For WV teachers · Course sign-up open
The ALPS Program — Advanced Learning Program for Students — brings our first through third grade primary talent pool students to WV Intermediate for enrichment they don't get any other way. You pick a course, order what you need, and teach it twice a morning for three Saturdays in November.
The morning, to scale — 9:00 to 12:00
You teach it twice. Same course, two different groups of fifteen. Plan one 80-minute block, not two.
You're never alone in the room. Student volunteers from grades 6 through 12 staff the morning, two assigned to each classroom each session.
The reset is built in. Twenty minutes between sessions to clear tables and set up again while students eat.
Snack is handled. A separate crew runs snack and hallway supervision. You don't cover it.
The pay
18 hours × $40.00/hr
Paid as a stipend on your regular check after the last Saturday. The rate covers planning as well as delivery, so the hours you spend in September and October designing the course are paid hours, not volunteer hours.
If you need release time on a weekday to prep or shop, substitute coverage is available through the district. Ask the facilitator before you commit to a plan that requires it.
| What the 18 hours cover | Hrs | Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Course planning and lesson designAdapt a catalog course or build your own. | 4 | $160 |
| Materials list and orderingYou build the list. Central office places the orders. | 1 | $40 |
| Prep, setup, and classroom resetRoughly 40 minutes each Saturday, before and after. | 2 | $80 |
| Saturday 1 — November 79:00 to 12:00, both sessions. | 3 | $120 |
| Saturday 2 — November 14 | 3 | $120 |
| Saturday 3 — November 21 | 3 | $120 |
| Volunteer briefing and family noteOrient your two volunteers; send families an allergen and takeaway heads-up. | 2 | $80 |
| Total | 18 | $720 |
The catalog · 12 courses that have already run
Every course below has been taught before, which means the activity sequence and the supply list already exist. Pick one and you're mostly editing, not inventing. The kit line shows the kind of thing that got ordered for it last time.
Basic cooking terms, techniques, and a lot of tasting. Cookies week one, quesadillas week two, soup week three. Perennially the first course to fill, so it runs as a co-taught double section of 30.
Students make and wrap six gifts to give away or keep, plus holiday cards. Heavy on small motor work and satisfying finished objects, which seven-year-olds love.
Rube Goldberg machines. Students learn the six simple machines by chaining them together, then test, fail, and rebuild. Loud in the best way.
Students work a staged case: follow clues, lift and compare fingerprints, break a simple code, and name a suspect by the end of the third Saturday. A real through-line across all three weeks.
Relay races and movement games, then students blend their own smoothie and learn the recipe. Best fit if you want to be on your feet rather than at a table. Needs gym or open space.
Design challenges using the district's existing Lego stock — towers, bridges, vehicles that actually have to work. Lowest prep ceiling in the catalog if you already know your way around a build challenge.
Stop-motion filmmaking with green screen backgrounds and simple editing. Students leave with a finished short they can show at home. Some comfort with an iPad and a stop-motion app helps.
The greatest-hits demo course: fizzing reactions, slime, mini volcanoes, film-canister rockets. Every session ends with something visible happening. Highest supply list in the catalog.
The rock cycle, made and eaten. Students build igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic "rocks" out of candy and cereal, learn that rocks are mineral recipes, and take home an Orbeez stress ball.
Marble coasters with real curves, dips, and inversions. Students test variables one at a time, then build a run that has to complete without a push. Good fit for a teacher who likes measurement.
Nature-inspired making with the science underneath it — clay impressions, seed feeders, woven forms. Includes time outdoors if the weather cooperates, so plan a November backup.
A rotation of short engineering challenges — bridges, towers, a first taste of coding logic. The most flexible course here: swap challenges in and out to match what you already do well.
Or don't
The catalog exists so nobody has to start from scratch. It is not a limit. If you have a thing you're good at — beekeeping, chess, sewing, sign language, birding, coding, watercolor, drumming — there is very likely a seven-year-old at this district who would give up a Saturday for it.
New courses get the same $720, the same supply budget, and the same two volunteers. Run the idea past the facilitator before the deadline so it can go on the registration form with everything else.
Four questions to check your idea against:
The split
Questions teachers actually ask
Yes. The morning is built around students attending two different courses, which only works if every course runs twice. It's the same lesson to a second group of fifteen, so the second session is usually the easier one.
No. You build the list, central office places the orders through approved vendors, and everything is delivered to the building before the first Saturday. Plan on roughly $125 per course. If you discover on a Saturday morning that you're out of something, there's an open purchase order for a same-day run.
Students from grades 6 through 12, recruited through the middle and high school counselors and Beta Club. Two are assigned to your room for each session. They manage materials, sit with students who need a hand, help with cleanup, and participate in the activity alongside the kids. Give them a five-minute briefing before session one and they'll carry real weight the rest of the morning.
First through third grade primary talent pool students. Fifteen per class per session, so 30 students total pass through your room each Saturday. Cooking runs as a double section of 30 per session because it fills first every year.
Yes, and it's a good way to try a bigger idea. A co-taught course usually opens to 30 students per session. Each teacher is paid separately at the same rate. Tell the facilitator when you sign up so registration caps are set correctly.
Raise it before you commit, not in November. Families pay tuition and plan around all three dates, so a missed Saturday means finding coverage for your course. If you know now that one of the three won't work, a co-teaching arrangement is usually the answer.
Nine hours, and you're paid for them. Taking a catalog course as-is puts you at the low end — the activity sequence and supply list already exist. Building something new lands at the high end. Teachers who have done this before generally say the ordering deadline in early October is the part that sneaks up on them, not the teaching.
Yes, and several courses depend on it. If your course involves food or anything students handle in bulk, list every ingredient and contact material when you submit your supplies so families can be notified in advance. Allergy information for enrolled students comes to you before the first Saturday.
Next step · One form, about four minutes
Name your first and second choice from the catalog, or describe the course you want to build. You're not locked in until you sign the stipend agreement, which comes after courses are finalized.
Walton-Verona Intermediate School · Saturdays November 7, 14, and 21, 2026 · 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Session 1 9:00–10:20 · snack and reset 10:20–10:40 · Session 2 10:40–12:00
Stipend $720 per teacher — 18 hours at $40.00 per hour, paid after the final Saturday.