Bright Children Take-Off Program (looking for Instructors)

The Association for Bright Children Saturday Take-off program is seeking
instructors/courses for the Spring 2012 program. ABC Take-off, enrichment workshops for bright and gifted children, is offered by the Association for Bright Children Ottawa chapter, a charitable organization that advocates and supports bright and gifted children and their families. www.abcontario.ca/ottawa
The Spring 2012 ABC Take-off program dates are March 31 – May 12, with no classes on April 7; six Saturday mornings – at St. Paul’s High School, off Greenbank Rd.(near Ikea). Classes are offered at two times on Saturday mornings, 9-10:30, and 11-12:30.
The intent of Take-off is learning for the joy of learning and bringing together like-minded children, with a like-minded, knowledgeable, and interested adult. Take-off is not intended for remedial support or anything like school (homework, tests, quizzes (though some courses do require a little work on something at home as 6 weeks can be a short time)) – it is based on the idea of – learning for the sake of learning, exploring new interests, ideas, and hobbies.
Courses offered at ABC Take-off are designed entirely by the instructors who teach them. Interested instructors should consider the subject that they would like to teach to be something challenging, fun, and different; and the instructor should be very knowledgeable and passionate about what he/she is offering- be it a lifelong hobby or professional work and/or academic interest. The course you teach is your creation!
Instructors, interested in teaching a course (or two) at ABC Take-off, are invited to offer their classes at the times listed above. Some instructors offer 2 different subjects, or a single subject for 2 different age groups, or the same subject and age group at both times. Some instructors, if it is their first time offering something, opt to offer only one course to see how it goes. There is some flexibility with this time schedule, and with the 6 week schedule, though it is best to keep a course running similar to the
rest of the courses/ program as much as possible.
Children who attend the program range in age from approximately age 6 to age
14, though we occasionally have some 5 yr olds and 15 year olds. Classes are grouped by age, as example- forensics course ages 10-14, fabric art ages 6-8. We try to keep age ranges close when possible. Classes are small in size, with fewer than 15 (the very max) or 12 children per class (average class size is 10), to as few as 6 (sometimes 5) kids per class- depending on instructor’s preferences and what is required to offer the subject.
Instructors are offered an honorarium for each course that is taught; and the materials required for a course/student are the cost of the student. Materials fees are collected upon registration, and reimbursed to the instructor as needed with receipts.
To get started with offering something for the Spring program, these are some of the items required as soon as possible:
1. a course title,
2. a brochure description, (please see the Fall 2011 Take-off brochure for
some examples)
3. an informal, general outline of what will be covered for the 6 weeks (1.5 hours each week),
4. an approximate materials cost for each student,
5. an age range,
6. an ideal class size with minimum and maximum number of students needed/wanted,
7. a cv/bio about yourself with complete contact information
(phone/email/mailing address).