subject: Virtual Moonlighting for Educators [print this page] Virtual Moonlighting for Educators Virtual Moonlighting for Educators
Moonlighting is nothing new, of course, but teachers do not have the luxury of clearly defined work hours. Between grading papers, after-school tutoring sessions, planning lessons, contacting parents, and faculty meetings, many teachers regularly work 50-hour weeks. While financially strapped office managers and corporate supervisors might be powering down their laptops at 5:00 p.m. and zipping over to their second jobs, teachers are well into the second shift of their work day around that same time. Thanks to technology, however, teachers now have opportunities to earn money online selling the products of their labor to fellow educators worldwide.
In 2006, Paul Edelman founded www.TeachersPayTeachers.com, a website where teachers sell lesson plans to other teachers who want tried-and-true materials for use in their classrooms. His experience teaching in New York public schools taught him that teachers' lesson plans were a hot commodity. Edelman's website was so popular and ripe with potential that Scholastic, a major educational publisher, purchased the site in 2007. Since then, Edelman, unpleased with Scholastic's handling of the site, purchased it back. Though Edelman wanted to give teachers an opportunity to earn extra money, he had more in mind than just dollar signs.
Michelle Stimpson, an educational consultant and writer, founded a private tutoring firm eleven years ago and now sells her lesson plans and short stories online to high school reading teachers. "In the past," Stimpson recalls, "technology was much more expensive. But now, it takes so little for teachers to create a significant source of passive income with materials they're already creating for their day jobs." Her subscription-based website, www.WeGottaRead.com, receives thousands of hits each month. "I love knowing that I'm partnering with teachers to make reading a positive experience for secondary students." Stimpson admits that she misses the classroom, but feels that offering online materials has perhaps an even greater impact than she might have with only 120 students per year.
With a little help from the worldwide web, today's teachers are in a prime position to kill two birds with one stone: pouring their energies into creating top-notch instructional plans for their students, then selling those plans to other educators who don't want to reinvent the wheel. eMoonlighting may offer additional perks to the professionals who are preparing our children to function in an increasingly technical world.
Here are a few additional websites of interest for entrepreneurial educators:
www.Mindbites.com sell online how-to videos
www.WizIQ.com schedule and teach online classes
www.elance.com sell your expertise to companies looking for editors, assessment creation, curriculum development, etc.
