Author Archive

Highlighting Test Prep Classes on TeachStreet

November 17th, 2009 by Joseph

Have you had an issue finding the best test prep class in your neighborhood or even online? We’ve now made it easier for you by introducing our new TeachStreet Test Prep page. We highlight the best test prep classes in your area (both live and online), whether you’re looking for SAT prep, LSAT prep, or even PCATs — we have it here. You’re just one click away from the test prep class near you.

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We have several aspects of this page that is unique making it easier for students to navigate to their test prep class they’re looking for:

  1. We highlight the Top Test Prep Subjects: SAT, LSAT, GMAT, and GRE
  2. We highlight our Top Test Prep Providers with Featured Classes
    (i.e. Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, Knewton, or ManhattanGMAT)
  3. You can sort through Test Prep courses closest to you

So when you’re thinking of taking a test prep courses to get into college, business school, medical school, or law school — come to TeachStreet Test Prep for all your test prep needs.


Improved Teacher Profiles Revealed

November 11th, 2009 by Joseph

We’re excited to unveil our upgraded profile for teachers! We’ve listened to the teacher feedback, and have revamped this page to be more clean and focused on what teachers care about most — getting more students. With this, you’ll notice the following changes live on our website today.

blognewprofileProfile Example: Bridget Benton

New Changes to Teacher Profiles!

  1. Cleaner Profile: We make it easier to scan teacher profiles and understand who they are.
  2. Prominent Listings: Quickly see the classes, events or workshops teachers offer.
  3. Better Visuals: Less clutter and more visually appealing, with bigger photos!
  4. Consolidation: Contact and reputation information are grouped together.
  5. Navigation: Tabbed navigation to highlight teacher offerings

We’re excited about these upgrades and we’re hoping you’re excited too. We know there may still be some kinks, so if you have any questions about the improvements on the profile page, feel free to visit our Profile Help Page or Known Issues Forum. We’re eager to hear your feedback!


How to Make Beer Bread — Best Combination

November 6th, 2009 by Joseph

Another week in a row, we have a special guest teaching us something new. One of our software developers, Scott Windsor, brought in his wife, Jane-Anne Egerton, to teach us how to make beer bread. Doesn’t that just have a good ring to it? Beer bread — the best of both worlds. Along with teaching us how to make bread, she’s also taking some photography classes at Photographic Center Northwest. If you want to take a look at her current work, check out her site at Venomous Swan.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups white flour
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 warm 12oz bottle of warm (room temperature) beer
  • 4+ tablespoons butter

Instructions:

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients
  2. Pour in the bottle of beer
  3. Mix the ingredients together until the batter is wet
  4. Pour the mixture into a greased pan
  5. Pour melted button on top of bread
  6. Bake for 30-45 minutes at 375 degrees

Do you want to teach us something? We’d love to invite you on one of our Fridays to help us learn something new! E-mail me at joseph@teachstreet.com.


Learn How to Make a Brain Shot for Halloween

October 30th, 2009 by Joseph

Getting ready for Halloween? We were lucky enough to have a guest teacher come in today to get us in the mood for Halloween. Elizabeth Romatz, a Psychology graduate student at Seattle University, taught us how to make entertaining brain shots for your upcoming Halloween costume party. It was great to learn bartending skills at the office, even only for just one shot. Here’s how to make this tasty concoction below:

Ingrediants:

  • 1 1/4 oz. Peach schnapps
  • 3/4 oz. Irish Cream
  • Splash of grenadine

Instructions:

  1. Chill all of your liquors before making this shot
  2. Pour in your peach schnapps into a shot glass
  3. Slightly tilt the shot glass and pour the Irish Cream so it hits the glass before touching the schnapps
  4. Splash the grenadine on top and watch the braininess ensue

Do you want to teach us something? We’d love to invite you on one of our Fridays to help us learn something new! E-mail me at joseph@teachstreet.com.


Xtreme Tennis, More Extreme than Tennis!

October 17th, 2009 by Joseph

Are you looking to take tennis lessons from a real tennis coach? If you are, Stephen is definitely not your guy. But if you’re looking to have some crazy fun on a tennis courth which involves pelting your opponents with tennis balls — he’s your go-to-guy. Stephen Travieso is the creator of a game called Xtreme Tennis, widely famous in the Baltimore area and wanting to slowly grow here in the Northwest. Here are the rules for Xtreme Tennis on TeachStreet.

If you walk by a tennis court and see someone running across while a person is trying to pelt them with a serve, you know what’s going down — XTREME TENNIS!

Do you want to teach us something? We’d love to invite you on one of our Fridays to help us learn something new! E-mail me at joseph@teachstreet.com.


How to Draw according to Daryn

October 9th, 2009 by Joseph

Our CTO, Daryn Nakhuda, takes time away from his computer screens to teach us how to draw — his way. I’m not sure how many art classes he’s taken before, but judging from the video — I think it may have been a couple years…or more. Although, his story telling is always funny. Maybe he should provide public speaking training or even a comedy class to pass down his quirkiness. I know I’d be in line for that one.

Do you want to teach us something? We’d love to invite you on one of our Fridays to help us learn something new! E-mail me at joseph@teachstreet.com.


How to Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries

October 2nd, 2009 by Joseph

To top off this nice summer we’ve had here at TeachStreet, Jenn taught us how to make some tasty chocolate covered strawberries. You have to love cooking classes that don’t need a stove or oven, especially since we don’t have those in our office. If you need reason to impress a special someone or just want to prepare a “nice summer time treat” — you have to try this out. It’s super easy and simple.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries:

Ingrediants:

  • Strawberries
  • Chocolate (semi-sweet or dark)
  • Milk
  • Wax paper

Instructions:

  1. Heat your chocolate either under a double broiler, or TeachStreet style (in the microwave)
  2. Mix in a tiny bit of milk after the chocolate has melted
  3. Wash your strawberries and dip them into the melted chocolate
  4. Make sure you swirl the strawberry to get it all covered in chocolate
  5. Place on a sheet pan/plate lined with wax paper
  6. Put the chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge until chocolate has hardened

Do you want to teach us something? We’d love to invite you on one of our Fridays to help us learn something new! E-mail me at joseph@teachstreet.com.


Improve Your SAT Score Today

September 23rd, 2009 by Joseph

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Photo by ndm007

We’ve been getting a good amount of our community looking for test prep courses in order to prepare themselves for the upcoming school year. For a lot of high school juniors and seniors specifically, they’re aiming to ace their SATs for college applications to get into college next year. If you haven’t registered for the test, go check out College Board for the most recent SAT test dates.

There’s a lot of ways to improve your SAT score, and it deals a lot with preparation and surrounding yourself with a good support team. There’s a good amount of great SAT tutors and SAT Prep organizations you can connect with. We’re actually working with some great partners nationwide to provide our community with a greater selection of test prep courses to choose from like Kaplan Test Prep, among others.

If you want to learn more about how you can improve your SAT test scores, here are some great articles to get some great tips:


Build Your Teaching Business with TeachStreet Teams

August 19th, 2009 by Joseph

If you weren’t able to make it yesterday for our “Introduction to TeachStreet Team” event, we had a great talk with Sara Selepouchin and Marlo Miyashiro about their experiences starting and leading Teams of their own. First, I wanted to thanks them both for taking the time and sharing their knowledge with us and I know it’ll be a benefit to the whole community. The real takeaways I got out of it were the following:

  • Teams is a great way to connect with more teachers in your area and subject
  • Learn from and help your team members
  • Having local teams with a diversity of teachers may be a good start
  • Competition in Teams is always good
  • The success of your team is what you make of it
  • Start simple

If you missed the event, check out the video and transcript below:

Webcast: Introduction to TeachStreet Teams (Video):

Webcast: Introduction to TeachStreet Teams (Chat Transcript):
http://rec1.dimdim.com/chat/dimdim/f2ee29c2-dd7d-102c-8e71-003048642bd7

We’ll be doing regular webcasts highlighting different topics our community is seeking to learn. If you have a topic of interest or questions about TeachStreet Teams, please send me an e-mail to joseph@teachstreet.com.


Launching TeachStreet Teams!

August 11th, 2009 by Joseph

Our pilot program, TeachStreet Teams, is finally here and I wanted to let the community know. We have a total of 30 teams ranging from local teams in Seattle, San Francisco, and Denver to subject-based teams like Holistic Healers and the Marketing and Design Team. We’re eager to get everyone’s feedback. Check out TeachStreet Teams below:

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TeachStreet Teams: http://teachstreet.com/teams

  • Network with teachers/schools/orgs in your community or within the subject you teach
  • Team Guides to help your get started
  • Become a leader for Team and help TeachStreet grow the community
  • Ability to add events your Teams are having for the community
  • Forums for each Team to stay connected with other members
  • Unique URLs for each Team to help spread the word

We’re having an event next week, “Introduction to TeachStreet Teams“, that will provide you a good time to chat with us and with two special guests who have a wealth of experience creating, maintaining, and supporting teams.

Sara Selepouchin
Former Etsy Teams Coordinator and Philly Etsy Street Team Leader

Sara has run here own crafts teams in the Philadelphia area, and actually worked with Etsy.com to help get their Teams program successfully off the ground to over 20,000+ members worldwide while she was there. I’m happy to say she’ll be helping us get started here at TeachStreet.

Marlo Miyashiro
EtsyRain Team Leader and Local Crafts Teacher

Marlo, is both a crafts teacher on TeachStreet and active participant in the crafts community here in Seattle. She currently runs EtsyRain (Seattle-based crafts team) which she has helped grow to over 600 members. They also organized the EtsyRain Spring Crafts Show which showcased their members.

I encourage all of you to sign up for this event, August 18th – 1:00-2:00pm PST. If you’re interested in how Teams can help your business grow, this will be the event to find out.

Introduction to TeachStreet Teams
August 18, 2009 – 1:00-2:00pm PST

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