CLICK HERE to create an account and submit a course proposal.
During the spiritual journey on which we embark, we may feel called to teach others, to share our knowledge, or to give back to the community. For this very reason, The Firefly Academy was founded.
We have only recently reached out to new and outside instructors to broaden our knowledge base as a whole. Let us give you a little background on our school and how it operates:
-
We are affiliated with The Firefly House, a non-profit church.
-
We have several hundred students from all over the globe.
-
The Firefly Academy opened in October of 2006.
-
We do not work on semesters. Our classes are open to new enrollments at all times.
-
Students have 10 weeks (70 days) to complete a course. After that, they are unenrolled. If room permits, they may re-enroll in a class. We do this so that our classes are not full with students who are not actively participating.
-
We use Moodle, which is an online interactive classroom. We do require that teachers teach courses through Moodle.
-
We build your classes, so that you don't have to figure out how to use Moodle at the administration level.
-
Moodle includes tools to build forums, chat rooms, lessons, questionnaires, quizzes, text pages, html pages, glossaries, databases, and many other teaching tools.
-
We are working on building audio and video lessons for many of the classes. You are welcome to include these elements into your classes. And, if you have the equipment, we can help.
What we expect from our instructors:
- Before a class is made available, the administration board will review all lessons, course materials, and assignments.
-
Classes must have at least 4 lessons, and not more than 11. 12 lessons or more should be broken up into 2 classes.
- We require you to submit all of your course materials to us. Our teaching coordinator builds all of the classes from scratch, so that our classes are uniform and you do not have to be a master at Moodle to be an effective teacher.
-
Instructors must make clear their guidelines and expectations within a course at the beginning of the semester, especially if it deviates from TFA standard practice.
- All courses and instructors must follow the TFA Code of Conduct.
- Students must have ample time to complete lessons and assignments. For example, though conference call and chat room lectures are permitted, all students must have access to this information if they cannot attend and it not count against them.
- We require instructors to use Moodle to teach their courses.
- We do not permit course lessons to be copied or used word-for-word from other sources. Teachers may supplement a class with outside materials (such as articles and web links). However, we will not approve new courses to be based on material that the instructor did not write him/herself through self-experience or unique research.
- Additionally, if a course is the result of research, an instructor should make a point to diversify the materials by utilizing multiple sources. Even if not word-for-word, a course based on one or two sources is not always considered original research.
- Teachers should respond to communication from students (email and Moodle messages) within 72 hours.
- Aside from the above requirements, teachers have free range over their classes.
NEW TEACHERS:
-
Must have completed four courses at TFA (preferably including Wicca 3, but negotiable).
-
Must serve 8 weeks as a teacher assistant for any course.
-
Must submit a full course proposal (below).
-
Administration interview, if requested.
For new classes, submit the following information:
-
Class title
-
Class summary
-
Detailed class outline
-
A list of any major class projects
-
All lessons or lectures from the class
-
All homework assignments
-
Your sources for the submitted material
Then, the administration board will review the proposal, and let you know whether or not the course is approved.
|
