Ok tutors out there (hey that means you Virginia and Sue :-)), I had an interesting request today. The director of a private school for disabled kids (mixed ld, bd, etc.) called and asked if I was still interested in a job. I had contacted her many months ago. I said, well I was doing pretty well with my private practice, however, I may be interested in taking on some of their kids for reading part time (ie 2-3 times a week) in the morning.
Has anyone done this? One kind of guidelines or ideas do you consider? First I know they are a private, not for profit school. The schools here do not have high tuitions as this is quite a poor state. Second, this is not my usual hours so she could help me fill difficult to fill slots. OTOH, I don’t want to give my time away. It isn’t far so I don’t think travel is a big factor. I’d imagine I would do this as a consultant?
—des
Re: What to charge private not for profit school?
Des — I have never been lucky enough to get an offer like this, but I have taught ESL classes for a computer training school, part-time college classes, etc.
Here’s a suggestion to calculate a fair pay rate:
Assume that teachers work 25 hours in class, or 30 hours if they have *required* supervision in lunchrooms or whatever. Yes, teachers work a lot longer than that when you count preparation and grading and paperwork — but you will be doing that too, so don’t put yourself down for that.
The school year is 36 weeks long (more if teachers are required to do extra time before or after classes). 36 weeks x 25 class hours = 900 class hours per year, 0r 36 weeks x 30 class plus supervision hours = 1080 class plus supervision hours per year. Let’s take an average of 1000 hours per year actually supervising students.
Find out what a teacher with *your* qualifications and experience would be paid by this school. Let’s say just to pull a number out of a hat, say$30000. per year. It can be a lot more or a lot less than that, depending on the teacher’s qualifications, and degree of state support, but take that for a middle range.
$30,000 divided by 1000 hours is $30 per hour for actual student contact time, again assuming that you also do preparation and paperwork without charging extra. If your school would pay you more than that if they hired you full time, ask for more, and if they would pay less, you can accept less.
I left the ESL classes which were paying me a lot less than this for exactly this reason. As long as they were being supportive and friendly I was willing to accept pay below the usual level for light work, but when they started putting extra demands and stress on me and treating me in an unprofessional manner, it wasn’t worth it. Especially since I was subsidizing materials out of my own pocket — it became unprofitable.
As in private tutoring, you tend to be rated at your own valuation. If you set yourself up too cheaply, you will be considered cheap.
Re: What to charge private not for profit school?
Des — I have never been lucky enough to get an offer like this, but I have taught ESL classes for a computer training school, part-time college classes, etc.
Here’s a suggestion to calculate a fair pay rate:
Assume that teachers work 25 hours in class, or 30 hours if they have *required* supervision in lunchrooms or whatever. Yes, teachers work a lot longer than that when you count preparation and grading and paperwork — but you will be doing that too, so don’t put yourself down for that.
The school year is 36 weeks long (more if teachers are required to do extra time before or after classes). 36 weeks x 25 class hours = 900 class hours per year, 0r 36 weeks x 30 class plus supervision hours = 1080 class plus supervision hours per year. Let’s take an average of 1000 hours per year actually supervising students.
Find out what a teacher with *your* qualifications and experience would be paid by this school. Let’s say just to pull a number out of a hat, say$30000. per year. It can be a lot more or a lot less than that, depending on the teacher’s qualifications, and degree of state support, but take that for a middle range.
$30,000 divided by 1000 hours is $30 per hour for actual student contact time, again assuming that you also do preparation and paperwork without charging extra. If your school would pay you more than that if they hired you full time, ask for more, and if they would pay less, you can accept less.
I left the ESL classes which were paying me a lot less than this for exactly this reason. As long as they were being supportive and friendly I was willing to accept pay below the usual level for light work, but when they started putting extra demands and stress on me and treating me in an unprofessional manner, it wasn’t worth it. Especially since I was subsidizing materials out of my own pocket — it became unprofitable.
As in private tutoring, you tend to be rated at your own valuation. If you set yourself up too cheaply, you will be considered cheap.
Re: What to charge private not for profit school?
Thanks for your excellent advice!
>Find out what a teacher with *your* qualifications and experience would be paid by this school. Let’s say just to pull a number out of a hat, say$30000. per year. It can be a lot more or a lot less than that,
Hah hah! Dream on— this is NM! :-)
We are practically a third world country.
How many hours is a full year school?
(I am thinking there are longer breaks— that sort of thing and/or they take off one of the summer months.)
>I left the ESL classes which were paying me a lot less than this for exactly this reason. As long as they were being supportive and friendly I was willing to accept pay below the usual level for light work, but when they started putting extra demands and stress on me and treating me in an unprofessional manner, it wasn’t worth it. Especially since I was subsidizing materials out of my own pocket — it became unprofitable.
Yes, I am willing to take a bit less than I am charging if they are nice to me and don’t give me extras (other demands, like watching recess or something). I am done with watching recess, supervising the cafeteria, etc. etc.!!
Since I have bought the materials already, the materials have pretty much been subsidized already. There are always some expendables though.
>As in private tutoring, you tend to be rated at your own valuation. If you set yourself up too cheaply, you will be considered cheap.
Yep, exactly my question. The other problem, if I am putting in all those hours there could potentially be a parent or three who would take school/morning hours and pay me better than the school can. However, I would be willing to take that risk if paid fairly, if treated well (no reason to think this won’t happen, very nice director). In exchange I would get somewhat “guaranteed hours” that does not come with regular tutoring.
Bobby is sick and I don’t get paid. I could do a small group, which would more guarantee that if Bobby is sick at least Jenny and Jose aren’t.
—des
Re: What to charge private not for profit school?
I’d give it the consideration of it being regular, and possibly ongoing — more regular income. That and the draw of being able to show the public sector what works! So $20-25 could work… tho’ I would perhaps say upfront that that pay scale would extend to any other stuff you do, envisioning, say, IEP meetings and that sort of thing.
Re: What to charge private not for profit school?
Yes, expect pay for meetings and other time they take from you. *Either* hourly pay for each hour you have to show up, period, *or* a 10% to 20% higher rate for class hours with the assumption that you also do meeting hours.
Again, don’t sell your time and work cheaply.
And so what if you have already bought the materials? That is investment that this pay is supposed to recoup; if you hadn’t bought those materials, you could have spent the money on yourself and the school would have to shell out. Besides, some of them will almost certainly be damaged or lost or stolen and you will have to replace them. And you will have to make copies and such.
Law of the universe: There Ain’t No Such Thing As a Free Lunch (for you *or* from you)
Don’t tell me NM is so bad; we’re doing a lot better these days especially in the sity, but come some time and see backwoods Quebec; the parts that have roads, that is …
Re: What to charge private not for profit school?
>And so what if you have already bought the materials? That is investment that this pay is supposed to recoup; if you hadn’t bought those materials, you could have spent the money on yourself and the school would have to shell out. Besides, some of them will almost certainly be damaged or lost or stolen and you will have to replace them. And you will have to make copies and such.
I was thinking if, say, I use the Barton system, that I have the school buy extra tiles and other sorts of expendables. That way my own set never gets touched and I don’t need to drag my set back and forth. Anyway it is recommended that each kid their own set to use.
There are other factors in a materials sort of charge.
>
Law of the universe: There Ain’t No Such Thing As a Free Lunch (for you *or* from you)
Hah, isn’t taht the truth.
>Don’t tell me NM is so bad; we’re doing a lot better these days especially in the sity, but come some time and see backwoods Quebec; the parts that have roads, that is .
Yes, I just doubt that anybody gets $30,000 for a private school, except of the country day variety. And yes they do have one fo those here.
Nah, NM isn’t so bad, actually I like it a lot.
—des
Not my area of expertise, but the guy in the office next to mine has been volunteering as a reading tutor(primarily ESL) for many years and is now planning for retirement. He has just been offered a part-time job as a reading tutor at a factory. The deal is 9 hours per week at $30 an hour. A local school system reading specialist didn’t want the job and told the factory to call my coworker.
John