Art Teacher

**The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide children from low-income communities with a high-quality education, enabling them to maximize their potential and transform their lives. Akanksha works primarily in the field of education, addressing formal education by initiating school reform through The School Project as well as non-formal education through the Akanksha centers.**

**The School Project is a venture to open high-quality schools serving children from low-income communities in Mumbai and Pune. These schools are in partnership with local municipalities, with the vision of creating small clusters of model schools in these cities that can be used to impact the mainstream education system. Through the centers, a commitment is made to support each child by providing a strong educational foundation, self-esteem and values, and support towards a steady livelihood with the aim of improving their standard of living.**

**Central to the mission of Akanksha is the role of the teachers as the children depend on their teachers to bridge the gap between the known and the unknown, to bring the outside world to them, to help them dream, to show them their potential, to push them when everyone else has given up, to empower them to chase their ambitions and to show them that each one of them is incredibly special.**

Every Akanksha teacher is directly responsible for at least 30 kids in a class. The teacher’s role is to guide the students towards academic achievement while inculcating self-esteem and values that empower them to think critically and make informed choices leading them to transform their lives.

The teachers cultivate an environment of high achievement coupled with fun learning in the classrooms. They build strong bonds with children to understand each child’s needs and work with the parents as partners in their child’s education and future. They understand the communities the children come from, the background of each child and the challenges they face every day. Despite this, they keep excellence a top priority and empathize rather than sympathize with the kids to push them even harder as they believe in each child’s potential.

The teachers understand that to create an impact on every child, they need to create instructional plans to each child’s needs and deliver instructions in an engaging manner as well as administer assessments to ensure that students are progressing. Teachers ensure that while the learning levels of the students may be different, they are all moving towards meeting the academic goal.

**The teachers are leaders of their classrooms as they work within teams to ensure that they are maximizing everyone’s potential. They collaborate with other teachers to plan effectively and examine data to ensure they are setting smart goals, manage a group of volunteers to give support to each child, guide helpers to ensure efficient support, interact with the social worker to address any concerns at home affecting them, communicate with the parents to include them in the learning process and work with the administrative team to ensure they are always moving towards the common goal.**

The responsibilities of a art teacher in an Akanksha school includes the following:
Curriculum Implementation & Planning
- To teach the Akanksha art curriculum through effective pedagogical practices.
- To design and execute lesson plans that will engage students and help them to develop their creativity.
- To use data to drive and differentiate instruction.
- To design assessments that thoughtfully evaluate student progress.
- To clearly communicate learning goals and objectives to students during every lesson.
- To vary teaching strategies and styles to meet different learning needs.

Building classroom and school culture
- To provide a positive environment in which students are encouraged to be actively engaged in the learning process.
- To establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with students, parents, community and school team
- To develop and maintain a comfortable and orderly classroom atmosphere that promotes learning and encourage questions and problem solving.
- To clearly articulate high expectations for students.
- To create and maintain an aesthetically positive environment.

Professional Development
- Attend all pre-training sessions before the start of the academic year.
- To actively participate in network opportunities for professional development.
- To attend and participate in all school training and meetings.
- To meet professional obligations through efficient work habits.
- To actively participate in all extra-curricular and celebratory activities in the school.

**Qualities / Traits**
- Strong content knowledge and expertise in Art.
- Possesses strong oral and written communication skills.
- Love for children and learning.
- Creativity
- Willingness to adapt to Akanksha’s instructional approach.
- Patience and capacity to s