I was a high school band director when I started this blog, so I understand the need for good, legitimate part-time jobs for teachers.
Most teachers I worked with had some kind of side hustle going, and it wasn’t always a summer job. I knew teachers who bartended, worked in retail on the weekends, and held catering jobs.
You won’t find any of those on this list – I want to offer flexible jobs that pay well for the work you’re doing.
All of the part-time jobs for teachers on this list let you choose your own hours. Some let you earn passive income, and some are side hustles that can grow into full-time work.
What are the best part-time jobs for teachers? Here are 9 side jobs for teachers
1. Facebook ads
After I quit my job as a high school band director to run this site full time, I started running Facebook ads for small businesses in my area to supplement my income. My first client was the jeweler who sold me my wife’s engagement ring, and after a couple of months, I was out-earning what I made as a teacher.
Here’s the craziest part: I wasn’t working nearly as many hours.
The flexibility and amount of time it takes to run Facebook ads (about 2-3 hours a week once your ad system is set up) are a big part of why this is one of the best part-time jobs for teachers.
Running Facebook ads is offering digital marketing services to small businesses. These can be local, online, or businesses on the other side of the country.
You’re working 100% online, you’re in charge of the hours you work, and you can make around $1,000-$1,500/month per client.
It’s a valuable service for small business owners because they can run highly targeted ads on Facebook’s massive platform – big businesses have been doing it for years. Most small business owners lack the time or resources it takes to run these campaigns on their own.
If you’re interested in learning more about this side hustle, check out the Facebook Side Hustle Course. I created it with my business partner, Mike Yanda. He’s a lawyer turned digital marketer, who now brings in around $30k/month running Facebook ads.
The Facebook Side Hustle Courses teaches three main objectives:
- Exactly how to set up and run an ads system for small businesses
- How to find clients who want this kind of service
- How to get them to say “yes” to your services
2. Deliver food for Postmates or DoorDash
Food delivery is one of the most in-demand part-time jobs that I’m seeing right now, and I have a lot of readers who are really happy with these two companies.
Postmates has been around since 2011 and is known for delivering anything you can possibly think of – and not always food. Drivers have delivered everything from PlayStations, candy bars, toilet paper, and Chinese takeout.
There are sign-on bonuses for new drivers that vary by market, and you’ll need to complete a certain number of deliveries by a specified date to earn the bonus.
Postmates also offers incentives, like Blitz pricing (orders with higher than average payouts) and Hot Spots (in-demand delivery areas).
DoorDash was founded in 2013 and partners with more than 300,000 restaurants nationwide. They focus pretty much exclusively on restaurant and food delivery – that’s the main difference between these two companies.
There are also DoorDash promotions to help you earn more, including Peak Pay, when areas of the DoorDash app light-up red because there’s a higher need for drivers in those areas. You can also complete Challenges where you complete so many orders in a set amount of time.
Delivery drivers for DoorDash and Postmates average $15-$20/hour, and you keep 100% of your tips. The work is really flexible, and I already know a few teachers who deliver for these services. They log into the app after they get off work, and drive for a couple of hours before going home.
To make the most money, you can sign up for more than one delivery service. Lots of drivers are signed up for 2 or more apps, and keep more than one open at a time. You can pick the highest paying orders and have more opportunities to earn.
3. Deliver groceries for Instacart
Another food delivery option is delivering groceries for Instacart. Instacart was founded in 2012 and now operates in all 50 states and parts of Canada.
There are two options for Instacart shoppers:
- Full-service shoppers: You shop for customers orders and deliver them – you’re technically an independent contractor
- In-store shoppers: You take customer orders and shop for them, but someone else delivers them – you are considered a part-time employee
Working as a full-service Instacart shopper will probably be the most flexible option for teachers. You pick the area you deliver for and choose your own hours, which are scheduled in the app.
Instacart shoppers average $12-$20/hour and keep 100% of their tips.
Like all food delivery services, the sign-up process involves a background check and a clean driving record. It typically takes drivers around a week to start driving after they’ve signed up.
4. Teachers Pay Teachers
If you haven’t already purchased worksheets, packets, or some other kind of printable from Teachers Pay Teachers, then you probably know someone who has.
Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers can share their resources with other teachers across the country. There have already been more than 1 billion resources downloaded from TpT, including things like:
- Homeschool curriculums
- Rubrics
- Flashcards
- Unit plans
- PowerPoint and Prezi presentations
- Bundled and individual lesson plans
- Study guides
- Social/emotional learning
- Teacher manuals
The way Teachers Pay Teachers works is that you sign up for a Basic or Premium Seller account – Premium is $59.95/year.
Basic sellers earn 55% of every sale and pay a $0.30 transaction fee per sale. Premium Sellers keep 80% of all sales and pay a transaction fee of $0.15 for orders that are less than $3.
One of the reasons this is one of the best part-time jobs for teachers is because it’s fairly passive income. You can upload files you already have, and they can sell almost indefinitely – as long as the material is up-to-date.
The top seller on Teachers Pay Teachers has made over $2 million, and most teachers earn a few hundred dollars selling on the site.
Read more at 11 Best Side Hustles for Teachers to Make More Money at Home.
5. Tutor
I know, I know… not everyone will want to spend their spare time doing more teaching, but teachers make excellent tutors. You’re familiar with subject-specific expectations and are already good and explaining things to students.
But here’s the best part: tutors for companies like Wyzant can make $30-$60/hour.
Wyzant tutors create free profiles on the platform – you will need to explain the subjects you tutor and why you’re qualified. You get to set your own hours, and tutors can work in-person or online.
Payments go through Wyzant via direct deposit, and Wyzant tutors keep 75% of their listed hourly rates.
6. ACT/SAT test prep
The Princeton Review is a highly regarded college admissions service that provides test prep tutoring for the ACT, AP, MCAT, LSAT, ISEE, and many more.
Let me put it this way – there’s a Princeton Review tutor for every kind of academically recognized standardized test. The site also has college profiles so students and families know what kind of scores are needed to be accepted to their school of choice.
Princeton Review hires teachers for subject-specific tutoring and teaching, both online and in-person. They also hire test proctors for tests offered on Saturdays and Sundays.
Here’s how the 6-step application process works:
- Complete an online application
- Take a qualifying test for each subject you want to tutor – you can take as many as you want and need to pass by your second attempt
- Do a short interview with Princeton Review
- Audition your presentation skills
- Authorize and complete a background check
- Attend a 2 to 5-week training for each test-type you’ve applied to teach – training is paid and includes self-paced online work and in-person sessions
Princeton Review tutors average $25-$60/hour and test proctors earn closer to $15/hour.
7. Teach English online for VIPKid
VIPKid is a Beijing-based company that has part-time jobs for teachers who want to teach English to young Chinese students.
I know several teachers who work with VIPKid already. They like that there is zero lesson planning, and you teach in 25 minute long lessons. Plus, you can make $14-$22/hour.
The biggest downside to VIPKid is that the hours won’t work for everyone. You’re teaching kids on the other side of the world, so the peak hours are early mornings on Monday through Friday, or late nights and early mornings on Saturdays and Sundays.
The requirement to work for VIPKid is a bachelor’s degree, but you’ll earn more with a master’s degree. You also need experience working with kids, but you already have that one covered.
You will also need to complete a one-on-one recorded interview to test your tutoring skills, watch a series of videos that explain the process, and teach a mock class with one of their instructors.
8. Teach an online course
Online learning is growing. This isn’t news to you, but it’s growing for adults who want to learn marketable and creative skills, too.
The appeal is that you can learn skills that give you a competitive edge in the workforce, open a door to new ways to make money, or simply learn something you’ve always wanted to try. But you’re doing it all on your own time, and usually paying less than you’d pay for in-person courses.
My wife jokes with me sometimes that I never really got away from teaching because online courses make up a decent part of my income these days.
I genuinely love teaching, but it was all of the paperwork, administration, and dealing with angry parents that I didn’t love. I bet you know about all of that too, haha!
Teaching online courses can become a pretty passive source of income, which is why it’s one of the best part-time jobs for teachers! The hardest part is creating the course itself. To create a course, you need to:
- Decide on a topic: The most in-demand topics are ones that help people solve a problem. Think about your areas of expertise, what people know you for, what people in your community want to know more about, etc.
- Start building your course: Start by listing out 5-8 things that people need to know about the topic. These will be your course modules or lessons. Break each one down into several smaller lessons. You want the content to be easy-to-digest.
- Create your lessons: You’ll want to film 5-10 minute long videos. You can use a screen recording app like Loom. I prefer video-based courses, but there are some really successful text-based courses too.
- Price your course: Look at comparable courses in your niche. Adding coaching components is a good way to add more value and increase prices.
- Pick a course platform: There are lots of online course platforms, some include built-in marketing tools and others are more of a marketplace. You can check out the top options in 8 of the Best Online Course Platforms for 2020.
One of my readers started teaching online courses on the side of her job a few years ago, and she’s been sharing her progress. She’s gone from earning a few thousand dollars a month to making over $80,000 selling her courses on a couple of different platforms.
Here’s one of her most recent payouts:
9. Start a blog
I can’t talk about side jobs for teachers without mentioning this one. I created this site on the side of my teaching job and eventually left teaching to blog full time.
Blogging is a slow business model overall, but it has the highest overall earning potential for a part-time job. It took me a few months to make anything from this site, but now I’m making a 7-figure income five years later.
Not every blogger will have the same trajectory – a lot of bloggers comfortably make $1,000-$5,000 extra each month.
What I like so much about blogging is that you can build it at your own pace. You’re also in complete control of what you write about and how you monetize your site.
There’s a lot to know about blogging if you’re interested in starting one, but here’s where I recommend starting:
- Sign up for my free email course (below) that teaches you how to start a blog, from picking your topic to getting traffic to your site
- Check out Launch That Blog – this is a free blog setup service for WordPress blogs (hosted on Bluehost for as little as $2.95/month)
The final word on part-time jobs for teachers
I have a lot of respect for teachers. My wife was also a teacher, and my mom spent decades working in schools. You all work harder than most people realize!
So when you want a side job, you need legitimate options that pay well and work with your busy schedule.
Running Facebook ads and starting a blog are my favorite picks – it’s what I have experience with and I know many other teachers who have been successful in these areas.
There’s a lot of growth in food delivery, plus it’s not too difficult. Last week I got an email from Postmates saying they have a crazy high need for new drivers now.
Selling online courses and Teachers Pay Teachers can turn into passive sources of income, and you could put in a lot of the work during the summer to have a stream of income ready once school starts. Just a thought.
There are lots of great part-time jobs for teachers available. Think about what kind of things you’re interested in doing, your timeline for earning money, and what your end goals are. This will help you pick the best option for you.
About Millennial Money Man
Bobby Hoyt is a former band director who paid off $40,000 of student loan debt in 18 months on his teaching salary and then left his job to run Millennial Money Man full-time. He helps other Millennials earn more through side hustles, save more through budgeting tools and apps, and pay off debt. He is a personal finance expert who has been seen on Forbes, Reuters, MarketWatch, CNBC, International Business Times, Business Insider, US News, Yahoo Finance, and many other personal finance and entrepreneurship media outlets.
