TeachStreet™

Help / FAQ

General TeachStreet Questions

What is TeachStreet?

Inspirational teachers are out there; sometimes they’re just hard to find. TeachStreet is a free web site that helps students find local teachers, tutors, classes and schools so that they can learn new things. Our goal is to encourage life-long learning by connecting inquiring minds with stellar instructors--and for teachers to find motivated students--via an insanely easy-to-use web site. Learn more about TeachStreet.

What are the rules for using TeachStreet?

1. Be nice to one another.
2. Write reviews, good or bad, that you're proud to stand behind as a member of the local community. Speak your mind, but do so respectfully.
3. Teachers: Respond promptly to student e-mails. After all, students won't keep knockin' if nobody's home.
4. Did we mention to be nice?
5. Oh, and if you're in a lawyery mood, feel free to put yourself to sleep with our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

How does TeachStreet make money?

1. By displaying contextual ads relevant to the page you're on. If you search for 'guitar' in 'Seattle, WA,' you'll see ads for 'guitar strings,' 'pics,' or 'microphones,' and other guitar related products. Similarly, if you search for 'cooking' you might see ads for 'pots,' 'pans,' or 'cookbooks.' Then, if you click any of these links or buy any of these products, we will earn a small commission.
2. In the future, we'll provide additional premium services to help teachers manage their businesses. However, Premium services, when they become available, will always be optional. The site, as you see it today, will ALWAYS be free for both students and teachers.
3. In the distant future, we've got other ideas. They may or may not involve pyramids and Ginsu knives. Stay tuned.

Does TeachStreet have teachers in cities other than Seattle?

You're quite perceptive. The answer is yes, and no. Yes, we do have classes in cities outside the Seattle metropolitan area. But, coverage in other geographies will be sparse until we officially launch in those cities (if you promise to keep a secret... we can tell you that city #2 will be somewhere in the United States). Before we officially launch in a city, we do quite a bit of data gathering to try to provide an unbelievable selection of teachers, schools and classes—our data gathering team is hard at work on San Philayorkizona!

Who is Zach the Dog?

He's only the most handsome shelter dog ever—gawshh! Feel free to friend him on Facebook too :-)

What is a Tag?

Tags can be confusing. In fact, sometimes we get confused by them, too. Basically, tags are descriptive, comma separated words, which anyone can add to any class on the site to help our search engines figure out what a class is all about. (For example a swimming class might have the tags: "pool", "diving", "backstroke", "crawl", and "butterfly"). At any point, teachers will be able to edit/delete a tag attached to their classes. Over time, Tags/Interests will also help us recommend classes for you on your TeachStreet homepage.

What are "Learning Interests?"

Learning Interests are things you want to learn. They work the same way as tags (one or two word descriptors that are comma separated), but different from tags, which describe a class, learning interests describe YOU! Update the learning interests part of your profile page, and we'll find you great local classes and teachers that match.

What is the 'Favorite Classes List?'

Your Favorite Classes List is a list that works just like bookmarking. Find a class that sounds fun, and it's just one click of the "Add it to my Favorites" button, and we'll save that class for you on your profile. You can check out this list any time, add/edit/delete classes and check back in on classes you thought looked fun. Adding a class to your Favorite Classes List doesn't require you to take the class -- it's just a way for you to keep all the classes you're interested in all in one place.

Why are my photos not uploading?

If you are having trouble adding a picture to your account, here are a few things to check:

• File Format: TeachStreet supports a number of file formats including GIF, TIF, PNG, JPG, JPEG.
• File Size: Make sure your images are 5 MB or smaller.
• Non-square image: For optimal display, try to upload square images. Though we are working on additional tools to enable cropping and formatting, non-square images currently get cropped for formatting.

If you have additional photo photo problems, please contact us.

What if I use different e-mail addresses for login, rather than for student contacts?

Within your My Account area, you can enter multiple e-mail addresses. Though any of these e-mails will work for logging in to TeachStreet, e-mails from TeachStreet will only be sent to your primary e-mail address. Primary e-mail, as well as other e-mail notification settings, can be changed at any time by visiting My Account displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the web site.

What web browsers does TeachStreet support?

The TeachStreet web site has been tested to work with the most popular web browsers for both the PC and Mac, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. If you have any issues with the TeachStreet browsing experience please contact us and specify which browser you are having difficulties with, as well as the version number and the type of computer you are using. (Are you a Mac or a PC? :-) )

Teacher FAQ

How does TeachStreet help Teachers?

In 3 primary ways:

1. Results: We help teachers find more qualified local students, fast
2. Easy: We provide powerful, easy-to-use tools to help teachers run their businesses
3. Free: We don't charge anything for basic listings—that's right, it's free!

How are you going to help me find more qualified students? How else will you help me?

• First, we've working really hard to build a web site that makes it easy for search engines to find your classes. The technical term for this is Search Engine Optimization (or SEO), but the point is, by using TeachStreet you can reap the benefits of higher rankings without having to know words like eigenvector or meta-description. We've done this to help you spend time doing what matters most to you: teaching.

• Second, we've built some simple (but powerful!) tools to help you market yourself. For instance, once you register you immediately get your own web address for your profile page -- you can give that to your students, put it on fliers, business cards, and include in postings on places like Craigslist. Think of this as your personal home on the web, where you can merchandise what you're great at and people can read what other students think of you.

  If you already have a website, being on TeachStreet is a great way to get more traffic to your site.

• Third, we're already placing ads on search engines, generating local media coverage, and have a host of traffic-generating activities under way.
• Finally, know that this is just the beginning -- we'll be rapidly adding more features to help you express yourself (e.g. write articles, upload videos) and help more students find you!

What information do you want from teachers? What's the minimum I can do to participate?

We know how you feel. You're busy, and you don't want to spend too much time on a new thing until you're sure it'll pay off. Getting started with TeachStreet will only take a few minutes -- in fact, you can have you basic teacher profile and first class up in under three minutes, if you want. Although, the more information you add, the better your class will look to prospective students and the more frequently your class will appear in search results. So, at a minimum, add at least one class with the information we need to help students find you in our search results.

How is this better than Google / Yahoo / MSN / etc?

We love search engines, too. But, it's hard for them to do everything. Though they're always improving, you still have to do a lot of sorting to find good teachers. So if you're looking for a teacher in your neighborhood, TeachStreet does a more advanced sorting for you than Google could based on neighborhood, time, day of the week, and other ways you might want to filter results. But teachers, don't think we're ignoring the search engines. By setting up a teacher profile, you'll not only help people on TeachStreet find you, you'll also help your website (and/or profile page) rank higher on Google searches related to search terms that prospective students might use to find you.

Why does my class have a picture?

One of Zach the Dog's jobs here at TeachStreet (in addition to Security and Morale) is to add pictures to class pages that teachers haven't claimed yet. Here are several important things to know, however, regarding the pictures on your class pages.

• Zach attempts to attach a single picture to all unclaimed classes pages before teachers come add their own. He does this by trying to match the subject to a relevant photo.
• Teachers can change or delete the primary picture for a class at any time.
• Though students can upload pictures for a class, only teachers have control over the primary picture for a class. And, teachers can delete/remove other photos uploaded for their classes, including those by Zach the Dog.

How does TeachStreet make money?

We get that question a lot—see our answer here.

TeachStreet is free. Does that mean my classes have to be free?

No. Just because TeachStreet is free, doesn't mean you have to be, too. Teaching may be your livelihood. That's great. Hopefully we can help. In light of that, we want to make sure you have complete control over every aspect of your business, including pricing. After all, it's your business, not ours. All we ask is that you are honest with your students. So, please display accurate pricing, however high or low those prices may be. And, we recommend that you offer a discount/promotion for first time students—many teachers offer first classes for free, or at a discount, to encourage trial by students.

Can I remove or change the ads on my class page(s)?

Note to Teachers—for now, you don't have any control over the product placements or Ads on your pages, but if that's something we get a lot of requests for, I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out. If you have strong opinions about it, drop us a line.

I found myself on TeachStreet—where did you find my information?

• We searched high and low to come up with off-the-charts coverage of teachers and classes in the Seattle metropolitan area. We searched everywhere from bulletin boards in coffee shops, to our buddy Google, to directories on-line and off-, to Craigslist, and other sources far and wide. In addition, our members suggest teachers to us via the Suggest a Teacher form. We were careful only to include content that would help merchandise you, the teacher or school.
• In the event that any of your information is not fully correct, we apologize. Though we tried hard, there any many thousands of classes and we realize not all the data can be 100% perfect. We'd like for it to be though. So if any of your information needs fixing, either claim your page and make the corrections, or, give us a holler! and we'll make the fixes promptly.

I found myself on TeachStreet—why should I, and how do I, claim/update my own page?

1. Why should you claim your profile? For starters, so you can quickly upload an awesome photo of yourself! On a more serious note, by claiming your page, you take over control of the content—you can add a much more complete description of your background and skills, add more classes, edit the classes we pre-filled for you, request reviews from students (this is the most important thing you can do to increase your placement in our search results, to help you find more students), and more. It really is free, so what are you waiting for? Go claim your page now!
2. How do you claim your page/profile? It's easy. Just find your class or profile page by searching for a subject or class you teach. Once you find yourself, up by your name you'll see a 'star' and a link that says something like 'This is me—let me update my page.' Just click that link and in less than a minute you'll be on the way to claiming your profile, so you can bling it out!

Why was I not given the option to claim my profile via e-mail?

Trust us, we tried. During the process of gathering teacher data we did our best to find e-mail addresses for teachers. But, as you know, people change their e-mail addresses, and somewhere along the line we probably got an old e-mail address for you. Or, the mail is in your Spam/Junk folder. But enough doom and gloom -- just go claim your page now and enter the best e-mail address where we, and students, can reach you!

What is your privacy policy regarding personally identifiable information you collect from me?

We take your privacy very seriously. For more details about how we treat personally identifiable information we collect from you, please read our Privacy Policy.

I've never taught before—can I create a class on TeachStreet?

Of course—that's what this is all about. We started with all the folks who already teach classes, but our bigger vision is to help everyone realize that we all have something we could teach to other people, and to make it easy to set up shop! And, it'll take you less time than it takes to brew a fresh pot of coffee (i.e. less than 5 minutes, we promise!). Click the "Teach a class" tab at the top of any page to get started.

I manage a school—can I set us up on TeachStreet?

You betcha! We think you'll find the process to be really straight forward. You'll probably want to have your online marketing person, or registrar, set up the account because they'll get the emails from students (inquiring about classes, times, etc.). Of course, they can set the screen name up to be the name of the school. In addition, we encourage the class manager/admin to indicate the actual teacher of each of the classes (since it usually isn't the administrator). That helps to get those teachers set up on TeachStreet as well!

I teach at a school—should I set up my class, or should the school?

We recommend that you have the school set up your class, since they may have a bunch of other classes and teachers that they want to keep updated. But, if you can't get them off their keister, we make it incredibly easy for you to create the class and indicate a school where you teach the class. Give it a whirl, and let us know if you have any questions!

How many classes can I list?

There's really no limit (or, at least, no limit that we think anyone will hit anytime soon). We encourage you to list classes for anything and everything you've got the skills to teach. From Piano and Spanish, to Flag Football, Typing and Search Engine Optimization—if there's a Dummies Guide for it, you can become the expert teacher on TeachStreet!

How do I improve my placement on search results?

We don't disclose our super secret search algorithms, but here are the top things you can do to improve your search placements:

1. Get reviews from your students (teachers with great reviews and ratings will surface higher, which only makes sense)
2. Add more content to your Teacher profile and class pages. It's incredibly important that you select a great Category and Subject, include a descriptive Title, add 'Tags' that are additional terms/creative words that someone may use to find your class and then add a complete Description that covers the types of information that a prospective student could be wondering about.
3. Include photos, detailed location, time and skill level information -- the more detail you provide, the better the search filters work for you.

Note, however, that it doesn't improve your search ranking to add multiple/redundant classes for the same subject. It may give you the appearance of having more classes/visibility, but it's also a fast track to getting in trouble with our watchdog :-) Seriously, use your good judgment and act like you want others to act, and your search ranking will take care of itself. If you teach different things, definitely create different classes!

What if I disagree with the information on my profile, or on someone else's profile?

1. If you disagree with the information on your own profile, you should just claim it and update it to be just as you want it (and remember, it's free to do so!)
2. If you disagree with something on someone else's profile, you can either click the 'Contact' button to send them a message, or you can click the 'Flag' button on any page, to report that content to TeachStreet staff.

What are reviews, and why are they valuable?

Reviews are probably the most valuable information on TeachStreet. They're ratings and feedback from past and current students, as well as from fellow Teachers. We encourage these reviews, both good and bad, to help improve the experience for future students (remember, even a 'bad review' can be beneficial -- for instance, maybe you interacted with a teacher who is much better at teaching advanced students, rather than beginners -- they're still a good teacher, but better for certain students!)

The overall rating for a teacher is an average of the ratings from each of their reviews, across all of their classes. We know this method isn't perfect (i.e. it doesn't show separate teacher ratings for each class), but our hunch is that students are interested in the overall quality of the teacher, regardless of what they teach. For more details, students will be able to read the specific reviews, and see what classes they pertain to.

How do I get more reviews?

The best way is to request them from your past and current students, and from fellow teachers who are familiar with your teaching abilities. We provide a 'Request Review' button on your Profile and Class pages.

How do you know reviews are written by my actual clients?

We admit that it's hard to know, for sure. Primarily, we require users to register before submitting reviews and ratings, and we provide teachers a chance to respond to every review. So, if they're not a student that you know, you're welcome to say so in your response. But, in the end, like with many websites, it's in your own best interest to solicit as many reviews as possible from students who you know will rave about you. That way, if on the off chance you do get a review that you don't 100% agree with, it will be offset by bunches of positive reviews. Web surfers are getting pretty savvy about how to sort through the raving reviewers! We also rely on the TeachStreet community to spot problems, so please let us know if you see a review or rating that seems suspicious, incorrect or inflammatory.

Can I write a review for another teacher who I'm familiar with?

Of course! In fact, we think these teacher recommendations go a long way to build a teacher's credibility, especially if they're from other TeachStreet teachers (because the potential Students can go check out the other person's profile as well!). We do recommend that you say in your review that you're a fellow teacher and how you know the person that you're reviewing.

Did someone else claim my page?

Would a rose by another name smell as sweet? Nope. We think not.

Well, neither would a TeachStreet profile claimed by a user other than you. We want to make it easy for teachers to claim, yes, but we also want to ensure teachers have complete control over all their information. So if you've tried to claim a class that is yours, or as a user name that is your name, and you were told it had already been claimed, please contact us. We'll respond promptly and straighten out any confusion.

Why can't I edit my classes?

Is your class taught at a school? If so, that is probably why. As many schools have classes that carry over from one time session to another, or fixed classes offered by alternating teachers, only schools can make changes to classes entered by, and taught through, them. We understand there are certain limitations here, but we've chosen this implementation to try to ensure the integrity of class data. Having said that, no matter where you teach your classes, as a claimed user on TeachStreet you have complete control over all personal contact and other information in your profile.

Do you share my e-mail address with anyone?

Your e-mail is 100% private such that we do not display it anywhere on the website. We also do not give it to anyone. If a student tries to e-mail you, it will trigger an e-mail from TeachStreet, but they will be unable to view your actual e-mail address. Though we want your students to be able to connect with you, we protect your e-mail to reduce the risk of you receiving unwanted solicitations. Depending on your e-mail settings in My Account, these e-mails will either be sent to both your e-mail address and TeachStreet Message Center, or just to your TeachStreet Message Center.

How do I remove myself from TeachStreet?

Though we are here to provide a free resource to help you grow your business, we respect that you may not want to be part of TeachStreet. If you would like to opt-out of TeachStreet, you may do so at any time. We would encourage you to take a quick moment to read more about how we are trying to help grow your business, but you can contact us at any time and we will happily remove any of your listings.

What if I'm not in Seattle?

Although TeachStreet has launched with extensive class and teacher coverage only in Seattle, don't fret if you live in another US city. We are working hard to expand to additional cities around the US. If you would like, you can sign up to be notified when we come to your city.

What if I'm in a country outside the US?

We know it's silly that we don't accommodate teachers and students outside the US -- really, there's no excuse. However, our address/geocoding solution (yes, it's a geeky term) currently doesn't work outside the United States. However, if you are a teacher, or someone looking to teach, we hope to be in your country soon. Until then, stay tuned. We're coming!

Student FAQ

How does TeachStreet help Students?

In 3 primary ways:

1. We provide the largest selection of local classes and teachers (really, there are 1,000s!)
2. We gather incredibly rich information, to help students find the best classes to fit their needs (location, price, skill level, etc.)
3. We never charge a penny for Students (or Teachers, for that matter!) to use our TeachStreet. That's right, it's free!

Does it cost me anything to use TeachStreet? How does TeachStreet make money?

We get that question a lot—see our answer here.

Why can't I find my favorite Teacher?

• We've tried to include every Teacher in your area, but some Teachers are just harder to find than others. In fact, this is one of the key reasons we built TeachStreet: to help make it easier for folks to find these teachers who don't have much of an online presence.
• If you have a favorite teacher who might be flying below our radar, you can always add them to the site yourself by clicking on the add a teacher link in the web site footer and we'll do our best to get them added pronto!
• Tip: Try refining your search. Our search results work better if you search for the topic/subject and then narrow down for things like location, skill level, etc. (Currently, you can't search by first or last name for teachers, but we're hoping to add it soon. If this is something that you think we need to add sooner rather than later, drop us a line!).

My search returned too many or too few teachers. How do I narrow or expand the results?

If you received too many results, that's what we call a high quality problem! Narrow your search results by using the filters at the left of the search results to restrict to your neighborhood, skill levels, day of week, etc. You can also search for, or click on, a more descriptive tag in order to try to find a more precise type of class (i.e. Instead of searching for "Yoga", try searching for "Hatha" or "Vinyasa".) You'll find that you can start getting really precise about the teacher, class or school of your dreams!

How are the search results determined?

We don't disclose our super secret search algorithms, but here are some tips we give Teachers on how to improve their search results—the best thing you can do to help your favorite teachers be surfaced atop the results is to find them and write a glowing review!

How do I sign up for a class, or contact a teacher?

When you visit a class page, click the 'E-mail teacher' or 'Take this class' button. This will trigger a form that will allow you to e-mail the teacher, ask them questions and coordinate your class. Note that we'll send the mail via the TeachStreet messaging system, to allow you to stay semi-anonymous if you'd like, while you choose teachers. Over time, you can decide when to share more information or phone the teacher directly -- it's up to you!

When I contact a Teacher, how long does it take to get a reply?

There's no fixed amount of time—some teachers are addicted to the Internet and will reply in minutes, while others will take a day or a few days, and yet others may never reply (you know how email can get lost in email folders). We recommend that you consider reaching out to several Teachers, to increase the odds of finding a good match, and know that you'll probably have been odds of quick replies from Teachers with great ratings! We also recommend leaving reviews for teachers you try to connect with, to let other students know how your experience was with them.

What do I do if I never get a response from a Teacher?

Of course, you could write them a negative review, but keep in mind that there's a chance that the email never got to their inbox, or that they're on vacation, or or or... You could also try contacting them via different means like a phone number or website link, if we have them on the page. And, if you do so, be sure to tell them that you found them on TeachStreet and ask them why they didn't respond to your TeachStreet email request. If they didn't get it, help them out by sending them a link to their Teacher page—that will give them the ability to claim their profile and update their email!

Why do some teacher's profiles have more information than others?

In a nutshell, almost all the profiles you see on TeachStreet started out as a "basic profile" that we created on a teacher's behalf, using information that we could find on the web. The more complete profiles are usually those that have been claimed by the teachers themselves. Once teachers claim their pages, they often "pretty" them up with photos, more in-depth descriptions, reviews from students, and more. If we were you (and we are, in many ways :-) ), we'd reach out to the Teachers with content rich pages first!

If I see incorrect information on a teacher's profile page, what should I do?

One easy thing to do is to click the 'Contact' button to send the Teacher a message. Or, you can click the 'Flag' button on any page, to report that content to TeachStreet staff (we do appreciate your help!)

What are reviews?

See our description here, in the Teacher FAQ. We can't reiterate enough how important reviews are—they're the most useful piece of information for prospective students like you, and they give all students the chance to voice their favorites, and not-so-favorites! Go write some reviews today... you'll feel so much better :-)

How do I submit a review?

It couldn't be easier. Just go find a Teacher or Class that you're familiar with, and click the 'Write review' button—it then gives you the ability to assign a star rating (from 1-star to 5-stars, with 5 being 'awesome'!), select a class, create a Title/Description for your review, and then add some more in-depth commentary. Know that teachers LOVE reviews—of course, they love positive reviews more, but even a negative review can be delivered in a constructive way. So, be kind, but be honest!

Can I submit an anonymous review?

No—but, know that you can always create a Screen Name that is anonymous. For instance, you'll see many screen names that are the first and last names of students, or that are the names of schools or businesses. But, there's nothing stopping you from creating a fun name that obscures your identity if you want to (like "Balletgirl80" or "Rockclimbingkid", you get the idea). Just to to 'My Account' and edit your screen name—it takes less than 30 seconds!

How do you know reviews are written by actual students?

We admit that it's hard to know, for sure. Primarily, we require users to register before submitting reviews and ratings, and we provide teachers a chance to respond to every review. But, in the end, like with many websites, it's in a Teacher's own best interest to solicit as many reviews as possible from Students who they know will rave about them. That way, if on the off chance Teachers do get a review that they don't 100% agree with, it will be offset by bunches of positive reviews. Web surfers are getting pretty savvy about how to sort through the raving reviewers! We also rely on the TeachStreet community to spot problems, so please let us know if you see a review or rating that seems suspicious or incorrect by clicking the "Flag" button.

How do I manage my email subscriptions to TeachStreet?

Just go to 'My Account' (found at the top right of every page on our website) and you will find options to turn various emails on and off.

What is your privacy policy regarding personally identifiable information you collect from me?

We take your privacy very seriously. For more details about how we treat personally identifiable information we collect from you, please read our Privacy Policy.

I've never taught before—can I create a class on TeachStreet?

Of course—that's what this is all about. We started with all the folks who already teach classes, but our grand scheme is to help everyone realize that we all have something we could teach to other people, and to make it easy to set up shop! And, it'll take you less time than it takes to brew a fresh pot of coffee (i.e. less than 5 minutes, we promise!). Click the "Teach a class" tab at the top of any page to get started.