Hey there VIPKID teachers! Picture this! You are teaching a regular student and they are doing great. Every concept is clicking, they are reading fluently on each slide and their pronunciation is perfect. You cruise through the lesson and before you know it. Bam! You are out of slides. The problem is that you need to teach for 25 minutes but you have only taught for 20. Yikes! What do you do for the next 5 minutes? Hint - tic-tac-toe will not last that long. Keep reading to see 12 activities (plus a Freebie to download) to do when your online students finish early. 

Check out this video to see some of these games in action with examples. 

Guidelines 

Ok, before we get to the activities let's go over some guidelines. These games and activities should be extensions of the lesson and/or rapport building exercises. Yes, you want the student to have fun but you also need them to be learning and having a conversation. Try to tie in the lesson whenever possible. First, you...

Welcome back to another lesson in ESL teaching strategies. Today we are going to focus and learn more about "MODELING". If you missed #1 about TPR, you can check it out here. 

Take a look at this video to see Nancy explaining this strategy and using it in the actual classroom. Modeling "modeling" if you will, so Meta!

What is Modeling?

No, you do not need to cue up "Vogue" by Madonna and get your catwalk shoes on. This teaching strategy is all about showing the students the expected behavior before you ask them to jump in and perform. Most often explained with the "I do, We do, You do" method, with a gradual release to independency. 

Lower-Leveled Students will require you to do each of these steps. They will need almost everything modeled and they will mimic your actions and speech. That is why it is important to use good instructional TPR and props, careful pronunciation, and encourage full sentences. 

With Higher-Leveled Students you can skip the "I do" and/or...

Hey there! So you have met the basic requirements with VIPKID and want to move onto the demo step in the application process? You will find that you get 3 options here - one of them is the Smart Demo. Let's choose this option because we are smart, right? Great! It's quick and virtually painless to do but I want to share my knowledge (really Nancy's knowledge) to help you get through it fast. I'm Teacher Stephanie and in this post I want to give you a quick summary of the smart demo steps, an overview of teaching strategies and a checklist to get yourself ready before you click "Record". 

If you do not have an application coach please feel free to use this link or enter in the code: Nancy0002 before you submit your demo lesson to gain access to all of Nancy's coaching wisdom and resources. Trust me, you will totally want this goodness guys. 

Also, go watch this video to see a complete walkthrough of the Smart Demo inside the app. 

Hi I'm Stephanie (insert monotone echo "Hello Stephanie") and I have a confession.... I have taught with VIPKID for over two and a half years and have never taught any of the higher levels. What?!? Here's what happened, I love teaching the little ones and after the first month or two, I never had a problem with bookings. However, I must admit, I am intrigued by the depth of the content and the lure of teaching a more independent mind. So, I decided to get my own certifications for Levels 4, 5, and 6. Now that I have them, I had three questions

1-Who am I teaching?

2- What am I teaching?

3- How do I teach it?

I took some notes from my course classes and found lots of great online content to answer my questions, including this video full of great do's and don'ts from Miss Nancy Taylor herself...

I've compiled my "research" (chicken scratches stained with Mac & Cheese) here for you so that you have one quick guide for teaching higher leveled students with...

Are you a new teacher struggling to get bookings with VIPKID? Don't give up hope just yet! In this post, I want to share 10 tips to increase your bookings and get a schedule full of regulars! Let's dive in!

Nancy has a great video here explaining some of these tips in detail and why they are helpful. Check it out!

1. Time

Plain and simple: It takes time. You will have to build that schedule over weeks and months. It is so hard to wait and I know you are anxious to fill in all those class blocks but just be patient. It takes time for everyone! The kids in China have breaks from school for different seasons and holidays (just like our kids). The low booking seasons are late January-February for Chinese New Year and June/July/August for summer vacation. Just know that if you start in a low booking season, you need to keep going! Things will pick up! Most teachers schedules become full after 2-3 months. 

2. Be Available

Sounds obvious right? Well I would suggest that you open as...

Hey there friends! Today we are going to talk all about the new Incentive Tiered pay system for new VIPKID teachers. This system will be for teachers that have passed their demo after December 2019. As of right now, teachers who have been hired before that are on the old system (explained in this post). 

As a VIPKID you should know that you are not paid an hourly rate. This can be confusing but VIPKID wants to encourage both quality and quantity in its teachers and this new system is a great motivator of both.  Your pay check is broken into two parts: class base pay and bonuses.

Class Base Pay:

When you apply to VIPKID part of the process is passing your interview. Depending on how well your interview goes plus your education and experience will determine your class base pay. It will be between $7-9 per class. 

Bonus Pay

Lifetime Classes Taught:

This will be total classes you have taught while teaching for VIPKID. The more classes you have taught...

Hello everyone! Are you a new online teacher and don't know where to start on your online classroom set-up? Or are you a veteran teacher and want to know how & where to invest in your company? Either way, this post has you covered as we talk about 5 investments to make in your VIPKID classroom. 

First of all, check out this video from Nancy all about her classroom set-up. This video is old but still very applicable in setting up your classroom today. 

You can snag Nancy's Classroom Set-Up Guide HERE if you haven't already! It has all the details on getting set-up!

1. Equipment:

Let's start here first because even in the application process, you will need basic equipment to get hired. 

VIPKID's website says:

You must be set-up with a desktop, laptop, Mac, or Surface device with an HD external or HD integrated camera and a headset with a microphone.
‍
Your device must have a minimum operating system of Windows7 or Mac...

Greetings my Teacher Friends! I hope all is well with you and yours. I'm Teacher Stephanie, writing all about the online teacher biz with my good friend Nancy Taylor. Today I am so excited to talk to you all about classroom management strategies that you can use in your classroom. Ready or not, here we go!

Miss Nancy covers these strategies with full examples in this video. Click the picture to see how she uses these management strategies in her classroom.

VIPKID Management in Class (Online Teaching Tips) - Youtube

In this post we are going to cover 6 different types of student behavior that you encounter with online teaching and then cover 3 strategies to correct each type of behavior. This will be sure to get those kiddos back on track with the lesson and loving your class. Also, I have included 4 bonus management tricks that you can use for any student behavior management at the end. You are welcome in advance ;)

Distracted David

David has a lot going...

Welcome my fellow educators and Chaos Coordinators! Today on the blog I have the first in a series of posts all about ESL teaching strategies. The focus for today is TPR. Let's boogie!

Nancy has a great video for my audio/visual learners all about this strategy. Complete with her own language (hilarious) and a real life example. Check it out:

What is TPR?

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through physical (motor) activity. 

TPR combines movement and language together. It is used by both the teacher and the student to increase learning during class time. The student connects the actions to language.

I believe that TPR comes naturally to those teaching language and/or music. When you are trying to encourage understanding and recognition of new words, actions help you explain the meaning without adding to the dialogue. This keeps the student/teacher speaking...

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...