Summer jobs for science teachers (hire, government, curriculum, endorsement)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I WISH. My daughter's piano teacher gets $44/hr and she's cheap . The name is for my daughter. I took a couple of years of lessons as a kid but that's it. I keep telling my daughter to stick with it. If nothing else, she can make $50/hr as a piano teacher. Not bad for your worst case.
There was a time I would have considered teaching piano. Then I took classes with my daughter (parents have to attend Yamaha classes) and learned how much I didn't know. As my dd's teacher says "There are plenty of people out there willing to teach piano to children but few of them actually know how."
I'm not sure how homeschoolers would take to having an actual teacher teach their kids. I think a cool business, if I had the capital to start it up, would be to open a chemistry and physics lab. Kind of a rental. Looking at the lack of lab facilities and equipment in some of the charter schools around here, I think there could be a market. Of course every lab becomes a field trip. Maybe I need to put my lab on wheels?
This is actually a brilliant idea. The biggest hurdles would be logistics and insurance. If you could get those two things going, I bet you could build up a full schedule of lessons. You could also contract with small private schools to provide lab services on a contractual basis.
I WISH. My daughter's piano teacher gets $44/hr and she's cheap . The name is for my daughter. I took a couple of years of lessons as a kid but that's it. I keep telling my daughter to stick with it. If nothing else, she can make $50/hr as a piano teacher. Not bad for your worst case.
There was a time I would have considered teaching piano. Then I took classes with my daughter (parents have to attend Yamaha classes) and learned how much I didn't know. As my dd's teacher says "There are plenty of people out there willing to teach piano to children but few of them actually know how."
I'm not sure how homeschoolers would take to having an actual teacher teach their kids. I think a cool business, if I had the capital to start it up, would be to open a chemistry and physics lab. Kind of a rental. Looking at the lack of lab facilities and equipment in some of the charter schools around here, I think there could be a market. Of course every lab becomes a field trip. Maybe I need to put my lab on wheels?
Well, since a good portion of homeschoolers are actually certified teachers, I think you might be surprised. It's typically not the teachers in general that homeschoolers are avoiding by homeschooling... though I personally would look for a teacher with an open mind towards homeschoolers when choosing one for my own kids.
I think the "lab on wheels" idea is a good one too... market yourself to charter schools and private schools (and possibly to homeschoolers), and you could have yourself a new year round career!
Well, since a good portion of homeschoolers are actually certified teachers, I think you might be surprised. It's typically not the teachers in general that homeschoolers are avoiding by homeschooling... though I personally would look for a teacher with an open mind towards homeschoolers when choosing one for my own kids.
I think the "lab on wheels" idea is a good one too... market yourself to charter schools and private schools (and possibly to homeschoolers), and you could have yourself a new year round career!
How much is a "good portion"? What percentage of homeschoolers are certified teachers and what portion of them certified in the grades/subjects they teach their children?
This is actually a brilliant idea. The biggest hurdles would be logistics and insurance. If you could get those two things going, I bet you could build up a full schedule of lessons. You could also contract with small private schools to provide lab services on a contractual basis.
But talk about no security and no benefits!
Usually, the greatest risks come with the greatest gains. I think the question would be what would they be willing to pay. Start up costs would be high. Lab equipment ain't cheap and I'd need enough for 8 lab groups. Anyone got about $100K I can borrow .
I've thought about this before. It's something I may very well when I have a few years of teaching science under my belt and figure out the finances. The question would be would the kids come to me or me to them or maybe a combination of both. If I did chemistry, I'd need a physical location because I'd be accountable for chemical wastes. Physics I could do out of my basement if I went on site. For the most part, physics doesn't involve anything I need to dispose of afterwards. 20 years of engineering experience helps with marketing too. It would be expensive to get the equipment though. Doing labs for homeschoolers would be the, logical, starting point if they're not averse to a real teacher teaching their kids because the "classes" would be smaller, but starting as a summer job might not be bad.
The real problem I see with this is, done right, start up costs are high, however, there are cheap versions of labs that can be done but I'm not sure someone paying for the service would accept those. For example, I don't have CBL (calculator based lab) devices where I teach now or photo gates and computers so we can't do an acceleration due to gravitiy lab, directly (but tape timers aren't too expensive...hmmm?). Instead, I teach a little trig and verify the acceleration due to gravity using inclined planes. I can do it without the trig too and teach it using extraploation from a graph as well but physics kids should have seen trig before so that's how I do it. I'm going to have to look into what it would cost to buy 2-3 lab set ups. That's probably all I'd need doing a small group. Heck, if the group is small enough, I could use my demos. I've always wanted a CBL to use for demos. Maybe I can justify buying one if I'm using it for a summer job (or saturday lessons) for homeschoolers. I have a couple of friends who homeschool and have high school kids. I'll have to ask them if they'd be open to it.
Chemistry is a little trickier because there is chemical disposal and ordering. Legally, I can't ship chemicals to my house and disposal would run me $1000/year unless I could piggy back on a school's waste disposal plan. There are, however, plenty of kitchen chemistry experiments that teach concepts. For chemistry, it's not so much the equipment and chemicals I'd bring to the table as it is the exertise to explain the experiments. I'm going to guess that most homeschoolers are not chemistry majors.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 01-09-2010 at 05:20 AM..
You asked about a job for a chemistry teacher. Does the job have to be related to education or chemistry? Also, are you able to start work part time (evenings, weekends) before the last day of school? Does the job have to be at a certain pay level to be worth the effort verses working at a lower paying job for the experience and contacts? Because, of course, it all comes down to what jobs actually exist and how motivated you are to fit their needs, such as schedule, salary, etc.
Here are some education related jobs that myself, family or collegues have had luck with, without interfering with regular teaching jobs:
- Online instructor for community college - Grader for standardized tests - High school summer school teacher - GED night school instructor
I'm going to second these suggestions and expand a bit. I know several chiropractors, dentists (all own their own businesses), and high school teachers, who teach part-time at a CC, either online or in a brick and mortar setting. Some colleges also have summer programs (engineering, physics) for high school students, and several high school teachers teach those. All of these will pay more than the $15 per hr you mentioned.
You can also grade standardized tests online. ETS and Pearson are the biggest companies for this, but there are some smaller ones. Depending on the project, you may or may not make $15 per hour, and these require one to have teaching experience.
If you do well on standardized tests, you can tutor the subject tests of the SAT or the chemistry section of the MCAT. The going rates for those are comparable to piano teachers!
How much is a "good portion"? What percentage of homeschoolers are certified teachers and what portion of them certified in the grades/subjects they teach their children?
I'm not looking to start a homeschooling debate with you, and my point was not relating to whether parents are "qualified" or not, or certified or not, to teach their own children... I was merely pointing out that homeschooling parents don't generally homeschool for the sake of avoiding teachers. I know that I have enrolled my kids in classes that were taught by teachers who do not happen to homeschool their own children. To answer your question, though, according to this link, about a quarter of homeschooling parents are or were certified teachers. I have no idea if this is accurate. Based on my experience, I'd guess that it is... quite a few of the homeschoolers I know used to teach in a public or private school.
I'm not looking to start a homeschooling debate with you, and my point was not relating to whether parents are "qualified" or not, or certified or not, to teach their own children... I was merely pointing out that homeschooling parents don't generally homeschool for the sake of avoiding teachers. I know that I have enrolled my kids in classes that were taught by teachers who do not happen to homeschool their own children. To answer your question, though, according to this link, about a quarter of homeschooling parents are or were certified teachers. I have no idea if this is accurate. Based on my experience, I'd guess that it is... quite a few of the homeschoolers I know used to teach in a public or private school.
A friend of mine homeschools his child, and did so as he became certified to teach math. Even before he completed his degree, he was doing formal tutoring and teaching classes for his homeschoolers group. In this area, many families are able to do a kind of à la carte system for their children. There are sports and arts lessons, and people like my fried who provide individual or groups instruction in specialized subjects. These parents are not trying to avoid certified teachers. They are more interested in customizing their children's curriculum and avoiding the disruptions and indoctrination they associate with public schools.
The question of whether or not parents should or must be certified to teach their children in order to make them qualified to teach certain subjects has been hotly debated. After spending a career in struggling schools, I can tell you that a parent who is willing to learn what it takes to teach a subject on a high school level is probably better qualified than an ignorant, poorly prepared, lazy, crazy teacher with a certificate. I have seen plenty of them.
On the other hand, I consider myself qualified to teach several subjects for which I do not hold a certificate. My endorsements are in mathematics and French. However I could also teach most liberal arts and some lower-level science classes--not physics, chemistry, or advanced biology.
I looked online for "mobile science labs" and found several responses. I didn't know anything about the issue of chemical disposal, but I'm sure that the other labs listed could consult with you about how they do their operations. With your connections in industry, you might could write a grant to put something together to take care of your start-up costs and initial operating expenses.
From a day-to-day standpoint, you would not be trapped by an unreasonable administration, pandering parents and the students with a case of entitlement overindulgence. You would be working with children for whom you would be a special time in their routine, whether it was a regular client you see every week, or a one-off trip to an afterschool program or summer camp.
I might even think about doing something like that myself after I retire!
My nephew worked for a while scoring essays for standardized tests, Ivory.
In our town we have Imaginarium, a science museum. What city do you live in? Perhaps there is something like that.
What about Sylvan Learning Center? We have a lot of teachers who have tutored there after school & summer.
I worked at their competitor, Huntington Learning Center. I loved it. It was quiet, and the children worked with you one-on-one to complete a programmed study. You gave them a task, left them with it, then went back to go over it, and reteach or move on.
I have very fond memories...it was very quiet!
We also have a planetarium and a natural history museum. They both have special programs over the summer. Even though they are related to what you are teaching now, you are likely qualified for some of their programs. Huntington's hired me because of my math certification, but I spent time doing everything from hand-to-eye coordination activities with LD sufferers to vocabulary drills for young elementary children. You are more than the sum of your credentials.
I'm not looking to start a homeschooling debate with you, and my point was not relating to whether parents are "qualified" or not, or certified or not, to teach their own children... I was merely pointing out that homeschooling parents don't generally homeschool for the sake of avoiding teachers. I know that I have enrolled my kids in classes that were taught by teachers who do not happen to homeschool their own children. To answer your question, though, according to this link, about a quarter of homeschooling parents are or were certified teachers. I have no idea if this is accurate. Based on my experience, I'd guess that it is... quite a few of the homeschoolers I know used to teach in a public or private school.
It was a simple question. I'm not looking to debate. I simply asked what percentage of homeschooling parents are certified to teach? There's nothing to debate here. Percentages are percentages.
What I find interesting is that if a school claimed 24% of their teachers were certified, but not necessarily in the subjects they teach, parents would be outraged, and rightfully so. Go figure.
Of the homeschooling parents I know (about a dozen) one is a certified teacher. She was an elementary teacher and homeschooled her kids for elementary school. The others may or may not have even set foot on a college campus. Some have degrees, some have only a high school diploma.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 01-09-2010 at 11:51 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. The name is for my daughter. I took a couple of years of lessons as a kid but that's it. I keep telling my daughter to stick with it. If nothing else, she can make $50/hr as a piano teacher. Not bad for your worst case. 
I think a cool business, if I had the capital to start it up, would be to open a chemistry and physics lab. Kind of a rental. Looking at the lack of lab facilities and equipment in some of the charter schools around here, I think there could be a market. Of course every lab becomes a field trip. Maybe I need to put my lab on wheels?
