An international teacher-owned platform co-op has waived its fees for Ukrainian teachers.
Set up in 2021, MyCoolClass aims to be a virtual home for teachers who have left Ukraine, allowing them to run their teaching business and offer classes to children, including those that have been displaced.
Five Ukrainian teachers have already joined MyCoolClass, two of them still in Ukraine. The co-op has not only waived its fees for them but also simplified the application process. It is also accepting donations to cover some of the cost of waiving the fees.
MyCoolClass enables teachers to offer lessons in any language, subject, skills or topic. The teachers can also set their own schedule and prices as well as offer free lessons to Ukrainian children.
The co-op is registered in the United Kingdom as a co-operative society but has members from all over the world. To join, teachers have to pay a fee of £ 5 to £25. While this fee is waived for refugees, they will still be given a £1 voting share at the end of their probationary period.
Teachers, tutors, crisis counsellors and psychotherapists who want to volunteer can register and use the MyCoolClass platform for free.
All paid classes on the MyCoolClass platform have a contribution of 19%, which goes to the co-operative. This charge will not apply to free lessons or courses for children or volunteer counselling.
MyCoolClass was set up in June 2021 by John Hayes, a Californian ESL teacher who lives in Warsaw, Poland. His country of residence has to date welcomed over 1.4 million displaced Ukrainians.
“My girlfriend and I will start hosting refugees in our extra bedroom soon. We hope to get some Ukrainian speaking volunteers so MyCoolClass can launch a separate program providing free lessons to displaced children but that will take some time as everything is still chaotic,” he said.
The co-op plans to organise free group lessons for children from Ukraine and is currently looking for volunteers who speak both English and Ukrainian to help them manage translations. The co-op deals with all admin work and bookkeeping so teachers can focus on doing their job.
MyCoolClass has launched a dedicated page for Ukrainian teachers. The co-op currently has a total of 282 active teachers.
