Teaching at Blue Oak School

Blue Oak School is the first and only independent day school in the Napa Valley.

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Located just north of San Francisco, the School’s founding families established Blue Oak School in order to provide an opportunity for an independent school education to the children of Napa and surrounding communities. Blue Oak School offers a broad liberal arts curriculum and hires, in addition to homeroom teachers and teaching assistants, teachers of music, physical education, art, drama and Spanish.

The School first opened its doors in September 2002 to children in kindergarten to fourth grade. Housed in a wonderfully renovated historic building, the Lower School now serves students in grades K-5. In 2005, the School expanded to include a Middle School campus serving children in grades 6-8.

There is an excitement and profound sense of accomplishment that comes from participating in the beginnings of a new school. Teachers at Blue Oak School are involved in creating and decision making that rarely happens in a more established school. They enjoy an “educational peak experience,” while working in close cooperation to create and provide a quality education for their students.  Blue Oak School is innovative and progressive in its orientation to teaching. The bottom line always being, “What’s best for the children?” Teachers who are good observers of children, who care deeply about meeting the needs of each child and who stay on top of the best practices in education thrive in this environment. Collectively, the present faculty possesses the following characteristics and orientation:

• Make decisions with the child’s best interest as the primary consideration.
• Are constructivist in their orientation to planning, lesson design and teaching.
• Believe in and can create thematic, interdisciplinary units of study.
• Teach a problem-solving, visual, manipulatives-based math program, based in part on a familiarity with the NCTM standards.
• Use the "writing process" approach to teaching writing.
• Teach reading from a balanced, whole language literature-based approach that nonetheless uses phonics instruction in the early grades.
• Set activities that have children actively doing science (hypothesizing, collecting information, sharing information, experimenting) rather than merely reading about it.
• Engage students in cooperative learning.
• Understand and have used authentic assessment methods such as portfolios, narrative reports, demonstrations of understanding and maintaining anecdotal records of student work (we do not give grades or standardized tests to young children).
• Are experienced in creating their own curriculum in cooperation with their colleagues (we work without textbooks in the Lower School, except as references; textbooks are available in Middle School, but do not drive the curriculum).
• Can create curriculum and assess student work in light of teacher-created standards.
• Are familiar with technology and know how to use it with students in a developmentally appropriate manner.
• Know something of modern brain research and its applications to the classroom.
• Believe in and can carry out experiential education outside the classroom (field trips, overnights, outdoor education, etc.).
• Are oriented to community service and teaching children the responsibility that comes with being a community member.
• Engage students in questions and actions of environmental responsibility and stewardship.
• Have an international perspective through travel, background experience or reading.
• Create multicultural units of study and model respect for diversity and inclusiveness.
• Model and teach ethical values and character.

Not all teachers share a background in all the matters listed above. However, as a school, we are creating an atmosphere of adult learning, a culture of expectation and inspiration. Blue Oak School teachers understand the inevitability of change and have in their power the ability to shape that change to the advantage of their students. We have all known teachers who spend a good part of their careers in a rut. None of us wants to see that in anyone who works with children, and our professional development system is designed to keep that from happening. Rather than a community of the learned, we aspire to be a community of learners.

We welcome the interest of teachers from varied backgrounds. Our faculty has taught in independent, public and overseas schools. A good philosophical match with the School’s mission and a proven ability to work with children is more important than one’s particular background.  Our mission is explicit about the School’s desire to serve students who represent the entire Napa Valley and surrounding region. Teachers who speak Spanish are at an advantage in such circumstances, though it is not necessary to be bilingual to teach at Blue Oak School. What is necessary is openness to other cultures and a desire to teach in a school that values diversity and multicultural education. Significant resources are set aside for financial aid in order to fulfill this mission and the student body, comprised of children of varying cultural heritages, reflects this commitment.

Another strand flowing through our curriculum and habits of living is an emphasis on environmental education. We seek to instill in our students an awareness and responsibility for their environment, beginning in their classrooms and expanding as they grow older to encompass the planet.

Teaching for understanding is the hallmark of a good teacher. Blue Oak School students should understand what they are being taught and why they are learning it. Understanding is greater than memorization and can transfer to new situations. It is the basis for new creations and can be communicated to others. Teaching for understanding requires a teacher who knows his or her students well and who can structure meaningful lessons.  Educating the heart, as well as the mind, is one measure of our success. Through the materials we choose to read, the way we handle discipline, our service to each other and the community as a whole, and the high expectations we have for student behavior, we teach children to empathize with each other, to care and to act on those feelings.

Napa Valley is a beautiful place to live and work. Close enough for visits to both San Francisco and Berkeley and within a few hours of the Pacific Ocean and the Sierra Nevada mountains, this is an ideal location to live and raise a family.  If you are interested in working in an environment that expects collegiality and cooperation, stresses teacher growth along with that of the students, offers small classrooms inside a beautiful old building faithfully restored to meet modern educational needs, provides teacher salaries and benefits that are fair and competitive, and if you are a philosophical fit with the type of education outlined above, please contact us at 707.261.4500.