The Face of Virtual ELT (ep2) How to Get ESL Students Online
A Beginner’s Guide to Teaching Online, Part 3: Sharing materials
This is part 3 of 3 in the series. Click here if you missed Part 1 and here for Part 2. The elements that we discussed in the previous articles were the technology you need to bridge the distance between you and the student. Now we turn to what you actually teach. Your content. Your material. Online teachers need supporting material that is …
New Course: How to Become an Online ESL / EFL Teacher
There have been a lot of changes over the summer! Don’t miss this video update on the changes in my online training programs. Online Tutor Launchpad starts October 20th! It is a business development course that leads you through the same process I did (without wasting time on the mistakes I made). By mastering five concepts, I went from having …
A Beginner’s Guide to Teaching Online, Part 2: Screen sharing
This is Part 2 of 3 in the series. If you missed Part 1, click here. I’ve been teaching private online lessons for TOEFL iBT since 2010. By 2012, I left local schools and earned 100% of my income from teaching online lessons. Below, I’m comparing Skype, Zoom, and Wiz IQ to see how they differ in terms of their functionality to ‘share …
What I told this new online teacher…
8 September 2015 Today I talked with a teacher who wants to start up her own website — an independent platform that becomes her bread and butter. Ideally, something that can bring in enough to sustain her, full-time. I told her that the first major action step she needs to take is establish how serious her intention is and SET …
A Beginner’s Guide to Teaching Online, Part 1
I’ve been teaching private online lessons for TOEFL iBT since 2010. By 2012, I had left local schools and was earning 100% of my income from teaching online lessons. There are a lot of questions about which of the many platforms – Skype, Google Hangout, WizIQ, Join.Me, Go to Meeting – is best for teaching online. Let me tell you …
5 Reasons Teaching TOEFL Makes Me Happy
This is article 1 of 6 in the series How (& Why) to Teach Exams. It was January 2010 in Izmir, Turkey. I was sitting at a conference table with my first-ever private student for TOEFL iBT lessons. She had already taken TOEFL iBT a couple of times and the senior teachers at my school declared she had reached her highest speaking score. …
The Face of Virtual ELT (ep1) “Learner Coach” vs. “Teacher”
When your ESL students aren’t excited about English, it’s hard for you to be excited, either. That’s why I knew I had to share two really important teacher trainers with you. I met Daniel Barber and Duncan Foord at the Innovate ELT conference and I asked them to do an interview with me for my new series, The Face of Virtual ESL. You …
Why online teaching liberates ESL teachers
During one of the mini-plenaries at Innovate ELT 2015, in Barcelona, Spain, Duncan Foord referenced a fear in the industry: that EdTech will render teachers obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I say that with five years of experience teaching ESL online, and three years of sourcing 100% of my income from private Skype exams lessons for …