Unexpected Ways to Use Your Teaching Experience
As teachers, we don’t generally see a lot of career options. We could change grade levels, schools, become an administrator, or start coaching. But there are so many ways to use your teaching experience outside of the classroom! The world needs more teachers and we need to expand the way we think of our skills. Use these ideas to get your wheels turning.
Course Creation
The online world is blowing up with courses. From professional development courses and certifications being brought online to entrepreneurs creating digital courses, there are tons of people out there designing curriculum and teaching online. These people need your help! You could help an entrepreneur plan and implement a course, write a course for teachers or homeschoolers, or create your own course.
I’ve written courses on project-based learning and coaching for online PD providers, which was really fun to think about how to break down complex topics for teachers to learn through text, videos, and activities. I’ve also created the Educator Forever course, which is currently getting a makeover. For the revamping of the course, I hired another teacher to help me make the course the best it can be.
If you’re interested in course creation, think about whether you’d like to make courses for teachers, children, or other adults. Then consider if you want to create your own courses, land course development contracts, or help others create courses. If you decide to create your own, there are great course platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi that you can use.
Project Management
In addition to hiring a teacher to help me revise the Educator Forever course, I’m also having her project manage the revision process. I needed help staying on track-- and who better to help than a teacher? Teachers are detail-oriented and have tons of experience keeping projects organized. Plus, we are always anticipating what might go wrong and planning to overcome any roadblocks before they happen. This is all so helpful when managing projects.
If you find the idea of project management appealing, you likely have just the right skill set for it. Sometimes businesses post jobs looking for people to manage projects. In the education world, these are often curriculum or editorial projects that need someone to keep them on track. But there are also individuals (like me!) who need help with projects on a one-off basis. These can be a great way to get your feet wet with managing projects outside the classroom.
Teach your passion!
Whether you love photography, baking, jewelry making, or knitting, you can use your teaching experience to share your passions with others. From teaching, you know how to break down processes into manageable steps. Think about how you learned about your hobby, then try to create a replicable process that you can teach others.
Maybe you’ll teach a baking class on the weekend, or maybe you’ll create knitting videos that you’ll sell in an online course. Since you are already passionate about your topic area, coming up with a way to monetize it should be motivating.
Which of these options is most appealing to you? Comment below and let me know what interests you most and/or how you are using your teaching experience outside of the classroom.