Teach Online |

ARE YOU READY TO START TEACHING ONLINE AND EARNING THE INCOME YOU DESERVE?

Many years ago, I was a full-time college student with a decent paying part-time job. I worked for Minneapolis Public Schools as an after-school paraprofessional through Community Education. Even though I made enough money to pay bills and have a ‘lil something’ leftover, I always wanted a ‘just in case’ job.

So, I started tutoring online for a start-up company. For several years, off-and-on, I worked for this company while changing positions within the school district and completing my Masters in Education. As life is, there were some changes that weren’t agreeable with the lifestyle I wanted to live and I parted from the district and ventured to a new region – Atlanta, GA.

When I arrived in Georgia, I had enough savings to last a year without working. I had no intention of being unemployed for a year. I just wanted a buffer. I was still doing side work with an online tutoring platform, but it wasn’t enough to pay bills. At the time, working online was still a side gig in my mind.

Right when things started getting tight (financially), a former colleague reached out and told me a friend of his, who was also teaching online, was looking for a substitute teacher. I worked for her while she was traveling and some of her students asked if I would be their regular teacher.

I agreed.

Within a few months, they had referred me to cousins, co-workers, and friends. My student load was paying the bills, but I was doing a lot of work developing classes for them. That was when I started seeking other online teaching opportunities.

Aside from the independent students I had, I began working on several other platforms. I won’t mention them all*, but it was more than ten. There were a lot of different factors: some were live classes, others were just audio, I worked for international companies, I had students in 20 different countries in five different time zones. I was trying to find a company that would be a good fit. Still, I didn’t consider venturing into the world of online education as my career path. I was still applying for positions in a physical school setting.

Once I was offered a viable position and my daughter started school, I let me side jobs fall to the wayside. Again, as life changes, I had to make some adjustments. When my daughter asked to be homeschooled, I had to figure out a way to make that happen. I went back to teaching online for new platforms, as the ones I had previously worked for were no longer around. I was still treating online teaching like a side hustle. Plus, the online teaching market was still relatively new.

In 2016, I was working for two online teaching platforms and started working with some of my old students. I decided that working online was it. I could homeschool my daughter, I could travel, and I made more than a decent amount of income.

The transition from teaching online as a side gig to making this my only job has been challenging at times; however, all the benefits have outweighed those difficulties. I work 10-15 hours/week and make more than enough to pay my bills. I also have more than a ‘lil something’ leftover.

In 2020, I launched a virtual school, Ashantae Academy which I recently renamed to Teacher Jade’s Writing Academy. I now employee teachers to offer my courses, provide consultations to those wanting to become ‘Teacherpreneurs’ and offer a Masterclass on launching online courses.

I was dubbed the “The Six-Figure Teacher” in articles such as Forbes, Business Insider and Acorns+CNBC. As I continue to grow my business, I am also looking forward to helping those that want to start their own online teaching journey.

*I stated that I wasn’t going to mention all the platforms I worked for, but here are some: BrainFuse, Elevate K-12, VipKid, Cambly, EnglishHunt, CafeTalk, Pearsons, Chegg, Wyzant, Best Teacher, Outschool, Tutlo, Blazaar, Palfish, NativeTalk, Yoli, and a whole host of startups that didn’t last.