Sharing About Short-Term Work You Can Do from Home

Using Time Wisely Heads Up:  If you are a passionate educator, or know someone who is, that is looking for a short-term way to make some money putting your passion to work, read on. In not, feel free to click away.  Today, I am sharing about a job opp for a job I enjoy that I can do around homeschooling for several weeks each spring.

In the first post I ever wrote here, I described my husband and my reaction to the question "What do you do?" and how it played into our homeschooling decision.  Ironically, now when people ask me the question, I have a long list of things I do besides "live well" and "homeschool" to make small talk with.  At any given point in recent history, I have been juggling no less than a handful of paid positions around parenting, homeschooling, "wife-ing", homemaking, etc.  Some of think this is lunacy.  I think it is a way for me to live my main call (parenting.homeschooling), while putting my past experiences and my innate desire to teach and help to use for my family.

A Short-Term, At-Home Job Opp for You (or a Passionate Educator You Know)

Among the contracts I enjoy is a short-term curriculum advising gig that I sign on for each spring where I help college students plan curriculum for an awesome summer program I hope to one day send my own kiddoes to.  It's a cyclical win-win-win:  I get to do it at home around my other commitments, the instructors I work with inspire me with their passion and knowledge as I guide them through lesson planning, and the students attending Explo in the summer reap the benefits of our work, hopefully reinvesting their own growing passions one day just as theor instructors and I am doing now.

So, what does this have to do with you?

I know a lot of you who read this blog (or people you know) are quality educators, passionate about creating amazing learning experiences for students.  I also know that economic times remain challenging and lots of moms (and dads and others) like me are looking for work they can do from home.  So, I wanted to share:

The folks I contract with at Explo are hiring!  So, if you have a background in curriculum planning and would be interested in the job, go for it.  Apply here and please write my name, Martianne Stanger, on the line where it asks how you heard about the job.

A Favor for Me

I want to be totally up front.  I truly enjoy my work with Explo and have been recommending the PCA position to friends and friends of friends for several years as a way to utilize experience in education, inspire students and make some money for one's own family all while working from home for several weeks each spring.  However, this year, I have even more incentive to do so.

As a way to find great new PCA's and thank you to experienced PCA's who refer new PCA's to them, Explo is offering a cash thank you.  So, if  you decide to apply, or if you pass this post along to anyone who does who puts "Martianne Stanger" as an answer to the question "How did you hear about this job?", it can help me and my family out some. That is, if get hired and complete your PCA role.

And I certainly think that if you get hired, you'd gladly complete your contact.  For several years now, I have been happily advising instructors in planning for Explo. The job is such a great fit for me and for other educators and former educators looking to make some extra income.  Plus, it supports a program, like I said, that I one day hope to involve my own kids in.

Details, Details, Details (About the Job)

If you want to apply to Explo as a PCA, just go here to read more about the job or here to apply. 

If you want to know more, here is the information Explo gave me to pass along:

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, www.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). A full course takes about 15 hours to advise; a workshop takes approximately 7 hours to advise depending on the course and teacher.

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 here.

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 St. Mark’s enrolls rising 4th through 7th graders at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, 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. Twenty-nine 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 here.

Note:  There are NO affiliate links in this post, just ones that will bring you over to the Explo site so you can learn more about the job.  however, as I explained above, Explo is offering a special incentive to their experienced PCA's this year, so if anyone applies using my name, I will get a cash thank you.  That;'s another win-win-win.  A job opp for you or someone you know = quality PCA's found for Explo = some extra money for me and my family.  Thanks!