Teaching Archives - Paper Heart of Mine

6 Side Hustles to Try NOW!

June 2, 2020

As an Amazon affiliate, I make a small commission based on qualifying purchases. Please read full disclaimer here.

It’s no secret that my husband and I are working our butts off to pay off these student loans early. Student loans are crippling; sometimes I feel like I am being crushed from the weight of all of them. I’d had enough, and decided to push it into overdrive by paying off our student loans early. This brings me to this list of side hustles I’ve used to generate extra income to throw at our student loans. If you’re looking for some ideas to pay off your debt early, or maybe just need some extra cash, then read on!

VIPKid – by my favorite side hustle. VIPKid is a company that connects elementary aged students in China to teachers in America and Canada to learn English. Essentially, you go through the presentation (that VIPKid uploads) with the student, correct their pronunciation, and encourage them with high energy. Then you write your feedback for the lesson. I’ve been teaching with VIPKid since May of 2019, making between $700 – $1100 extra dollars a month, depending on how much I choose to work. You can read more about VIPKid in this post here, and you can read about their hiring process here. It’s a lot of fun, and if playing with kids comes naturally to you, you will be great at this job! Check out VIPKid at this link.

Essay Grader – I recently picked up another side hustle that also ranks highly on my favorites list! I am working as an essay grader to a company that sort of works like an online community college. The classes are online, so there is no instructor. For this job, the requirements are a master’s degree and experience teaching college. It pays $7.50 per essay, and sometimes offers bonuses up to $9.50 – which is awesome! I love the flexibility this side hustle provides me – I log on after the baby goes to bed or before she wakes up, and make some extra money! You could search online for ‘Grader’ positions if this is something that interests you.

Summer Camps – My husband and I both have taken advantage of our summer time availability to teach a summer camp or two. I’ve done all sorts of camps – Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Day Camps, etc, and they have all been a blast. Basically, you pick what you’re interested in, design a curriculum around it, and hang out with kids for the week…it’s awesome! They are usually a week commitment and pay anywhere from $500 – $800 a week for 3 hours of work a day. This is ideal if you are a teacher, but could work if you have the ability to take PTO or vacation time. It’s a great way to make extra money on top of your existing paycheck or full time job 🙂

Survey Junkie – I know it’s absurd, but I love taking surveys. Absolutely love them. Anytime I get an email asking to take a customer satisfaction survey, I’m in. When the gym emailed asking about the new classes, and what I’d like to see in the future? I took it. I take surveys for free. I take surveys for fun. And now, I take surveys and get paid. This is not a primary side hustle for me; it’s more of a way to make a couple extra dollars of spending money. I usually do this while I’m relaxing in front of the TV (currently re-watching House, any other Hugh Laurie fans?), watching Netflix, and drinking a cup of yummy tea. Delightful.The surveys relax me and let me unwind from the day. I also like to take them while I’m waiting in the doctor’s office – I did this a lot while I was pregnant. Rather than scrolling through Instagram, why not make a dollar or two while you wait to be seen? It’s a perfect way to make a couple extra dollars of spending money on a given day. Click the link below to check it out!

Etsy Shop – an Etsy shop is a great way to generate some income if you have a product to sell! In the past, I’ve sold planner stickers and planner kits to decorate and pretty-fy your planner. (Check this blog post here to see what I mean). Right now, I’m selling a few printables focusing on helping others with their debt free journey. One of my goals is to grow this shop and offer more printables to help people! Take a look at my little Etsy Shop Here.

Teachers Pay Teachers – this is another place I’m hoping to grow and offer more resources to help teachers. I love shopping at TpT because I know the money I spend is going directly to another teacher. Being a teacher is not easy! The ratio between the amount of time you put into your job versus your actual salary is ridiculously warped, so I love that I am supporting another teacher financially. I’ve been working really diligently this school year to create beautiful worksheets that I can sell on TpT. Here’s my little TpT Store!

Whelp there you have it! These are the 6 side hustles we use to make extra income to pay off our student loans. What are your favorite side hustles?

Make Extra Income with VIPKid!

May 29, 2020

As an Amazon affiliate, I make a small commission based on qualifying purchases. Please read full disclaimer here.

In our debt payoff journey, one of the side hustles I have found to be the most lucrative and straight forward is working with VIPKid. Now that I’ve just signed my third contract – (has it really been a year??) I feel like I can make a pretty comprehensive list of pros and cons about what working for them looks like.

What is VIPKid?

What is VIPKid, you may ask? VIPKid is a company that connects elementary aged students in China to teachers in America and Canada to learn English. For the actual lesson, VIPKid uploads the PowerPoint presentation for the student’s current lesson. Essentially, you go through the presentation with the student, correct their pronunciation, and encourage them with high energy. Then you write your feedback for the lesson. Everything is set up for you. It’s a lot of fun, and if playing with kids comes naturally to you, you will be great at this job.

What experience do I need?

You don’t need any formal teaching experience, just a bachelor’s degree and experience working with children in some capacity. Remember that summer you volunteered at Vacation Bible School? That counts. Babysit a lot as a teenager? That counts too. They just want to see that you have experience with children.

What do I need to invest in?

Technically nothing, but there are a few things that will make your life a bit easier.

Headphones: I’d suggest using a pair of headphones with a microphone for clarity purposes. I use this pair here and they have served me well over the past 12 months. A pair of iPhone headphones should also do the trick, but they hurt my ears after a while. The Logitech ones are cushy, and when I’m teaching 4 hours of back to back classes, my ears (and extra ear piercings!) are thankful.

Lighting: VIPKid requires that your face be well lit, with no shadows at all times. I have a lamp set up in front of me while I am teaching, but this little light right here really does the trick. It has a clip that affixes to my desk, I plug it into my USB port, and BOOM. I am illuminated.

A background – VIPKid requires that you have a professional background, but what that looks like is up to you. I’ve seen people who use bookshelves, a plain wall with a map poster, shelves of toys and props, bulletin boards, etc. My background is a piece of driftwood fabric from Hobby Lobby, my reward system and a globe sign with my name on it from the Target Dollar Spot. Your set up does not need to be anything too wild or elaborate, unless you want it to be! The main point is to have an area in your home that you can dedicate to VIPKid where you wont be interrupted by any other family member in your house. You can check out my Pinterest board with tons of background ideas and reward systems for more inspiration.

High Speed Internet – You need to have a reliable internet connection that doesn’t freeze or experience any lagging issues so that you can teach the students in real time.

Webcam – Some sort of Webcam set up so that you can teach the students is required by VIPKid – you won’t be able to do your job without it.

PROS of Teaching with VIPKid

You cannot beat the commute! Working from home is amazing. I wake up 15 minutes before class, wash my face, throw on an orange t-shirt, shuffle down to my basement and VOILA I am at work.
Flexibility – You can set your own schedule with whenever you’d like to work. If you’re going away on vacation, you can take your set up with you and teach while you’re on vacation! Or, you could just not. You don’t need to “take time off.” If you don’t feel like teaching for a week, you don’t have to teach. It’s totally up to you.
The Money – You can make anywhere from $16-$22 an hour teaching with VIPKid depending on your experience and your credentials. Personally, I make $20. I usually squeeze in an hour before my teaching job during the school year – that’s $100 extra dollars a week, or $400 extra dollars a month, or $4800 a year just for doing an hour of playing with kids before I go to my full time job. Worth it.
It’s fun. I actually enjoy my time with the kids, and as you build relationships with them it only becomes more enjoyable. One student draws me a picture every lesson. Another kid likes to do ‘cheers’ with our water cups at the end of class. One little girl draws hearts on the goodbye screen for me everyday, and another likes to reward me for doing a good job as a teacher. They are literally the cutest thing ever. Sure you get kids that act a fool, but they are the exception and not the majority.
Sidehustlin’ – no matter what your reason for sidehustlin’ is, you can do this. Maybe you’re saving for a house, or looking to add a little to your vacation fund. Maybe, like me, you are looking to accelerate the process of paying off your student loan debts. Whatever the reason, VIPKid is a great option, and has served me and my family well as we work to pay off our student loans.

CONS of Teaching with VIPKid

Time Difference – you may be waking up at absurd hours of the night to teach classes, based on your time zone. On the east coast, we are exactly 12 hours behind them, so when it’s 5pm in China, it’s 5am here. Some mornings, I wake up at 4am to teach classes. It is what it is though, and the extra money and convenience of being at home are worth it to me.
It’s a slow start – it does take about a month to get consistent bookings, or at least it did for me. Stay patient and consistent, and the bookings will come.
Little control over which students book you- I want to preface this with 99% of the kids are awesome. This is actually mathematically correct, as I’ve taught 202 kids, and only 2 of them have been awful – 1%. But those two kids, man oh man, they gave me a run for my money. VIPKid doesn’t have a way to block students who are behavior issues. Basically, as long as they are not in physical danger or displaying any sort of nudity, we are expected to keep teaching them (it’s never come to that in my classes). I say this not to put you off, but to make sure you are informed. Like I said, most of the children are AH-MAY-ZING, but I have had behavior problems, and there’s really no way to handle it other than to deal with it.

If you are thinking about pursuing VIPKid, I say, do it. I tell my husband all the time: I wish we had done this sooner. Doing this gives me an extra $700-$1000 dollars a month depending on how much I work, which goes right to paying off our student loans. I feel like we’re making progress, and I feel empowered, like I finally have control of our money. You can feel this way too!

If you’re interested, you can read this post about the interview and hiring process. This is my referral link for VIPKid – if you decide to apply and use my code, shoot me an email and I will gladly help support you throughout the process. This has changed my life, and I hope that you can see a change in yours if that’s where you are in your journey.

5 Reasons to use Google Drive in your classroom (..and how I use it in mine)!

May 26, 2020

As an Amazon affiliate, I make a small commission based on qualifying purchases. Please read full disclaimer here.

Google Drive has changed me as an educator – it saves me time, saves me space, and it has allowed me to become the organized teacher that I always envisioned. Whenever I lead a professional development session for my colleagues, I always get “This is amazing! Your lessons are so clear! You’re so organized!” Well, you can be, too, with a little help and understanding of Google Drive.

Benefits of Google Drive:

Paperless classroom – I am very fortunate in that I work with students in a 1 to 1 device school. If you are in a 1 to 1 device learning environment, or an environment where students are permitted an iPad or laptop, this approach can be highly successful. With Google Drive, there is no lost work and no crushed papers in the bottom of your bag. You can practice minimalism in your classroom because you don’t need to find a place to store all their papers, notebooks and journals while you grade them. If you are a floater teacher, (like me!), you are set up for success, as you will always have all of your lesson plans, hand outs, and teaching materials with you. You are not taking home a ton of stuff to grade because those assignments are now on your computer – for me that means I’m not lugging home 60 marble copy books for their journals, or 60 ten page research papers, or 60 sets of 20 notecards. I’m also not lugging home my lesson plan book, which is also hosted on Google Drive, more on that here. I’m not carrying home anything at all, as a matter of fact, which brings me to my next point.
You do not have to lug your work computer home – all of your work is hosted on the cloud. I’m not sure about your job, but at mine, our computers are far from sexy. They are these huge clunky things that take up a million of space in my bag. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful, but I don’t want to carry it home. If I do need to access any of my work files for whatever the reason, all I do is log on to my Google Drive account from my home computer and BAM – everything is there.
Auto Saves Work – What’s nice about Google Drive is that it saves every keystroke, so you (and your students) never have to save again. If the computer crashes, you can log onto a different device (even a cell phone with the app downloaded) and access all of your files with no glitches.
Elimates the run around from students – “Oh, I turned it in, you didn’t get it?” – “I swear I turned it in!” – “Oh? The attachment didn’t work? That’s so crazy!” – “Oh. My computer crashed last night so I couldn’t do it and I lost my whole research paper, so can I get an extension?” There is always that one kid. Right now as you are reading this, I’m sure you’re picturing that one student that is always trying to get over, always trying your last nerve, and always trying to get out of being held accountable. Everything is time stamped for the “Oh…I turned it in crowd” and saved automatically for the “Oh…my computer crashed crowd” eliminating the run-around. It’s such a great feature.
Collaboration – Google Drive is the most amazing thing in the world for group projects. THE MOST AMAZING THING. Google Drive allows the option for multiple collaborators on one document. You cangrant more than one person permission to edit a document. More on that below.

How I use it in my classroom:

Three words: Dynamic Shared Folders – Students create a folder on Google Drive, and give me permission to edit it. This means that I can access their Student Work folder, and collaborate with the students on all their assignments. I can rearrange, organize, make comments, and provide them with feedback on any and all assignments. It’s glorious.
All Worksheets are digital – What’s nice about this is that you can actually upload pre existing Word Documents or PowerPoint presentations to Google Drive and distribute them that way, too! I use the platform to push worksheets to my students, that they then make a copy of, complete and submit it electronically. I can review their work in one of two ways – 1. I can go into their Dynamic Shared Folder and check it out that way or 2. Students submit their work online using your school’s LMS (Blackbaud, OnCampus, PowerSchool, Moodle, Etc). I usually go in through the LMS.
Groupwork – Google Drive is 10/10 a game changer for groupwork.You can assign one group presentation, and each kiddo can be on the document at the same time, and simultaneously make live edits. You can also go into the blueprint of the document, and see which student typed up which slide, eliminating the “Who did the work?” question. It’s amazing. Think about this on a team scale too – how many times have you been trying to collaborate with your team and you send a word document electronically, and then someone else makes edits, and sends it back, and then another person makes changes, but they edited the old document and not the new one – it’s confusing and difficult. Google Drive eliminates all of that – you send your team the link to one document, and everyone edits that one document.
Journals – Gone are the days of those stupid marble copy books. Hello Google Drive Journals! I push the kids their journals every Monday electronically, and they have the week to complete them.
Discussion Boards – not only can you do small group work with Google Drive, but you can do cross-sectional group work as well! Say I’m teaching two sections of Honors – I will put both sections of Honors on one discussion board document, and the kids are able to work with the kids in the other section electronically. It’s so fun.

There are some drawbacks to Google Drive as well, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. For me, I think the only real negative is being on the computer constantly. You’re looking at a computer screen all the time. Invest in some of those blue light glasses because constantly looking at a screen can give you a headache. Take breaks, drink water, and move around. I also think Google Drive can be cumbersome if you are using a trackpad and not a mouse. My work laptop only comes with a trackpad. Our IT department bought me this mouse – it’s cheap and it works great for what I need to do. I have dropped it a thousand times, and it is still going strong! I find myself getting frustrated when I forget my mouse somewhere – I can whip through things so quickly when I’m using a mouse, and I think it’s worth the $12 investment.

Like I tell my colleagues when I lead a PD session on Google Drive – Do one thing at a time. Pick one thing and try it. I made the switch to a paperless classroom gradually. The first year, I committed to doing Journals. As I got comfortable with that, I added some electronic lessons, like discussion boards. When I felt good about that, I switched over my lesson plan book to Google Drive. Then, I switched my entire Multi-phase Composition over to Google Drive (thesis, notecards, annotated bibliography, outline, rough draft, peer edit, and final paper). THAT was so scary for me!! I was worried I was going to do something wrong, and that my students would be confused. I was scared of failure. But I learned, I figured it out, and it was a success. Now, everything I do in my classroom is on Google Drive. It doesn’t have to be an overnight process. But if you put your mind to it and choose one area to learn, you can also have success in your classroom!

Are you using Google Drive in your classroom? How do you use Google Drive? I’m always looking for new ways and new creative lessons! Share in the comments below 🙂

VIPKid – My Experience with the hiring process

May 13, 2020

As an Amazon affiliate, I make a small commission based on qualifying purchases. Please read full disclaimer here.

About a year ago, I scoured the internet to find a side hustle that would work for me. Baby girl was due in August, and childcare expenses are NO JOKE. In my intense research, I came across a lot of articles and suggestions, but one that kept popping up was VIPKids.

“Work from home and make $22 an hour!”

“All you need is a bachelor’s degree!”

“Follow your passion!”

“BLAH BLAH BLAH!”

Honestly, at first it seemed kind of scammy – so for a while I bypassed it. I read more articles. I cried with my husband about how we’d never be able to afford child care. I signed up to teach summer school and host extra summer camps. I cried some more when there wasn’t enough enrollment so my summer work was cancelled. I meditated. I prayed. I read some more, and I kept coming across VIPKids – so I thought … ‘What the hell?” and started to do some research.

VIPKid is a company who connects elementary aged students in China to teachers in America/Canada to learn English.

I checked into the legitimacy of the company – it checked out.

I searched on YouTube, and found a million accounts, stories, tips, how tos, demos to really learn about and witness the process – I watched and learned.

I talked to my husband. I talked to my parents. And then, as I was watching yet another youtube video I thought, you know what? YOLO. And I logged onto the website to apply.

The first step of the process is the pre-screening application – name, education (you need at least a bachelor’s degree to apply), and when all that has checked out, you are taken to a page where you sign up to do a demo lesson.

There are three ways to teach your demo lesson. You can:

Scan a QR code and teach a slide
Record yourself teaching and send it in for submission and review
Schedule a live demo/interview, which is the option I went with.

The demo lesson materials are all on the website, and there are practice rooms available to use to simulate what the lesson will be like. I went through the demo lesson in the practice room a few times to rehearse.

The next thing I did was to tackle my ‘classroom.’ I have a pinboard of so many ideas for a classroom set up, but I wanted to do something on the cheap for the interview because I didn’t know if I’d be hired. I used a free package from Teachers Pay Teachers, printed off the images I wanted, and then laminated them using my laminator (this one from 3M and it’s GOLDEN). I also grabbed some free alphabet cards on TpT, to just show I could diversify the resources I used.

After a few days of mulling about on the internet – reading blogs, watching YouTube on the subject, attending the Preparation Webinar, I finally felt like I was ready to schedule my demo lesson. There are plenty of times to choose from – it’s seriously every half hour of every day. I used the intermittent days in between to practice, practice, practice.

I know it may seem silly to spend so much time reading and practicing, but I really enjoy walking into a situation fully prepared and knowing that I’ve done the best that I possibly can. Plus, I’ve got Baby Girl and her child care to pay for now, so failure is just not an option.

I ‘showed up’ to the interview 30 minutes early to make sure my computer worked, and to troubleshoot any issues.

Here’s a list of what I used for the interview itself:

Regular old iPhone headphones. VIPkids, recommends the headsets, but I was not prepared to drop $20 extra dollars on something if I wasn’t going to get hired.
A plain old whiteboard with a regular dry erase marker – my husband had this in our storage locker.
This ESL Pack from Teachers Pay Teachers
These flash cards here – I printed off the “Mm” for the lesson.

Ways to be successful for your VIPKid Interview:

Check out my Pinboard for VIPKid – I’ve gathered a bunch of helpful links and ideas for various blogs and ideas on the subject!
Watch Demo Lessons on YouTube – I typed “VIPKID DEMO LESSON” into YouTube and found a lot of helpful video.
Set up your ‘classroom’ – I invested a total of ZERO dollars into this part of the interview, by using materials that I had in my craft dresser and downloading and printing off several FREE Resources from Teachers Pay Teachers.
PRACTICE – for the love of God, please do not go into your interview cold. There when you log onto the website, there are practice classrooms available to you so you can simulate what your interview and teaching experience will be like. Use the resources available to you and PREPARE!
Use TPR, Speak Slowly and SMILE – A video for that is here.

Needless to say, I got the job. As far as breaking down the financials are concerned, I get paid a base rate of $8 per class. There is an incentive bonus of an extra $1 per class if you show up on time. Psssssht – no brainer – so now we are at $9 a class. On top of this, if you hit the 45 class per month mark, there is also an additional incentive of $1 per class. I have always made this goal while working with VIPKid. So while my contract says $8 a class, it’s actually $10 for a 25 minute class, so its $20 an hour. Not too shabby for sitting at home in sweatpants, to make some extra money to pay for child care.

Lastly, the shameless plug for my referral link is here, if you are interested in applying and you use my code, I can help you through the process and give you all my stuff so you will be at your best.

I’d say if this is something you’re interested in, go for it. I tell my husband all the time, I wish I had found this sooner.

Why I no longer plan in an Erin Condren Teacher Planner…(and what I use instead)

May 27, 2019

My days are WILD. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think the wild-ness of teaching is part of the draw for me – I love the unexpected, and I love that every day I walk into something different – it’s new, the kids are exciting and I am not chained to a desk all day.

However, with all the chaos that is inherent to teaching, so is my natural desire to find order, simplicity and minimalism in my classroom environment. I’m a floater teacher – my regular course load this year consisted of Middle and High School Choir, 9th Grade English, Intro to Theatre, Musical Theatre and 8th Grade Theatre.

I teach in a different space Every. Single. Period. Because of my transience, 5 years ago I switched to a paperless classroom. I refuse to wheel composition books and binders home to grade with me in a cart. I refuse to spend what little planning time I have chained to the copier. I refuse to spend time, energy and money developing a way for students to turn in worksheets, or throw my back out carrying around paper copies of essays to grade. I decided to take back my life and work SMARTER, not HARDER. Classwork, homework, novels, teaching materials are all scanned electronically and submitted using a combination of Google Drive and our online learning platform, and I finally feel like I have found balance between teaching, grading, organization, and my personal life.

…but for some reason I held on to a paper planner for the duration of my 10-year teaching adventure. I drunk the Erin Condren Kool-Aid Long ago, and I suppose it was the last thing I wanted to give up to go truly digital. In my Erin Condren days, I spent a whole planning period on Friday afternoons filling out my lesson plans for the following week – meticulously writing each class in a different color, decorating with appropriate stickers, fashioning my to-do lists with gusto and aplomb, but I wasted so much time that I could be putting to the one million of tasks that are thrown my way in a day. Around December, out went my ritual of writing in the planner. I was just too damn busy.

Taking out my beautiful, huge Erin Condren Teacher Planner on the tiny high-top tables eventually started to stress me out. It was just another task on my to-do list, I wasn’t enjoying it, and I was falling into disorganization because I wasn’t writing my lessons down. It was also physically weighing me down because I had to carry that big beautiful planner in my teacher bag every single period. Is it really worth it?

I parted ways with my Erin Condren Teacher planner this February. It pained me to do so, because it’s gorgeous and expensive and I loved it, but it just wasn’t working with my current situation. If I still had one classroom space where I could spread out and keep it in one spot, it would be more functional for me, but with my current teaching situation as a floater, it just doesn’t work.

I just want everyone to take a moment of silence for my Erin Condren.

Ok. Thanks. Because it was a hard parting, because I do love her and she is beautiful. I just really like saving money and functionality more.

Now, enter: THE GOOGLE DRIVE LESSON PLANNER.

Game changer. Total and complete game changer.

Of course, I first turned to Pinterest and did a search for ‘digital teacher planner.’

And what I found, I was not disappointed.

Having my planner on my laptop has been a complete and total game changer. I used this particular one from Teachers Pay Teachers. There are A MILLION ways to customize this planner. Not only does she include two different themes, but she also includes the Google Drive file templates for anywhere from 1-8 classes in horizontal and vertical layouts, as well as the monthly views for each month of the year. You have all the files you need to create a custom teacher planner of your choice. If you find that digital planing is not your thing, you can always print the files and put them in your own binding. There’s also a digital sticker pack she includes to decorate with things like “Early Release” and “Field Trip” that are also completely customizable. If that’s not enough, she includes FREE updates for life. That’s right. FREE. Every year you can log in and download the upcoming school year’s templates and it’s AMAZING. I paid $17.99 ONE TIME for a planner that makes my life a million times easier, compared to the $60 I spent YEARLY on my Erin Condren. I mean, on a tight teacher salary…even TIGHTER now that we have Baby Girl’s childcare to pay for … it’s really a no brainer. I’ve even converted multiple members of our teaching faculty to this planner. It’s amazing!

I’ve been operating out of a paperless classroom for maybe 4+ years now…I have no idea why I waited so long to switch to a digital format for my lesson plan book. It only seems natural to make the switch. My students love it too, because I frequently project it at the beginning of class to set the tone for the week. “Now everybody take out your planners – let’s take a look at what we have going on this week!” and “Here’s what’s coming up…when would YOU like to take your test?” Giving them a say in something as simple as scheduling a test or project makes them feel like they are part of the process of this collaborative learning…(especially when I could care less if a test is on Wednesday or Thursday…)

My parting thoughts are that if you have any inclination or impulse to try digital planning but you feel nervous, or overwhelmed, take the plunge and DO IT. There’s no time like the present, and with being on the brink of summer, it’s a good time to try it out and get your bearings before the school year. You will LOVE it!

Here is the link again if you are interested in checking it out!

I’d love talking about planners, and I’d love to know what kind of teacher planner do YOU use? Digital? Erin Condren? Plum paper?