerships with families through proactive, thoughtful, and consistent communication.
• Collaborate closely with colleagues, school leadership, and instructional specialists around curriculum, student needs, and schoolwide priorities.
• Participate actively in coaching, professional development, faculty meetings, and reflective conversations about teaching practice.
• Contribute to the broader school community with a mindset of shared ownership—identifying challenges, proposing solutions, supporting colleagues, and helping make the school stronger.

Great teaching matters enormously here—but so does how you show up as a member of the community.

You'll likely thrive in this environment if you are:

• Reflective. You think deeply about your own practice and recognize how your actions, communication, and emotional state affect your students.
• Relationship-driven. You believe children learn best when they feel known, safe, challenged, and supported.
• Highly collaborative. You communicate openly, seek input, and genuinely enjoy working alongside other educators.
• Growth-minded. You welcome coaching and feedback and see professional growth as an ongoing part of becoming an exceptional teacher.
• Flexible and resilient. When something doesn't go according to plan, your instinct is to adapt, problem-solve, and keep moving forward.
• Creative and entrepreneurial. You enjoy designing experiences, trying thoughtful new approaches, and making learning come alive.
• Proactive. You notice what needs to happen and take initiative rather than waiting for someone else to solve it.
• Grounded and emotionally mature. You can navigate challenging moments with students, parents, and colleagues calmly and productively.
• Committed to family partnership. You respect parents' central role in their children's education and value open, constructive communication with families.

Importantly, you want both autonomy and accountability. You appreciate having strong curricular resources and clear expectations, but you don't want to simply follow a script. You want the freedom—and responsibility—to use your creativity, imagination, and professional expertise to make learning exceptional for your class.

This is not the right environment for an educator seeking a traditional or compartmentalized teaching role where expectations rarely change, feedback happens once or twice a year, or teachers primarily operate independently within their own classrooms.

High expectations are paired with meaningful teacher support.

Teachers work closely with an engaged elementary principal who provides regular individual support around instructional planning, classroom needs, and individual students and maintains a strong presence throughout the school day.

Additional student and teacher support includes professionals focused on:

• Student social-emotional and behavioral support
• Learning differences and individualized student needs
• Reading and structured literacy
• Teacher training and professional development
• Targeted student intervention and remediation

Teachers receive regular coaching and feedback throughout the year rather than waiting for a traditional annual evaluation.

Success in this role means:

• Your classroom is organized, positive, calm, and active, with students meaningfully engaged rather than passively receiving instruction.
• Students increasingly take ownership of their learning and classroom experiences.
• Instruction is differentiated, hands-on, and responsive to individual student needs.
• Students demonstrate meaningful academic growth while developing confidence, curiosity, independence, and strong learning habits.
• Core curriculum becomes a jumping-off point for creative, cross-curricular learning rather than the entirety of the student experience.
• Project-based and real-world learning are consistently woven into instruction.
• Assessment data meaningfully informs instructional decisions.
• Families feel informed, respected, and valued as partners in their child's education.
• Colleagues and leadership experience you as a collaborative, solutions-oriented member of the team.
• You actively seek feedback, reflect on your practice, and continue growing in your craft.

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Education or a related field
• Elementary classroom teaching experience, ideally within the primary grades
• Strong understanding of elementary instruction and child development
• Demonstrated ability to differentiate instruction and create engaging learning experiences
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to build strong, positive relationships with students, families, and colleagues
• Ability to successfully complete all required employment screenings and background checks

Especially Valuable:

• Experience or training in Conscious Discipline, or a similar relationship-based approach to social-emotional learning and classroom management
• Experience with project-based or interdisciplinary learning
• Experience incorporating entrepreneurship or authentic real-world learning into instruction
• Independent or private school experience
• Experience contributing to innovative curriculum design
• Familiarity with NWEA MAP or other growth-based assessment systems
• Training in structured literacy or evidence-based early literacy practices

• A mission-driven school community focused on whole-child development
• A collaborative and creative faculty culture
• Significant investment in professional learning and teacher development
• Regular coaching and individualized support from school leadership
• Access to instructional and student-support specialists
• Meaningful autonomy within an established curricular framework
• The opportunity to innovate, create, and contribute to a growing independent school
• A culture where teachers are held to high expectations and given the support needed to meet them

Thrive Education Partners connects exceptional educators with schools and families seeking thoughtful, values-aligned educational experiences. We believe outstanding teaching transforms lives—and that the strongest placements happen when an educator's strengths, philosophy, and goals genuinely align with the community they are joining.

Our role is not simply to fill a vacancy. We work to understand both the educator and the school deeply so that both parties can determine whether an opportunity has the potential to become an exceptional long-term fit.

Our hiring process is intentionally designed to help both you and the school determine whether this is the right mutual fit.

Qualified candidates can expect an initial conversation with Thrive Education Partners, followed by conversations with school leadership and an in-person sample lesson before a final hiring decision.

Additional information about the school and its educational philosophy will be shared with candidates as they progress through the interview process.

Thrive Education Partners is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives and are committed to providing an inclusive hiring process for every qualified candidate.