Hello! How Are You? The Complete Guide to Teaching ESL Online

By Beth Jones

Want to teach English without leaving your house? Learn exactly what it takes to become an online educator in the changing world of ESL. Whether you have online experience and want to hone your skills or you're starting completely from scratch, there are a lot of things you need to know in order to succeed. Written by an online ESL teacher with thousands of completed classes, Hello! How Are You? is the must-read guide for teachers.

In this book, you'll learn exactly:

• How to find an online school that fits your schedule and personality
• What it takes to ace your job interview and demo class
• How to create a beneficial and effective learning environment for your students
• Exactly how you can decorate your classroom appropriately
• What you need to know about prepping and teaching your classes
• How to understand the guidelines for popular ESL schools
• What it takes to get – and stay – fully booked by parents
• How experienced teachers get positive feedback from parents

And more!

Find out everything you need to know in order to succeed as an online teacher in the digital world. Whether you want to teach with VIPKid or another popular online school, this is the guide for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beth Jones
• Release date: May 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386391371

Book preview

Chapter 1: Why Should You Teach Online?

Culture.

Music.

Food.

When you think about Asia, what comes to mind?

Do you think about the delicious food? The incredible traffic? The scooters lined up as far as the eye can see? Do you think about the beautiful landmarks? Do you picture children squeezing onto packed buses after school? Do you think about backpackers? Trains? Subways?

For me, moving to Asia to study Chinese was an incredible choice. I wanted to fully immerse myself (and my family) in the culture, which is why my husband and I gave away our belongings, bought four one-way tickets, and moved abroad with our two young sons. For a lot of people, moving abroad to study Chinese or to teach English might seem crazy. Maybe it was. For us, it was a dream we’d had for years.

When we landed and stepped off the plane, I realized right away that things were very different than I had imagined them. While I’d been under the impression that everyone speaks English, the reality is that not everyone is willing to speak English. Adults and children alike are nervous about making mistakes, which meant that many people were too scared to try to speak English with me, as a foreigner.

In Taiwanese classrooms, things were much the same. Many students would rather remain silent than accidentally mispronounce a word or need to be corrected. They’re scared of being made fun of by their peers. They’re worried about receiving a bad grade. They’re worried about their teacher criticizing them.

It was while I was living in Taiwan that a friend began working for an online English school called VIPKid. This school was not one I’d heard about before, but she was able to explain the premise to me easily. VIPKid offers one-on-one tutoring sessions. They match interested students with qualified teachers who are able to teach full English immersion classes. Sometimes they classes are 25 minutes long. Other times, they are 50. Either way, my friend explained that this was an interesting and enjoyable side job she could do from home while living abroad.

Later, when I returned to the United States, I worked from home as a writer, but started to look into mixing things up. During lunch with an old college professor of mine, she asked, Have you ever thought about teaching online? You’d be good at it. I let the idea sit and grow for a few months. Then one night, I did a Google search for Online English Jobs. As a writer by trade, I thought I wanted to teach English Literature; however, VIPKid’s website was the first one that popped up.

Nearly instantly, my life was changed.

I fell down the rabbit hole of watching teachers on YouTube demonstrate exactly what it took to be an online teacher. I was shocked! There’s a lot more that goes into online teaching than just talking to students for half an hour, but I was instantly intrigued and I realized that this was something I might actually enjoy doing.

So I applied.

While waiting for my demo class, I watched more than 10 hours of YouTube videos. As a reader and writer, YouTube isn’t something I’m especially fond of; however, when it comes to preparing for a VIPKid job interview, it was amazing. I loved watching how different teachers behave in the classroom and getting a better understanding of what VIPKid was looking for.

Now, after nearly a year of teaching, I can say that it’s exactly what I hoped it would be. Teaching with an online ESL school, whether you opt for this particular school or go a different route, is incredibly rewarding, exciting, and challenging.

So if you’re considering online teaching, there are a couple of benefits you should be aware of.

You can do it from home.

WHETHER YOU’RE A STAY-at-home mother, disabled, don’t have a car, or simply don’t feel like leaving the house in the morning, working online is great if you want to stay at home. As a full-time writer, I was looking for something I could do in addition to my day job. VIPKid fit in perfectly since working with this school does not require that I do any traveling at all. As long as you have Internet access at your home, you can teach directly from your living room, bedroom, or even your bathroom.

You can set your own hours.

SOME TEACHERS ARE HESITANT to apply to work at an online school because they believe working for VIPKid means you have to get up in the middle of the night. The reality is that you can work anytime the school is open, which means your working hours are going to vary based on where you live. I work in Central Standard Time, which means I can teach ESL anytime from 7:30 at night until 9:00 in the morning. These hours work for me and are quite convenient since I can alter whether I want to work in the morning or the night. You do not have to get up in the middle of the night to teach; however, some teachers who want to make a little extra cash do just that. I’ve worked all hours with VIPKid and I’ve now found a somewhat consistent schedule that works with my lifestyle, but rest assured that no matter what your financial goals or daily habits are like, you’ll be able to find something that works.

You can take breaks.

IF YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT working five hours straight through, don’t stress. With VIPKid, you can schedule back-to-back classes or you can choose to schedule classes every half hour. There’s really no requirement as to how many classes you need to teach in a row. Some teachers go hard and like to teach five, six, or even ten classes back-to-back, while others are happy teaching just a couple of classes. Since there’s no minimum class requirement for teaching with this school in particular, you can also easily take time off if you want to travel or deal with personal issues. You’ll just not open slots on the days you don’t want to work. Easy peasy.

You can stay home with your kids.

AS A FORMER MILITARY wife and stay-at-home mom of two little boys, I know how important this is to many parents; however, with the rising cost of living, being able to survive on one income can often seem impossible. With online teaching, you can stay home with your kids. Note that your kids cannot be in the room while you’re teaching, so you need to either teach when they’re asleep or when you have someone to watch them. If you have really small kiddos, you may want to consider daycare or hiring a babysitter. Some teachers only teach when they have a partner around who can take care of the kids. The way you handle childcare is absolutely up to you, but keep in mind that VIPKid policy states that your little ones can’t be in the room with you. This is considered a professional teaching environment, so you should be fully focused on your students.

You can travel.

IF YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING for a flexible job that lets you travel the world, you’re in luck! VIPKid doesn’t require you to sell anything in order to make money. All you have to do is teach. This is something you can do from anywhere that has an Internet connection. Some teachers choose to live abroad while working for VIPKid. Others simply enjoy traveling at their leisure. I’ll talk more about traveling and teaching in another chapter, but keep in mind that this is definitely one of the perks of working for an online company.

You can make extra money.

WHETHER YOU WANT TO save up for a down payment for a house, pay down debt, or go back to school, working online is a simple way to earn extra cash. Honestly, my favorite thing about this job is that it’s actually a job. It’s not a sales gig. I don’t need to market my teaching abilities online or spend hours on Facebook looking for potential students. All you need to do is open up slots when you’re available to teach and then teach your heart out.

There’s no initial investment.

WE’VE ALL HEARD ABOUT great work-from-home opportunities that end up having incredible up-front costs. This tends to be especially true with multi-level marketing gigs that require you to purchase a kit to get started. With VIPKid, you are not required to hold any sort of inventory and you don’t need to make any sales, so it costs you nothing to get started. Note that you do need Internet access, a webcam, and a microphone; however, most of us have those things at home already. You’ll also need some sort of teaching background, but this can be as simple as teaching in front of a bookshelf or printing off some educational pictures and hanging those up. These are things you can do inexpensively or entirely for free.

Reviews for Hello! How Are You? The Complete Guide to Teaching ESL Online

[Jet-jet Estanislao Bagtas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book will be very useful for highly beginners in teaching. Also, for experienced teacher like me, it's a good way to revised our knowledge and how we can improve ourselves as online teachers!