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Index
● Looking for jobs? Go to The LA Job List.
● Want information about teaching in Peru? Go to A Country Guide to TEFLing in Peru.
Supplement Your Teaching Salary
Updated 30 April 2009
Even if you have a great salary, it's nice to earn a bit extra every month and have more spending money. If you don't have a good salary, look at these tips to make sure that you get a better job next time. If you're looking to get extra money, the internet's not the only option for earning extra cash. If you're looking for jobs, find links in the Job Sites article. Here's some more ideas I've come up with for staying in the education field and how to get jobs within this field. If you earn money from being self-employed and are American you MUST pay taxes, see US taxes for more info.
Teaching privates is a great source of income
Try letting everyone know that you're looking for students.
Offer discounts for small group classes and for family members.
Look for country forums, and tell the people there that you're a private teacher.
Also try placing adverts in local papers.
Stand outside schools and give out business cards. (If you're teaching during school hours, try hiring a university student to hand out the cards)
Contact schools and let them know that you teach private classes.
Ask them to put you on their list.
Being an Examiner
● IELTS examiner. Being an IELTS examiner is a part-time job working for the British Embassy. They don't get a visa for you. You can apply via the British Council in the country where you're working. Be aware that you will need to have legal work status. You can probably make about 40 usd an hour for the orals and about 60 usd an hour for the written exams, depending on how fast you can grade them. They require the following to apply.
● An undergraduate degree or a qualification which can be demonstrated to be equivalent to an undergraduate degree.
● A recognised qualification in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
● At least 3 years’ full time (or the equivalent part time) relevant TESOL teaching experience (post certificate level qualification).
● Recruitment information packs for applicants can be downloaded from The British Council.
● Cambridge Examiner. I tried applying directly to the school in charge of exams and was always told that there were no openings. You could try applying directly to the schools at the Cambridge website. But then I got nominated. After you pass training you can do the real exams and mock exams. I just did mock exams here in Peru and made about 450 usd for 22 hours of work.
Contact schools and ask to be put on their sub list.
Publisher training sessions
Lots of publishers offer training sessions, some can pay top dollar. Contact publishers and ask if they can put you on their list.
Editing
Although getting a position in Oxford or Cambridge press might be difficult, there are plenty of local publishers that would welcome a native speaker to help them out.
Translating
If you're fluent in the country's language, you could translate, written or orally. Contact local businesses and offer your services.
Whatever you do, I suggest trying a couple. Although it may take a few months to build up clientele, once you get going, you'll have more job offers than you need and could hire a couple of people to work for you.
Remember to always ask for a written reference when you leave a job, no matter if it's paid or a volunteer position. Have your employer write when you work, job title, levels worked with, and what your responsibilities were. It should be printed on school letterhead and carry your employer's stamp (if they have one), their signature, their name, job title, school address, phone, and email. Try to get two copies of this. This is the basic info which gives you proof of employment. Even if you leave on bad terms, you should still ask for proof of employment. If you're leaving on good terms and if your employer is willing, they could also say what a great teacher you were. It's better to get this BEFORE you leave your job, because if you ask for a reference in the future, your eomployer might forget all the wonderful things you did and also might be less inclined to write a reference. Whereas if you ask while you're still working for them, you can remind your employer daily until they give you the reference/proof of employment. Then scan this and send it in an email when you apply for your next job.
More Info
Don't forget that it's never too late to think about retirement. Saving for retirement on a teacher's salary is hard, but not impossible. Read Saving for Retirement to find out more. You can also earn a bit extra online. Look at Supplement Your Income by Making Money Online and Teach Online to find links about teaching, writing and more.
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