Recap
Tara has taught full curriculum on Outschool since 2021 and currently has 274 enrolled learners, 75% of them returning. She walked through how to tell whether a class truly qualifies as a full curriculum, two ways to plan one, and the optional add-ons she's built up over five years.
Key takeaways
- The test: could a learner leave your class and succeed at the next level? If you can't say yes confidently, don't use the tag — meeting the time length isn't enough.
- Two ways to plan: pull the standards you're most comfortable with (your state, Common Core, your own country's), or work backwards from the end goal — what should learners know, do, and be able to apply.
- Try the brain dump: 10-minute timer, write down everything a successful learner should be able to do, then sort it with highlighters. That list becomes your standards.
- Map the full scope before the calendar. Starting with "I have 20 weeks, what's first?" means running out of material or running out of time.
- Be clear in writing. Outschool isn't accredited and parents will ask. Tara describes hers as a teacher-created curriculum covering Pennsylvania requirements — never promising alignment to a specific state test.
- Add-ons grow over time. Hers started with optional homework and built up to answer-key videos, anchor charts, spiral reviews, optional assessments, and a drop-in third day — each one a response to family feedback. Make it once, use it a hundred times.
- Ask your families what they want, or read your reviews — whatever parents mention is what they're seeking you out for.
- You're selling a solution, not a class count. Taking a whole subject off a parent's plate is what earns years of return enrollment.
Watch the recording · link
View the slides · link
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
