What do we mean by "alternative"?

• Opportunities other than full-time teaching in the public, parochial and private schools.

Why teach in a alternative setting?

• To gain teaching experience for your resume, or to see if teaching is for really you.
• To supplement the income from another job, through part-time (usually after-school) work.
• You can't find a full-time teaching position (or you are working toward certification) but still want to teach, tutor or mentor young people.

What are some of the opportunities and resources available?

• academic enrichment centers
• reading improvement schools
• language schools
• English as a Second Language schools
• Adult Literacy Centers
• youth programs such as the YMCA's, YWCA's and community-sponsored programs
• child care centers
• wilderness therapy and outdoor education

What resources and job search strategies should you look at?

1) To identify possible employers, try a search on Big Yellow.
Type in one of the following categories:
• Schools with Special Academic Education
• Reading Improvement Instruction
• Language Schools
• Youth Organizations & Centers
• Child Care Centers
  
  

2) Tutoring and academic enrichment programs.

• The Boston Globe ran an article on academic enrichment programs for young children, Thursday, 2/19/98, page B1. The growth of these centers in Boston metropolitan area (and presumably in the rest of the country) has been phenomenal over the past year or two. The following organizations were mentioned in article:
  - SCORE, a national chain of 40 "academic enrichment centers
  local outlets in Woburn, Winchester, Newton and Wellesley
  - Education Performance Systems
  - Academic Enrichment Centers
  - EXCEL program
  - Beyond the Classroom, Winchester, MA
  
  
• Look up "Tutoring" in your local Yellow Pages ("Big Yellow" serves as online Yellow Pages, but unfortunately does not work well with the term "tutoring").
• Register yourself onto the Tutor 2000 online database.
  


3) Search local newspapers for job listings.

• Try CareerBuilder for most major national newspapers.
• Try Yahoo for the papers or cities not on CareerPath.
  


4) The Learning Field

• An online list of education-related organizations and services, most in the Boston area. Many of these organizations employ teachers in one capacity or another. Many organizations offer products or services related to education and employ people in non-teaching positions.
  


5) Internship Listings


6) Americorps


• AmeriCorps members train volunteers, tutor and mentor at-risk youth, build housing, clean up rivers and streams, help seniors live independently, provide emergency and long-term assistance to victims of natural disasters, and meet other community needs.
  
  

7) MATCH Corps

• MATCH Corps is a service year program similar to AmeriCorps: committed individuals make a yearlong commitment to public service in exchange for a modest stipend and housing.
• It is an ambitious, intensive, one-on-one tutoring program designed to fully close the Achievement Gap between minority and non-minority students, and between economically disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers.

8) Adult Literacy/ESOL (English (to) Speakers (of) Other Languages Resources

• Massachusetts Adult Literacy Hotline
  Information and Referrals for Adult Learners and Volunteers
• Massachusetts Family Literacy Consortium
  
  

9) Challenge Therapy/Wilderness Education Jobs

• From the Association for Experiential Education. Their Web site also includes many other useful resources.

10) Career Opportunities in the Education Industry

• Opportunties in organizations that serve schools and educators. Includes educational publishers; education consultants; education information and research firms; technology service providers; educational policy specialists; and more.

 11) The International Educator

             K-12 jobs abroad