From:
https://organizedclassroom.com/teacher-side-jobs/?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR27DJyyNTYBcBO74USzMYxrP2k4RrCwxa6yotcoLuvenRtKdCe3vcHT23c
25 Other Jobs Teachers Can Do On the Side
Many teachers need to work a side job over the summer break or school year to make ends meet.
Even if it isn’t a necessity, having some part time extra income can be a nice way to supplement a full-time teacher salary.
But what types of places will hire teachers just for the summer, beyond a basic summer school gig?
Read on to see some out-of-the-box ideas for how to use your teaching degree and earn extra money in the process.
Back when I first graduated with my bachelors degree in education, the only work I could find right away was as a substitute teacher.
And boy did I sub. For two years, I worked almost every day between 3 local school districts in order to make ends meet as a single parent. Having no benefits was terrifying, but my daughter thankfully was covered elsewhere.
I would even make sure to come in early and stay late to schmooze with the staff members in order to try and secure additional work by encouraging them to take personal days. Ha!
Luckily, I also secured two different long-term positions two years in a row, which immensely helped keep the income rolling in.
But, come winter and summer breaks, that’s when it hurt the most.
Trying to find a “regular job” for just a few weeks in the winter was pretty much near impossible as employers knew I wouldn’t have much flexibility to work nights and weekends once school started back up again.
Knowing then what I know now would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights and stressful crying sessions.
I can only hope something on this list can help other educators who are also relying on additional funds to keep their family afloat.
Or maybe you are just a teacher friend who wants to continue to share the love for learning all summer long. I’ve got you covered as well!
Local Gigs for Teachers During the Summer
1. Run a community summer reading challenge: Does your local library do any sort of reading challenge for students? If not, perhaps there are community funds available to get one set up. Get donations from local companies to issue prizes, choose books for the challenge, and ask parents to help you get the word out.
2. Sell handmade goods: Do you enjoy creating homemade necklaces, pottery, or monogrammed home decor? What you consider a fun hobby could also be a great income-generating activity. Set up shop at the local craft fairs or sell exclusively online. Etsy is a wonderful place to post those items for sale.
3. Local Tutor Group: Put together flyers and ask administrators at several area schools to send them home with students. Group same age/subject area specialty students together to make small groups. Charge per student. Having a small group for 2 hours a couple days a week makes the time go by fast – and parents are excited for that small break as well.
4. Direct Sales Consultant: Direct sales has come a long way since Tupperware parties back in the day. Today, modern direct sales consultants are capable of earning incomes rivaling a teacher’s full time salary! {I know this from personal experience.} And many times that can be earned without having to do home parties. Online direct sales parties are pretty mainstream now. With thousands of companies to choose from, you have plenty of choices to pick a product that is something you are already using and can stand behind. One additional tip when choosing your perfect match? The best products are consumables. That way your customers will continue to need additional products from you.
5. Seasonal company training leader: I live near a large amusement park and every summer, they hire teachers to train their seasonal part time workers (who are mostly high school and college students). This uses your current expert teaching job experience, but in a slightly different angle. See what other seasonal companies are in your area that need to train staff annually.
6. Pet sitter: With so many people heading out on family vacations in June and July, many are willing to pay top dollar to have a trust-worthy person come into their home to check on Garfield and Odie. It may only take 30 minutes a day, but the peace of mind for those pet owners not o have to stress out their extra family members by sending them to boarding kennels is worth a hefty price tag.
7. Laminate, cut out, and ship digital classroom decor sets: Have you seen the gorgeous DIY classroom decoration sets online that teachers can download, print, and put up? Many teachers shy away from them because they really aren’t interested in sitting around waiting for the printer to run out of ink, papers to get jammed, laminating, and then cutting everything out. If that is your jam, I can guarantee you will have customers who are willing to pay you to do it for them. Even if they are not local to offer delivery services, you can ship the completed items to the purchaser of your services.
8. Local tour guide: Most communities have some sort of local history and proud heritage. This usually comes in the form of local walking tours or museum talks. Typically the organization provides the information. They just need someone to relay those facts who can speak clearly and walk with a crowd while doing so. {No crowd is even close to the Kinder teacher walking her new students down the hall the first week of school.
9. Garage Sale Host: I don’t know about you, but I personally have loads of items I keep meaning to list on garage sale sites – or just to have one large sale. Honestly, if I could put everything in a pile and let someone else do it for me, I would gladly share any of the profits just to get the stuff out of my house. Offer this service and make money imply by organizing the sale and (if applicable), shipping it off if you are selling on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
10. Airbnb experiences host: Do you know how to surf, or to paint, or know all the best places to eat desserts in your city? Apply to become an experience host and share your love for what you are already good at with visitors to your area.
11. Seasonal rental housekeeper: While I realize this doesn’t really take into account your whole teaching degree, I know several teacher friends who make really good money by simply tidying up and changing sheets in seasonal rental units throughout the summer. Usually the switch happens around lunchtime, so you have your mornings and evenings free and not tied up with a job which is a nice perk.
12. Create parent summer field trip guides for local places in your area that include travel tips, fees, drive times, and learning questions to ask throughout the trip: Parents love educational materials that are geared towards them and not specifically to teachers. They don’t have a background in child development or have a clue what the standards jargon even means. But they still would love to be able to do educational events with their kids throughout the summer without having to pay for summer camps. Find local educational places in your area (could even be county parks or the beach) and put together brochure-type field trip guides which list interesting facts and guiding questions for parents to ask their children as they explore the area.
Online Side Hustle Opportunities
13. Proofreader: Online virtual work websites such as Upwork is a great place to post about your services. Or simply asking around in blogger groups who could use a proofreader for their products, blog posts, social media posts, advertising, and more.
14. Write an eBook: Do you have a unique way you do something in the classroom? some examples might include: how you encourage sharing or a classroom management hack that always seems to work. If so, other teachers would gladly pay for that information in book form. Write your mini book in a basic word processing software (such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs) and then save as a .pdf. Create a fun cover and put it up for sale.
15. Essay reader: Most teachers scoff at the idea of reading more student writing papers than absolutely necessary, but some actually love this task. If you are a lover of all things writing, do a quick search online for essay reader jobs and you will see a ton of freelance writing opportunities from which to choose.
16. Edit videos: If you are technically inclined and love to create cool videos for your students that include video clips, slideshows, voice overs, transitions, or even music clips with intros and outros, you have a huge market of online entrepreneurs. Being that social media loves these types of videos, online content bloggers and creators are trying to get more of these made. But it doesn’t come natural for many (including myself). If this is your forte, hit up the online blogging niches and offer up your services. You will be so busy you might be a bit sad when your school break ends.
17. Sell lesson plans: No matter whether you are an elementary, middle school, or high school teacher, everyone needs lesson plans. To save educators time and create more work-life balance, Teachers Pay Teachers was created with this end in mind. If you have a knack for creating great lesson plans built around specific standards, you can really help others by listing your work there. Plus it becomes a source of passive income beyond that point.
Have you always wanted to create your own custom classroom printable worksheets, decor, teacher planners, forms, and more, but didn’t know how to start?
Custom Classroom Creations is your go-to for learning the ins and outs of teacher digital scrapbooking!
Find out more HERE!
18. Sell photos online: If you love to take photos in your spare time, this may be just the avenue for you. Many website owners and digital product creators need great images to add to their work or websites. Upload your portfolio to a stock photo site, such as Deposit Photos and you can get paid every time someone purchases a digital version of your picture.
19. Online tutor: Of course online tutoring jobs are really big at the moment. You’ll hear VIPKid mentioned in online teacher groups almost daily. But that is because it is a great way to use your teaching credentials, continue to educate students, and earn some additional spending cash all while sitting in your home office.
20. Become an Amazon affiliate: Do you love to shop? I may have an online shopping problem to be quite honest. But as much as I love looking for the best deals and unique items online, I also love sharing those details with others who I think would benefit from those same things. Even better when it’s on Amazon, a site most people know and trust to buy from. When someone clicks on an Amazon link and purchases something from their site within 24 hours, you make a small referral fee as a thank you for your referral. Just by sharing items with others that you think they will love, those small amounts can add up quickly. If your ultimate dream is to be a personal shopper, this might be the next best thing.
21. Write blog posts for teacher bloggers: Most teacher bloggers don’t like to write. You heard it. Im tossing it out there for all to see. We love to come up with ideas. MAYBE even take the photos or prep the social media images. But the actual typing of words seems to take forever when we could be spending that same amount of time on something far more creative. If you can take a given idea with a title, some subheadings, and even a couple pictures and make it into a complete blog post of 300-1,000 words, you will have a raving market for your time and work.
22. Create and sell clipart: Using software like PowerPoint or air tablets that can export your personal drawings, if you have an artsy hand, you can make and sell fun teacher graphics for teachers to put on their notes home to parents, permission slips, or Open House fliers.
23. PD book “cliff’s notes”: During the summer, teachers have a little extra time to do some personal development reading. But let’s be honest: they would rather use that time to relax and rejuvenate for the next school year. If you enjoy reading teacher PD books, you can consider creating “cliff’s notes” version to sell to teachers. That way they are still able to learn a little something over their break without feeling they need to read an entire book word for word.
24. Get paid to pin: I know this sounds like a joke because you might already be spending most of your waking hours finding the coolest pins and saving them to your carefully cultivated Pinterest boards, but teacher bloggers also use social media to get the word out about their newest blog posts and products. If you would love to get paid to pin, offer up your services to teacher bloggers so they can focus on creating more posts and products while you take over the pinning part for them.
25. Make your own fonts and sell them: Along the same lines as creating your own clipart, there are programs for handwriting your own alphabets, which then translates those letters to digital versions, and then consumers can purchase them to use in their digital creations. Various fonts are used in advertising and branding for all companies out there. You never know, but your own font creation could be featured on the next soda can.
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2 Comments
I would love to try some of the ideas in this post (like doing the work for teachers-cutting, laminating, etc) but how do I market that and where?
Start by asking around to any teacher friends you know – or friends who have teacher friends. That’s always a great place to begin.