Image via WikipediaI just ran across a new study from Sam Houston State University, released on Friday (April 18) by the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA). Here are a few of the summary findings:

1. 44% are seriously considering leaving the profession. The 2 most cited reasons? Low pay and poor working conditions.

2. 28% of Texas teachers are ‘moonlighting.’ This is in stark contract to 5% of US workers overall who take second jobs to make ends meet. And these teachers with second jobs are working an average of 11.5 hours per week, even though 71% of them indicate this extra work has a negative impact on their teaching.

3. In ADDITION to moonlighting hours, the average Texas teacher puts in ANOTHER 13.4 hours per week in doing school work outside the classroom. . . planning, grading papers, producing learning materials, learning new skills to promote their own growth.

4. Other demographics of the ‘average’ Texas teacher profile (from the Sam Houston State University study):

• 44 year old female, with a bachelor’s degree

•Earns $47,545 per year, and has a working spouse

•Is the primary breadwinner (56% fall into this category)

•Spends $719 per year out of pocket for instructional/classroom materials

•Puts in 13.4 hours/week doing additional schoolwork at home.

SO — Why are these numbers of special concern at this time?

This study is made especially relevant, since it comes at a time when 50,000+ classrooms in the state are staffed by teachers who are NOT certified in the subject they are teaching. So we are already faced with extreme teacher shortages, and are slated to continue to lose teachers at an alarming rate.

There are no easy answers, but here are a few thoughts:

1. Encourage ONLINE teaching and tutoring. If teachers must moonlight to make ends meet, we should at least provide options for them to apply their skills within their profession, and provide them the tools to make this easy and possible. And this has the added value of making learning more accessible and relevant for students!

2. Encourage the BEST teachers to develop, publish and SELL their best teaching ideas. We need to provide opportunities for the very best teachers to turn their skill into IP, and publish and sell their expertise. And the added benefit here? The BEST teachers can share their expertise with younger, less experienced teachers, and keep the torch of excellent instruction lit!

3. Treat K12 teachers more like higher ed professors. In most higher education institutions, teachers are encouraged to publish and sell, to consult. AND they are given flexible work hours to have time during the day to hold office hours with students, do research, write, etc. Imagine a K12 school that provided that kind of environment for teaching professionals!

There are no easy answers, but good on Sam Houston State University and TSTA for continuing to push out these studies and research results. We need to keep these issues on the front burner. If, in fact, our economy and liberty are dependent upon an educated populous, aren’t TEACHERS our most important asset? Good to remember in this election year.

WOW. What a week! I just returned from a great experience in Ft. Worth, Texas – the AAHPERD (American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) national convention.

I had lots of fun learning more about this domain in education, and wanted to share special insight I received from Ryan Lee in his session “How to earn extra income doing what you love to do.” His advice was wonderful and the real benefit of his talk was his amazing enthusiasm, personal experience, and  concrete list of advice and ideas.

The basic things I took away from Ryan’s suggestions for budding entrepreneurs (applicable to PE or any other area) were these:

1. Align your business with your passion. Decide what it is you LOVE doing, then develop your business idea around that. Life is just too short to work outside your passion zone!
2. Commit to quality. If you provide excellent content to your audience, you can succeed.
3. Identify your customer. Don’t start with your product idea. Rather, decide who your customer is, and what problem you want to solve for them.
4. SUB-identify your customer. Establish a focus, or ‘niche.’ If you want to provide a training to older adults, decide to focus on men or women. The more focused your customer target, the more valuable your offering.
5. Specify your customer’s problem. Your offering or product must solve a real problem for your audience. Maybe it’s helping older women become more flexible, or lose weight. Maybe it’s helping math teachers with ideas for teaching fractions. Be specific!
6. Go digital. Create a video of what you do best, that will help your audience. Then add powerpoint slides, some handouts, reports, activities. Sell these separately or as a more expensive ‘system.’ Remember that by ‘going digital’ you make money even when you are not actively working! That’s the difference between a ‘job’ and a ‘business.’
7. Stay connected. This is where a network like WeAreTeachers can help. Blog. Create forums. Create a circle of interest. Get connected online with WAT, LinkedIn. Get all your friends in your network. This viral connection is your best bet for getting your good work promoted and SOLD.

SO THANKS, Ryan Lee, and all the other great PE and Health folks I met this week. Awesome to get connected to this domain area, and keep learning!

Story for this Post:

I met Cathy Hill this week at AAHPERD. Cathy is one of the TOYs (Teachers of the Year) for the National Association for Sport and Physical Education – NASPE. She has also just joined the WeAreTeachers community, and is just full of ideas about how to re-start her career using this network. So watch out, world. Cathy is about to reach out to you online!