I began teaching English as a second language online in September 2016. At the time, I was substitute teaching and tutoring face-to-face with a local company. Late one night, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I saw a sponsored advertisement for VIPKid. Of course, my first thoughts were is this legit? Can I really teach children on the other side of the world on my computer? Will they hire someone who looks like me?
I did some research which consisted of watching teacher reviews and tips on YouTube. There were maybe, 5? Now, there are gazillion VIPKid teachers on YouTube! Shout out to Victoria Love, who solidified my decision to apply.
The whole hiring process from submitting my resume, to logging onto their online platform to schedule my interview and demo (with an interviewee at VIPKid’s office in Beijing, China), watching numerous training videos, and teaching my first and only practicum (to an American living in Thailand) was a whirlwind! It was not something I had experienced before. (VIPKid has reworked their hiring process many times since I was originally hired.)
Prior to teaching online, I was not too familiar with video conferencing with the exception of FaceTime and Skype. Since then, I’ve used Zoom for VIPKid workshops and online tutoring as well as Adobe Connect for online courses.
Online teaching has a lot freedom. I love the flexibility- I create my own schedule. I am a night owl, so a lot of my teaching begins in the evening into the late night. (I’ve tried getting up for early mornings at 2 or 3 a.m., and oh no, that was not fun! East Coast teachers, you got it good!) I do not need to spend extra gas money to drive to another job and I do not have to adhere to a dress code. I just throw on an orange shirt and turn on my camera! You know, business on top and party on the bottom! Oh, hello, yoga pants.
I hope this blog is a useful resource to you. My goal is to create content to help you become successful in your online teaching journey and to continuously have an updated database of online ESL teaching jobs that profile reputable companies. Teachers come from all walks of life. Maybe, you are a teacher from a brick and mortar school looking for supplemental income, or a recent college grad looking for work experience, maybe you are changing careers, whatever your story is, welcome.
