Pros
Being able to work from home, some prep work done for you
Cons
Pretty much everything else. They will tell you in the interview that the prep work is already done for you (which are slideshows you use to teach class) and make it sound like a dream job. The rate of pay is only $20/hr and you get paid for one hour of prep time per class as well. But you will spend FAR FAR MORE than this, especially if you are in one of the newer programs (the content for which is FULL of mistakes). You will be observed every week at random, then critiqued, which gets tiresome in a hurry. You may or may not get decent training (I did not) before being assigned a class. You will then be expected to stay on their class lesson schedule no matter what, even if the kids are barely understanding the topics, you gotta stick to that schedule, because it's far more important to get all the lessons in. Grading is entered by the person that is in the actual classroom, and the grades are a joke as well, depending on what the school's policies are. Basically you will end up being micromanaged by a company that is looking for what they can tout on paper as results, rather than actually getting through to the kids. Their practices fly in the face of all research about how to build a classroom environment of trust (i.e. Elevate believes in using cold calling as a "gotcha" technique) and that well trained teachers do not need to be constantly reviewed. I have taught in actual/physical classrooms and never had this many observations in my life, not there nor at any other job! And if this isn't enough, they will want you to "help" them (spend your time) by filling out forms to correct the errors in the content. Oh, and let's not forget that you can only qualify to do this if you have an ethernet connection for your internet and very fast speeds, so don't plan on being able to do this job from just anywhere remotely. Last, you are not allowed to create nor add any of your own content to the course, so don't work here if you have any of your own ideas to add! It should be a great job and has that potential, yet is ruined by the suffocating conditions and restraints in place. Only teach here if you just need a paycheck and don't mind putting up with supervisors breathing down your neck at constant. And in case you think I am saying this because I perform or have been rated poorly, that is not the case. I get good ratings, I love teaching, just this is not what I expected and want to warn others. It's sad case of trying to turn education into a corporate product.
