Category: Online Teaching

Back to School with Distance Learning

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Virtual learning sucks.  Now that we’ve got that out of the way it is the reality for millions of kids right now.  How can you make it a little less painless?  Well, you’ve got to have just enough organization in your life so that you won’t go crazy. What you won’t find with my system is perfection. What you will find is how you can make digital learning easier with just a little bit of planning beforehand. This is what I do to simultaneously make working from home and digital learning a little less painful.  

Step 1

How do I get online?  Relax?  To make life easier, I give step by step instructions and print them out.  I include screenshots of the sign-in page and their username/password.  The instructions are included in their learning caddies.  

Step 2

Classroom Caddy

Compartments to hold education items.

Space is at a premium at our home.  With that being understood, everything has to be portable and easy to store.  Keeping all of that in mind, I bought these classroom caddies.  I let my kids choose their color theme for the year.  Not so much so that it would look cute, but it will help them stay organized (without the arguments).  I coordinated the colors with all the school required folders, notebooks, and such.  Now they know whose stuff belongs to whom. 

Step 3

It’s annoying but I sign up for any alerts that notify me about assignments that my kids need to turn-in.  I hold both of my kids accountable for doing their work.  Therefore, since they are only in third grade, they might not know what needs to be turned-in and graded.

Step 4 

It’s five o’clock somewhere.

Wine.  Yes, wine, lots, and lots of wine.  Although, I save the wine for the weekend.  

These are my tips for getting through the virtual school year.  What are yours?  Make sure you share them below in the chat.  Make sure you are tuned into The Teacher Ces Podcast!  Click here to listen:  https://teacherces.libsyn.com/

 

Completely Add to Your Income with DadaABC, A Guest Post Review.

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dadaabcI have permission to share Iwillpickonelater’s review of DadaABC.  If you are interested in working for DadaABC please you the referral code:

https://www.DaDaABC.com/teacher/job/r8J9p0q005/

DadaABC ,The online company I’ve been teaching for, is looking for new teachers. It’s an easy gig and the pay is good considering how easy it is, so if any of you are looking for a job or want to supplement your income, it might be worth checking out. Here’s my review of working for DadaABC –

The Goods

  • PAY – The pay was the highest I could find for any online company, after some negotiation I got $22US (150RMB)/hour, but it is based on experience. I believe the range is from $15-$25.
  • SHORT CLASSES – regular classes are only 30 mins and trial classes are 14 mins, so it’s over and done pretty quick.
  • OWN HOURS – There are set hours to choose from (Evenings during the week, mornings on the weekend (Shanghai Time)) but you can choose to work as little or as much as you want
  • 50% PAY IF NO CLASS – during your set hours if you don’t have class, you still get 50% of your pay, although personally my schedule filled up right away
  • MATERIAL – the company provides it’s own software that acts as a virtual textbook. It’s not the best, but I’ve also seen worse. Either way I do absolutely no prep time before class, I don’t even have to preview the material.

The Bads

  • THE PENALTIES – Every time you mess up they fine you, and the fines can add up pretty quickly. Be 10 minutes late for a class and you’re basically teaching the rest of the class for free. If you miss the whole class, then not only will you not get paid for that class but they’ll take an additional fine out of your paycheck.
  • TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES – as we all know sometimes your internet cuts out and there’s nothing you can do about it. Well they consider this to be your fault and they’ll penalize you for it. I find it acceptable however because of their high wages and the fact that these outages are fairly rare for me, but if your internet connection isn’t stable, then this probably isn’t for you.
  • LOOK PROFESSIONAL – for me this is a no-brainer, but I think they’ve had big problems in the past with teachers eating during class, teaching in their pajamas, teaching while laying in bed, being on their phone during the lesson, etc. All of these will get you penalized.

TLDR – Don’t be late and be professional and you shouldn’t have any problems. The job is really easy and you can work as little as 2 hours a week, so it’s a good way to supplement your current income. Super easy format so it’s especially good for new teachers.

 

Online Teaching vs. a Brick and Mortar School, Which is Really Better?

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paper-iconIf given the choice, would you rather teach online or in a traditional school?  After teaching online for over a year and in a traditional school for over seventeen years, I realize I do have a preference.  I feel like online is more of a hit em and quit em style while brick and mortar is a classic style of teaching where the teacher is the authoritarian and students maintain a routine.  
I think it takes a certain discipline to be able to learn online.  I have two children and I know that one child has the attention span to sit 25 minutes in front of the computer to learn something while the other one does not.  In terms of pay, B&M wins hands down and also offers benefits packages while online usually does not in most cases.  
I do believe that everyone can learn in a classroom setting but it takes a great deal of discipline to learn online.  Where do you think the future lies regarding online teaching and B&M schools?

Completely Add to Your Income with QKids. A review by Guest Blogger Jadie C

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I’m so happy to have Jadie C as my first guest blogger this week.  Jadie is reviewing QKids which is an online school for teaching English to students in China. 

If QKids seems like a good fit for you please use Jadie’s referral code: Jadie7377

You can find the link to apply below.

QKids

I’m now in my 3rd week with QKids, and I thought I’d write my honest review!

All I can say is “Where has this company been all my life?!”

First, the basic requirements (I didn’t make the rules):
• Native American English speaker (or good American Accent I would imagine)
• Live in the US or Canada (not sure if they make exceptions to this, like if you’re a US citizen living abroad for example)
• Bachelor’s degree…. However! I didn’t know the bachelor’s degree “requirement”, and I applied with just my TESOL (and experience) and I got hired. So… I say it doesn’t hurt to try??

Second, the application requirements:
1. Along with resume, they ask for a 1 minute video demo with a brief intro (name, state, education), and you telling or reading a short story as if to a child. They will be looking for things like enthusiasm, body language, facial expressions, proper lighting and sound.
2. You will need to provide a screenshot of your computer system specifications (the page on your computer that says what processor/RAM/OS, etc you have)
3. Your availability. They offer up to 38 slots a week (more during school holidays), typical Chinese hours, Monday through Saturday early EDT hours (5:-40am-8:10am), and Friday and Saturday EDT nights (7:40pm-10:50pm). You must be available at least 6 hours a week.

Third, the hiring requirements:
1. Install WeChat and Qkids software
2. Ethernet cable (they really stress this), and headset
3. Self-paced study/practice materials training (paid)
4. 2 demo lessons/sessions with the staff (paid)
5. 3 trial lessons with kids (paid)
6. You’re hired!… if you don’t get hired, your training is still paid!

Fourth, what they’re like:
After an initial good, and in the end not-so-good experience with GVE, I decided to look at other options, and I’m so glad I did! Qkids impressed me from the beginning with their training, communication, and professionalism! I have never once felt lost or alone, they are very helpful and always available right away (or within a reasonable amount of hours, time difference after all). My schedule was completely full by the second week! No begging for hours here. Their platform is easy to use. (I used to look at the lessons for a few minutes before each shift to review them, but after the second week this wasn’t necessary any more. They are simple, fun, interactive, and user friendly) Classes have up to 6 students in them (all classes paid at same base rate). Unlike with zoom, you can see all the students faces at once, and can easily mute/unmute as necessary. Activities are arranged by individual and group types, so it’s not overwhelming. The kids ages are 5-12. Because the platform is so fun and interactive, they are happy and eager to learn!

What I don’t like: WeChat is annoying. It’s not the teaching platform, but the chat program used to communicate with the staff. They require a QR code or approval from your cell to log in to another device, and if you lose your cell, like I did for a few days last week, you can’t get into WeChat at all. I was thankfully still able to contact them when I needed to via email. I also don’t like that even though I’m working, say, 5:40-8:10, I’m only getting paid 2 hours, not 2.5 because there’s down time in between lessons that we don’t get paid for. I guess this is pretty typical for online teaching jobs, it’s not the first time I’ve encountered this. At least with Q Kids, we don’t have any reports or evaluations to do!

Time off:
No dock pay!! No 6 month (or any) contract commitments!! They do ask for 24 hour notice for time off, and ask that you not have “too many” (interpret as you can) short-notice absences. Classes are scheduled Sunday for the following week. I actually didn’t realize this my first week, and checked my schedule the Friday before instead, and missed Monday and Tuesday altogether thinking my first class was Wednesday. They forgave me when I explained and took the absences off my record.

Pay:
$16-20/hr. The base pay is $8/30 min class. You get a point for each day you show up to class, and you lose a point if you’re absent. The points equal dollars, so if you’re present in every class each week that’s an extra $1/30 min. You get an extra $1/30 min for getting good ratings by the students/parents. So if you do the math, $16/hour is easily actually $20/hour. I’ve actually always been scared of working for a company that does rating systems, but so far, the parents have been gracious 🙂 Once in a while you might have a “standby” lesson in one of your slots (In 2.5 weeks, I’ve had one of these). If there is no need for you to fill in, you will still get paid $4/30 min class just for being available. If there is a system glitch and you can’t teach, you still get paid. If no students show up, you still get $4/30 min class!

Have I missed anything? Feel free to reach out to me, I’m happy to help! I was referred myself, and I’m happy to refer you, too!

How to apply?
Email Apply at QKids with your resume, 1 minute demo video (can be an attachment or a YouTube or cloud link), screenshot of computer specs, availability, and, if you would be so gracious, my referral ID too: Jadie7377 🙂 (yes, there’s a bonus potential for me here:-)

One more thing, If you do use my referral code, please send me an email so I know who I’ve referred, but also because I’m more than happy to answer any questions, give you tips, guide you through the process, etc!

All the best to you!!

Jadie 🙂QKids

Are you REALLY an entrepreneur if you’re not really bringing in money like that?

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Education Key Means Schooling Or Training

Full disclosure I am a beginner entrepreneur.  I haven’t been going at this for years.  I have been seriously perusing entrepreneurship for over a year.  This is my side hustle as I do have a full time job.

The project that I am best at and make the most money with is the one thing I’m the least excited about.  I’m all about passive income.  I like making money in my sleep.  I’m doing pretty good with online tutoring and that is not passive.  Hell, I’m Teacher Ces so even I  would talk about myself if I wasn’t doing well with this.  By trade I’m a teacher, an English as a Second Language teacher with a degree that I did not buy off Groupon (no shade).  I love my job (most of the time) and feel I’m pretty good at it.  The problem is I have a bit of an ego about this and feel that I’m not being paid my worth.  The online ESL companies I have encountered do not pay me what I feel is my worth.  I have tried to go independent and that hasn’t really worked out for me (yet).  I think part of the problem is I have too many pots on my stove and try to manage all of them at the same damn time.  What is your opinion about teaching online and the pay?  It’s easy work but I really don’t think the pay is that great.  Leave your comments below, I’d love to talk to you.