How To Make More Money As A Teacher?

Do you want to know how to make more money as a teacher? It is no secret that teachers are underpaid.

According to an Economic Policy Institute study, a teacher “wage penalty” exists, namely — how much less teachers make compared to other workers — grew from 5.5% in 1979 to an 18.7% in 2017.

With this in mind, you may have unexpected bills you can’t cover or just want to save more. The good news is, there are ways to utilize your existing skills so you can learn how to make more money as a teacher.

NEWSFLASH!

You actually don’t need to be a qualified teacher to earn from some of the ways below.

Having a cheap teaching certificate like Teaching English As a Foreign Language, a ‘TEFL’ and some teaching experience is sufficient.

Related Posts on Making More Money As An Online Teacher:

How To Make More Money As A Teacher?

Sign up to an online teaching school
Teach private students online
Tutor private students in person
Teach business English
Teach exam prep
Sell your course materials/lesson plans
Mark exams
Write about educational topics
Become an invigilator
Set up a teaching blog

1. Sign up to an online teaching school

If you are a teacher, you can learn how to make more money as a teacher, by teaching students online.

There are students from all around the world that need teachers and online companies are willing to pay you good money for your experience!

It’s entirely legitimate and you do get paid because I have worked with a few online schools and can confirm that money actually entered my bank account and it’s not a scam :

Essentially, it’s the same thing you are doing now but just online. Moreover, online schools normally provide course materials.

Here is a guide on, ‘How To Become An Online English Teacher’ , to get you started.

If you don’t have any experience teaching English as a second language or teaching online, I would recommend doing an online TEFL course. It is one of the best ways to learn how to make more money as a teacher.

There is a 120-hour online course ran by Let’s TEFL, which focuses specifically on online teaching. It has specific training to ensure your application, resumes, introduction videos for online English recruiters are done right.

Once you finish the 120-hour TELF certificate, you will have a strong grasp of the online teaching industry, online teaching jobs, how to motivate your students in an online classroom and how to prepare your lesson plans.

The great thing about this TEFL compared to other providers, is it specializes in preparing you to teach online. It also prepares you to teach English as a second language.

As far as I’m aware, Let’s TEFL is the only course available online now which comes with a whole extra video module with specific training for teaching online – presented by an actual teacher.

They are also endorsed by DaDa and iTutorGroup as one of their recommended courses. (Both are two HUGE online schools)

You can also see a preview of a module lesson here.

Once you have obtained your TEFL, you can apply for a list of online teaching jobs here.

However, if you are a non-native speaker, here is a list of companies hiring non-native English teachers.

If you don’t have a degree, don’t panic, here is a list of 29 online schools hiring teachers without a degree.

If you don’t have any experience teaching, no need to throw yourself off a balcony in despair, because here is a list of 22 online schools hiring teachers without experience.

2. Teach private students online

Perhaps you have already started teaching students online, but you want to earn more than the hourly rate they offer, or you want more flexibility.

One of the ways for teachers to earn extra money from home is to sign up for flexible teaching platforms that allow you to teach in your own hours and charge your own rate.

Below is a list of flexible teaching platforms.They are free to join, and you set your own hours and rates. They will take a commission out of your hourly rate advertised.

Italki-I have been told they are on a hiring freeze so you may not hear from them for the next few months. (15% comm)
Amazing Talker-Between 30% to 0% depending on the number of lessons completed
Verbling– 15% commission
Preply – 100% commission for the first lesson with a new student and between 33% to 18% depending on the number of completed lessons with students
Skimatalk– 20% commission
Savvy-Commission rate not specified

A second way to teach private students online is to set up a simple teaching website and Google Search Engine Optimize it so, that way when someone googles ‘online teacher’ your website will come up and they can book you!

If you want a free tutorial on how to set up and website this will show you how to set up a website in 8 steps.

How To Set Up a Teacher Website When You Are Bad At Technology

Once you have set your teacher website up, you can also find private online students on Facebook Groups or Instagram.

It costs no more than $12 for an advert on Facebook that can get your teaching website shown to thousands of potential students.

It is one of my favorite ways to find students when I wanted to know how to make more money as a teacher.

3. Tutor private students in person

If you would prefer to teach students in person, then you can do some private tutoring in the school holidays or on the weekends

My secret to finding private students:

Universities.

Universities are RIPE with potential students.

Think about it. Not every student will have amazing language skills, but they need skills to secure a job after they graduate.

They may need to polish up their language skills, learn how to communicate better or just need to learn any skills which you can teach.

The benefit of a university is there is are MANY students. All your potential clients are in one place and there are a lot of them.

It’s like setting up a café where the foot traffic is the highest, go where the mass is!

You can create a free flyer on CANVA and stick your advert on university job boards. Offer any new students a discount if they find new students for you,

I guarantee in no time you will be very busy and it will be a big step in your journey of learning how to make more money as a teacher.

Here is example of a really good private teaching profile and teaching website, that offers private lessons to students.

4. Teach business English

One of the easiest ways to know how to make more money as a teacher is to teach Business English. This method has helped me go from $20 per hour to $60 per hour.

How and why?

Because students who want to learn business English are normally always already employed, so they can afford to pay you OR they need to pass an interview and there is an urgent need for your services.

It’s a bit like how you would pay more for a surgeon than a normal doctor. A surgeon has specialized experience which solves a unique problem.

You can be the surgeon of teachers. You can teach students how to pass interviews, communicate and negotiate effectively in a corporate environment, so they can secure promotions and increase their salaries.

But what if you don’t know how to teach Business English?

Take this Teaching Business English 30 Hour Online Course. You get an internationally recognized certificate, personal tutor support, training on lesson plans and the job market.

More importantly, it will teach you how to become a Business English Teacher.

Once you complete the certificate, think about all the times you have worked in an office and all the useful language skills you learned which helped. Teach your students that.

Examples could be, how to resolve a customer complaint, how to present clearly and effectively and common Business English vocabulary.

Ps; If you need some training, get in touch. In one hour, I will teach you to become a Business teacher and give you all my teaching materials 🙂

So you can learn how to make more money as a teacher… in 60 minutes!

Related Articles on Online English Teacher Jobs:

5. Teach exam prep

This goes along the same theme as being a surgeon. Students need to pass exams, to progress to the next stage of their education.

So, parents will pay a lot of money for teachers who can help their students pass certain exams. You could teach IELTS, TOEFL, SATS, Math exams, anything!

I google ‘how to earn more money as a teacher’ and I specialized in teaching IELTS exams. Demand for my teaching services shot up immediately after I finished my certificate.

The Teaching IELTS 30 Hour Online course, will train and guide you through the ins and outs of becoming an IELTS teacher.

You will learn how the exam is assessed, how to improve a student’s grade and help them pass the exam.

This is a quick and easy way to learn how to make more money as a teacher.

6. Sell your course materials/lesson plans

If you are a teacher, you will know that good lesson plans and course materials are like gold dust.

At least a dozen teachers on TeachersPayTeachers (TPT), have made at least over a million dollars through selling their lesson plans online.

Clearly, they have learned how to make more money as a teacher!

TPT is a marketplace for teachers to sell and buy classroom materials. I have bought some stuff here myself!

You can also sell your lesson plans on Share My Lesson. You can sell lesson plans, activities, flashcards and worksheets that you have already created and upload them all on this platform, so you can #getpaid.

Tip– Look at what is popular and is selling well. Copy them and sell them too. It’s one of the best paying side jobs for teachers.

7. Mark exams

You can earn up to USD 1,200 over three- or four-weeks marking exams, depending on the exam. Have a quick google on exam marking. Some only need you to have one year of teaching experience and others are stricter.

8. Become an invigilator

You can stop students from cheating and get paid as an exam invigilator. It doesn’t seem to require any or much experience and it looks like you can find jobs from recruitment agencies, as well as private schools.

I googled invigilator opportunities and plenty! If you want to know how to make more money as a teacher, but don’t have much experience, invigilating may be perfect for you.

9. Write about educational topics

If you are a bit of a wordsmith, you can get paid for writing articles on education. I know this is true because when I was looking for freelance writing jobs, I found so many hiring writers with education experience.

You could write for:

EdWeek
Edutopia

They are always looking for passionate writers in education.

Alternatively, you can try the job boards mentioned in this article :

How To Become A Freelance Writer For Beginners

The article will share how to make money in the education field by writing on specific topics relating to education.

10- Offer editing services

If you are a teacher, you have to mark exams. This means you probably have excellent attention to detail, which means you can earn extra money as an editor.

I managed to earn money by editing the theses and CVs of my students. This was one of my favorite methods of earning extra money when I was learning how to make more money as a teacher.

How much did I earn?

As a rough guide I charge USD2.5 per page, the average thesis is 250 pages …so that works out to be USD625.

It would take me two days to finish I put my head down, stopped having dance-offs with furniture in my apartment and didn’t take random photos of animals

If you want to get started as an editor, read this.

11.Set up a teaching blog

If you like writing and sharing your knowledge, but don’t want the pressure of having to find writing jobs. You can set up a blog and earn from it!

You can earn money from:

Display advertising
Affiliate marketing
Referrals from schools-I don’t earn this way
Digital products like printable and e-books

All in all, this is the most interesting method of learning how to make more money as a teacher.

I know it is possible, as I earn money from this blog, at no extra cost to my lovely readers.

A few teachers who have successfully earned money from their teaching blogs are:

IELTSLiz
Digino

How much can you earn?

Blogs can earn zero to 6 figures a month, (google income reports for blogs).

So, it all depends on whether the content you write is useful or valuable.

Writing about your musings on how wonderful you and your travels are, may not earn you much.

Nevertheless, writing about how a teacher can improve their teaching skills or how students can pass exams will get you more readers and traffic.

Solve common teacher /student problems and you will be on to a winner!

There you have it, eleven ways that teach you how to make more money as a teacher.

The great thing about being a teacher is you have A LOT of transferable skills, which means you are well equipped to apply for many remote jobs that can also earn you a lot of money.

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