CTY Educator – Be an Environmental Scientist!

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 Environmentalist Scientist 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 an Environmental Scientist! 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 animal adaptations, renewable energy, and careers in environmental scientists 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).
• Order lab supplies, if applicable.

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.