Tessellations

Tessellations is a day school in Cupertino, California, serving 200–300 students across pre-school through high school. The school operates without religious affiliation and offers Mandarin Chinese and Spanish language instruction alongside its core curriculum. Its educational model centers on experiential, project-based learning designed for gifted learners—a philosophy that fundamentally shapes how teachers plan lessons and spend their days.

Faculty design instruction around student curiosity and real-world problems rather than worksheets or scripted curricula. You teach through projects, investigation, and collaborative inquiry. This approach demands creativity and planning alongside colleagues, but it appeals to teachers who want autonomy over their classroom direction. Unlike boarding schools, it operates as a day program. Teachers work defined school hours and commute home, preserving clear boundaries between work and personal time—a genuine advantage in Silicon Valley, where tech culture often blurs those lines.

The school's size keeps relationships direct. You learn each student's actual strengths, not just test scores. With fewer than 300 students across five grade bands, your voice carries weight in curriculum decisions and school direction. Hiring decisions and pedagogy benefit from faculty input in ways larger independent schools cannot match.

The school currently seeks classroom teachers, specialists, and support staff across elementary, middle, and high school. It prioritizes educators committed to gifted education, inquiry-based teaching, and collaborative work. Bay Area educators and those relocating to California independent school jobs will find a collegial environment where professional relationships center on shared learning philosophy.