OHS English Instructor

The Stanford Online High School (OHS) is an accredited, diploma-granting independent school serving students in grades 7-12. The OHS brings together academically talented and motivated students from around the world into a vibrant intellectual community with teachers who are passionate about their disciplines, accomplished in their fields, and above all, dedicated to teaching. In the discussion seminar, a cornerstone of the OHS education, students and teachers engage in a rigorous academic program that develops the critical reasoning and argumentation skills so essential for success at the collegiate level and beyond. Beyond the classroom, students and instructors continue to collaborate in a dynamic school community, centered on student clubs, activities, competitions, and student publications.

Information about Online High School can be found at http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs

PLEASE NOTE: This is a fixed-term, potentially renewable position, through June 30, 2016

Responsibilities:

The Division of English at the OHS emphasizes close attention to details of language, intentionality when writing, adaptive and original thinking in argument, and making connections beyond the classroom. All OHS English courses are designed to create a cohesive, collaborative community of learners who read to understand writing and write to understand reading. Course readings span the ancient to the modern period, and frequent informal and formal writing assignments foster habitual writing. By the end of the English sequence, students can employ language effectively in a wide variety of contexts, with intention, precision, and passion.

The OHS English Instructor (EI) will have responsibilities encompassing instructional and course development efforts.

Instruction of students: This includes leading online discussion sections, recording online lectures, evaluating student assignments, providing feedback to students on their assignments, reporting on student progress to the OHS counseling staff, coordinating instructional efforts with other instructors in the division and department, and so forth. A typical full-time instructor in the OHS is expected to teach a range of courses, typically amounting to four seminar-style courses. The instructor may teach a range of different courses, including seminar-style courses and independent study courses.

Development efforts: Development efforts include developing curriculum for new courses and the implementation of the courses in the OHS online course environment. This includes the development of a course syllabus, the development of assessments and assignments, the development of lectures and other online asynchronous instructional materials supporting the students in the course, and the development of frameworks for the synchronous seminar component of the course. Because new courses are offered concurrent with their development, the efforts spent developing courses will overlap with efforts spent on course instruction. Furthermore, because of the iterative model of course development employed within the OHS, the instructional activities are intrinsically linked with the course development effort.

As members of the Online High School staff, instructors are encouraged to pursue opportunities that will allow them to contribute within Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies (SPCS).

The EI will be expected to work on the Stanford Campus. In the event that class schedules require a significant amount of early morning or late night teaching, a remote work agreement will be possible allowing some of the work to be done off site.

Qualifications:

The English Instructor is required to have an advanced degree in English (or equivalent coursework in a related subject in which writing is a core component). A Ph.D. in English (or equivalent coursework in a related subject in which writing is a core component) is preferred. Prior experience teaching English at the high school or college level is required. Prior experience in gifted education is desirable as is prior experience with independent schools.

Prior experience teaching online courses is also desirable for the English Instructor, particularly experience with one or more of the following:

• virtual classrooms, web conferencing, video conferencing
• teaching with technology, such as video or multimedia
• computer-based instruction
• distance learning

Because of the long term goals of the OHS and SPCS, it is highly desirable that the English Instructor have one or more of the following:

• knowledge of formal grammar or linguistics
• knowledge of current instructional practice in the teaching of rhetoric and argumentation, as well as of literature
• experience teaching writing in the context of the study of texts from across the humanities

Because the English Instructor may be involved in course development projects, it is desirable that the English Instructor have prior experience either developing curriculum or developing online courses.

The English Instructor should be proficient in the use of the computer and familiar with commonly used computer programs such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, email, and so forth.