Help me help my retired mom find a part-time job!

January 25, 2014 8:03 PM

My mom is a young 67 year-old retired teacher. Help me give her more ideas for a part-time job that uses her skills, Masters degree and 30+ years of experience! It's so hard watching her be so disheartened. :/

After finalizing her divorce, my mom has decided to go back to work part-time. She's in the Annapolis/Baltimore Maryland Metro area.

She has a MEd and 35 years of elementary and middle school teaching experience. She let her teaching certification lapse a few years ago. (She thought she was permanently retired.)

So far she's mostly applied for tutoring jobs at the big tutoring companies as well as retail and is naturally frustrated because of the current state of the job market. The sub pool in the county right now is full so she also has to wait until Fall 2014 school year to enter the sub pool.

I brought up the private tutor route and suggested it but she hasn't been really keen on it - worried it's too much overhead with materials and such.

I've encouraged her to use her contacts within the school system as well as network with her friends in the area - she has a few friends working as full-time teacher still.

I'm not an educator but I am wondering if there are other part-time educational opportunities that I may be able to steer her towards that I am unaware of - bonus points if they are in the Baltimore/Annapolis area!

posted by carmenghia to Work & Money (17 answers total)

My mother is a retired teacher who tutors. I don't know why there would be "overhead" involved. You can have the parents bring the kid to your house, and you teach from the kid's schoolbooks mostly.
posted by orange swan at 8:10 PM on January 25, 2014 [4 favorites]

After school programs? Summer camps? Teaching younger/preschool kids?
posted by quincunx at 8:12 PM on January 25, 2014

Agree with private tutoring.

Plus there is always substitute teaching. This varies by state, I'm sure, but it is a common part-time gig for many.
posted by yclipse at 8:12 PM on January 25, 2014

Subbing is good, but as the OP mentions, there are just so many people in the pool right now due to current unemployment rates, so it's not really a viable thing for many. My own retired mother used to do it, but calls got really sparse as the unemployment rate rose in the last few years.
posted by limeonaire at 8:18 PM on January 25, 2014

Best answer: Would your mom be interested in volunteering with one of the local literacy/reading groups in the meantime? This would 1. give her something to do, 2. help her build a bigger network, and 3. help some people with reading skills. Local libraries and schools normally have these programs.

Your mom may also want to look into doing work for a non-profit. It will not be good money if she finds work but it could be potentially pleasing from the standpoint of using skills she already has and letting her acquire new skills.

As to the private tutoring - the only overhead might be that she'd want to rent some books from the local school system so she knows what material is being used. She could pretty quickly make up the cost of that by actually tutoring.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:28 PM on January 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

Teacher trainer? My mom who is an almost retired teacher of similar age always talks about doing it.
posted by hamsterdam at 8:34 PM on January 25, 2014

Your mom might be able to market herself to textbook companies and educational app developers in the area as an education specialist/consultant.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 8:35 PM on January 25, 2014

Best answer: Does she have any additional certifications? My mom is planning to retire from full-time teaching after next year and has a lot of leads on picking up part time and contract work as an ESL specialist already. She's also got valid techology and gifted certifications that could be useful if she wanted to, but she's mainly focusing on the ESL/ELL aspect because she's planning to retire to a city where that would be particularly helpful to her.

If your mom has any experience with building curriculum, she might find work with a district doing that as well.
posted by padraigin at 8:40 PM on January 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

I would reposition as a career coach for young teachers - a mentor for hire.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 8:56 PM on January 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Museum educator; part-time teacher in museum programs for K-12 students.
posted by Miko at 8:57 PM on January 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My best friends Mom who is also a retired teacher in her early 70s volunteer teaches English and literacy with a charity geared towards immigrants. She works for free but they do employ people at that program as organizers, trainers and more permanent teaching staff. It is run through a church* but that doesn't affect the job at all. It seems to be a fairly huge organization and it is apparently the most rewarding thing she's ever been involved in with super awesome people etc etc. She says she'd rather teach adults over kids any day of the week.

*By a bunch of leftist nuns anyway, who technically are part of the church, although you'd hardly know it if you met them.
posted by fshgrl at 9:02 PM on January 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Many of the assistant teachers in our early childhood classes are retired former teachers. I'm not sure if it's a paid or volunteer position, but it sounds like her desire is to be busy/useful more than to earn income and that could also build her network of contacts. Community education programs or those held through libraries would be useful. Check out local childrens hospitals which often have child life enrichment programs that have educational aspects and volunteers.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 9:09 PM on January 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Maybe she could work part-time or volunteer at the library. Our library has a good number of retired and well-educated volunteers in the Genealogy Department, teaching people to use computers, helping with reference questions, even running the Friends of the Library bookstore.
posted by aryma at 10:00 PM on January 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

Nthing the library. My mother is also retired and close to that age, and also has graduate degrees. She started volunteering at the library and it had a big impact on her happiness.
posted by jardinier at 10:15 PM on January 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

There are part-time tutors working with the special needs populations at my community college. The tutors don't necessarily need to know the subject matter, they just need to be compassionate and have teaching ability. And with a Master's degree, she would be highly desirable, and might even be able to get some adjunct work.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 5:53 AM on January 26, 2014

Would she be interested in working at private schools? The requirement for Certification can vary greatly depending on your location. And if somebody called our school to be put on the sub list, she'd be added tomorrow.
posted by jmd82 at 10:01 AM on January 26, 2014

I would definitely check with both the school systems she's local to and any education programs in the area that would be sending out student teachers to see about being a "teacher mentor". I know that as a student teacher and then a first-year teacher in Baltimore City, I would have given my right arm for someone who could have held my hand and walked me through that horrible first year.
posted by epj at 12:56 PM on January 26, 2014