What it’s been like being an online teacher obviously in the last year the world has changed completely due to the pandemic in most cases individuals, companies, and schools have had to resort to online platforms to continue business as usual and in this case, I am one of those individuals I am a qualified TEFL English teacher and I’ve been working and living in China for almost 2 years and unfortunately, I am currently back in my home country South Africa working as an online teacher. I received several questions regarding my online job is the pay good, is it difficult and what’s the difference, so I thought the best way to answer these questions is maybe by making a blog post regarding my pros and cons to teaching online but before I start I’d like to make a statement a personal statement - I believe that teaching in class and teaching online are two completely different things. Why? Well, let’s take a look.
Technology
I was all against technology in 2019. I was working in a training center in China and I had seen where the future was heading in a sense. The one day I had walked into school and saw something that I was quite afraid of some form of technology that would take over the future of teaching, where schools would no longer require in-class teachers but little did I know that in 2020 the world will change forever and that I would start relying on technology as a form of income. Technology has made teaching so easy, I can teach anywhere in the world at any time in any place it sounds bizarre right well ask my students they can tell you some of my crazy places. I've taught in the car, in a restaurant, on the beach, damn even while I was camping, I've allowed my students to be where I am, I've allowed them to be apart of my life, and with that being said my students and I all have different kinds of relationships as I've allowed them into my personal life sharing my hobbies and introducing them to friends and family to show them and teach what is teacher Eves life like. It might not sound quite professional to you but I can reassure you that my students aren't afraid to take on the world because I have allowed them to interact with people other than just their everyday teacher.
With regards to technology, like I said it's simple, in some cases all you need is your mobile phone and others a laptop, some schools or companies will work off certain programs, websites, or even apps. In my case my morning classes are done on both a website and the others off an app that the company and school have created, my afternoon classes on the other hand are simply done on WeChat if you haven't heard of WeChat it is very similar to Whatsapp but mainly used by the Chinese.
Interaction with parents
Not only has online teaching made me feel closer with my students but with their parents too. This is one of my absolute favorites as in china parental interaction isn't quite allowed, But this is different, I am in contact with parents almost every single day as they serve as learning coaches, they help to motivate students and help to oversee academic progress at home. I've learned so much more about my students and their families by connecting with their parents. I've learnt additional ways to help support the students academically and sometimes even on an emotional level,
Personalized learning
Before I start let me explain, in china, I had taught students from all different ages 2 to 16 and sometimes even adults. I had worked in all different types of environments some primary and middle school, some high school summer camps, and evening training centers these were all grouped classes so one on one interaction was quite rare, where now my mornings are grouped online classes for a kindergarten and my afternoon is fully booked with private one on one classes. So this piece here is more for my one on one afternoon classes. With these classes, I am able to meet and understand the needs of each individual student. At first, I never realized but I got more teaching done and I got my students speaking and understanding more English than what I did in a traditional classroom. I directly connect with my students and get to know their individual skills and needs, it allows me to motivate my students on another level, it allows me to help improve and push my students to their limits.
Is the pay good?
Well, my personal answer would be yes and no. Yes obviously because I am not earning in South African rands and no because I am earning a lot less, when I mean less I mean less than what I was earning in China as a in-class teacher. The school that I work for in the mornings I earn a month to month salary, which is great as it's pretty much like any other job and the great thing about working for a Chinese school is that payday is smack bang in the middle of every month, what's even better is that my private one on one classes I get paid after every class which is great because you actually get to see you're hard work paying off every day. Obviously making money is important but don't let that feed you, for me my passion lies with my students I absolutely love what I do, and tend to go over class time to just sit and speak to my students. If you don't love kids and don't have the patience with children I would highly recommend rethinking this, teaching students especially those that are learning English as either a second or third language will require a lot of time and patients, and repetition.
I really do hope that this blog post has helped in some way to explain to you what online teaching is all about, I never said it was easy nor it being difficult, I believe that it is only something you can decide.
And as always stay strong keep smiling much love Eve.