Shining Stars Homeschooling - Information for Teacher Applicants

Unlike most schools, while we always have some students start with us at the beginning of the school year, most new clients come to us during the school year when they choose to pull their children out of school for one reason or another. Therefore, we are constantly hiring new teachers. Our positions vary from a couple of hours per week of homeschool help to 20 or more hours per week for full-time homeschool students. Most homeschool instruction takes place during the school day. All of our positions are independent contractor positions. Teachers are welcome to work with more than one client, and current teachers are offered additional clients before new teachers are hired. As independent contractors, our teachers are welcome to accept or decline any positions offered to them.

We recently expanded our service area to provide for homeschool families in all major U.S. cities and their suburbs.

Advantages of Homeschooling over After School Tutoring

1) Most homeschool clients schedule 10 - 20 hours per week, 2 - 5 hours for each session. This means more time spent teaching and less time driving between sessions. It also means more income with less clients and less unpaid prep and drive time.

2) Most homeschool instruction takes place during school hours, so you won't waste time stuck in rush hour traffic. This is also ideal for stay-at-home moms with children in school as the work can be scheduled while the children are away from home. If you already have some after school tutoring students, you can keep them while earning extra income teaching homeschoolers during the school day.

3) The curricula is provided for you with detailed lesson plans, greatly decreasing your preparation time.

Requirements:

We require all homeschool teachers to have passed their certification exams in one of the 50 states and/or have formal teaching experience in a private school or with other homeschoolers. If you have an expired certification or have completed an alternative certification program, including passing your certification exams, you do qualify to teach for us. Your certification and experience do not have to be in the state in which you are applying to teach, and we do not require you to hold a certificate in all subjects you teach for us. We do however require that you have mastery and confidence in teaching each subject you teach.

Application/Hiring Process

1) Complete the application form. You must complete the application in one sitting, so please make sure you have all information required when you begin. You will be required to upload your resume, your most recent college transcript, a copy of your driver's license or state ID, teaching certificate if you have one, and five references with phone numbers listed for each. At least three of the five references must be professional, and family members are not acceptable references.

2) We will review your application and call your references. If we think you're a good fit for the company, we will contact you to schedule a phone or Skype interview.

3) We will keep your information on file and contact you when we have a client we believe is a good match for you.

4) We'll run your background check.

5) If you're interested in the position, you may be hired immediately, or you may meet the client for approval before hiring.

6) You must submit a signed contract prior to beginning work with your first client.

Ongoing Support

The majority of our teachers come from public school backgrounds, and we understand the prospect of homeschooling can be a bit intimidating. There is no need to worry though. We work with parents and have them order curricula for you to follow before you begin. Homeschool curricula is written for parents to easily utilize, with clearly written lesson plans you are sure to find much simpler than what you used in the classroom. In addition, we provide ongoing support for our teachers. Feel free to call the director at any time if you have questions or concerns.

Flexibility

One of the greatest advantages of homeschooling is flexibility. You should never feel that you need to follow a curriculum exactly as written. Feel free to modify assignments to peak a student's interest, create your own assignments, skip topics you know the student already has mastered, or review prerequisite concepts you find the student is lacking.

Paperwork Required

Each teacher is responsible for emailing a signed timesheet to the director for each pay period. Paychecks will not be issued until timesheets are received. In addition, teachers must reconcile their lessons in our online system. This takes only a couple of minutes and may be done from a phone during each session.

Grades are required for all high school students as they will need a high school transcript. Parents of other students will make a decision regarding formal grading. Teachers send grades to the director each semester, and the director will create and send report cards and/or transcripts to the clients.

We do not require lesson plans or other unnecessary paperwork to be turned in as we believe your time is best spent actually teaching.

Payments

All teachers are paid by Shining Stars Homeschooling twice per month at a rate of $25.00 to $32.50 per hour. Clients are responsible for paying the company. Therefore teachers may never accept payment directly from a client.