Who Should Apply to Teach at Kepler?

Teacher Application Is Now Open

Though we have already been working with early adopters, today (October 14, 2019) Kepler officially opens its doors to all teacher applicants.

Because of the flexible nature of the Kepler model, the question is often asked what kind of teachers should apply to teach at Kepler. There are certainly a lot of different ways to approach this question. First and foremost, we would answer Christian teachers. Secondly, we would say educated teachers. Thirdly, we would say teachers who love their subject and love their students.

But probably what many mean by this question is what will it look like to be a teacher at Kepler? Though it is quite plausible there are more variations in kind than we will consider here, there are at least three kinds of teachers who will teach at Kepler:

The Traditional Teacher

For the traditional teacher, teaching online is one option among many. This teacher might just as easily teach in a traditional brick and mortar school, but teaching online with Kepler is also an appealing option they might pursue.

After all, teaching online has numerous benefits, such as avoiding the commute, the excessive staff meetings, and the numerous discipline issues that arise on a campus while teaching at a brick and mortar school. For traditional teachers, Kepler provides them with their own virtual classroom, a structured framework and diploma track for their junior high and high school students, a powerful learning and classroom management platform, and access to a consortium of like-minded, master teachers.

The Independent Teacher

The second kind of teacher that might be compelled to teach at Kepler is the independent tutor who is thinking about, or is already, building their own private teaching or tutorial service.

This is reminiscent of past education models where a family would hire a tutor to live in their home and educate all of their children. With the ubiquity of the internet, many homeschooling families choose to hire tutors in this fashion. Sometimes tutors will teach all subjects to a few students, or they may teach specific subjects the parents are unfamiliar with, or they may teach a subject in which the tutor is a known expert. There are a variety of expressions of the independent teacher.

Where Kepler makes a difference for the independent teacher is in the resources and flexibility we provide. The independent teacher may want to teach but not spend a lot of time administrating a business (i.e., run a website, bill students, budget extensive marketing campaigns, etc.). In addition to having an administrative partner, a powerful platform from which they can teach, and resources on which to build their own brand, independent teachers can also offer their students a diploma track and access other valuable intrinsic resources that rise out of teaching with a consortium of teachers.

The Professional Teacher

Using “professional” in this context, does not in any manner imply the traditional or independent teacher is not a professional. Rather, the professional teacher is one who is already engaged in higher education or academic research and brings a high level of expertise to the Kepler faculty.

The professional teacher may be a writer who is an expert in a particular field of research. The professional teacher may be an active university professor who wants to expand the scope of his or her influence. Or, the professional teacher may be a retired teacher who still feels he or she has something valuable to offer but doesn’t want to return to the classroom full-time.

As an example, Kepler offers the ideal opportunity for a retired university professor who still has something to offer, but has no interest in returning to the university. Kepler would allow this professional to teach in a flexible and limited capacity. Another example may be the active university professor with expertise in a particular field of study. This professional teacher may want to offer one or two small mentorship classes, or a single large (flipped) class with a couple of smaller recitation sections.

As mentioned previously, it is likely there are more profiles than these that might find teaching at Kepler beneficial, but most of our early applicants fall into one of these three categories. Most have advanced degrees, some want to teach full time, and others only want to teach 1-2 classes.

If you have any questions about Kepler we have not answered in our blog posts or newsletters, please feel free to contact us using our contact form.

If you're a teacher and think teaching at Kepler would be a good fit for your teaching goals, we invite you to fill out our teacher interest form so we can get to know each other better.