thedemisongwriter

[thedemisongwriter]

I love this! 

Don't mind me I'm just getting emotional over the lego store in times square (USA) having an aro flag included in their pride display T-T

ID: a display of various pride flags made out of legos, including the bi, trans, agender, intersex, polysexual, lesbian, leather, nonbinary, demisexual, pan, aromantic, genderfluid, asexual, maverique, genderqueer, rainbow, and men loving men flags. The progress pride flag forms a border around the other flags. End ID.

[thedemisongwriter]

HOW TO MAKE UP FOR CANCELLATION/STUDENT NO SHOWS.

For this post I’m going to show you three ways you can make up your losses so that you don’t lose profit when working your online teaching job. If you’ve been feeling frustrated and need answers for this situation, keep reading! this post is for you!

Before we begin let’s start with the realities of an online teacher’s earnings.

The Realities of An Online ESL Teacher’s Earnings

Teaching English online is great! However, it has its drawbacks. For one, once you become a veteran, the average pay rate you’re going to make from an online private language school is roughly $15 per session. That being said, don’t believe any of those “make up to $30 an hour” job advertisements you see. Read Glassdoor reviews about those companies before you apply because they are scams! Even if you get a $15 per hour job, for most states, $15 per hour is below the market value for a state licensed ESL teacher. 

According to Payscale, the average ESL teacher salary in America is $20.36 per hour! On the department of labor website entry level state licensed English teachers in general make about $37,180 a year! Feeling a little cheated...If so, that is okay because there are ways to get this sweet income as an online ESL teacher but I’ll discuss this in another post. Just know that it’s going to take at least two years to get there. 

The second drawback to online teaching, which is the main topic for this post is sometimes students cancel last minute or they don’t show up. Depending on the school’s policy, you could either get a fraction of your profit or nothing at all. This makes online ESL teacher’s income variable instead of fixed. 

Now let’s talk about how to make up your losses when students decide to cancel or not show up to class. You’re a great teacher and deserve a fixed income! Let’s begin.

Option 1: Get A Second Online Teaching Job

This option is the most common because working from home is great! Just keep in mind that the elearning industry is fairly new in the ESL market so most schools open during the same hours. The goal for this to be successful is finding schools that have peak hours that are flexible with your second teaching job. Finding online schools that are open to a variety of markets makes this possible. Here are two schools that may be more flexible with a second teaching job. 

EF English First (For Adults)

Lingoda

The drawback to this option is that finding online ESL schools that are open to a variety of markets are not that common. Another way to fix this is teaching on an online marketplace like iTalki but building a student roster takes time. You also need a great marketing strategy to attract students. Italki will tell you it takes 30 days to book your first session. I’ve been an italki teacher for two months and have only been contacted by students who want me to practice English with them for free. This experience taught me if you need quick money that may not be for you. Also remember if students are cancelling at the last minute and not showing up on your main teaching job, they will do the same thing at your part time teaching job too.

Option 2:  Get A Traditional Part Time Job

Getting a traditional brick and mortar part time job is convenient because you can set your availability around your online teaching job. Another advantage is you are not at the mercy of a student’s attendance. You get paid your full rate for being present at your job. I highly recommend getting a service job that includes tips such as working in a restaurant or coffee shop. The tips that you get can potentially make up for the last minute cancellations and no shows that accumulate during the month. 

The drawbacks to this are you may get sent home if business is dead, your hours may get cut if payroll is low on corporate’s end, and tips are variable income. These drawbacks are things you’ll only have to worry about during during bad weather. If you work on the weekends, you should be fine.

Option 3:  Do A Side Hustle - Uber/Lyft/DoorDash etc

This is the final and honestly my favorite option. If you have a car or ride a bike, depending on where you live, this can be quite convenient. The income is also variable but one thing I like to do is at the end of the month when invoicing hours from my teaching job is I calculate the amount of pay I lost from student no show/cancellations. Whatever I come up with at the end of the month is what I make with my side hustle. 

I also enjoy this one because I can set my own hours so it doesn’t feel like a job to me. The only drawback to this is gas and wear and tear on your car so make sure to check your vehicle periodically if you intend to drive. If you’re not crazy about driving in bad weather this may not be for you too. If you are going to use a bike (for food delivery) you should be fine. The drawback to this is that you can’t do your side hustle at night or during bad weather.

I tried all three of these options and my favorites are the second and third option. I went from having only one source of income that came my way once a month to three sources of income. I feel more financially stable and honestly don’t think about the student no shows and last minute cancellations anymore. 

Don’t get me wrong, what the students are doing is irresponsible and messed up. If it were the other way around, as a teacher, we would be disciplined by the school in the coldest way. I do hope that one day these online schools will improve how to discipline students when they have multiple no shows and last minute cancellations for the sake of the teacher’s pay. However, for now, these are a few things you can do to keep yourself financially afloat while the online schools works on these changes.

[thedemisongwriter]

3 Reasons Why TEFL Teachers Should Never Stop Learning

Imagine that you finished your TEFL certification program and you landed your first online teaching job. Congratulations! Once you adjust to the double shifts and the lesson plans prepared for you to teach it’s pretty easy to get comfortable with your job, especially if it pays well enough for you to live. In this post I’m going to share why you should keep learning after you’ve acquired the certification and the job. 

1. Business Trends Are Constantly Changing

Business trends change because consumer preferences are always changing. When you are teaching on an online platform you have to adjust to the many different students you will meet who have their own preference on how they want to practice their English. Their preference also includes how you will have to teach them. I’ve lost count of how many times I thought I found a teaching method that worked for most of my students then months later I’d have to toss it away and try a new way of teaching because my new students didn’t like it.

A perfect example of this is TPR. TPR stands for total physical response. It is the most common method that is expected to be used by online ESL teachers. For most of the schools you’ll apply for it is required. When I applied for online ESL jobs, most of them expected me to use TPR during the interview process. I was rejected by most of the schools until I got hired by the school I teach for today. Guess what? My current school doesn’t require TPR and most of my students don’t like it (Thank Goodness!).

 I understand how TPR could work in some cases (mainly for children) but for teenagers and adults I honestly think it’s really stupid. What if you use a gesture that you think is normal in your culture (a thumbs up) but it might be considered an insult from your student’s culture? A great example of this is Kimmy and Dong’s relationship on the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Kimmy crosses her fingers and Dong found it offensive. Great show by the way. You should watch it! 

Anyway, that being said, you have to be very careful with that. Especially if you teach for a multinational online school.

In case you’re wondering what TPR is, here is how it looks like:

Photocred: VIPKID

Solution(s): Keeping in touch with your TEFL program is a great way to stay up to date with business trends. You can complete one of their mini certifications for as little as $30 a program. Since you already have your TEFL certification, the program won’t take as long. Another option is to join Facebook ESL teaching support groups. You can communicate with other teachers who have a variety of experiences. They usually offer suggestions to help make your classroom experience more engaging for your students. One of my favorite options for staying up to date in business trends is--depending on what school you teach--is also joining webinar sessions hosted by the school you teach for. 2. It Makes You Marketable 

The more skills you learn the more marketable you will be. Whether you want to grow in the company that you are working with, work somewhere else, or become fully independent by opening your teaching service on an online marketplace, acquiring new skills will attract more clients/students to want to work with you.

Solution(s): As a TEFL teacher it’s always a plus to know a second language. It is not required, however, if students know you speak their language there is a higher chance they will book you. Depending on what school you teach, they might pay you a higher rate because you can speak the student’s language too. 

3. It Provides Room For Growth

Maybe you enjoy teaching, but you don’t want that to be the only thing you do forever. As much as I love teaching I will be honest, sometimes it can get boring. You work alone and you’re in front of a computer for hours, sometimes asking the same questions to your students over and over again. Just like any job, sometimes you’re not going to have a good day. It’s good to continue to learn new things to challenge yourself and keep things interesting. 

Solution(s): You can get into marketing by writing blogs or you can be an ambassador for your school and promote their platform. Maybe there is something else you might think of outside of all the examples I’ve given! If you have that TEFL job, congrats! Don’t stop there! 

I’ll give you another example. You can start as a TEFL teacher and become a trainer for new teachers at the school you teach. Maybe you can get promoted from independent contractor to an employee in one of their departments. You never know! Continuing to learn about your school, profession, and industry can open a lot of doors for you. 

Online TEFL teaching can become a lucrative career if you let it. Good luck! 

[thedemisongwriter]

The Pros And Cons Of Working From Home

Although working from home can be bliss, just like any job it can have its downsides. I’ve been working from home for almost two years. It’s been great, but there are a few things I do miss when it comes to working in an office with people. In this post I’m going to share the pros of and cons of working from home. If you always wondered what it would be like to work from home, keep reading. This blog is for you.

I’ll start with pros.

1. You Can Save A Lot Of Money.

When you work from home, you’re less likely to eat out because you can eat the food you buy at home. If you’re single, this also prevents your groceries from going bad because you’ll be able to eat them. 

You also save money on gas or public transportation. When you work from home you need your car less. Depending on where you live, you might not even need your car at all! So if you’re tired of paying for high premium car insurance, sell your car! You also don’t need to take a bus or train unless you need to run errands. If you need to get somewhere quickly, there is always Lyft and Uber. 

2. You Can Prioritize Your Time Better.

Commuting to work does more than cost money and depreciate your car. It also costs time. According to an article from the NY Post, the average American spends 35 minutes on the road commuting to work.That would be about 70 minutes a day. Since I come from a major metropolitan city, commuting to and from work for me was an average of 95 minutes a day. 

Once I started working from home I was able to use that time for something else, like getting extra sleep or investing my time in hobbies or learning new skills to build my portfolio. 

3. There Is Less Stress

This depends on what you did before you started working from home and also what you do at your work from home job. Before I started working from home, I worked in retail real estate and in print centers. These two industries are so stressful because you have tight deadlines and many report lines to report to. If you have an autocratic boss it can be overwhelming most of the time. Before I started working from home, I was miserable. Add commuting to a job with reporting to an autocratic boss and tight deadlines every week felt like hell. 

Now, my job is simple. I know what to expect. The deadlines are short (when I have to grade students), but at least I know what to expect and there are no surprises.

Now I will state the drawbacks.

1. It Can Be Tiring

Depending on what you do, you may have to work odd hours in order to make money. I have a cousin who does IT work but his shift is a graveyard shift. By the time everyone is sleeping, he gets ready for work. When everyone is at work, he’s asleep while the sun shines. If I did a job like that from home, I’d be miserable. However, my cousin loves it and he makes more than $60k a year!

On the other hand, I teach English. Although I don’t work graveyard shifts, my days can feel long because I have to work during the hours that my students have the free time to attend classes. On one day I can start teaching at 7 AM and will be done at 12 PM. Then, I have a 5 hour break and return to teaching at 5 PM and won’t be done until sometimes 9 PM. I have to do this sometimes because if I set my availability as a traditional work setting (9-5) I might not get fully booked classes. By the time I’m done teaching, I am exhausted and ready to go to bed. Then I have to wake up at 6 am and start teaching all over again.

2. It Can Get Boring.

This drawback also depends on what you do in your work from home job. I teach English online. My classes are in real time. I have to be in front of a computer for hours. I teach for a school that has its own curriculum. Although they give me the freedom to expand on the lessons or even make a custom lesson plan depending on the student’s request, it can get very mundane. I don’t have any co workers to talk to who relate to this kind of life. However, there are ways to find people to talk to who relate to what you do. There are plenty of Facebook groups and my school allows online teachers to meet online and have free talk once a month. Those two things makes it nice.

Sometimes I get tempted to get a job outside but every time I think about the time spent commuting and the amount of money it will cost, it helps me to get some perspective and not complain so much on how mundane my job can be. 

3. Most Good Paying Work From Home Jobs Are For Very Specialized Skills

A lot of the good paying work from home jobs requires very high technical skills. Becoming a TEFL teacher may be the only easy way to jump-start into a remote job. However, please be advised that a lot of the online English schools do exploit teachers and give them little pay. There are ways to avoid this but it will take time to build income. You can read my other blog by clicking this link to learn how I turned my TEFL job into a lucrative career. 

With the amount of time you save working from home, you can also build your skills so that you will be more qualified to getting better paying jobs in the same field or somewhere else. 

Although there are some drawbacks to working from home, the pros outweigh them all. All it takes is patience and a positive perspective.  

I hope this info was helpful. If you’d like more content, please follow my blog and/or share with friends who may find this info useful.  

[thedemisongwriter]

How To Turn Your Online Teaching Job Into A Lucrative Career

I’d like to start this post by saying that me five years ago would’ve never thought of becoming an online TEFL teacher. Honestly, I don’t think that most people who start teaching online do. However, teaching online has become one of the quickest ways for fresh out of college students to start working when they haven’t had much luck finding a job in their career choice. So if you are that person, keep reading this post. This blog is for you.

Here is how you can get a good paying job and/or make a lucrative career from teaching online.

1. Don’t Be Cheap: Make Sure You Get Certified From An Accredited TEFL program.

Really good TEFL programs are going to cost you roughly around $300-800 dollars. However, they are the best ones because they are affiliated with really good brick & mortar and online schools that you would have a hard time finding on your own. Also, make sure to do a lot of homework before you sign up to any program because there are two types of TEFL certificates to choose from; Level 3 and Level 5. 

Level 3 is best for people who speak English fluently but are not native speakers. You have a high chance of getting hired by non-competitive companies. Level 5 is suitable for people who are native to near native speakers and their certificate is like a foundation degree. That means you will have a higher chance of being accepted by competitive companies. 

I did not know this prior to completing my TEFL program, so I have a Level 3 certificate. It still got me a reasonably good online teaching job, but I probably would’ve received less rejections and a better base pay if my certificate was a level 5. If you made this same mistake, you can fix that by getting a CELTA. Please be advised that all CELTA programs are over $1000. 

2. Be Patient: Add A Second Online Job To Your Main Teaching Job.

This is the most popular option. A lot of teachers will work with at least two schools. However, it can be challenging to keep both because most online language schools run during the same hours. 

For this to be successful, wait for at least a year before looking for a second teaching job. Then when you are offered a second contract make your first contract your main teaching job. Don’t make the new job the main one just because it may pay better. Since I’ve started teaching I’ve been offered three contracts. The second and third contract paid more than my first job at the time, however, my first school has always been loyal to me and showed me the most respect. Because I sustained a good relationship with them, I've always been approved full time hours, I get fully booked classes, and I even been offered a raise. Be patient when doing this. It will pay off in the end.

3. Never Stop Learning: Learn A Second Language And Acquire More Certifications.

Learning a second language opens a wide range of opportunities for you concerning income. Once you’ve gained teaching experience and can speak a second language to near fluency, you can turn your teaching job to your own business. A common way to do this is opening up a profile in an online marketplace. There are no contracts and you can set your own rates. However, you have to learn how to market yourself so this also takes time. 

Also acquire other skills like, going back to school to get a Master’s Degree. If you’re not interested in a Master’s degree, you can participate in a teacher internship certification program in your state so that you can become licensed to teach in public schools. This could open opportunities to teach at a university, work in other fields related to the eLearning industry or refresh your skills related to TEFL teaching to keep them up to date with the latest business trends. Yes, all of this will cost money and time but it will pay off in the end because you are investing in yourself. Since you are an independent contractor you will be able to write these expenses off in your taxes.

These are three ways to turn online teaching from a supplemental part time job to a lucrative career. 

Online teaching has been one of those hidden gems for me because it’s still one of those professions that is not very competitive. I’ve chosen to take that as an advantage because it’s non-competitiveness has open so many doors for me. Doing this job with an open mind has led me to come up with ways to be successful.

I will add that although a teacher will make enough to feel like a fully functioning adult they may never reach or make six figures. However, it's a great way to get started as you are still figuring things out. 

The more homework I’ve done for myself concerning this field the more I learned how to branch from one thing to another to create a career track that I can honestly say I am satisfied with. I hope this info was helpful. If you’d like more content, please follow my blog and/or share with friends who may find this info useful.