Weekly Review: Online Teaching

There will be no regular weekly review post this week; next week's may include two weeks, and I'll be sure to let you know if that's the case.

I received a few questions about the online teaching that was in the last post. This brings up a good question - what do I include in my weekly review?

At first, I decided to just post what I make/earn as a result of online activities - surveys, blog ads, etc. Then I decided to post anything that took work outside of "jobs" - coupon savings, savings from using cloth diapers, etc. Then I decided to post anything I did from home, or based from home, which opened up my freelance music and online teaching. At this point, there's only one source of income I haven't added, and that's the part-time city job I work eight hours a week at.

So, what do I include now? Well, I'm going to include anything that requires work. This means that from now on I will be including the part-time job, minus the baby-sitting fees we pay (my husband and I both work the same shift each week). I will be including shopping savings, minus the membership for savings websites (I will just take out a set amount each week; I won't reference this every time). I will continue to include the online teaching.

I will also continue to include general savings, but only if they require work. So line dying laundry, cloth diapers, keeping low volume garbage (because it takes effort to recycle and compost as much as we do), and only having one car will all stay on the list. Savings from one car include $50/month in car insurance, and about $50/month in maintenance fees (I averaged this out using our last car, and that's about what we spent on maintenance and repairs). One car requires time and effort to take the bus or walk, and I do add the gas savings depending on where I've been. All of these things just go under "regular savings" for the weekly review. I will not include things that don't take work, such as keeping our water heater low, using 90% CFLs in our house, turning off power strips, and keeping our thermostat low, because they don't require daily effort to do.

Now, about the online teaching. Minnesota has several online high schools. I work for two of them, operated by the same district: MN Virtual Academy and MN Center of Online Learning. This is not something everyone can do, as they require licensed teachers. However, it is an example of something I do working from home, and one of the reasons I don't have as much time to devote to other online methods as I could. If you have ever worked as a teacher, I encourage you to check and see if your state has any online schools that are hiring. It does require a significant adjustment in the way you relate to students, but it does also provide a significant means of income. Most online high schools pay comparably to brick-and-mortar as far as teacher pay; my salary is based on my number of students, and is slightly higher than the student load I might have had in a traditional high school for the same pay, but that all depends on the school. When I student taught in a St. Paul high school I had 30-40 kids per class, or about 140-160 per day. When I did long-term subbing in area private high schools I had 20-25 per class, or about 100-120 per day. Right now I have just over 50 students and a half-time contract.

So, that's where the online teaching comes in. I do tutor online also, which doesn't require a degree, just requires demonstration of mastery of a given topic, and I post those sites as I earn from them. I primarily use only Tutor.com and Brainmass, although there are about a dozen that I explored at one point, and decided these two were the best fit for me. If you think you might be interested in online tutoring or teaching, feel free to send me an email and I'll help you explore what opportunities might be available in your state.