It’s widely known that a career as a teacher will not make you rich, so you may be wondering how to make more money as a teacher.
According to Salary Explorer, the average salary of a teacher in the United States in 2022 is $74,400.
This accounts for the lower end salaries of $36,500 per year and the higher end salaries of $116,000 per year.
However, the perk of being a teacher is that the hours are not always full time.
Many teachers have the ability to work a second job in the evenings or on the weekends.
Let’s take a look at how to make more money as a teacher.
Do Teachers Make Good Money?
Although the high end salaries of teachers may sound significant to some, these salaries are mostly found in areas with a high cost of living.
In addition, typically teachers with the highest education degree will make more than those with less college education.
If you consider the student loans that teachers with higher degrees carry, their salary, even if it’s on the higher end, still may not be enough to get by.
In some rare cases, professors at ivy league colleges do make good money and even have tenure after several years in their position, but again, they most likely have high student loan payments from many years of continuing education.
So how can you survive as a teacher with a low salary? Keep reading to learn how to make more money as a teacher.
You’ll be excited to learn that there are actually a few ways to supplement your teacher salary.
As mentioned before, teaching is not a forty-hour a week position in most cases.
Teachers also have the summertime off and holiday breaks. This leaves time to earn money teaching in other ways or on other platforms.
Tutoring Online or In Person
Because most teachers have the qualifications to tutor, it can be another means of extra income using the skills they already possess.
The average cost of tutors is not super helpful especially because it varies greatly depending on location.
In the expensive cities, certified teacher tutors can make upwards of $100 per hour. In lower income areas, tutors make about $15-$20 per hour.
If you prefer to work remotely, there are several online education centers such as VIP Kid where teachers can make money teaching English (among other subjects) and Outschool.
These sites individualize education for both foreign and domestic students who prefer to learn online with a real teacher experience.
The average salary for teachers on VIP Kids is about $20 an hour and the average salary for tutors on Outschool is roughly $40 an hour.
In some schools, teachers are even offered tutoring opportunities through the district.
This is particularly ideal because teachers don’t have to search for work and they can earn money teaching right in their school environment.
Consider Reading: 10 Side Hustles for Women That Actually Turn a Profit
Special Needs Assistance
For teachers who work with the special needs in the school system, it might be a good idea to reach out to parents of the students to see if they could help in the home during the weekends and vacation periods.
Parents might appreciate a date night or even running errands while leaving their child with a trusted, certified individual that the child is already familiar with.
Some states even offer parents money to pay for such services, so it is not a burden on them financially.
There are also sites such as Care.com where parents can go to find help with their care needs.
This includes tutoring, babysitting, special needs care, and elderly care.
Some parents do require a teacher’s degree and background check, which works out perfectly for teachers.
Oftentimes the hours will complement a teachers’ hours and vacation schedule.
Make Your Degree Work For You
There are countless ways to make your teacher’s degree work for you outside of being in the classroom.
Beside the ways already mentioned, let’s explore lesson planning as a way to make money teaching.
As part of most bachelor’s degree education, students have to create a lesson plan and do a presentation on how to implement it in the classroom.
They’ll receive feedback from professors and learn what key aspects create an excellent lesson plan.
Since you have the skills and knowledge to make a good lesson plan, create a new one and sell it online.
You can do this with your own website. Wealthy Affiliate makes that a cinch!
This can include simple things such as a schedule, a series of worksheets, visual aids, or even craft projects for a particular subject and age level.
It might catch the eye of a fellow teacher who wants to freshen up their classroom teaching techniques, or maybe a homeschooling parent who needs some help in a particular subject.
A few places for teachers to securely sell their lesson plans online include: Teachers Pay Teachers, Canva, and Issuu.
In addition, you can invest some time in creating your own blog with all your resources in one place for customers to access.
For reference, a few blogs that are wildly popular for teaching resources are: Keeping My Kinders Busy, Think Grow Giggle, and Miss V in 3.
You can get a good idea of what a successful blog for educational resources looks like from these three sites.
How to Make More Money as a Teacher
If you find yourself struggling with the idea of entering a teaching career because of the low salary, just reference these ways of how to make extra money as a teacher.
Although you might have to work a few extra hours a week outside of your classroom time, you’ll find that the extra income you make will assist in making ends meet and helping you to attain financial stability.
Do you have a favorite way to make more money as a teacher? If so, share it with us in the comments below!