No More Barriers! The Freedom of Teaching Your Classes At Your Own Pace
Written by Stephanie
November 22, 2022
Teaching can be a tough profession! Teachers have to work long hours for usually not much pay. They have to endure a whole raft of demands in the classroom and have to put up with being bombarded by students, parents and administrators. No wonder teachers are leaving the profession in their droves.
The stats are scary: A UK survey by the National Education Union (NEU) in early 2022 revealed that 44% of teachers planned to quit by 2027, with 22% wanting to do so in just the next two years. Then there’s the Gallup Poll conducted in February 2022 that found that K-12 teachers were the most burned-out segment of all American workers.
The good news is that more and more teachers are going online to conduct classes. You of course don’t need to be a qualified educator in order to teach classes online. Being an online tutor in any capacity and in any chosen field or niche can be richly rewarding. This article will explore the freedom you can experience by teaching your classes at your own pace online.
Freedom To Choose Your Curriculum!
There is no denying that a set or prescribed curriculum can offer much guidance and security for a teacher. Studies have shown that a prescriptive curriculum can work well for educators and students alike.
However, a set curriculum can be very restricting for real-time teachers. A 2021 South African study found that teachers felt very stressed by the time demands of a set curriculum. Teachers also contended that a prescribed curriculum doesn’t take different teaching environments and student capabilities into due account.
By doing classes online, a teacher/tutor can be independent and decide what curriculum to follow. Lesson plans can be tweaked to better match the learning levels and aptitude of your students. You are the master of your curriculum, not its hostage!
Freedom From the School Bell!
Flexibility and the ability to be in control of your time is an often-cited benefit of teaching online. And that is with good reason because it’s true! For one thing, you set the timetables that suit you in accordance with your students. You can be hyper-flexible in this regard, doing online tutoring at times that you wouldn’t be able to do in real-time classrooms, such as late in the evening or on weekends.
Not having to commute back and forth to your place of work is in itself a huge time-saving for any online tutor. That time gained frees you up to have time to help your students with extra lessons or plan for classes. It of course also frees you up to spend more time with your family or simply enjoy your favourite hobby!
Freedom To Be An Educator!
As already stated above, being a teacher in a school or college can be immensely frustrating. The paperwork these days for most teachers is overwhelming, making teaching less of a vocation and more of a ‘job’ to be done with drudgery. Then there’s all the politics that exists in nearly any educational institution, for which some people simply don’t have the stomach or ability.
Running your own show as an online educator or tutor means being able to do it the way you want. You can plan classes that match your strengths. You can bring out more of your personality in your lessons. You can even introduce innovative technologies, such as social media, animation and storyboarding, to make your classes more engaging and exciting.
Choosing a dynamic and super-helpful platform such as Yip will raise your freedom even further! As a Yiper, you use the curriculum you want, when you want and with the number of students per class you want. Furthermore, you can enjoy great perks like having a pool of students readily available and being paid immediately after a class.
Your Options To Greater Freedom...
- Full-Time Professional, Tutoring To Supplement Your Income: tutoring is only done as a way of augmenting your salary as a full-time teacher or other type of professional. Many full-time professionals have chosen this option, often to test how online tutoring works for them.
- Part-Time Professional, Part-Time Online Tutor: this is possibly the rarest of the three as getting an even split between your salaried work and online teaching may not be a practical option for many professionals. However, it’s a great option for anyone who is already self-employed and works on a freelance or independent contractor basis.
- Full-Time Online Tutor: the bravest option for sure, but certainly the one with the most room for personal growth and earning potential! This is the option that gives you the greatest freedom in everything from your curriculum to your working hours.
Whichever of the three options above applies to you, you absolutely need to harness the power of search engine optimisation (SEO). More than ever, working online will mean needing your own website, social media presence, LinkedIn account, blog or any combination thereof. With SEO, you can optimize your online presence by means of viable back-links, boosted search rankings, niche authority and more.
This much is true: people go into teaching because they simply love to teach. They love the interaction with students and knowing that they’re making a difference in people’s lives. Being an educator is indeed a noble calling!
All the more reason for you to reap the benefits of an online educator. Just think of all that freedom to do great work!
