There are plenty of opportunities for teachers to earn extra cash this summer while still enjoying a slower pace of life. Today, we have 17 flexible online summer jobs for teachers that are perfect for your skills and expertise.
When that final bell rings on the last day of school, summer begins, and teachers get a much-needed break from the hustle and bustle of the school year. The Monday through Friday routine is temporarily on hold for the next 60+ days as educators and students enjoy summer break.
17 Flexible Online Summer Jobs For Teachers
After 180 days in the classroom following a strict lesson plan and schedule, getting up early and working a rigid schedule may be a less-than-ideal working arrangement for many educators.
Fortunately, teachers have several online summer job options that offer tons of flexibility and enough freedom to earn extra money while still having time for summer fun.
Here are 17 terrific summer vacation side hustles ideal for teachers.
1. AI Trainer
As a teacher, you have excellent writing, communication, and research skills, which companies like TELUS Digital, DataAnnotation Tech, CrowdGen by Appen, and Welocalize are seeking to help train their AI tools. The great thing about these summer jobs for teachers is that they are work-when-you-want and wherever you want, so you can earn a little extra cash during vacation break.
AI training tasks include online rating, social media evaluation, data annotation, data collection, writing, coding, online research, and more. In addition to the aforementioned skills, you should also be tech-savvy, detail-oriented, and up to date on current affairs. Pay varies by task and hiring company, but you can expect to make between $12 and $30 per hour.
2. Caregiving
With school out for the summer, plenty of parents would pay good money to have a teacher watch their children. Whether you want to do this full-time, part-time, or just on occasion, there are lots of opportunities for teachers to cash in on babysitting. Before the end of the school year, let parents know that you’ll be offering caregiving services over the summer. If your school prohibits teachers from promoting their services to parents, use an app like Care.com, Bambino, or Call Emmy to connect with individuals who need your services.
As a teacher, you should be able to command a higher pay rate for your services, especially if you’re tutoring or providing specialized lessons to children. To determine how much you can earn this summer, input your zip code, years of experience, hours, and number of children you’re willing to watch into the Care.com babysitting rate calculator.
As a caregiver, you can choose to watch kids in your own home or at their homes. You could also offer virtual video caregiving services for kids whose parents are working from home or who are old enough to be left alone but could benefit from daily check-ins and assignments.
3. Content Creation
As an instructor, you’re well-versed at standing in front of the class and giving step-by-step instructions. You likely know how to create videos and use social media platforms, too. If so, turn your knowledge into a learning channel on one of the many social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube). As an educational content creator, you can let your former student know about your channel, which can help your overall growth and engagement.
Once you start creating content and gaining a following, you can earn additional income through affiliate marketing, creator funds, brand sponsorships, selling printables or worksheets, and even advertising revenue. Some teachers have so much success as content creators that they can leave teaching and earn a full-time salary just creating content.
Of course, education isn’t the only niche you can create content in; you can choose any area that you have a passion for, such as travel, baking, gardening, or books. Some school districts may have content-creation policies in place, so be sure to check them before getting started.
4. Customer Service Rep
If you enjoy chatting it up, you can earn extra income this summer by working as a virtual customer service representative. Many companies hire freelancers to support customers, offering flexible scheduling and regular paychecks. As a teacher, you’re well-suited for these positions, bringing your top-notch communication skills, multitasking ability, and high emotional intelligence. Pay varies by company, but you can generally expect to earn $14 to $20 per hour.
Here are some summer employment options to explore:
- ACD Direct (Not hiring in CA, DE, MA, LA, WV, WY, VT, and SD)
- NexRep (Not hiring in AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, IL, MA, MD, ME, MO, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA, and WI)
- Omni Interactions (Not hiring in AK, CA, CT, DE, IL, MI, MA, MD, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA, and DC)
- Working Solutions (Not hiring in CA, NY, PA, and WA)
5. Do Odd Jobs
If you don’t want to be trapped behind a desk all day, you can make good money running errands, grocery shopping, doing laundry, or any other odd job using a platform like Instacart, DoorDash, Gigwalk, HopSkipDrive, IVueit, or TaskRabbit.
The nice thing about these money-making apps is that they make it easy to apply and start quickly.
You can also choose when and how much to work, so you can still get in some rest and relaxation this summer. Most apps offer a base pay, bonus opportunities, and tips. You can even keep this gig when the school year starts, working weekends and holidays if desired.
6. Freelance With Study.com
If you’re looking for a flexible summer job that you can do anytime, check out the freelance jobs with Study.com. They hire independent contractors for writing, editing, proofreading, lesson development, research, content creation, sales, and more. New jobs are added all the time, but at the time of writing this article, they had openings for content editors, content creators, test writers, sales development reps, and others. With these part-time online gigs, you’ll get paid twice a month, and you can pick when you work, making them the perfect summer job for teachers!
7. Freelance Writing
If you love working with the written word, consider becoming a freelance writer in your free time. Whether you specialize in test writing, niche content creation, or become a generalist, there are freelance writing opportunities for you.
Search sites such as ACT, IXL Learning, Upwork, Guru, Problogger, Pearson, and Freelancer to find writing job openings, and be prepared to respond quickly, as competition can be fierce. In some cases, you can set your pay, but be ready to back up your asking price with a high-quality writing portfolio.
8. Help Kids Improve Their Reading Skills
Summer is the perfect time for kids to catch up and keep their reading skills sharp, and this is where you come in. Your teaching skills can help make reading easier and more enjoyable for kids. Companies like BookNook and the Institute of Reading Development hire teachers to work online and help children improve their reading skills. With BookNook, you can earn $18 per hour, and you can work up to 30 hours per week. With the Institute of Reading Development, teachers can earn $600-$700 per week during the summer.
9. Online Test Scorer
While most student tests are graded by computer today, a significant portion still requires human attention. Essays, short-answer responses, and portfolios are reviewed by hand, often by a large home-based workforce. That’s where you come in!
As a work from home test scorer, you evaluate student testing online fairly and consistently using a standardized rubric.
Pay generally ranges from $10 to $20 per hour, and many scorers set their own schedules. The availability of work is seasonal, with the highest demand in the spring and summer months as high school students prepare for college.
Here’s a look at some of the companies that hire work from home test scorers:
- ETS – Educational Testing Services (ETS) hires online test scorers for various educational institutions. At any given time, scorers could grade written answers, spoken responses, or portfolios from the AP, GRE, or other tests. Scorers earn anywhere from $10 to $20 per hour.
- Measurement Incorporated – Measurement Inc. (MI) hires readers and reviewers to score student responses in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies across all grade levels, elementary through high school. FYI: Most projects run from March to June, and you’ll need to apply between January and April.
- Pearson – Pearson hires remote scorers to evaluate short student responses on exams. For these positions, you must be able to work 20 hours per week, and they do prefer candidates with teaching experience. The starting pay rate for most roles is $15 per hour, plus daily and weekly performance bonuses up to $150 per week.
10. Participate in Market Research
Another way teachers can earn extra money this summer is by participating in focus groups and other forms of market research, like product testing and online surveys. By no means will you get rich participating in market research, but it is an interesting way to make extra money when you have some free time. Most online surveys will pay $0.25 to $3.00 per survey (sometimes less), and focus groups will pay $50 to $150 per study. These opportunities will be sporadic, but if you sign up with multiple platforms, you’ll increase your chances of being invited. Just a heads up, you’ll receive many email notifications with these gigs, so you may want to sign up for a dedicated email account solely for these online activities.
Here are some good-paying market research firms to consider joining:
11. Pet Sitting and Dog Walking
If you love animals, you can earn some side income as a pet sitter or a dog walker. These services are super helpful to professionals who are gone all day or people who go on vacation and don’t want to take their pets to a kennel.
Some people even combine pet-sitting and house-sitting services to earn more.
Dog walking is a great summer job opportunity that lets you socialize, get some exercise, and earn a bit of extra money.
Be aware that pay can vary quite a bit based on the services you offer, where you live, and where you do pet sitting (in the client’s home or your own). Check out on-demand sites like Rover, Care.com, or Wag to connect with potential clients.
12. Proofreading
As a teacher, you probably can’t help but catch grammatical and spelling errors as you read. If so, proofreading may be the perfect online part-time job for you.
Entrepreneurs, bloggers, small companies, and large ones, too, all need proofreaders for a large variety of materials (including blog posts). You can set your pay rate and accept clients on a case-by-case basis. Find work on many different sites, including ExpressWriters, Proofreadingservices.com, and Wordvice.
13. Sell Worksheets on Teachers Pay Teachers
Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) is an online marketplace built specifically for educators. This easy-to-use platform is perfect for selling your original classroom creations, such as lesson plans and worksheets. You can even sell physical products and other educational resources you no longer need.
Teachers Pay Teachers is a great platform to work on during the summer. It’s one of those rare summer gigs that also offers the chance to earn passive income well into the fall and beyond, since digital goods can be created once and sold repeatedly.
To sign up on Teachers Pay Teachers, you have two membership options:
The Basic Membership is a one-time fee of $29, plus a $0.30 transaction fee per resource purchased, and you’ll earn a 55% royalty on each sale.
The Premium Membership has a $59.95 annual fee but offers a more significant royalty of 80% on gross sales. On orders totaling less than $3, you’ll have to pay $0.15 transaction fees for each resource.
Whether you choose Basic or Premium, teachers receive payments once a month for sales made the previous month via PayPal, direct deposit, Venmo, or wire transfer.
Now, TPT also offers a Publisher Membership, allowing you to reach more than 7 million active members with a one-time $29 fee. This option is an entirely self-service store that works just like it does for teacher-sellers with unlimited product listings. With a Publisher membership, there’s a 50/50 split on resource sales.
14. Teach English as a Second Language
You don’t need to be a certified ESL teacher to teach students when you take on a summer job as a conversational English tutor with Cambly.
They offer tutors $0.17 per minute for talking with adults and $0.20 per minute with children. Best of all, you can log in and work whenever you want, day or night. The Cambly dashboard will ‘ring’ when a student is ready to chat; it’s entirely up to you whether or not to answer. Receive payment via PayPal weekly. Please note that Cambly does not accept tutors from California.
Other online ESL companies to explore include Berlitz, EF, VIPKid, and LingoAce.
15. Test Websites and Apps
If you’re looking to add a little extra money to your bank account, consider doing website and app testing. With these sporadic side gigs, you’ll evaluate websites and apps for user-friendliness, navigation, and understanding. Your feedback helps companies improve their digital presence with better website designs and applications. Most tests take about 10-15 minutes and pay an average of $10 per test. Sometimes you’ll be invited to complete more in-depth testing, which these gigs can pay around $65 per hour. If this sounds appealing, check out UserTesting, User Interviews, Gigwalk, and Respondent for online opportunities.
16. Tutor Students Online
For students who struggle in certain subjects, getting extra help from a summer tutor can make all the difference in laying the foundation for success in the new school year.
With advances in technology and the rise of platforms like Preply, teachers can use their teaching skills to become online tutors. This part-time summer job idea lets you set your own schedule and work as many or as few hours as you want.
With Preply, you can set your hourly rate (most tutors on this site earn $15-$25 per hour).
Since more than 100 subjects are offered on Preply (including foreign languages and some hobbies), you can enjoy sharing knowledge of things you love and make a difference in students’ lives.
Although Preply is a popular platform, you can find work as an online tutor with many sites, including Kaplan, Edmentum, Studypool, and Course Hero.
17. Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants (or VAs) are the unsung heroes of the online world. They provide entrepreneurs, bloggers, and executives with invaluable administrative support from the comfort of their own homes.
Your skill set and experience determine the services you can offer as a VA, but the possibilities are endless. As a teacher, you already have several skills you can bring to the table, such as organizational, research, data entry, editing, writing, and proofreading, among others.
Being a virtual assistant allows you to work as much or as little as you like, on your schedule. Depending on your skills and experience and where you work, you can expect to make about $18-$25 per hour as a VA. Find virtual assistant jobs at BELAY, My VA Rocks, Fancy Hands, and Time etc.
Conclusion: Online Summer Jobs for Teachers
During the summer months, when fun activities are happening, the last thing you want is to be completely tied up with a seasonal job like being a lifeguard, summer camp counselor, or summer school teacher.
With these online summer jobs for teachers, you can easily prepare for the school year ahead and earn extra money, all while leaving enough time to enjoy the summer season. In fact, these jobs are flexible enough that, who knows, maybe you’ll hold onto your summer job year-round as a way to supplement your income, even when school is in session.
How do you earn extra money during the summer months? Do you know of any other online summer jobs for teachers? Drop us a note. We’d love to hear from you!
