Imagine you could travel across the world in as little as three clicks of your mouse. Most would say that’s impossible, but I know its true! I travel all the way to China to teach English to my students. I am an English teacher with a company called VIPKid. VIPKid is an internet teaching company based in Beijing, China. Their main goal is to connect certified teachers with students in China who have signed up for English lessons via a virtual classroom platform.

Coming into this adventure, I’ve already had 5+ years of experience with other at-home/independent contractor jobs. Being an independent contractor means you are running an at-home business. Once I signed up and submitted all my documents, I was required to sign up for a mock class. A mock class acts as a live interview and teaching demonstration with a veteran mentor teacher. I will be perfectly honest, teaching to a webcam and waiting for a student to reply on the other side of a screen is rather strange, but you get used to it. After passing the mock, I was hired. I can set my own schedule and create a bio and an introduction video present myself to the parents to encourage them to book a class with me.

In my research, I was able to find a blog post from The Huffington Post website that details some of the pros and cons of working as an online teacher. My personal experience does line up with these. The author details how the flexibility, student interactions, and pay are positive. (Lambert, 2017). Teachers are free to set as many hours or as little as they want. Pay rates are based on teaching experience and are counted per 25 min class period. A teacher can be booked for back to back periods teaching two 25 min class periods in an hour and spending the remaining ten minutes sending feedback to the parents. Incentives are also offered at various times of the year. Having schedule freedom can bring a major con into the picture, the difference in time zone. (Lambert, 2017). Beijing is 12 hours ahead of the Eastern Standard time zone, so I must be careful and only book the classes I am prepared to teach.

My favorite “Pro” of this job is the student interactions. “We do it for the kids.” Right? As with any teaching job, its not all sunshine and rainbows. Some days little “Bao Bao” (Baby/child in Chinese) is just not having it and like any child, chooses to participate very little or not at all. And other days they are doing so well that I am left with extra time at the end of class to extend. I prefer to teach the upper levels because they have learned enough English to converse with the teacher and share information beyond the lesson and it becomes a learning experience on both sides. As with any technology-dependent job, I must look out for tech problems as the article notes as a possible con of this type of work (Lambert, 2017). I am lucky enough to be able to teach on my MacBook and then keep an iPad nearby as a backup device. The last con that is mentioned is the timed classes (Lambert, 2017). 25 minutes passes in the blink of an eye. The lessons vary from approximately 25-40 slides of content to cover. It takes time and practice to get the pacing right. Online teaching is a unique and exciting adventure for those brave enough to try it.

For more information please visit: https://www.vipkid.com/teach

Sources:

Lambert, C. (2017, December 6). Teaching English Online: The Pros and Cons. In Huffpost.com. Retrieved March 25, 2020, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/teaching-english-online-t_b_8804838

VIPKid website: https://www.vipkid.com/teach