A High School Teacher's Back-Up Plan for "Your Contract Will Not Be Renewed Next Year"
May 10, 2011
Dear Teacher:
Today, there is some 21-year-old senior who is unmarried, not in debt, and willing to go anywhere to teach at an entry-level wage. I will refer to this person as "she," because 57% of all students who complete a bachelor's degree are women.
She will be formally certified. She will have only a B.A., so the district will not have to pay her too much.
She will show up on time, just as you do. She can go through the textbook, just as you can. She may have canned lesson plans. Or maybe she can write her own.
She is enthusiastic. She still has fire in her belly. She can relate to teenagers, since she was one three or four years ago.
She wants your job.
What if she gets it?
What I write here will sound sensible. A teacher will think, "Yes, I ought to do this." But will he? Will she?
Most teachers won't. "It won't happen to me. I'm safe. I'm indispensable." No, you're not. And you're not the lowest-bidding candidate any more.
You are in debt. You have a mortgage. You have family responsibilities. You are not in a good bargaining position.
You think the district doesn't know this? You think when the fiscal crisis gets worse, the district won't think of you as a means to an end?
Test this. Walk into the principal's office and ask for a 5% raise. It's a raise "or else." And the year after. And the year after.
What would the response be?
How will you stay ahead of inflation? How will you have a career to retire into? You think you don't need a career to retire into? You think the local government won't default on its pension promises? Really?
What is your fall-back plan?
KHAN ACADEMY
Salman Khan is a great teacher. I know this, because I have watched him teach. So have a million others.
The Khan Academy is online. It's free. It's based on YouTube videos. There are over 1,000 of them. He teaches mathematics through calculus. He teaches physics. He teaches business. It is here:
How would you compete against him? You had better find a way.
How would you package your classes if you had to put them online? Would you buy a cheap camera like a Kodak Zi8, use a wireless microphone and a tripod? How would you handle blackboard work? How could the camera follow you?
Would you own your videos? Or would the school claim ownership? It might.
What about at home each night? Could you do the videos then? You would clearly own the products.
Would you use a digital screen instead of a blackboard? What about Camtasia Studio? You can create a screencast of anything on your screen. Buy a $25 lapel mic. Or buy a $50 headset mic.
You could put your classes online on your own free YouTube channel.
Why would you want to do this? To build a mailing list. You can use Aweber.com or MailChimp.com. At $20 a month, it's cheap. Offer weekly guidance on the course.
The idea is to get name identification. Get a following from around the English-speaking world.
Why? Because, at some point, you will charge for tutoring. If your site is well known, there are parents who will pay you (say) $100 a month to tutor their children in one course.
If you teach five year-long courses, with the aim of getting the students through CLEP exams, thereby saving parents tens of thousands of dollars in college tuition and living expenses, some of them will pay you. At $100 a year per course, times five courses, if you can get 200 students, you will gross $100,000. Or $200 per course for 100 students.
Start with summer school CLEP classes. See if you can make $25,000. That's worth your summer.
There is new technology that lets students use Skype. It's produced by an outfit with the peculiar name, Dim-Dim. The Mises Academy uses it. You could have a once-a-week class just to make personal contact.
Use email for handling Q&A problems. Or use forum software and a subscription site. Have a forum for each course. Get students to help each other.
Membergate software is ideal. I use it. But WordPress.org will work with plug-ins.
START NOW
You need to start now. If it takes you two hours a night to produce one lecture presentation and post it, then it will take three years, plus summers, to get five courses online. If you can speed up production/posting, it will take less.
This will take almost no money. It will take time. But you have done the grunt work. You have lesson plans. You have done this for years in front of students. Just do it with screencast software.
Of course, that 21-year-old could be doing this every summer. She could use an entire course, or several, as part of her curriculum vita. But she won't.
Any teacher could do this. Hardly any will. They are tired. They have no fire in their bellies. They have no initiative. They are not entrepreneurs.
What about you?
The day you post a completed online course, contact me. I'll offer advice on the marketing. It's the least I can do for taking my advice about implementing a back-up plan.