Really struggling on the tutoring business!!

Des,
Have you given your name to the resource or regular ed teachers at the local schools? Many times parents ask the teachers for recommendations and if you are on the list that may be helpful.
Also, schools offer “extended year programming” as part of IEPs. Have you contacted SPED directors to see if you can offer your services there?

Des,

I have a neuropsyche who refers kids to me, an audiologist, pediatrician, and some teachers. I did advertise in one school newsletter and got kids that way and I worked myself out of a job as they got remediated. One parent wanted to come back after summer but my rates weren’t bargain basement like they had been when I started plus I had my bachelors by that time so I started charging more…

Now that I have my masters I charge about $55.00 a clinical hour… Last week one of my ADD regulars stood me up…too many things on their plate like working…but at least they called..

Hang in there…it takes time to build up the rapport and reputation with people. But be consistent and try and meet with the people who you feel you would get good referrals from.

Since I have never worked in a school, I don’t know any teachers (don’t know any socially either). How would you proceed to contact teachers, etc? I advertised in a little school bulletin. Goes out to many of the public schools but got no calls even.

While I can/will continue part time, I can’t really afford to hang in there indefinitely as I don’t have the money. I will do this part-time, and limit things a little (no Saturdays for example).

I’m going to try and get a reading teacher assignment. The ad said “Academic therapy or Wilson trained”. I said I was certified in some other OG approach and they were still interested, said the position listed was filled. Said well they are all pretty similar. I think Barton is superior but no doubt I could throw some of those approaches in there. No doubt it would prove a little frustrating as I don’t think they really work with the kids long enough a time. Another thing is if I could work for the schools part-time.

I suppose the remediating yourself out of a job thing is quite a common problem. I suppose I might ask another question on that.

—des

Who is your target market? Where I am, lots of reading tutors also do SAT vocab tutoring which is big business in the summer with high schoolers; tutoring for the new SATs is in high demand in my area, and offers a bigger pool of potential customers in addition to LD students. Do you speak Spanish? Foreign language tutoring for LD middle and high schoolers is also in demand.

Well I am pretty much a dyslexia tutor. I would do math (primary and intermediate)— this gets very misunderstood and most of my calls are like for intermediate algebra. I most definitely cannot do intermediate algebra. I wish I could send them to Victoria but there is a bit of a commute. :-)

I don’t know anything about the SAT thing. This is a whole different area that I have not even considered, don’t know about, don’t have materials for. I would not want to be going and buying new materials at this stage.
What is involved in this?

—des

Yes, summer can be rough.

I am working now with several young men out of school and crossing my fingers that they will keep up.

I’m doing a lot of second language tutoring to adults as well as kids and that helps too.

I will not do SAT tutoring. What people want is memorization of instant answers, and it is not very effective and also if it does work, just sets the kid up for college failure.

Keep up the advertising and look at other things to do in the summer.

I wonder if advertising in private schools would be better than advertising in public schools? I know several families in private schools who have children being tutored privately. I’ve noticed too that Waldorf schools attract families who are very committed to their philosophy, but often do not seem to have good reading programs — thus a lot of children needing a reading tutor. Perhaps you could run a regular ad in a local private school’s newsletter…..

Nancy

I have done more private schools (don’t know if I mentioned that). Haven’t gotten any contacts yet. There’s a few more to hit I believe. We don’t have any Waldorf schools in ABQ, to my knowledge. I see why that might be useful. I don’t think they really deal with reading.

I don’t have second language skills. I did contact voc. rehab and have tried repeatedly to reach Job Corps.

Thanks,

—des

[quote=”Nancy”]I wonder if advertising in private schools would be better than advertising in public schools? I know several families in private
Nancy[/quote]

Hardly anyone can make a living tutoring. You can supplement your income by tutoring or it can be a second income in the family but it usually can’t be your mainstay.

Successful tutors around her are those who taught for a school, established a reputation and then when they left parents followed with them with their kids. but those are few and far between and they were retired and only needed a supplemental income.

I find tutoring to be a kind of zero sum game. Unless working with very specific skills such a reading which I don’t tutor, I find our unsucessful students around here needs LOTS of time to be helped to be successful. They’re swamped with homework the successful completion of which is key to school success around here. I need two/three hours a week at least to help them through that and few families can afford that kind of tutoring time. So I cut my rates to make it affordable or otherwise I couldn’t help the student enough to make the tutoring worthwhile in the family’s eyes.

Good luck.

Sara,

I find myself thinking the same thing. I can’t really significantly improve reading skills in an hour a week. But how many people can afford 2 to 4 hours a week? Very few.

I am probably the only person who can do in depth reading testing in this county, but parents wouldn’t have a clue as to why my training and experience would be an advantage over the average first grade teacher who tutors for some extra income. They’d probably choose her because she’d likely charge $10 less per hour than I do.

The only possibility for me to ever make any money tutoring is to open an office about a half hour away in a welathy lake residential area. Those people would have the means to pay a resonable rate. But if I am going to work in my town for minimum wage, I may as well be the WalMart greeter.

Janis

Really wish I had known how untenable the whole thing was going into it. Yes, IF i could only find those wealthy parents in the very nice sections of town— there must be some— then I could make it. But so far, only one of the parents is anything remotely wealthy. Most of them are struggling to
pay for tutoring. It’s tough for them to come even twice a week. I think some of them call up and cancel just to make ends meet. I think they are real anxious to stop so that they won’t have pay more, so they might take them out before they are ready. I think that the parent that just disappeared may have done it for the money— could tell me. OTOH, I wouldn’t take anybody once a week. Anything I have ever read makes me feel this is impossible.

I’m feeling the same about the Walmart greeter.

Well actually getting a “real” job as much as I think I could do much more good this way, if only I could find the clients.

—des

Maybe this can be our support group…unappreciated reading tutors and teachers.

I do have another job. But very honestly, other than one of the mothers of my students, no one really values my training in teaching reading. I sat in an IEP meeting last week. We were deciding about placement for next year for a child. Twice that principal insulted me without realizing it, I’m sure. First she comments on the rise in the child’s math test score and then credits the regular class teacher. Never mind that the kid isn’t even working in math on grade level and I was the one who did one-on-one math with her. Then, while talking about reading the principal asked if she had been in the Language! program that an LD teacher and reading teacher are using…as in trying to brainstorm some “better” services. Heck, those are groups of at least 6 kids and I have her one-on-one for PG and LMB!!! See, even the so-called “educated” people are totally ignorant about remedial methods. I am fairly sick of being unappreciated. I would like to get out of the public schools very much. But I need to keep at least some part-time income coming in so I don’t have to depend on tutoring alone. My husband’s job allows me some flexibility in not having to work full-time, but I like to go to reading trainings, go on vacations, etc., so I like some steady income coming in!

Incidentally, that one mother did schedule 12 sessions with me this summer. She sees his progress and knows I’m committed to giving him the best possible methods. But moms like that are few and far between.

Seriously, des, taking another kind of job and just tutoring on the side might be a good idea until the business builds up more.

Janis

Des,
I still think it would be worth it to meet with the reading teachers, resource teachers in your local public schools. I used to work in the local school system and parents were always looking for reading/writing/math tutor recommendations.
Have you called the SPED directors? They often need tutors for the extended year programming that is written into IEPs.
Make some appointments to meet with public school staff. Sending in flyers isn’t good enough - they need to meet you, learn your methods, etc., THEN they can recommend you to parents.

I have contacted SPED directors. I haven’t run into anyone who is too enthused (except a private school principal— already has a tutor though, so I’m second string at best). Too be honest they seem a bit suspicious, and not so friendly. Like how dare you invade on us wonderful public school folks. I called a Christian school and got asked where I went to church. Took me quite a bit by surprise. Maybe if I were a better sales person myself… I did do tutoring at a charter school last year but made $10/hr. I was written into the kids IEP.

Anyway yes, getting another job does seem prudent, esp as I will run out of money if I don’t. I will still do this but quite part time. I won’t give up on those I already have/ am working with.

Well Janis, I feel we are like a little beleagured support group sometimes.

—des

Geeze I am sounding so negative. Many of you are offering many good ideas. Thing is I can’t do many of them right now as I am just out of cash and need a job. Sorry, I don’t mean to say I don’t appreciate the ideas. Some of them would be worth exploring. Perhaps if I actually work in the schools it would be easier to get in there and find people?

—des

Des — my personal experience with public schools is (unprintable). However you can give it a try and you may be lucky; just be prepared for a lot of rejection beofre you hit success.

I have decided to go for tutoring as my main source of income; several factors including stress and health. It is slow but picking up gradually

I do get some other income from renting a couple of rooms; have mentioned my tenants a couple of times, presently two nice young men who work in construction, one mornings and the other nights :? . I have also had exchange students and they are fun, although they do take more time (college exchange students pay you; *don’t* consider high school as you have to support them). I like having some other people around, young adults so they take care of themselves, and it sure does help at house payment time.
I live in the handyman’s special with stalled-out renovations and it keeps the overhead down.
I’m also supposed to get some small amount of money from the ex to help with the transition, but he’s been even more (unprintable) so the old bills are backed up.

I have had five new tutoring referrals this month alone from the internet. Two of them are definitely working with me, although on bizarre schedules, one is under discussion, one was unpleasant about prices again (I refuse to go downtown for less than the cost of parking in the city, duh), and one wants qualifications that I don’t have. So, that’s five referrals in a month and 40% continuation rate — very good!

**You definitely need to get your name up on the internet, immediately.**
Go NOW to iser.com and register as a tutor. It will cost you $90 per year, and you’ll make that back in a month or two. The lady who runs the site does not always answer quickly so re-send your email every week or two until you get an answer. I get a referral every month or two from there.
Join the International Dyslexia Association and fill out their silly form to register yourself as a tutor. Your training will stand you in good stead here — you are wanted, even if it isn’t showing now. This will cost you around $60 but it is definitely worth it in the long run.
The IDA has made a royal mess out of my attempts to register — first they took a year to get me registered in Maryland due to office backup, and by the time I was registered I had moved to Montreal; then they registered me 3000 miles away in my “local” office in Vancouver British Columbia; then they registered me in a different “local” office in New York City (I had asked for northern New York state, Plattsburgh area); then they moved my northern New England (I’d asked for Burlington VT) registration to Boston. Obviously someone in their office has a disability involving geography. So all the referrals they have given me have come from hundreds of miles away and haven’t been possible. But there *were* referrals, despite the fact than I’m not officially OG certified. Since you’re in an area that they may have heard of (unless they’re like the lady selling tickets to the Atlanta Olympics — have you heard that one?) you should get better results. Invest now for the future and register with them.
Your city should have some sort of a website — even my dinky little town on an island has one. These sites generally have some connections to local businesses and you can buy an ad with them. I’ve got to join my town’s boosters club and get my name on the list of local businesses as soon as I can dig up $85 (Canadian) that isn’t used yet.
There may be other websites that have local info; I advertise on one called moremontreal.com or toutmontreal.com This is a commercial website that has info on just about any topic, some free tourist stuff and some paid advertising. This also costs me $45 (Canadian) every six months.
So for $200 or $300 you can have your name and qualifications all over so that when a desperate parent goes searching for help and uses a web search, you appear.

I’m not getting rich or as yet making a dent in the old debts, but it is paying the running expenses.

How are your raw skills? I made ends meet nicely doing temp work (I foiund the “upscale” temp agencey in Richmond, VA) doing things I could never have done more than three days running… but I looked good ‘cause it was over in three days. (THe Girl Scouts were ready to hire me as a full time secretary; didn’t believe I’d have to hate Girl Scouts and myself to take them up on it.)
Marketing: have you posted graphically above average bills at the upscale apartment complexes and/or grocery stores? Churches? Homeschool groups? I keep meaning to put together a presentation on multisensory stuff and sharing it w/ our local folks to cultivate a relationship (but I’m afraid, consistently, it’s the People Stuff that tends to get put off — think I”ll go work on the website:))
I’ve seriuolsy considered buying a house and renting rooms to, say, three carefully screened college kids with LD issues and offering support and their own rooms (instead of the dorm chaos). However, I’d need somebody to keep track of things and clean up after me ;)
Mainly, I’ve tried to use “downtime” as professional development time. It’s not really that hard to get your own website going (my company asks something like $10/month… but I spent a month designing and planning before I went and did it. I wasn’t even sure at all I was going to do it — I figured I would do the planning and write some articles just for the learning experience. The O’Reilly publishers books on computer stuff are really good — and if the library doesn’t have them, these days you can treat a bookstore as a library if you want to and look over a book and take copious notes.) If you want a corner of my website, let me know — you could be published :-)
Surfing rocks, by the way! I made a few hundred bucks off the odd article I sold — can’t remember how I connected with “halftheplanet.com” but for a few months they did consider LDs as “real” disabliites and were willing to pay for articles about it. Then they changed hands and that changed; likewise, I found the K12 curriculum’s request for people to write Phonics STories online which was good for a year … alas, the big boss man considered me confrontational, negative and antagonistic (um, that’s what they call honesty if they say “we really want your opinion,” but it’s not what they want to hear :))
For me, jsut when I thought “Okay, I *have* to find a real job” — and would spend a week or two doing serious canvassing at Monster.com and the newspapers (including relocation)… three or four times, something would fall into my lap. Lots of it’s dumb luck — but lots of it is, as I said, using “Downtime” to stay really current with things and keep learning skills and putting learning stuff together (which reminds me… gotta tackle “Holes”…)
We bring in a few hundred each month selling comprehension & math things now, and that’s with minimal effort at marketing (though the minimal is important — since I’ve been working full time things have dropped off a bit… going to work that back into the schedule of life - but I’ve LOST my half-scanned Dyslexia Perspectives about vocabulary… anybody got a spare copy? I think the scanner must have eaten it when I wasn’t looking, and it’s stalled my personal “newletter.”)
‘nuf ramblin…. time to make something of the holiday!

just one small tip - I know, as a classroom teacher, that when it comes to parent-teacher interviews (3 times/year in Ontario), I always like to have some business cards handy with the names of tutors…that way, when I have to tell a parent their child is struggling, I can follow it up with the suggestion of a tutor (& a name & number)….I know several of my students have enlisted the help of tutors that I have suggested to my parents……just take a trip into your local schools & distribute the business cards into the teacher’s “mailboxes / cubbies” (usually in the office) with a little note “selling yourself” - go around report card/ interview time……good luck!

Well I almost can’t afford any more advertising or anything. I could maybe go for the Iser ad. And I don’t think IDA charges. (THey do ask lots of questions that before just a bit ago I don’t think I could have answered— pretty much want that OG certification for example.)
There are all sorts of skills that I have that are marketable, aside from teaching, ie dog training, computer skills (though not fixing them), etc. Of course doing any of these as a business would require its own advertising, etc. I don’t have much in the way of temp skills. I have done
temp work and due to my lousy typing ending up with the lowest paid type work doing stuff like canvassing, telemarketing (yuck) and that sort of thing. I have interesting computer skills, more appropos to teaching though than actually making money.

My idea was first to try the charter schools. The other was to try the public schools then try to eventually find a part time job with them. If I could find one right away that would be better. I have an idea that they might advertise on the inside first though.

No Victoria I am not too thrilled about the whole aspect. I never did much in the public sector like this at all. But a dollar is a dollar (unless Canadian :-)) and I am getting to the point where if I don’t get something real soon I will actually run out of money, so I don’t have a lot of time to mess around with the trying to work up more business. The schools are closed now which means that it will be hard to do much free type advertising as well. I think some of them open for summer but which ones they are I don’t know. I am keeping my practice that I have. If I get more people eventually then maybe that will work out. I just can’t run deficit spending like this for very much longer.

—des

Welp, one thing I’d do is spend some of this lovely underemployed time getting faster at typing, perhaps? (Go to google and type in “typing test” and there’s a lot of online stuff). I know what you mean about the obnoxious stuff :-( Let’s see, there’s selling apples… or you could move to Illinois — we’ve got jobs :-)

No, Sue. My problem with typing is seriously ld. I have very poor motor skills. It is not that I do NOT know how. I even threw Marvis Beacon (or whoever) accross the room, I was so frustrated. I have used Cowriter and speech to text to try and keep from typing.

For now I think the teaching idea is the best one, except that I am not so keen on working for the public schools and there are very few private special ed. I’m a little more interested in the charter school thing.
Since I am used to working in the private sector I am pretty good on living on less money and maybe can save some and try and work at this more later.

Anybody know about Title 1? I have never seen a title 1 ad or seen how anyone became one of these.

I am going to put my ad up in ISER— yes I am good at bugging people as well. :-) I have enough info to put into a IDA referral thing now.
I’m going to keep up the practice as much as possible, not fold it entirely.

—des

Oh yeah, I moved away from Illinois and don’t ever plan to go back. I like it here too much. Too bad there aren’t as many jobs.

—des

Welp… there are other programs that are less frustrating — but it sounds like a case of diminishing returns and time better invested elsewhere. Things are also changing rapidly so that what’s a nonexistent job market one day can change the next… and then change back…
But… right now I’m going to see what I can do to change the job market (hey, I dream big!!). The teachers here are actually ready to listen to the idea that college students might just need to learn to decode — the pendulum could be swingin’ back this way. I just about fainted when somebody put into my mailbox several articles that had NCTE and “decoding” on the same printed page, and entire articles espousing the need for *teaching* reading skills – specifically including decoding of multisyllable words!!! — in fourth grade and beyond… in flagrant defiance of that canard about phonics (and, therefore, decoding or anything structured) being pointless to try to teach after third grade.
So… in three years or so, all the colleges will be begging for people who know about this stuff — so be ready! (Ah, the schema one creates for motivation… now to the dull stuff of making audio files for the online vocab. work ;))

Hi Des,
Where I live there seems to be a pretty consistent need for special education aide’s in the public school. Because I didn’t need a “permanent job” I worked as a subsitute special ed aide for a little over a year. And even though I was only a “sub” I was called almost daily to work (and could have easily worked almost every day!). I really loved being able to choose when, the hours, and where I wanted to work. Sometimes I did long-term subbing and sometimes it was only for a few hours, but I really liked it. I learned A LOT. I learned how to go into any type of situation and “fill in” as if I had been there all year. I learned how to work with children who have a huge variety of disabilities (autism, ADHD, bipolar, Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, etc…). I worked with kids from mild to severe. I worked as an individual aide helping one on one, and also I worked as a classroom aide and taught in “centers.” I’ve worked with good teachers and I’ve worked with incredibly good teachers and I’ve learned an enormous amount observing them.

I originally started this to get an idea if I liked teaching (particularly special ed) and might want to become a teacher.

This year I heard about an opening for a permanent Title 1 Math Instructional Aide. I applied for the job, but when they learned about my background in reading instruction (with my own child) they decided to open up a position for me in their reading lab. It’s only part-time, I don’t make a lot of money, but I do really enjoy it. Also, I think my experience in special ed has given me some very valuable experience.

I don’t know what opportunities there are in your area, but you might want to take a look into something like this.

Laura in CA

Might be something to think of Laura. I don’t know though how frustrated I’d be with 25 years teaching experience being a one on one aide. I’ve aslo worked with every known disability. A sub might be ok as I would never really have to worry about hating it. :-)

Gosh bad attitude I have knowing I’ll go in beign frustrated!

As to needing us in about 3 years, too bad they haven’t figured out they need us NOW. Oh well. Am seeing a lot of these reading liason teachers. Am going to apply and who knows. Looks the lesser of several kinds of evils at this timel.

—des

Des,

Sorry to hear about your dry spell in the tutoring business. Some companies have policies to assist employees in obtaining literacy training. Read Right is a company that caters to such businesses. (It also provides reading tutoring in schools and prisons, as well as individuals.) If there are any companies big enough in your area, you might get some interest there.

Mariedc

Des,
Subbing may be a good temporary solution that will allow you to get your “foot into” a school district. Oftentimes from there classroom aides get hired (I had some classroom aide job offers). As a classroom aide you might work with a teacher (preferably a phenomenal one!) and oftentimes these aides “teach” at their own centers. I personally like this best because I like to work with very small groups and feel I can make the biggest impact possible. Fortunately, I’ve always worked with wonderful people who allow me a lot of opportunity to bring in my own materials (I try to incorporate a combination of PG, Seeing Stars and in teaching writing I use graphic organizers and try to talk kids through recognizing areas where they might make corrections or improvements). I just recently had an opportunity to teach the kids writing and it was soooo neat!!!!! Since I used to work as a newspaper editor, technical writer and my graduate degree is actually in creative writing, I’ve been enjoying this a lot. And it’s really neat to see the kids so proud about what they’ve written. When they focus in, and start thinking about the sound of words and sentences, recognize word tense and just learn the fine art of polishing their writing…well it’s really exciting and you see this in their faces.

But, also, the times I’ve worked on long-term one-on-one assignments were good experiences as well. Once I worked with a bipolar child who was extremely challenging. It was a true psychological challenge…how do I reach him? How do I get him interested in learning? Positive interactions with the other kids? etc…. What was the right amount of control? I actually enjoyed the challenge and he was like an interesting puzzle that I wanted to understand.

Starting off as a sub is quite nice, because you can eventually learn about other permanent opportunities you may be interested in. Good luck to you!

Laura in CA

I don’t think it’s a bad attitude to project a “worst case scenario,” especially given the reality that in a lot of systems, teachers aides are a totally unappreciated godsend, expected often to teach and do all kinds of above-and-beyond duties while getting the “pay” and “benefits” as if they ran erriands and did a few bulletin boards and other unskilled type things. I always tried to make up for that when I was teaching (including pushing for pay increases and renaming the job & description)… it really does boil down to who you’d be working with.
Also be sure to check any local colleges — they may have my job vacant :-) I know here, there are Project Goals and other TRIO-funded projects that are often desperate for tutors. The pay’s $20/hr - but w/ minimal managemetn/paperwork.
The other thing to do is develop more technical knowledge — hwo knows, you might be one of those computer programming “naturals” who can code twice as much in half the time as normal folks.
Or, we can put together the online School For Cosmic Enlightenment and Good Grammar — start developing the curriculum now, and that could be packaged on its own. Online charter schools have their niche. (And maybe take a peek at www.webfeet.com — at one point they were looking for surfers to find websites for their monthly educational magazine).

des,

What did you teach?

Janis

Well the worst case scenario has arrived and right now I have two clients. Lost another as he will be at his dad’s all year. Uncertain about fall.
I still have not heard from the one who has made “enough progress”.
If I don’t make money by fall, I am officially without any. So I am not going to be playing around trying to start this thing. I will keep what I have, even do some minimal advertising (I’ll do ISER, my ad runs in a local paper til Sept, and IDA) and keep my ear to the ground. BUT my big job right now is finding a job. As far as I’m concerned it is my ONLY job. Am right now looking into local charter schools and the reading specialist job or resource room for Albuquerque Public Schools.
There are some other things perhaps.

I am not so keen about being an assistant. Maybe it would be alright if you hadn’t had 25 years running things, but I don’t like the idea of someone “letting” me do my own thing. I think many teachers would be VERY threatened by a professional with that much experience, perhaps more than they have, working “under” them. It’s an idea though.

I also want a daily 5 day a week job that is guaranteed as I have really got to bring in the cash. I have saved no money on my house and only done only some minor repairs. My car is perhaps due for some things. So even though they MIGHT call every day it is a concern. I also have no real health insurance. It would be nice to have that!! So the whole thing is not all bad.

Janis, I taught just about every disability you can think of— ld, high risk, ed/bd, autistic, mr, cp, multiply handicapped. I mostly taught in private settings. Not as many of those around here— and they don’t pay as well.

As for taking other training, I am not sure I can work full time and do some tutoring on the side AND do some classes somewhere. I will take new clients on in tutoring. Perhaps being on the inside will help me find other teachers and referrals for some future date. Perhaps I will get some referrals from Susan Barton at some point.

I appreciate everybody’s support but I am not able to kid myself about this, I am just out of cash. I can’t put this off say a few more months and try to do more aggressive advertising or somesuch as it will just use up cash faster. I also have forthcomign $2300 of dental work and a sick cat (already has cost me $500-600).

Gosh guys, you have been so nice and helpful but I am really COMPLAINING about HAVING to do this. I don’t see that I have much choice at this point.

—des

Des — I tutored part-time for many years before making it more than half-time as it is now. It’s been a long slog and is still iffy at times.
Definitely get yourself something cash-producing in the summer. Home Depot? Local museum or other tourist things? Does the vet need help? Whatever.
Meanwhile, get the advertising out there, especially on the internet. In September you will start getting calls again.

Something to be said for the job that you *leave* at 5:00. After teaching for 15 years, I got a 6-month stint in a cubicle (at LD OnLine :-)) — it was amazing to be able to walk out at 5:00, and *not* have infinite things to still do. (Okay, it was amazing to be *paid* to read journal articles and find content & get it online, too… I’ll try & send some of my luck your way — Golden Opportunity could be around the next corner, but you can’t see it at all…)
Surf hard!! (And don’t forget to check for “GOALS” or “TRIO” stuff at local community colleges & Universities — I know here they’d love to hire you. Illinois is really…naw, even this far south of Chi-town, where it doesn’t get *that* cold, it can’t compete with where you are in more climates than atmospheric…)

Boy this thread resonates or something. Lots of answers and comments!

>Something to be said for the job that you *leave* at 5:00. After teaching for 15 years, I got a 6-month stint in a cubicle (at LD OnLine :-))

Yes there is. I can work all day on the tutoring. It might not make me any money but I have definitely put a LOT of time in it.

>luck your way — Golden Opportunity could be around the next corner, but you can’t see it at all…)

Sure. I am not bitter. I don’t REGRET the time I have spent, just wish had been more commercially viable. I have tried a lot of these things. Most haven’t been successful at all but something always has happened. I meet someone I would have been sorry if they had not been in my life or something.

> Surf hard!! (And don’t forget to check for “GOALS” or “TRIO” stuff at local community colleges & Universities

I’m trying to figure out IF they have community colleges. I did call a local, I guess what might be a cc— except they wanted someone with experience with adult learning. Well it hasn’t exactly been 0 but i can’t say I worked somewhere either. We should have some of these…
Perhaps a college that wants someone with a real special ed background. I guess stranger things…

> — I know here they’d love to hire you. Illinois is really…naw, even this far south of Chi-town, where it doesn’t get *that* cold, it can’t compete with where you are in more climates than atmospheric…

Well I love it here. Hinterlands that it is. Even though the politicians have to have DWIs to run for public office and there is a city ordinance banning architecture. In all the other ways that matter this is a great place. I’m sure there is a job with my name on it. Just finding it….

—des

Des — I’ve moved back to the urban strip on the US border, but I’ll challenge *anyone* on having been in the hinterlands. You should come up here and see sometime. :D

When I first started tutoring twenty years ago I was in a small town with about ten to twenty thousand people, on the beginning of the Alaska Highway. (Fort St John, BC, Canada if anyone wants to use Mapquest and see what the boonies look like). I had a baby at home and some other part-time work and income so the tutoring was not all of it. I managed to keep two or three steady students plus off-and-on calls for math help.

Oddly enough, two of my very first students were among the most challenging including the one with Kleinfelter’s.

Anyhow, yes the students who need you are out there, and yes you can work as a tutor, but yes, it is very good to have other sources of income to keep a balance.
I have taught college evening classes, taught driver’s safety education, rented rooms, marked correspondence papers (check with your state — this is a good steady job), tutored in college math labs, and had a failed marriage among other sources of support.

Be sure to apply for jobs like the one that wants people with experience with adults. They wanted that for my job, but seriously, the special ed background was more important — that and being able to help with math as well as reading, and that was not something really on my resume or transcripts. There are very few people who understand challenging learners especially when they’re older, and having a “generic” academic background is a huge plus.