11. How to Find and Vet the Best Homeschool Teachers
Quick summary: Having a wide variety of role models is so important. In the 21st century, there’s less of a need for teachers to be purveyors of information and more of a need for teachers to be compassionate guides with strong communication skills. To find a great teacher to enhance your child’s learning, we recommend looking at child life specialists, college students, actors, museum educators, and afterschool teachers. Indeed, LinkedIn and local Facebook groups can be great places to find inspiring educators.
Reasons to hire a homeschool teacher
The role of a teacher is changing
Essential qualities to look for in a homeschool teacher
The best teacher archetypes and where to find them
The four best places to find homeschool teachers
How to vet prospective teachers
Pro-tip: Act Fast
How to retain teachers
How much to pay teachers
Training resources for teachers
How to find, vet, recruit, train, and retain the best homeschool teachers, tutors, and caregivers
This section will support parents looking to enrich their child’s education with diverse role models, afterschool and summer camp coordinators, hybrid school and micro-school founders - as well as online marketplaces for tutors and classes.
Reasons to hire a homeschool teacher
We spend an entire section laying out why parents have competitive advantages over teachers when it comes to their child’s education. So it may be odd that we’re now devoting an entire section to finding the best homeschool teachers. Here’s why having outside teachers can help:
Expand horizons
It is vital to surround your child with a wide variety of mentors and role models, exposing them to different influences and points of view - widening the circle of people who love and care about them. A parent’s involvement is crucial to their child’s learning, but bringing other people into the folds only adds to that experience.
Subject experts for foreign languages - or topics you can’t learn on YouTube
We believe in an approach to teaching that involves learning with kids, not strategically relaying information. We don’t think parents need to know a subject to help their kids learn it. Rather, it’s quite powerful to learn with your child, helping them develop skills to teach themselves. But clearly, this doesn’t apply to all subjects. One rule of thumb is that if it’s a subject you can’t learn by watching youtube (like fencing or open-heart surgery), you probably shouldn’t try to teach i. Immersion is the best way to learn a foreign language, and it’s easier to become fluent the younger a child is. For that reason, some families form bilingual playgroups with a native speaker to lead them or hire a bilingual caregiver.
Teachers for group classes
Group classes are trickier to teach than 1-1 tutoring. A group class can be an excellent pretext to get kids together for an educational and social experience. For example, homeschool parents might band together and hire a chemistry teacher to run labs with a small group of teens. Often, homeschoolers have intergenerational classes where parents, grandparents, and kids learn together.
Role models for unique careers
A great teacher can change a child’s life, inspiring them to delve deep into a specific subject area or helping them cultivate a lifelong love of learning. If a child wants to be a marine biologist, and both parents are tax attorneys, it can be helpful for them to have a role model in their field of interest.
At Modulo, we have a special knack for finding great teachers, even in the most highly specialized subjects. We’ve helped recruit, vet, and train hundreds of homeschool teachers, both online and in-person. Whether you’re looking for a physics tutor, Vietnamese teacher, or caregiver who can support the all-in-one curriculum you’ve chosen, in this guide, we share the best tips for finding the best teachers for the job.
If you need extra help, Modulo offers families the opportunity to create a class in any subject, and we’ll recruit, vet, train and help retain your teacher for you.
2. The role of a teacher is changing
The role of the teacher has changed quite a bit since the rise of technology changed everything about the workforce - and how we find and process information. It’s become more critical than ever that kids have the resilience, self-efficacy, and creativity to adapt to a complex and changing world.
The workforce is different
A child may change careers many times in their lifetime, so having strong elasticity and the ability to learn new skills are more critical than the skills themselves. Careers in technology demand creative, entrepreneurial capacities. The world is changing at lightning speed - the jobs we prepare children for today will likely be gone by the time they enter the workforce.
Guidance v. Data Storage
While we once needed teachers to be like encyclopedias (storing and communicating vasts amount of information), we now need teachers who are more like great librarians (guiding children through a curated database of information). Teachers no longer need to serve as data storage centers, relaying information to students, but can be guides - to help students find and process all the information at their fingertips.
EQ vs. IQ
Whereas before, teachers needed to know a ton of information and relay it strategically (monitoring their ability to retain and retrieve info through mnemonic devices), now it’s more important that teachers have high emotional intelligence and can communicate effectively with children to inspire them to problem solve and guide their own learning. We need teachers who can foster grit and a growth mindset through gentle encouragement and deft reinforcement of process, not character and grades. We need teachers who can model excitement for learning and sound learning strategies.
Modular Learning v Traditional Classrooms
Since modular learning is very different from learning in a classroom setting, we’ve found that some of the crucial teaching aptitudes for a classroom setting don’t necessarily translate well to a one-on-one environment or a small group of modular learners. An enthusiastic undergraduate might even connect better with children than a highly experienced, certified teacher (especially if they’re provided with a curriculum to work with). Homeschoolers tend to connect well with adults and are used to being treated as peers, so they don’t necessarily need (or respond) to traditional behavioral management techniques many classroom teachers are used to applying.
3. Essential qualities to look for in a homeschool teacher
Here are the most important qualities we’ve identified for homeschool teachers :
Effective communicators
A good teacher is clear, articulate, patient, kind, and able to engage well with children at your child’s developmental stage. Some teachers relate better to younger children and others to teens. It’s helpful to know their “sweet spot.”
Actors often make fantastic teachers because they have extensive training in communicating with a broad audience.
We highly recommend getting the book “How to Talk So Kids Can Learn” for your teacher or caregiver. It’s helped many of the actors, artists, and graduate students we’ve hired translate their performance skills to teaching children.
Strong desire to learn and grow
Teachers with a genuine passion for learning and growing make the best role models for students. Their excitement and curiosity are infectious.
A good teacher is insatiably curious about everything. They will ideally be learning about how your child learns as they go - and changing their strategy as your child evolves. They’re also much easier to work with because they tend to be receptive to feedback and advice. They want to learn!
High Open-Mindedness and Flexibility
Modular learning is different than a traditional school. By choosing modular learning, you’re embracing a radical belief that the traditional school system is flawed and modular learning will lead to better academic, social, and emotional outcomes.
In classrooms with standardized tests, everyone learns the same way for the same outcomes. In a mastery-based approach, a good teacher will continuously experiment and iterate on their approach to serve the child better as they evolve. Be wary of teachers who want to set things in stone at the beginning or have inflexible views about how children learn. They may be tough to work with down the road.
Rather, find a highly curious, humble teacher who is visibly excited about the innovative path you’ve taken and wants to be a fellow pioneer on the journey. Teachers who love learning often have this quality.
Childcare experience
It’s not vital that your teacher has teaching experience, but it is indispensable that your teacher has childcare experience. All parents do! If a grown adult has never spent time with a niece, tutored, watched a younger sibling, or babysat, it’s unlikely they will know how to relate to your child.
A good teacher loves children and is excited to spend time with them. Be on the lookout for teachers with child-like qualities, as this is generally a good sign they’ll relate well with kids.
High level of empathy and emotional intelligence (EQ)
One of the concepts widely discussed in the “Developmental interaction approach,” originating from Bank Street College of Education, is “unconditional positive regard” for kids. A good teacher can set boundaries and allow children to experience natural consequences, but this is all in the context that a good teacher knows that children are acting in good faith, not being “bad,” naughty,” or “manipulative.”
High energy & enthusiasm
Teaching takes a lot of energy, and children will respond well to a teacher who brings a great deal of enthusiasm. It takes a lot to match the natural energy of children. Not everyone likes it, but good teachers do. We usually ask prospective teachers to send us a short video. Within the first few seconds of their interview, it’s generally possible to tell if a potential teacher has high energy. Don’t waste time with the world’s most renowned expert who can’t bring a high energy level to sessions.
A bit silly
In general, children love humor. Choose the kind of teacher who will throw in a few fart jokes - and get up and do funny dancing with your kid in the middle of a tutoring session.
Extremely well-organized
High executive functioning skills are critical for a flexible teaching style. A good teacher will be able to establish milestones, communicate expectations, remember and build on learning from the last session, draw child's attention to how far they’ve come and communicate progress to parents.
High level of commitment
A good teacher-student relationship helps students cultivate a healthy attachment style. Children and teens can get very attached to their teachers. It can be frustrating when a teacher flakes out frequently or stops tutoring after 1-2 months because they got another job opportunity. It’s also much more work for you to keep finding new people. Try to verify that your tutor can commit for a year before you get started.
It’s generally a good idea to see if their lifestyle incentivizes them to have a consistent gig (or if they’re likely to travel). It’s also helpful to see what their work pattern was like at previous jobs. A good teacher should feel a certain level of loyalty to your child and intuitively understand that quitting mid-way can lead to feelings of sadness and betrayal.
A high degree of trust in children
A great teacher does not blame or shame. They do not use character labels like “lazy” or “smart.” A great teacher has absolute faith in the capacity of children to learn. They have unconditional positive regard for their students and total confidence that children mean well. If children are troubled, they focus on identifying the need behind the stress rather than labeling children as manipulative or bad.
A great teacher takes responsibility for outcomes
The great teacher takes responsibility and does not blame parents or kids for poor outcomes. They know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a child is capable of mastering concepts if given enough time and the right approach. This does not mean that they coddle children - far from it. A great teacher is less likely to help and more likely to encourage children about their own ability to find solutions.
In an ideal system, the parent, teachers, and students are all taking responsibility and problem-solving together, not blaming others for poor outcomes.
At the same time, the teacher attributes success entirely to the student and their extraordinary potential (not to their teaching style). We can see this in a teacher when they reflect awe for children’s minds and their progress. A great teacher will not talk about what they’ve accomplished with a student but amazement at the progress they’ve seen in children they’ve worked with - and gratitude for having been a part of their journey.
In an ideal system, the parents, teachers, and students are all attributing success to others and showing gratitude at all times.
Online expertise
If teaching is happening online, a fast internet connection and familiarity with best practices for online teaching are essential to a quality learning experience. Poor internet, bad angles, and a noisy environment all cause microaggressions that negatively impact learning. Even the best teacher might not be adept at teaching in an online environment.
Provided they have access to a strong internet connection and a well-lit environment, and if they’re motivated and passionate about teaching, they can easily adopt a few simple tips to help improve the quality of the online teaching environment. Once we started sending our “best practices for online teaching” to new educators, we saw a dramatic improvement in teaching quality. We also give each family tips about how to set up their online learning environment with the right tools and technology to support learning and well-being. We’ve found a few small considerations in how the environment is set up make a huge difference in the quality of the child’s online learning experience. We’ve made these resources free to the public, so feel free to take advantage of them and share our best practices with your teachers and caregivers.
Pro-tip
Don’t expect your teacher to necessarily communicate well with adults. While it’s not always the case, some of the most exceptional teachers are great with kids but a little weird and socially awkward with adults.
4. The best teacher archetypes and where to find them
We’ve tried many different types of teachers over the years, with varying degrees of success. Here’s who we found make the best teachers for modular learners and actively recruit on a daily basis.
Undergraduates
Look for students at your local college or university. Not only are they often high energy, incredibly passionate about learning and teaching, and fantastic role models closer in age to your child, but they’re also incentivized to stick around because they have a set class schedule and aren’t looking for a full-time job. Furthermore, they’ve been pre-vetted by the college admissions committee, which saves you some work.
Where to find undergraduate students
Flier on campus, look for current alums on LinkedIn, or reach out directly to student organizations or professors. Some parent groups have informal spreadsheets of college students available to tutor.
How to empower an undergraduate for success
Undergraduate students are familiar with technology, so they tend to have solid online teaching skills: To empower this group, we recommend pairing them with a mastery-based curriculum and a schedule to follow. They may also benefit from reading the training materials we provide to undergraduate tutors at masteryhour.org. Make sure to take the time to help them network with professionals and write them exceptional letters of recommendation for grad school, internships, or jobs.
Frequently, undergraduates are far from family and loved ones. Consider inviting them to dinner from time to time or for a study session at your house. If you choose to do so, you can become a home away from home for these students, and they will become a cherished part of your family too.
Child life specialists
We’ve found child life skills have a specific skill set that translates incredibly well to a modular learning environment. Child life specialists are pediatric health care professionals trained to support children and families coping with illness, injury, and hospitalization.
Working with children in hospitals closely models many of the same characteristics of working with modular learners. They are clinically trained in communicating with children at different developmental stages, with a wide variety of cognitive and physical needs, communicating with families around highly sensitive topics, providing exceptional social-emotional support, identifying and healing trauma that may impact motivation, and how to communicate with children at different developmental stages.
Due to the nature of the work they’ve chosen, they tend to be extraordinarily compassionate and love children. As hospitals lack funding to hire child life specialists full-time (and the job can be very demanding), they often have free days available and are seeking extra work.
Where to find child life specialists
To find a child life specialist, search for child life specialists on LinkedIn, write to the admin of child life specialist groups on Facebook with a job description, or contact a college that offers Child Life Specialist Certification (CCLS). Bank Street College of Education has one of the best Child Life programs in the country and is entirely remote. Modulo can also assist families in finding Child Life Specialists near them.
How to empower a child life specialist for success
Like undergraduates, child life specialists will benefit from having a curriculum to follow. Very little training around teaching or communicating with children is needed as they’re very adept at this. Since they are highly trained, but not explicitly trained as classroom teachers, they may be overly sensitive to the fact that they don’t have a teaching degree. You can gently encourage them to steer away from trying to re-create school and assure them that they have all the skills they need to support your child.
Pay them as well as you can (they deserve it) and offer gratitude for the extraordinary work they do for children.
Teaching artists (especially actors):
Performing artists tend to have high levels of energy and empathy - and be great communicators: able to gauge, engage and inspire their audience with ease. Since they have to run a very competitive personal business (acting), they tend to have very high executive functioning skills. Often they’re highly educated and eager to have extra income that supports a flexible acting career. Artists are great at bringing in creative, hands-on projects to help reinforce learning. We’ve had the best luck with actors (who are highly organized and often way over-qualified) and good luck with visual artists (who bring in lots of fun hands-on projects).
It’s advantageous to give actors some flexibility in changing their tutoring time if they get an audition or are cast in a show. Be careful of hiring actors who do a lot of regional theater or film, as they may need to quit when they book a job. Backstage Magazine can be a good place to start. Or contact your local theaters and acting schools to see if they know anyone available or would be willing to pass the word along.
Where to find teaching artists
We’ve had luck finding teaching artists through Backstage Magazine, Teaching Artists Associations, and by sorting through profiles on caregiver sites such as Care.com and Sitter City. You can also reach out to your local theaters, casting agents, or acting schools for teachers looking for extra work.
How to empower a teaching artist for success
We’ve found that teaching artists may need a little guidance on how to communicate with children at different developmental stages. They may be quick to tell a child, “you’re so smart!” as opposed to focusing on the process: “I loved seeing how you kept going even when you were frustrated that you didn’t get the problem right the first time.” When teaching in a group setting, they may have a little more trouble navigating conflicts between kids or strong emotions that might arise due to something going on at a kid’s house. We’ve found that giving teaching artists “How to Talk so Kids Can Learn” helps them immensely in understanding how to easily translate their considerable creativity and unparalleled communication skills to teaching children.
Museum educators, summer camp, and afterschool teachers:
Teachers who run museum programs, afterschool and summer camps have more lee-way to develop their teaching skills through practice and experience. Throughout their teaching career, their performance is measured by how much children enjoy their program (and benefit parents see in it), rather than how well children are performing on standardized tests. They tend to have a lot of experience designing fun projects and leading kids through experiential learning.
Another benefit is that an experienced education professional has already recruited and vetted them. We sometimes take a look at afterschool program reviews and see if any particular teacher is highlighted.
Since they often work part-time, they are frequently eager to have the opportunity to take on extra teaching work. In general, we haven’t had as much luck recruiting from tutoring agencies. That isn’t to say that there aren’t great teachers there, but it seems in general, their experience is more in helping with school homework and standardized tests than energizing kids with innovative learning models.
Where to find museum educators and afterschool teachers
The best place to find museum educators is by going to the museum and approaching the educator to see if they’d like extra work. If your child has an afterschool, summer camp or preschool teacher they like a lot, you can absolutely ask them if they’d be interested in homeschooling teaching.
Alternately, we recommend going on Yelp or Google Maps and searching for the best kids programs near you. Review the comments and look for the names of teachers who frequently pop up as favorites. Then you can go on LinkedIn and look for that teacher’s name and ask to connect. Add a note to explain why you’d like to meet them. On LinkedIn, you can also look up the organization and see all the profiles of employees that work there now or worked there in the past.
How to Empower a museum educator or afterschool teacher for success
Museum educators may have more experience designing their own curriculum than afterschool teachers. In both cases, providing teachers a curriculum helps, but you can also give them freedom to bring in their own projects. Sometimes these teachers might be used to doing things in a certain way that their organization thought was best, so make sure to look for flexibility and curiosity in these groups.
Homeschool parents and teens
Sometimes all you need is another adult who isn’t you- to teach your child. Homeschool parents obviously have a lot of experience with modular learning and are often excited to make some extra income while homeschooling. Homeschool teens can make great teachers too. They can relate more closely to your child’s challenges and they are also going to appear much “cooler” than you, so your child is more likely to listen to them. We’ve even seen children as young as eight years old offer classes in sewing and microbiology!
Anyone can share skills! It’s fun to offer your own skills to other families in the homeschool community as well - for extra income, as a skills exchange, or out of generosity and to help strengthen the community as a whole.
Where to find homeschool parents and teens
The best place to meet other homeschoolers is on Facebook and Meetup groups. If you’re looking for an online teacher, you might consider posting in SEA homeschoolers. Otherwise, you can search for teachers in Facebook and Meetup group comments - or put up a post saying you’re looking for at teacher and are open to it being another homeschool parent. See our section on socialization for tips on connecting with other homeschoolers.
How to empower another homeschooling parent or teen for success
Homeschool parents and teachers make great teachers. They’re already creative, independent, experienced, and fully opted into how modular learning works. One consideration here is that a homeschool parent or teen is already part of a small, interdependent community that you also belong to. The last thing you want is to be in a position where you have to fire someone in the homeschool community.
As in the other groups, look for flexibility, curiosity, high energy, and open-mindedness. You don’t want to work with a homeschooler who has set ideas about how homeschooling should be done.
It’s good to have a transparent conversation before starting about expectations on both sides - and what happens if things don’t work out so you can keep a positive relationship with each other no matter what.
Teen homeschoolers can benefit from some of the same tips as undergraduates (and a little guidance about how to do a job e.g., showing up on time), but they tend to make truly inspiring teachers overall because they’ve so recently been through the same learning process your child is going through now.
Other parents, extended family, and older siblings!
Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings caregivers make great teachers because they have extensive experience with children and care about kids. They don’t have to be your child’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, or siblings, but they can be!
Where to find parents to be homeschool teachers
It’s possible to get very creative here. We’ve found Japanese teachers waiting tables at Japanese restaurants in Gwinnett County, chemistry tutors working on their P.H.D remotely in small towns in California, and pottery teachers doubling as baristas at the local coffee shop. When looking for subject experts, its invaluable to find ones who have kids or babysitting experience.
You can also ask your own family to help out. Some grandparents, aunts and uncles find this work very rewarding. You might be surprised. There’s a biological imperative to help raise young children in a community. Some people might not even realize what they’re missing out until they start getting more engaged in your child’s education.
In our society, adults and children are often separated, which we feel is unfortunate. Even beyond parents & caregivers, there’s huge untapped talent in the community that could be used towards educating children. Can’t say it enough: it takes a village to raise a child.
How to empower a parent for success
Other parents will benefit from reading the section on family involvement in education. They might lack confidence in their teaching skills, but once they see how much they have to offer, they’ll quickly become involved and passionate educators.
5. The four best places to find homeschool teachers
At Modulo, we’re master teacher scavengers. We’ve tested all the job sites and marketplaces for teachers. Here are the four main places we use today to find teachers:
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is our favorite place for finding teachers because it’s possible to laser-focus on specific archetypes and reach out directly. Search in the “people” category for local actors, child life specialists, current alumni at your college and university, majoring in the subject area you want them to teach, educators at your local museum, or favorite summer camp.
When you hit “connect,” there’s an option to add a note. In the note, introduce yourself and briefly explain what you’re looking for. LinkedIn will send them automated reminders to reply to you, so you’ll often get a response! If they’re not available themselves, they may know someone who is.
On LinkedIn, it’s possible to connect with 200 people every week. However, exceeding a certain number of searches requires a premium subscription. It’s a number game here. If you reach out to 50-100 people, you’re likely to get a hit or meet someone who can refer a friend.
Indeed
Of all the job sites we’ve used, we’ve found we get the largest number and highest quality of applications on Indeed. Plus, it’s free!
When creating a job description on Indeed, we’ve borrowed a “hack” from the Ycombinator application. We request that prospective teachers send us a one-minute unlisted youtube video. This helps us ensure that 1) people are serious and excited about the position (not just applying to everything) and 2) Have good organizational skills 3) Know how to use technology 4) Have a high level of warmth and enthusiasm 5) Are flexible and goes with the flow. 5) Are interested enough in the job to have read the job description and know how to follow written instructions. For online teachers, it helps to see if they present themselves well on-screen. It saves us a ton of time vetting candidates. We can usually tell within the first 15 seconds if this person is a potential candidate.
Our next step is to do a longer 20-30 minute interview.
If a prospective teacher refuses to do this step, sends us an attachment instead of a video, or has a lot of questions about how to send a link to an unlisted youtube video, they’re probably not going to be very easy to work with down the road.
Here’s a job post we created on Indeed for virtual tutors (using the remote location feature on Indeed) and another for an in-person homeschool teacher that got hundreds of applications, including many top-notch candidates. Please feel free to use any of it that you like for your own job postings!
Facebook parenting & homeschool groups
Once you’ve joined a homeschooling or parenting group, there are lots of opportunities to find homeschool teachers, programs, and other resources. You can search in the comments section for keywords such as “math tutor” or something more generic like “teacher.” This will generally lead to other posts and comments from parents asking for - or recommending teachers. When reviewing the comments, read them carefully and see if it’s from a parent who seems to share similar qualities to you - and needs that reflect your own.
Group etiquette suggests you search for existing recs before requesting more. However, if you don’t see any good recent recommendations, you can also make a post yourself saying you are looking for a teacher and asking if anyone has recommendations. Add a photo or visual to the post from Canva to grab attention!
Yelp and Google maps
We have a special hack for finding teachers via reviews on yelp and google maps. First, we search for the best afterschool, summer camp, and museum programs. Next, we review the comments and see if there are any teachers who seem to be mentioned multiple times in the reviews themselves. If the teacher’s last name isn’t mentioned, we go to the website of the program and see if there’s a list of team members. Then, we go back to LinkedIn, look for employees directly, or if we only have a first name, search for employees at that program (this can be done by searching in the “companies” category and then following the “employees” link. Once we’ve identified the teacher everyone seems to love, we invite them to connect and ask if they’re interested in our teaching opportunity.
6. How to vet prospective teachers efficiently and effectively
If you’re recruiting from a college, university, after-school program, summer camp - or via recommendations from other families - someone has already done some vetting on your candidate - whether it’s the admissions committee or company/individual family that hired them previously. We already recommended that you request a one-minute video from the candidate to save time before a full interview.
Background check
It’s generally a good idea to do a criminal background check and sex offender check on any teacher or caregiver you hire. Care.com is one company that provides this service.
Social Media Check
A lot can be learned about a prospective employee by a brief review of the way they present themselves on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.
Ask other parents
As a best practice, ask your prospective teacher for the names, numbers, and emails of other parents whose children they’ve taught or cared for. Sometimes it is also possible to connect with families in online homeschooling or parenting groups who know this person and will message you privately about their experiences.
7. Pro-tip: Act fast!
One lesson we’ve learned the hard way is that teachers are in high demand. If they’re looking for extra work, they might find it in a few days. A great teacher will not wait weeks or months while you make a decision. It’s generally a good idea to try to get an interview and make an offer as soon as possible.
8. How to retain teachers (do’s and dont’s)
Don’t take a great teacher for granted. There are a few simple ways to ensure your teacher will continue to enjoy teaching your child and stick with you over the long term.
Agree to an easy-to-follow curriculum, clear goals, and a schedule
We almost always provide our teachers with curriculum or educational software to pair with their tutoring sessions. This saves the teacher a lot of time preparing the curriculum outside of sessions and helps establish a framework that everyone agrees to. Schedules can provide ease and comfort to students. Milestones can streamline expectations and provide a good starting point for check-ins and feedback. Our section on curriculum can help families find a good curriculum to pair with tutoring.
Allow high levels of independence within the structure
Find someone you trust and let them take it from there. There’s nothing more annoying than a parent who hovers over a teacher’s shoulder, telling them what and how to teach. It’s also distracting and stressful for a child who wants to learn. We also discourage parents from attending sessions, pushing their kids to cooperate and nudging them to answer questions. It’s very stressful for the child.
If you don’t trust a teacher, don’t hire them. If you love them, let them do their thing. If you absolutely have to give feedback, find a time to check in without your child, and start by focusing on what’s working well. Then you can start asking the teacher how they think different aspects of the teaching are working relative to the goals and milestones you established together - and if there are any ways you can help support them or challenges, they’re facing.
Some families get excited and are constantly sending teachers new ideas for material to cover in class. This can be stressful for a teacher who might confuse suggestions with demands and feels they’re having trouble keeping up with the milestones and curriculum you originally agreed to.
Praise and thank frequently
Teachers love praise the way plants love water. The more big and small opportunities you find to offer sincere thanks for their work, share how much their child loves them, and express awe at their expertise, the harder they’ll work for you and the more loyal they will be.
Give them compensation they feel good about
A good teacher is priceless, so if your family is in a position to recognize this in your pay, by all means, pay your teacher generously. If a teacher is paid according to what they feel they deserve, they’re likely to stay around. If a teacher is dissatisfied with their pay, they’ll often look elsewhere. Avoid paying the minimum possible and focus on what you can truly afford.
Some teachers genuinely don’t need the money and are just doing this for the experience or a love of teaching. Regardless, it’s important to be on the same page about money and ensure that no one feels undervalued or overextended. Sometimes teachers and caregivers don’t feel they’re being compensated or treated well, but they’ll keep working with a family because they feel bad about leaving the child. Don’t take advantage of their good hearts.
8. How much to pay homeschool teachers (or find teachers for free)
How much to pay a teacher depends on several factors, online v in-person vs. at home, the quantity of time, degrees, certificates, and the urgency that the person needs work. The most pay does not always equate to the best teachers, but it will undoubtedly expand options. Teachers are infamously underpaid in the United States. We believe that teachers are some of the most critical and highly skilled workers and, in an ideal world, should be compensated at a level equal to or higher than attorneys, but that’s not accessible to most families.
There are many ways to find free tutors, both online and in-person. Many families swap skills. Often homeschool parents offer free classes. Masteryhour.org, Schoolhouse.World and the local library provide free tutoring programs.
If your family is in a position to pay well, we strongly suggest you compensate your tutor at a rate equivalent to their value and expertise.
Our ranges reflect the lowest (Wyoming) and highest (NYC/SF) rates we’ve seen for homeschool teachers. A lot depends on the amount of time they come per day (and per week) and the teacher’s level of experience.
Undergraduate and high school students tend to be the most affordable tutors. Certified teachers and highly experienced, specialized tutors tend to be the most expensive.
9. How to communicate effectively with teachers
Start a group chat
At Modulo, we like to create a Whatsapp group with all a student’s teachers and caregivers to communicate about the child’s development and coordinate to support them. Some parents prefer Slack or Discord.
Ask for short updates
We ask tutors to send 2-3 sentences after every session, re-capping what they’ve done and any highlights or challenges they experienced during the session. This is a great way to help everyone to stay on track and support the child’s learning.
This flips the Teacher: Student ratio
In traditional classroom environments, there’s one teacher to 30-50 students. With the group chat, there are 5-10 teachers focused on one child. It can be an invaluable way for teachers to support each other around obstacles they might encounter in a child’s learning - or share strategies that they’ve found work particularly well with a given child. Families can share if there is any external circumstance that might be impacting a child’s learning (For example, a parent might be traveling for work or a favorite pet may have fallen ill. Sometimes children might be disturbed about something they heard in the news).
In classes with multiple students, we include all parents and the teacher in a WhatsApp group for the class, which can be a fun way to support the teacher, start friendships and communicate around resources. Themed groups (like coding classes) are always better than generic groups (like homeschool parents).
If parents can take a moment to say “amazing! Thanks so much!” after these updates, it will encourage the tutors and keep them coming.
10. Training resources for teachers
If you’ve found a teacher with exceptional potential, who needs some extra guidance on teaching strategies, online teaching techniques, or communicating with children at different developmental stages, we’ve created a teacher training guide for our volunteer tutors at Masteryhour.org that your teacher might find helpful. The Family involvement in education section also has valuable teaching strategies that can be applied by caregivers and more experienced teachers.
Another way to find great teachers, find childcare and supplement your child’s mastery hours with enriching social and educational experiences is to enroll in a homeschool program.
Not all homeschool programs are created equal. The next section on homeschool programs discusses how to find and vet hybrid schools, homeschool co-ops, in-person, online classes, and more.
