Summer Enrichment Teacher Elementary Visual Art | Rising 3rd–5th Grades

Summer Enrichment Teacher Elementary Visual Art | Rising 3rd–5th Grades

Contract Position | June 7–July 9, 2027 | Monday–Friday | Morning Shift: 8:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | Afternoon Shift: 11:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Facilitate Learning That Matters.

What happens when children discover that art can do more than decorate a wall - that it can tell a story, express an identity, communicate an idea, and help other people see something differently?

That is Visual Art at Odyssey Atlanta.

We are seeking a creative, dynamic Elementary Visual Arts educator who can build a joyful studio experience where art, storytelling, identity, literacy, and civic stewardship intersect. Scholars should paint, draw, design, build, and create—but they should also observe closely, interpret images, develop vocabulary, tell stories, communicate ideas, and discover that their creativity can have purpose.

Odyssey Atlanta is a transformational academic enrichment program serving motivated scholars from Atlanta Public Schools and the greater Atlanta community. For more than 20 years, Odyssey has created joyful, challenging summer learning experiences designed to expand students’ ambitions and empower them on a successful journey through college and a fulfilling career.

The Elementary Art Experience

At Odyssey, art is more than an enrichment class. It is another way for scholars to read the world, tell their stories, and imagine how they might make it better.

Our Elementary curriculum is grounded in Identity & Belonging, Civic Stewardship, and Community Well-Being. Visual Art provides a natural space for scholars to explore all three.

Through age-appropriate studio experiences, scholars investigate how artists use color, line, shape, texture, form, symbols, images, and materials to communicate meaning. They encounter artists and works of art that broaden their perspectives, develop their own artistic voices, and create original work connected to ideas and issues that matter to them.

Literacy is intentionally woven into the experience. Scholars build language as they describe what they notice, interpret visual information, discuss artistic choices, encounter stories and artists, explain their creative process, and share the meaning behind their own work.

The goal is not simply to make beautiful things.

It is to help children recognize that creativity is a way of thinking, communicating, and contributing.

What You’ll Do

As an Odyssey Elementary Visual Arts Teacher, you will create a studio environment where scholars feel free to imagine, experiment, make choices, revise, and express ideas through art.

You will:

• Design and facilitate engaging, age-appropriate visual arts experiences for rising 3rd–5th grade scholars
• Introduce scholars to a variety of artistic media, techniques, processes, artists, and forms of visual expression
• Create opportunities for scholars to paint, draw, design, construct, collage, sculpt, and experiment with materials
• Connect artmaking to themes of identity, belonging, civic stewardship, community, and well-being
• Integrate literacy naturally through storytelling, visual analysis, discussion, vocabulary development, reflection, artist statements, and presentations
• Help scholars observe closely, ask questions, interpret images, explain artistic choices, and communicate ideas visually and verbally
• Introduce scholars to diverse artists, artistic traditions, perspectives, and ways art has been used to document experiences, tell stories, celebrate communities, and inspire change
• Encourage creative risk-taking, experimentation, revision, and reflection rather than focusing solely on a finished product
• Provide meaningful opportunities for scholar voice and choice while building foundational artistic skills
• Collaborate with classroom teachers and other Odyssey educators to make thoughtful connections between visual art and scholars’ broader project-based learning experiences
• Guide scholars in creating original work that can be shared, exhibited, or presented to authentic audiences
• Extend learning beyond the classroom through field experiences during weeks 2–4 when appropriate to the Elementary experience
• Maintain an organized, welcoming, safe, and inspiring studio environment
• Bring energy, professionalism, flexibility, imagination, and joy to our summer learning community

Who Thrives at Odyssey?

We are looking for an art educator who sees the studio as a place for making and meaning-making.

Strong Odyssey teachers are creators themselves. They notice things. They ask questions. They are comfortable when every scholar's work does not look the same. They know when to explicitly teach a technique and when to step aside so a child can experiment, discover, and make an idea their own.

You may be a great fit if you:

• Believe deeply in the creative and intellectual potential of every scholar
• Know how to build authentic relationships with elementary-aged students
• Can create a joyful studio culture that balances artistic freedom with clear expectations and purposeful instruction
• Believe children should develop their own artistic voices rather than simply reproduce a teacher-created model
• Understand that rigorous learning and joyful learning can and should exist together
• Enjoy connecting art with literature, storytelling, history, culture, community, and the world children experience
• Value process, experimentation, reflection, and revision as much as the finished product
• Can introduce children to diverse artists, perspectives, techniques, and forms of creative expression
• Are excited by interdisciplinary and project-based learning
• Are reflective, resourceful, flexible, collaborative, and eager to create alongside other educators
• Have demonstrated success supporting children from diverse backgrounds and experiences

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Art Education, Visual Arts, Fine Arts, Elementary Education with significant visual arts experience, or a related field
• Experience teaching visual art to elementary-aged students
• Minimum of two years of teaching experience preferred
• Current Georgia teaching certification in Art Education or a related field preferred
• Current experience teaching in an accredited Georgia public, charter, or independent school preferred
• Experience with studio-based instruction, interdisciplinary learning, project-based learning, arts integration, literacy integration, or community-based art is highly valued
• Ability to safely and effectively manage art materials, tools, supplies, and an active elementary studio environment

More Than a Summer Job

Odyssey is intentionally different.

Our teachers have the opportunity to step outside some of the constraints of the traditional school year and create boldly, collaborate across disciplines, experiment thoughtfully, and help young people discover that their ideas are worthy of expression.

Each summer, Odyssey scholars build skills, relationships, confidence, curiosity, and a stronger sense of their own possibility.

If you are an art educator who wants to spend part of your summer helping children notice more closely, imagine more freely, create more confidently, and use art to say something that matters—we are looking forward to meeting you.

A quest for knowledge. A path through college - and beyond.

Pay: $840.00 per week

Work Location: In person