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IB Chemistry Teacher

ApplyUWC-USA

Job title: IB Chemistry Teacher

Location: UWC-USA, Montezuma, USA

Working pattern: Full-timeDuration of contract: 10-month contract

Start date: 1 August 2026

Enquiries: hr@uwc-usa.org

View other vacancies at UWC-USA

Founded in 1982, United World College-USA is one of 18 United World College (UWC) campuses worldwide and the only campus in the United States. The UWC movement seeks "to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future." As such, UWC-USA values and promotes all manners of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access as part of our fundamental mission to bring people together across differences in service of a more peaceful and sustainable world.

Our students are selected through national committees in more than 150 countries, and nearly 85% of our students are on scholarships, ensuring unparalleled national and socioeconomic diversity in our student body. With expeditionary, place-based, and experiential learning at the centre of our academic programme, and a strong residential curriculum in our multicultural boarding environment, UWC-USA encourages its students, faculty and staff to learn and grow in an open community dedicated to democratic processes as reflective of our country's location and traditions.

What do we want our education to prepare young people for?

UWC's mission began in response to the international tensions of the Cold War. Its mission to bring young people together before their prejudices are solidified, in service of peace and a sustainable future, is as important as ever. In the world our students know, the main obstacles to unity remain differences in identity that too often separate us from one another: nationality, culture, language, religion, ethnicity, race, gender, and sexual identity. The main obstacles to peace and sustainability today are not entirely new either, but the globalising forces of our age have reshaped them. No matter where our students come from, they increasingly see these challenges up close in local, national or international settings:

• Economic, political, and social inequality between those at the centre and those on the margins of societies worldwide;
• Political polarisation rooted in ideology, grievance, and uneven democratic practice/ institutions;
• Climate change, ecosystem destruction, and biodiversity collapse resulting from destructive modes of production, consumption, and land use.
• Accelerated technological innovation that alters our relationships to information, work and one another.

Beginning in the 2025 academic year, the educational programme at UWC-USA will seek to prepare students for these four global challenges by taking students out of the classroom to meet with organisations and institutions in northern New Mexico on a bi-weekly basis. For learning to prepare young people for these challenges of the future, we are committed to ensuring that they graduate from UWC-USA with contextualised, real-world understandings of the complexities of the challenges ahead.

UWC-USA is looking for an experienced and committed IB Physics and Chemistry Teacher.

IB teachers contribute to the school’s mission across our full programme: they teach academic courses and assume related responsibilities; they sponsor co-curricular program activities; they lead learning expedition outings (and so much be able to drive a 15-passenger van); and they support residential life in formal and informal ways. Teachers fulfil their responsibilities in accordance with the UWC mission and values as well as the school’s strategic plan, foundational documents, IBDP authorisation, Independent Schools of the Southwest (ISAS) accreditation, and best practices in teaching and learning.

All teachers are employed on a 10-month agreement that runs from 1 August to 31 May and are paid over the course of 12 months. Their summer and winter holiday travel plans should not interfere with their professional obligations at the beginning of August, mid-December, early January, and late May.

Responsibilities

IB teaching

• Teachers carry 4 IB courses/1-4 class “preps” throughout the year.
• Teachers are responsible for creating and maintaining a 2-year scope and sequence, a syllabus, and unit planning documents that are accessible to the Dean of Teaching and Learning, Group Chair, and students for each course they teach.

Course content and assessment:

• Teachers are responsible for covering the required course content and assessing student performance based upon a standard set of requirements and criteria provided by the IB as laid out in the relevant IB Subject Guide(s). Teachers must include cross-curricular
  connections and scaffold learning to assist with accessibility for all types of learners.

Expeditionary learning

• All teachers develop and lead four “learning expeditions” to locations in northern New Mexico in line with our commitment to place-based, expeditionary learning.
• HL teachers develop expeditions that animate and make relevant the IB curriculum, and SL teachers develop/lead
  expeditions that are broadly educational.
• Teachers are generally called on to drive one further expedition. As a result, willingness to drive a 15-passenger van is generally a requirement of the job.

Extended essays

• Teachers are expected to supervise Extended Essays (EE), research projects developed by students, which result in an essay of approximately 4,000 words.
• Teachers may be asked to supervise EEs in subjects that they do not teach if there are not any in their given subject.

Grades and reports

• Teachers compile grades and write a narrative report for each student in their classes at designated times of the year. Teachers track grades and attendance using Veracross, and use the school’s LMS as the learning platform.

References and recommendations

• Teachers write letters of recommendation to colleges and universities on behalf of their students, at the student’s request.
• Initiating strategic discussions and sharing thoughtful and innovative ideas with their co-workers for carrying out the UWC mission and completing day-to-day work assignments.
• Demonstrating a growth mindset by believing and acknowledging that intelligence, skills, learning and creativity can all grow with time and experience.
• In all interactions, upholding the UWC mission and values, and creating an environment that promotes and values diversity, equity and inclusion.

Advising

• Teachers serve as official advisors to a group of 7-8 students.
• Teachers sponsor activities that fulfil student requirements across our
• co-curricular programs. Sponsorship includes activity design and assessment against a standard set of learning outcomes. The Querencia program – comprised of Community Engagement and Wilderness & Outdoor Adventure – aims to build a sense of home in northern New Mexico; the Basecamp program builds a sense of integral sustainability for students on our campus.
• Southwest Studies and Project Week: Southwest Studies and Project Week are week-long educational expeditions that take place in the fall and spring, respectively. Teachers are expected to lead one expedition per year and participate in scheduled expeditionary preparations.

Residential life

• Teachers serve on dorm teams and informally contribute to the residential experience of students with their active presence on campus (e.g., sharing meals with students in the dining hall, attending student events periodically, etc.).
• Meetings/assemblies/special events: Teachers attend all-employee meetings, all-faculty meetings, IB teacher meetings, department meetings, and school forums. Teachers are also asked to attend a good balance of special events throughout the year.

Professional development

• All teachers participate in IB workshops specific to their discipline regularly to stay current on curricular developments. Teachers new to the IB are expected to
  participate in a Category 1 workshop after they have been hired, at UWC USA’s expense, most likely through UWC-USA’s own summer IB workshops. Additionally, teachers are expected to participate in internal and external professional development related to their program responsibilities and the UWC-USA mission more broadly.

Leadership

• Actively participating and contributing to committee or task force assignments, providing leadership in campus-wide events or initiatives, strategic planning efforts, in the experiential education program, the dorms, dining hall and/or in physical plant initiatives.
• Initiating strategic discussions and sharing thoughtful and innovative ideas with their co-workers for carrying out the UWC mission and successfully completing day to day work assignments.
• Demonstrating a growth mindset by believing and acknowledging that intelligence, skills, learning and creativity can all grow with time and experience.
• In all interactions, upholding the UWC mission and values, and creating an environment that promotes and values diversity, equity and inclusion.

Skills and preferred experience

• Strong identification with the vision, mission, and values of UWC-USA and the ability to articulate and translate them in strategic and day-to-day implementation of programmes
• Proven experience as a dynamic, innovative, student-centred facilitator of learning
• Three or more years of teaching experience at the 15- to 19-year-old level
• Teaching experience in a multicultural setting
• IB Diploma Programme knowledge and experience, or experience in higher education in the relevant academic field
• Experience in a residential school
• Experience living outside your home country
• Knowledge of instructional strategies used in the enhancement of curricular programmes, ideally including place-based learning and expeditionary learning
• Commitment to learning and modelling constructive engagement of conflict among colleagues and students
• Commitment to learning and modelling personal, communal, and environmental sustainability
• Ability to use good judgment in establishing priorities, assessing and engaging difficult situations
• Exemplary discretion and confidentiality
• Ability to collaborate with colleagues across the curriculum
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Master's degree in a field related to one of the subject taught
• Eligible to obtain a NM Driver's License, and must be insurable by the school's insurance carrier.
• Note: Broadly, we are able to support sponsorship for a J-1 visa, but this is not guaranteed.

Safeguarding and inclusivity

Those who work at UWC-USA understand that they are more than employees at a world-class institution: they are integral members of a campus community. Whether they teach, maintain the campus, or work in an office, each person recognises the crucial role they play in educating tomorrow’s transformational leaders.

UWC-USA is committed to equal employment and volunteer opportunities without regard to age, ancestry, disability, national or ethnic origin, race, religious belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, political belief, or veteran status.