Teach geography online in English

Geography is the subject that asks why things are where they are: why the Sahara and the deserts of Australia lie at roughly the same distance from the equator, one to the north and one to the south; why a town grew up at one river crossing and not the next; why Iceland widens a little every year while the Himalayas are still being pushed upwards. It keeps one foot in the sciences and the other in the humanities.

That breadth is where students come unstuck. Someone who writes a fluent essay can freeze in front of a six-figure grid reference, while a student who loves volcanoes may not know how to argue a case about urban growth. A tutor who moves easily between the two, and shows how the river, the railway and the new housing estate on one map explain each other, makes the subject hang together.

Why we are looking for geography tutors who teach in English

Clasora shows students the tutors who teach in the language they use the site in. A student reading Clasora in English is shown tutors who teach in English, so if English is your teaching language, those are the students who find you.

In geography that matters more than it first appears. The subject has its own vocabulary: “longshore drift”, “oxbow lake”, “rain shadow”, “push and pull factors”. Command words such as “describe”, “explain” and “evaluate” each ask for a different kind of answer, and plenty of students lose marks by describing when they were asked to explain. Place names shift between languages too: the river a German speaker calls the Donau is the Danube in English, and students should hear the names in their own atlas.

Clasora does not employ tutors, and this is an opening rather than a job. You work independently: you set your own prices and hours, and you teach as much or as little as you like. For some tutors it is a side income over a few evenings a week. Others teach enough hours for it to stand in for a job.

What teaching geography online on Clasora looks like

The opening is fully remote. Every lesson takes place online, and you teach from wherever you live.

Students book from your calendar. They only see the times you have marked as free, shown in their own time zone, so nobody has to count off fifteen degrees of longitude per hour to find a slot. You decide how much notice you need and how far ahead people can book.

Lessons run in the browser, and neither of you installs anything. Screen sharing carries much of the teaching. You can open Google Earth and fly along a glaciated valley so the student sees the U-shaped profile for themselves, then switch to a topographic map and follow the same valley in contour lines. You can build a climate graph in a spreadsheet while the student watches, or label a photo of a coastline in a whiteboard app. Some tutors point a webcam at a paper map and draw on it as they talk. The in-call chat is handy for a grid reference the student needs to copy, and background blur keeps your room out of the picture.

Between lessons, each student has a conversation with you. A student might send a photo of an unfinished cross-section, and you can reply with comments or a practice exercise. Messages, files and shared links sit next to the sessions they belong to, so months later you can still find the map you annotated together. Your map extracts and worksheets can live in your personal file area, and documents can come across from Google Drive. If you plan your week in Google Calendar, it can sync with your Clasora calendar.

What students usually want help with

Map skills: scale, grid references, contour lines, and drawing a cross-section from a topographic map.

Latitude, longitude and time zones: finding a place from its coordinates and working out the time on the other side of the world.

Plate tectonics: types of plate boundary, why earthquakes and volcanoes cluster along them, and how people live with the risk.

Weather and climate: air pressure, fronts, the circulation of the atmosphere, and reading a climate graph.

Rivers, coasts and glaciers: erosion, transport and deposition, and the landforms they leave, from meanders and deltas to spits and corries.

Population, migration and cities: population pyramids, the demographic transition model, why people move, and how cities grow.

Resources and climate change: energy, water and food supply, the evidence for a warming climate, and how places respond.

Essays and case studies: answering the question actually asked, using named examples with real facts, and reaching a conclusion the evidence supports.

GIS: working with layers in QGIS or ArcGIS, often for students of geography, environmental science or urban planning.

Preparing for a test or an exam: revising case studies and writing longer answers against the clock.

Who we are looking for

You know the parts of geography you offer well enough to explain a process step by step and to spot where a student's understanding breaks down.

You explain clearly in English, and you link what happens on the ground to the map or graph that shows it.

You can read a student's extended answer and show them how to turn a list of facts into an argument.

You might teach geography already, hold a degree in geography, geology, environmental science or urban planning, be a university student strong in the subject, or use geography at work as a GIS analyst, a planner or a cartographer.

You have a computer with a camera, a microphone and a steady internet connection.

You are 18 or older.

Teaching experience helps, but it is not required.

What you get

No commission. Clasora takes nothing from the price you set.

Free to join and to publish. There is no subscription and no listing fee.

Your own prices. You set a price for each session length, and you can offer a free first session.

Your own hours. You choose your weekly hours and days off, the notice you need and how far ahead students can book.

A public listing page. Your listing is its own page, found by search engines and shown in the language each visitor reads, with your photo, an intro video, what you teach, your languages and your price for each session length.

Reviews that say something. Students rate you on knowledge, clarity and engagement.

Checked qualifications. You can add your degrees and teaching qualifications to your profile, and a moderator checks them.

Lessons in the browser. Video with screen sharing, background blur and in-call chat, with nothing to install.

How to start

Create an account with the button on this page.

Publish a listing for geography that says which areas you teach.

Open your calendar and mark the hours when you are free.

It takes a few minutes. You accept the terms when you become a tutor, and a moderator checks your listing before it goes live.

Questions tutors ask

Do I need a degree in geography?

No. You need a solid command of the geography you offer and the ability to explain it clearly. If you hold a degree or a teaching qualification, add it to your profile and a moderator will check it.

Can I teach only physical or only human geography?

Yes. Your listing says what you teach, so you can offer the whole subject or concentrate on the part you know best, such as landforms and climate, population and cities, or map skills and GIS.

Can I help with a fieldwork report or an essay?

Yes. A student can send a draft in your conversation, and you can go through it together on a shared screen: structure, evidence, and whether the conclusion follows from the data. The writing stays the student's own.

How do I get paid?

Card payments are not switched on yet. For now a booking is confirmed without a card, and you and the student settle payment directly between you. Clasora takes no commission on what you charge.