Hey there! It’s Allyson from OnlineTeacherAllyson.com where stay-at-home moms learn how to teach online so they can earn an income from home even if their children are in tow. Today I want to touch on one of the really hot topics of 2020 and I still hear whispers about it in 2022 and that is: will online education, online teaching, online learning, will that replace your typical classroom that you and I are used to that we probably attended as kids – unless you’re homeschooled all the way through. It’s such a valid question, especially for me. If you’ve been with me for a while you know I advertise that you can do this even if you don’t have a degree in teaching and it’s true. That’s why a lot of families are hesitant and wondering “Is it going to replace education?” Because maybe they want a formally trained teacher, maybe they want the typical model of school that you and I are used to, and that’s all fine. So no, I don’t think online teaching will replace the classroom.
PS: This is also a YouTube Video! If you prefer to watch it, you can find it below. If you prefer to listen, you can find the podcast up on the Simple Tools for the Online Teacher podcast wherever you find podcasts (or allll the way at the bottom :))
There’s a Time and Place for Online Learning
There’s a time and place for it and certain kids learn different ways, right? I’m a former classroom teacher myself. I have taught fourth grade, fifth grade, and seventh and eighth grade, as well as adults in a community college setting, so I am used to the classroom. That’s what I know. So, I have seen it from both sides. I’ve seen it as a teacher myself in the classroom in your typical normal way and I’ve also seen it in the online land as well. So as a former teacher there’s a time and place for everything. As a former teacher there’s a time and place for certain types of education. If you want your students taught your state standards to the letter to the t the typical classroom experience is going to be for you. But, if you are like me and you’re looking for a stay-at-home job then the online teaching is for you because depending on what you do you don’t necessarily have to follow the state standards to a t. You might not even have to teach the state standards! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve taught arts and crafts! I’ve taught fun classes that you will never find in state standards anywhere because they don’t care if you know how to make friendship bracelets. I’ve taught a lot of English as a Second Language and that you will find in state standards for a subset of students and those students are the ones whose English is the second language for them. Depending on where you are and where you live depends on what their first language is.
Why Experience and Formal Education Isn’t Necessary to Teach Online
So if you have no experience in the classroom, if you have a degree but it’s not in education, or you don’t have a college degree, you can still teach online because you are teaching those fun things! You are teaching English as a Second Language and if you are working on a platform like Cambly they don’t require you to have a college education. They provide the lessons for you. You get on, you look over them, and then you teach your class. Especially if you’re not planning lessons you don’t necessarily need that degree because the work to the standards is done for you! You just follow the lesson. Same thing with subbing right?! If you’ve ever subbed for a school district you know you don’t always need a degree. I was able to sub as a college student and my pay reflected it. When I sub now – I don’t but if I did – as a college graduate I would get paid more. I don’t live near that district anymore but I would get paid more to reflect my education and my skill level. So it’s kind of the same thing there as a sub.
Classroom Teachers vs Online Teachers
So again, in the classroom the teacher is trained and certified in everything. When I was a teacher I had to take a test that said I understood your four core subjects: math, science, history, and ELA; English Language Arts. And I took an additional one for ESL – English as a Second Language because I lived in an area where it was very heavily considered. So I was considered more as an applicant fresh out of college because I did have my ESL certificate. I was certified and I was educated and had to teach in a classroom, but that does not mean I was educated in everything! For example: my son, he’s three, he is very interested in cars, and construction sites, and construction vehicles. I know nothing about that as a teacher! So I’ve had to learn through books with him what they’re all called. I now know things like bulldozers, and excavators, and trains, and backhoes, and all these things I didn’t know before. I know parts of them like a boom, and that there’s legs to help anchor it down. I could go on and on about all the things I’ve learned about construction vehicles because of my son.
Examples of Online Lessons
This is something I could create a class about, like on Outschool. If you want to apply to OutSchool or Cambly by the way I’ve got the links in the description for you. So this is something I could create a class on because you will not find this type of education in the regular classroom. This is where online education is great because you get to cater to these kids’ interests that you will never find in a typical classroom. So let’s say another example is: let’s say you yourself as a teacher as a stay-at-home mom, you are very interested in STEM Science Technology Engineering Math. Acronym: S-T-E-M Science Technology Engineering and Math. You really like making robots out of robotic kits. That is really hard to find at school! There’s not going to be a subject about it. There’s not going to be 30 minutes a day dedicated to robotics. There might be an after school club depending on if there’s a teacher who has decided to run it. It might be easier to find at the high school level like for robotics, or for coding, that might be easier to find at the high school level for electives. But again it depends on your area and what the district your district offers. This is where online education comes into play because you get to teach what you love to students who are also interested in loving it and that’s where it’s really fun!
Benefits of Online Teaching
In my experience it’s really cut down on behavior issues because students want to be there. They want to learn about robotics, they want to learn about coding, they want to learn about website building – even if they’re seven or eight! There’s still safe ways to do that! That’s where you get to be creative, and you get to be fun, and have fun with your lessons, and your students, and learn what they want to learn.
One-on-One Tutoring
Another great subset of online education is one-on-one private tutoring. So when I was a kid I needed tutoring. I was terrible at math. We lived in a college town. There were three colleges where I’m from and my parents hired a tutor from one of those schools. She came to my house, I think it was like twice a week, and helped me with my math homework, and helped fill in holes that I missed that made math so hard. Now math is easier for me! I can do it because of all of the time my parents invested in a tutor for me. So what’s really great now is you can find these tutors online. So if you don’t live in a place where you can find a tutor for calculus, or trigonometry, you can find a tutor online that is an expert in this area, that fits your price point, and that will help your child, and they click well. You can be that tutor that’s great at trigonometry, you can be that tutor that’s great at calculus, and you can find students all over the US or more depending on where you decide to teach and advertise yourself. This actually pays really good money so if you tutor privately on Outschool most private lessons are about a dollar a minute. So if you tutor for 30 minutes that’s 30 dollars. If you tutor for 60 minutes it’s 60 dollars, and you get the point. If you fill up your schedule with that, it’s really good pay. Or you can of course advertise in your community. I’ve actually gotten some pretty good bites off of that. It’s never anything we’ve decided to move forward with because tutoring is not where my joy is, but if it’s yours this is a great spot for online education too. Being able to find a tutor who also has the flexibility too. Maybe they’re traveling, maybe you’re a traveling family, and you don’t always have to be in person. It’s also great for flu season, COVID season, all those sorts of things.
Small Group Sizes
The next thing that’s really good for online education that you’re not going to get in the classroom very much is small group sizes. As an online teacher you are in charge of how many students you want to teach at once. So if you go the ESL route usually it’s one on one. That’s where most of my experience is online. But I’m also currently teaching small group math tutoring. I don’t do this independently. I work through a small company and they contract their services out to school districts across the US. Literally there’s east and west school districts everywhere. They match up tutors with the times they’re available in the schools. So I work with small groups of kids, like four or five kids, and we work on math, and I tutor them in their state standards. I follow the state standards for this one. So you do get smaller group sizes. The classroom does have small groups at times. You probably remember it as a kid as small group reading. The teachers level you out based on your reading level. There’s been a shift and they’re also doing that with math now.
Topic Specific Online Tutoring
There’s small group math but it’s so much easier to hit every student every day when you’re online like I am. You can also do this on Outschool, or you can do this independently. It can be like tutoring but you just cover fractions: adding fractions, subtracting fractions, common denominators, uncommon denominators, depending on your age group. You could just Google, for example, Texas State Standards. Those are Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. You can Google the California Common Core Standards and that will help you know what grade level covers what. I really don’t want to teach multiplying and dividing fractions probably to like young second graders right? You’re going to start with common denominators and you’re going to start with really the the methodology of it and why it works. You’re going to draw pictures, you’re going to do models, you’re going to have manipulatives, things you can move, whether it’s virtual or things they have at home or you’ve provided for them. So that’s where online teaching is really great and where I think it does have a leg up on like your formal classroom in that instance.
Why Online Teaching Won’t Fully Replace Classroom Teaching
But no I do not think it will ever replace the actual classroom because the actual classroom has teachers that are certified. I know right now with a teacher shortage they’re not all as qualified as they used to be in their learning and you know that’s a video for another day. But with that being said there’s a time and a place for your formal classroom education and your online education. As a stay-at-home mama and an online teacher, it is your job to find your place. and your place is what brings you joy. I mentioned that tutoring just doesn’t bring me joy so I don’t tend to do it. I tend to find other things where lessons are done for me just because I didn’t like lesson planning very much. I did it obviously when I was a classroom teacher but now that I’m not and I work for myself I choose to find places where I don’t have to do that. So find your joy Mama! Whatever it is I know you can find it and I know you can be successful online teaching. I hope that was helpful and I cannot wait to see you next week! Don’t forget to subscribe if you are loving this content and let’s chat soon. Bye!
