Founded in 1979, the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) is a center for innovation dedicated to advancing the field of gifted education through research on testing, programs, and other supports for advanced learners. On the premise that advanced learners come from every community and every demographic, we aim to understand and inform how these students need to be nurtured to achieve their full potential as learners and global citizens. CTY also runs in-person and online academic programs for bright learners in order to cultivate a community of advanced learners and connect students in and outside the classroom.
We are seeking a CTY Educators - Be A Biologist with expertise in the relevant content area to develop and deliver academic experiences for advanced learners that are rigorous, novel for CTY students in content or approach, and foster a fun peer community. Courses vary in length and modality (in-person residential, in-person day, virtual, hybrid). CTY Educators are responsible for planning and leading their courses within the parameters of a course guide. They create classroom activities for the relevant modality and design out-of-class assignments and projects that support the course learning objectives. The emphasis is on facilitated learning over direct instruction. CTY Educators provide students with meaningful feedback on their work throughout the course and complete end-of-course assessments. They also contribute to action research that advances CTY’s goals as a center for innovation.
CTY Educators join a community of professional peers. They complete pre-session training and onboarding activities, collaborate with colleagues on lesson planning and strategies, attend occasional staff meetings and participate in ongoing professional learning.
The Be A Biologist! course will run 6 consecutive weeks for 90 minutes on Saturday mornings from January 25th to March 1st, 2025. The successful candidate will teach 2nd and 3rd grade students an advanced course covering plants and animals as they learn what biologists do during synchronous meetings and asynchronous assignments. The instructor will be a subject matter expert and will review the provided curriculum before the course begins. This includes the course design plan, lesson plans and suggested supplementary materials; they may need to suggest or develop supplemental materials or adjust the provided curriculum. They should also plan on spending time before the class begins on training and building content in the virtual classroom. Please note the first-time instructor for this 6-week course will have a salary of $2500 as they assist with course development and set up; additional sessions will be paid at $1750.
Specific Duties & Responsibilities
Prior to Teaching Your First Class
- Complete all required training and onboarding activities.
- Familiarize yourself with contents of provided manuals and other resources that include logistics of specific course modality as well as JHU and CTY policies for CTY students and staff.
- Familiarize yourself with contents of your course guide. Course guides include a course outline, course objectives, and resource library, including assessment resources.
- Plan in-class and out-of-class activities, assignments and projects, as well as associated assessments, within parameters of course guide.
- Acclimate yourself to all systems and/or tools used to deliver the course including but not limited to Microsoft Teams, Moodle, Zoom, One Drive, etc.
- Organize student-facing materials in Microsoft Teams and/or Moodle, as applicable.
- Prepare your in-person or virtual classroom space for the first day class.
Complete required set-up tasks by stated deadlines
- Submit syllabus for approval.
- Submit student textbook titles for approval (if needed).
- Provide list of non-lab supplies required for students (if needed).
Beginning through End of Instruction
- Conduct yourself at all times in keeping with JHU and CTY expectations for employee conduct.
- Deliver rigorous and engaging courses featuring facilitated learning versus direct instruction.
- Employ effective strategies for building engaging and inclusive peer communities.
- Provide students with ongoing, meaningful, and individualized feedback on their work that supports academic growth and development. Deliver feedback to students within 48 business hours.
- Edit and update student-facing materials as needed throughout the course.
- Administer pre- and post-tests as required.
- Complete an end-of-course evaluation for each student.
- In graded courses, assign grades according to established rubrics.
- Open and close classrooms according to expectations for specific course modality (e.g. be online 15 minutes before class starting time for online courses).
- Employ effective strategies for positive discipline and classroom management. Establish classroom norms and communicate expectations for students conduct as appropriate for specific course modality.
- Handle student conduct and academic integrity matters under purview of CTY Unified Student Code of Conduct and Adjudication procedures for Title IX sexual harassment involving CTY participants.
- Attend to student health and wellness matters according to established protocols.
- Report all incidents and concerns according to established protocols.
- Communicate with parents according to CTY guidelines.
- Communicate with students outside class according to expectations for specific course modality.
- Complete administrative tasks in a timely manner and fulfill assigned duties related to general operation of program (e.g. at in-person sites, take a shift at a check-in table).
- Attend all required staff meetings.
- Attend all required professional learning experiences.
- Cooperate with occasional virtual observers of your class (administrators or approved visitors to the program). Every effort will be made to advise you of visitors beforehand and to keep observations from disrupting your sessions.
- Participate in action research by administering surveys or completing other data collection tasks.
Other Duties
- Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
Specific Physical Requirements
- Ability to sit in a normal seated position for extended periods of time.
- Ability to operate a computer and other office machinery.
- The incumbent will be required to communicate regularly face to face with internal and external customers and must be able to exchange accurate and timely information in these settings.
Position also requires a degree of mobility common to working in a university environment
- bending, kneeling or standing during events and presentations may be required.
- moving between buildings may be required.
Special Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- Advanced knowledge of biology.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Positive, proactive, and professional written and spoken communication skills using various technology is critical.
- Must be very student-oriented.
- Ability to prepare lesson plans and audio-visual aids per the agreed-upon course syllabus.
- Experience working with students from diverse backgrounds.
- Experience working in CTY Programs is preferred.
- Demonstrated leadership and organizational skills.
- Maturity, responsibility, and creativity.
Additional Information
- Must provide own laptop computer for use and connect to JHU resources via VPN.
- Must have access to broadband internet and must be able to download software to their computer.
- Candidate must be authorized to work in the US and be physically located in the US when teaching.
- All applicants who wish to teach in the online modality must be eligible for employment in the US without sponsorship.
- The successful candidate(s) for this position are subject to a pre-employment background check.
- All employees participating in or serving children in university programs must participate in mandatory Child Abuse Prevention online training on the appropriate conduct around children, protecting children from abuse and neglect, and reporting of known or suspected child abuse and neglect.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college/university is required.
- At least two years of teaching or tutoring experience is required.
- Additional (graduate) education may substitute for experience to the extent permitted by the JHU Equivalency Formula.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s Degree is preferred.
- Experience working with advanced learners or course work / training in gifted education preferred.
- Experience teaching science to elementary or middle school students.
Classified Title: CTY LIVE Instructor
Job Posting Title (Working Title): CTY Educator– Be A Biologist!
Role/Level/Range: ACRP/03/MC
Starting Salary Range: $21.17 - $37.07 HRLY ($2,500 targeted; Commensurate with experience)
Employee group: Limited
Schedule: 5-10 hours per week
Exempt Status: Exempt
Location: Remote
Department name: Integrated Programs
Personnel area: Academic and Business Centers
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