Overview Exploration Summer Programs is seeking creative and experienced educators to serve as Pre-Season Curriculum Advisors (PCAs) during the winter and spring for our summer enrichment courses. Over the course of a six-week development cycle, PCAs communicate with course instructors via phone and email to help them transform their ideas into creative lesson plans for a three-week enrichment course that will be taught during the summer. Each summer, Exploration offers more than 150 unique courses and more than 90 unique workshops in a wide array of academic disciplines. (See our website, https://explo.org, for a sample of the kinds of courses we offer.) These enrichment courses are hands-on, not-for- credit, and ungraded. They are taught by summer instructors who are passionate about the fields in which they are teaching, but who are primarily undergraduate and graduate students with little or no teaching experience. The primary responsibility of the PCA is to mentor these young teachers in the development of student-centered, activity-based curriculum that will encourage our summer students to challenge themselves, discover the world of people and ideas, and experience the joy of learning. Position Details A brief online training for PCAs takes place in early winter. Curriculum advising takes place between January and May 15. Most PCAs advise between one and six courses. PCAs coordinate an advising schedule with instructors, such that the advising process for a single course or workshop is completed in a six-week period (of your choosing).
Monetary Compensation + Graduate Credit PCAs may elect to receive either monetary compensation or graduate credit (or a mixture of the two) for their work as PCAs. PCAs are compensated $200 per full-course and $100 per workshop advised to completion. Exploration is a Professional Development Provider and, as such, can award recertification points for this work.
Application Process Please apply online at www.explo.org/faculty/preseasonadvisors. For questions, please contact Barb Trainor, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at btrainor@explo.org.
About Exploration Exploration Summer Programs is an international leader in summer academic enrichment. Each year, Exploration runs programs for more than 3000 boarding and day students who hail from more than 40 states and countries. The Program was founded in 1977. Explo at Wheaton enrolls rising 4th through 7th graders at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Explo at Wellesley enrolls rising 8th and 9th graders at Wellesley College. Explo at Yale enrolls rising 10th through 12th graders at Yale University. Students attend either one or two three-week sessions and enroll in academic enrichment courses (and one or two workshops) per session. Thirty-five people work 10.5 months a year in Exploration’s main office located in Norwood, MA. During the summer, the staff/faculty increases to more than 350 and operations move to the summer sites. Additional Summer Curriculum Opportunities In addition to hiring PCAs, Exploration also hires several Curriculum Advisors (CAs) who live and work on the campuses of our Programs during the summer. Summer CAs help coach new teachers in the development of their teaching skills through formal and informal observations, oral and written feedback, goal-setting, reflection, and one-on-one problem-solving sessions. Additional information and the online application is available at www.explo.org/faculty/curriculum_advisors.
Extra tags: Education, Summer Enrichment, Curriculum, Mentoring, Young People
