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Write for Us!
Thank you for considering an opportunity to contribute to The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine’s SchoolhouseTeachers.com! We’re excited that you’re interested in joining our team. There are two main ways that you can write for us, as a independent lesson designer or as a team lesson designer on our Schoolhouse Writers team.
Independent Lesson Designer: We’re looking for individuals to design courses in many different subject areas for children in preschool through high school, as well as resources for parents. These can be general courses (like American history) or specific and specialized courses (such as science that focuses on bugs). We’re also looking for people to create unit studies, worksheets, and other educational content.
We have some specific classes we have had requests for that we would love to fill, including foreign languages (such as German, Hebrew, and Chinese), math courses for upper grades, SAT/ACT prep classes, phonics, and reading.
Our site currently has over 425 courses. Some are full-year core courses (like pre-algebra). Some are electives, and some are specialized supplemental classes. We are seeking to expand nearly every subject for almost every grade. Even if there is currently a similar course on our site, we are still interested in hearing what you have in mind. We know that every child learns in a unique way and that every contributor presents lessons in a unique way. We love giving our members choices so they can find what best fits each student. For example, we have two economics classes for high schoolers, but the styles are completely different. Similarly, something like literature can be explored from an almost countless number of directions.
We’re also looking for lesson designers who are interested in providing a number of shorter units on almost anything from magnets to ancient China to farm animals. The options there are limitless, but a few ideas would be ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, or China; animals (farm, zoo, ocean, etc.); science (magnets, gravity, experiments, light and sound, the water cycle, etc.); health and safety; community workers; geography; and many others. All our lesson designers receive a free membership to the site for their family.
Schoolhouse Writers Team (Team Lesson Designer):
Designing lessons as a team provides a fun way to share your talents and gifts with homeschoolers around the world and work with other authors and contributors on group projects such as creating curriculum, worksheets to go along with other projects, etc. There are various benefits to being a part of this team including the opportunity to earn a free membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com and our streaming video library as well as the chance to earn other perks such as free magazines, gift cards, etc. The schedule is also more flexible than designing lessons independently, as assignments and deadlines can be chosen as desired. If you would like to learn more, please see the FAQs below, or contact Tammie Bairen, Executive Manager, directly at tbairen@theoldschoolhouse.com.
If you’d like to look at the thousands of lessons on our site, we will request a username and password for you so you can fully explore everything we currently offer. We would love to discuss with you what type of class you are considering offering. If you are interested in writing for the site but aren’t really sure where to begin or what to write about, please contact us. We can brainstorm with you and help you find something that is a good fit for both of us. We even have a list of projects just waiting for volunteers!
Pay-Per-Piece Projects
We also have a limited number of pay-per-piece options that are compensated with a free membership to the site and a small cash payment. The copyright of any original material created remains with our site.
Here is an overview of the program and the answers to some commonly asked questions. Please feel free to email Tammie Bairen at tbairen@theoldschoolhouse.com with any and all ideas and questions. We’ll be happy to talk to you.
Contact Tammie Bairen at tbairen@theoldschoolhouse.com. Please include a little bit about yourself and your background, what subject areas you are most interested in, and why you are interested in being a part of SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Being a homeschooler is not required, but please feel free to share about your homeschooling background as well if you’d like.
Lessons include the lesson material, links to other resources (as appropriate), and generally an assignment that enables parents to gauge the student’s comprehension of the work and provides gradable content. If worksheets or questions are provided, the inclusion of an answer key is encouraged.
Purchasing a particular book cannot be required as part of the course, but for courses where additional reading is helpful (such as history) or where a text is required (such as literature), as long as the book can be generally obtained through a library, referencing it in your lessons is fine.
Courses release new lessons to students on a regular basis, usually weekly. Unit studies and worksheets have more flexible schedules. We ask that material be submitted at least 10 days before it is due.
For example, some of our lesson designers prefer to create the entire course ahead of time and submit it to us all at once. Some prefer to work ahead and submit a month or two of material at once, then continue to turn in a week or a month at a time. Others prefer to work and submit on a weekly schedule. We work with each person to find the balance that is best for both of us and to find the best time to start sharing the course with our members. Once we start a course on the site, we generally try to have new lessons each week unless we make a different arrangement beforehand. That way we can let our members know about the schedule at the time we launch the course. The key for us is to be able to reliably release content to our members on a schedule they can depend on. We all experience life events that delay lessons by a day or may even require a week or two break from lessons (cars or computers breaking down, children getting sick, etc.). We understand that, and so do our members, and we will always do our best to work with you when something unexpected comes up.
Course length varies based on the type of course. If it is a core subject, such as history or math, we like to have at least 18-36 weeks. If it is an elective or a specialized supplemental course (for example, a writing unit focused solely on a type of poem or writing a compare/contrast essay), there is no minimum number of lessons. Courses generally include enough lesson content for 3-5 lessons per week.
All of our lesson designers have complete access to SchoolhouseTeachers.com for their entire family for as long as they are with us. Quite a few of our designers contribute for the membership and as a way to help the community of members, much like in a co-op setting.
We have homeschool moms, authors, and grandparents who create the material solely on a volunteer basis in exchange for a free membership to the site. Others who don’t have children help out just to be a part of blessing the homeschooling community.
We also have lesson designers who have their own businesses and sell their own curriculum or services, who create previously unpublished content for our site. Others share a portion of their published curriculum on our site in exchange for the exposure.
Nothing on the site is live, so there are no schedules in that respect. And there is no obligation to grade papers, etc., though we do ask that you be responsive to email questions if they come up (most of our students don’t email with questions, but some do and they like to know the option is there).
Lessons can be all written text, a combination of text and video, all video, presented like a slideshow (such as PowerPoint), or done in a variety of methods. There aren’t any specific hardware or software requirements for creating a lesson. For written material, we can accept Word, PowerPoint, Open Office, etc. For video, anything with a .mp4 extension is usually fine. Lessons are emailed to the editorial team at the site, and we take care of formatting it and posting it to the site.
Please contact Tammie Bairen at tbairen@theoldschoolhouse.com to discuss the specifics.
Please contact Tammie Bairen at tbairen@theoldschoolhouse.com to express your interest in joining the group.
We look forward to connecting with you!
Blessings from the SchoolhouseTeachers.com team!
