How to Navigate the VIPKID Teacher App

The next group of tips is all about the VIPKID technology for teachers. This post is for the current app as of February, 2020. This can be incredibly overwhelming to get through, especially as a new teacher, so don’t do it all at once. Eat this elephant one bite at a time.

 

 Teacher Portal (or Desktop VIPKID App):

This is where you are going to find the classroom, your schedule, and your account information. This is your special sparkling (not literally) software for all things VIPKID. Let's go over a quick tour of the desktop app so you can have the info you need to succeed!

 

Home:

Here you will see the upcoming classes, to-do lists, promotions and a glimpse of the library. It's the first thing that pulls up after you login and it's your launch pad to get to the places you want to go.

The to-do list is great to see things that need your attention right away such as missing parent feedback from a class, booking requests, and tasks. I like to cross of everything here first whenever I open the app.

Next, lets go over all the tabs at the top so you know what you will find:

Class:

If you learn about one thing today about the desktop app let it be these tabs. They are necessary to teach with VIPKID and the ones you will use the most. Play around with navigating these bad boys and all the features you see in them. The more you teach the more you will start to utilize everything inside of the 'Class' Tab. This is a great place to start with learning about the app. 

1-      Bookings: Look at your schedule, open up slots and check out booking requests.

2-      Classrooms: See all booked classes, that you’ve taught or will teach in the future, and any missing course feedback (CF) or unit assessments (UA). This is where I go to prep for my upcoming classes, enter the classroom to teach and then enter parent feedback after the day's classes. 

3-      Feedback: How d'ya like them apples? Here you will see all of the parents’ feedback from previous classes. Some leave comments and/or  give tags (descriptions of your talents, i.e. patient, encouraging). Instead of stars for the parent's level of satisfaction, like on amazon,  you are given apples. You are all 5 apples teachers in my book!

Resources:

1-      Library: Take a look at recommended teaching strategies, ways to increase bookings and sign up for workshops. They even have a New Teacher Kick-off Course that would be highly beneficial. None of this is required but it’s a free way to up your teaching game and get more money out of your business. I'm all about free!

2-      Certifications: Become a mock class mentor, get your Level 5 certification or take the TESOL course (learn more about that here). All of these will help increase your chances of being booked and become another way to stand out to parents.

Rewards:

  1. Six Apple: This is where you can sign up to enjoy teacher perks from different companies such as amazon business or lingo bus. You can also get a teacher ID card in the mail to use to get discounts in stores that give teacher discounts.
  2. Promotions: A great way to stay current on different incentives and opportunities within the company.
  3. Token Heroes: Want to make a difference for more students? As you complete classes and open peek slots you will earn tokens. You can donate these tokens to help fund children's education in rural China. 180 tokens will contribute to one minute of English education.
    "Through the Rural Education Project, VIPKid has enabled more than 30,000 children in poverty-stricken areas in China to learn genuine English from world-class teachers." -VIPKID 

 

Community:

See the Hutong (more about that in this post), check out the Official Blog, search for Events near or far and shop at the official store.

My Info :

This is where you can see your Contract, your Payment Info, Stats and Tags given to your Profile for parents to see. This one is all about Y-O-U baby! Go here to update your bio, change your direct deposit, or look into anything specific to your account.

 

Support:

See FAQ’s, submit a ticket, and look for official support and guidance when you need help. 'Submitting a ticket' is something you do to contact the support team with questions. They are great about getting back to you, usually within 24 hours in my experience. Search the info or contact support directly.

 

There is also a Refer a Friend button that will take you to the referral center. Here is where you find your unique referral code. See your current referral's progress and find materials to start recruiting new teachers. As of 2/1/2020 you will earn $100 per person that you refer. Don't be shy now! Go tell your friends to jump on the teacher train! 

 VIPKID Teacher Mobile App

 

The mobile app is one of my favorite features because you can do so much from it on the go! As a mama of three busy kiddos this is great. Whether it's class prep or feedback, I love this app to keep up on teaching while I'm not on my computer. 

Let's go over the bottom tabs now.

Home:

This will show your activity in the last 8 hours (classes booked, canceled, and parent feedback). You will also see current promotions, upcoming classes and your same to-do list as found in the desktop app. You can also see all of your Booking under your upcoming 3 classes. I like to make sure my to-do this is cleared here as well when I am on the go. This way I can respond to booking requests and make sure I submit all parent feedback in a timely manner. Again, so great to be able to do this right on my phone!

When you look at your individual classes, you can even look at the class materials to prep for any upcoming lessons. 

 

If you click on the Bell Icon on the top left you can see news, responses to you, certifications, take surveys, see professional development, check out activities and see the promotions (I never realized how many times you see the promotions until I wrote this post). ;)

The Chat Bubble Icon next to the Bell will lead you to support when the desktop app isn't working. You can get help about a Classroom Issue and talk to the fireman, Class Cancelation, or Substitute Teacher

Time Slots:

Here you will see all your potential classes and booked classes. This screen takes you to a calendar to open up slots you are available to teach. Remember to click Unlock in the top righthand corner to start opening the slots. You can also click Booking in the top left to see the slots that have been booked for each day without scrolling through every hour of every day. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing. Only teasing!

Students:

Get to know your students by reading previous teacher notes, review your old notes, or send them an Ecard for a birthday. This is a great way to build relationships with the kids.

Discover:

Check out the Promotions and Library. This will give you a glimpse of the things you can also find in the desktop app.

Account:

Look at your Profile (including parent followers- Flower Icon and tokens-Circled V Icon). There are so many things to see here but my favorite is the Payment Tab. Haha! What can I say, I like seeing the dolla bills roll in! You can also view this on the desktop app. I usually check to see that my previous day's classes were entered correctly and make sure I am on track to meet my monthly teaching goals by seeing the total class count. 

 

And there you have it! A complete guide to navigating the desktop and mobile VIPKID Teacher App. I hope you find this helpful during your teaching journey! 

Be sure to check out this post for 10 actionable steps to help new online teachers . It is a great post to help you feel empowered as you start your journey as an online teacher. 

Thanks for reading! Happy teaching!

--Teacher Stephanie  

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RESOURCES

Check out the Resource Tab for FREE downloads to get your classroom set-up & props for the VIPKid Application Process for you or for your own referrals! Cheering for you!