I'm a teacher. My husband is an engineer. You'd be surprised how many high school teacher-engineer couples exist -- the personality types must attract. Seriously, 1/3 of the teachers in my department are married to engineers.
We've always thought that this combination is perfect. I have a low paycheck but also a schedule that matches the kids' needs. I have job security. He has a higher paycheck, needs to be able to leave at a moment's notice, and he worries about layoffs every two years. He puts away lots into our investments; I put away less but also have my pension. Our "opposite status" makes us stronger as a financial unit.
The biggest single thing I've done as a teacher isn't about making extra money; rather, it's about saving money. Having the afternoons, holidays and weekends with the kids was a huge savings -- both in money and in effort. So many of my friends used to ask me every spring, "Can you send me a student who'd like to babysit all summer?" And while I did set up quite a few successful combinations, I was just as glad not to be spending that money myself. Also, as my youngest approaches high school graduation next week, I can say that I raised some pretty great kids.
Other things that I've done or have seen other people do within the school system for extra cash:
- Tutoring; get yourself on the county's approved tutor list
- Summer camps; put together one using your strength -- theater, basketball, writing -- parents are looking for summer activities for kids
- Home bound teaching
- Online teaching; this is a growing field
- Coach a sports team, though if you coach one of the big sports and do it well, it comes out to less than $2/hour -- you really have to love coaching
- Become an official for a sport; you need to be certified in your sport, but this is more profitable than coaching
- Supervise "Saturday School", which is detention
- Grade AP tests or other tests - this is a June job
- Become an SAT administrator; it's only a 5-6-times-a-year job, but it's easy money
- I did summer school once, and it was awful; I ended up teaching the kids who had just failed my class, so they had a bad attitude. And I went into the next school year already tired, so that school year seemed to go on forever. Of course, I also had two small children (one of them an infant) at the time.
And LOTS of my colleagues have other jobs outside the school system:
- Many of the young teachers have retail jobs after school, but I wouldn't recommend that; going to the mall every day allows you to see things /develop a desire for things that you don't really need.
- Many of my colleagues have small businesses in painting, electrical, tile, etc.
- I know a couple who do seamstress work.
- I know one home ec teacher who made really nice denim shirts with our school mascots embroidered on the front (made one at put it in every school's mail room and took orders); she literally put her daughter through college on those shirts. And we loved them -- they looked great, and I wore mine for the better part of a decade.