hi everyone and welcome to working wednesday this is a series on my channel where you guessed it i
post a video on wednesday talking about something in relation to working online and or becoming a
digital nomad and traveling full-time the first thing i will say is that you'll probably be able
to hear some background noise in this video some traffic noise dogs barking you name it
this is the middle of mexico and actually it's a true reflection an accurate reflection of what
life is like as a digital nomad and it's an indicator for those of you that are thinking
about becoming a digital nomad as to what life will be like you won't be in a comfortable
sound insulated office you might be but more than likely
you won't be and it's an immense challenge to get over particularly if you want to become
an online english teacher and that's the subject of this video so if you don't know me i'm david
i'm from london in the uk but i've been traveling full-time for about five years now i can't believe
it and teaching english online is just one of the things i do to generate an income and i generally
teach b2 to c2 level adult professionals most of them are located in countries like russia
and in eastern europe working in industries like banking and the i.t sphere therefore this video is
pretty much specific to those individuals or for those of you that are teachers thinking
about teaching those individuals however that doesn't mean to say that these points in this
video aren't going to be relevant to those of you teaching children or people at lower levels
in this video and in the next two after this we're going to be talking about online teacher mistakes
or more specifically mistakes i made as an online teacher when i started and i continue to make
they don't just miraculously end the reason i'm doing this in three videos is so that i can really
go into a bit of detail in each one rather than having an immensely long 900 hour video that no
one watches so stay tuned for the next one on to the first mistake so this is the biggest one
forgetting that teaching english online is about boosting confidence when we're doing
a tefl or we're studying how to become an online english teacher we're watching videos on youtube
we hear a lot about grammar vocabulary teaching idioms phrasal verbs you name it speaking reading
writing listening of course those points are incredibly important but the mistake i made
was thinking that those points needed to be at the top priority the highest level when actually
the vast majority of students i'm talking 99 of them at least in my case come to me for speaking
practice and to boost their confidence because they're already at a level like b2 to c2 really
they don't need to focus on grammar in terms of reading from a textbook if you're teaching
beginner students a1 a2 level perhaps that is the case but for someone that is at a higher level
already they may be in a situation where they work for a company where they don't speak any english
on a daily basis they're in a country where they don't speak any english on a daily basis and that
45 minutes or 60 minutes that they have with you every week once a week is the only time they have
to practice their english think about it from your position i'm in mexico right now i don't speak
fluent spanish however every opportunity i have to speak spanish boosts my confidence massively
you know you have those little wins those little victories that can make such a difference when
you remember a piece of vocabulary or you can effectively listen to someone and actually have
a conversation it's exactly the same for your student so if they want to talk about something
that happened at the weekend for 20 minutes at the beginning of your lesson that's great it's
boosting their confidence it's speaking practice you can still do everything like correcting errors
recommending vocabulary focusing on specific grammatical issues that you can feedback
afterwards but don't underestimate the impact that allowing a student to simply talk to practice
has on their confidence mistake number two is all about thinking that teaching english online
would be the same as in a classroom now i've never taught in a classroom but obviously i've been to
school so i know what it's like in a classroom i know many people that have taught english in a
classroom particularly with children the mistake i made from day one was coming across as this
almost overly professional stuffy teacher from the 1950s behaving in a very strict manner talking
about giving homework as if they were a child you have to come across in a way that is human
you're not a robot of course you have to be professional but not in a way that distances
yourself from the student you have to come across as if you're on the same level you're both adults
you know you're both in a situation in life perhaps where you're in a position where you
don't speak the language in a country especially if you're traveling full-time and that connection
that you have between the two of you really goes a long way in terms of building that relationship
you have to remember that you're teaching grown adults they are adult professionals potentially
probably more educated than you are don't treat them like a child don't speak down to them
don't patronize them just because they don't have english as their mother tongue doesn't make them
lower than you in life more than likely they speak about four languages fluently anyway
how many do i speak additionally teaching in a classroom of course requires a lot of structure
however teaching online that's not necessarily the case many many students don't want any structure
don't want any plan to a lesson and i know for many of you who may maybe have just done a tefl
or maybe you've just started teaching english online that might fill you with dread because
we're taught that there needs to be a plan for lessons that's what we did at school you know
our lessons at school had plans but it's not necessarily the case for online teaching so
my advice is to completely separate classroom teaching from online teaching and go into it
with a completely fresh mind mistake number three is forgetting to build rapport when
you teach english online many of your students will become long-term students yes you do get
some that come to you for specific reasons perhaps they're preparing for a job interview or whatever
but many of them will be people that stick with you and a great indicator of a good teacher
is someone that is able to build rapport with students and retain students for a long period of
course you will get the ones that come and go that disappear for six months and then come back later
that's fine the fact that they're coming back is an indicator that you have built that relationship
with them my advice with building relationships and rapport is all about small talk and actually
showing an interest in your students life i think and i've had occasions like this in the past when
i've been educated that my teacher doesn't show any interest in me as a person in my
life in my interests in my family and where i'm where i come from and things that i do
so take that opportunity at the beginning of each lesson just has to be five minutes
to have a bit of a chat with them how was your week what did you do at the weekend
how's work going how's that thing going that you told me about last time because it really
helped build that relationship between the two of you it helps you share common interests and
also it helps you kind of identify if you're a good match so when you do a trial lesson
of course you'll talk a lot more about yourself and they will talk about themselves as well that
is the opportunity to work out if you're a good fit with each other sometimes you will get cases
where you you just don't gel you're not the right sort of people for each other and that's okay
the thing i thought about with this when it came to relationships and rapport was that i needed to
gel with everyone we don't gel with everyone in real life do we so why would it be the same case
when we're teaching online so my advice here never underestimate building relationship and rapport
it's the most important thing if you want to generate long-term and retain long-term students
additionally for the student making them feel comfortable because ultimately it's all about them
which brings me on to my next point mistake number four thinking that it's all about your
performance as a teacher and what you get out of a lesson rather than thinking about what the
student has gained from the lesson it's kind of connected to point number one in that that student
may only have 45 minutes with you for that week and it's incredibly valuable almost invaluable
put yourself in a student's shoes when it comes to this when we do lessons you know it's perfectly
natural i think in anything we do in life to think about our own performance and of course we should
absolutely we should think about whether we were effective in what we did and what we did
in a lesson was actually worthwhile and fruitful and made a difference of course we have to think
about those things but the thing i would say with this is take it with a pinch of salt in a way
don't stress about getting to the end of a lesson and thinking you know we talked about crap for
20 minutes or you know we didn't cover the plan that i had we didn't cover absolutely everything
that's okay you know as i said previously you know 20 minutes talking about something that happened
at the weekend or a barbecue they went to or some disaster that's happened in their life is practice
it's building confidence it's adding value that's the most important thing you don't necessarily
have to follow your plan you don't necessarily have to cover everything you've always got
another lesson in the future you can reschedule things you can come back to things flexibility
is key when it comes to teaching english online we also do have to think about you know
whether what we've done in a lesson is effective so take do take that time but
don't stress about it so much because ultimately it is about what the student gets out of a lesson
not you as the teacher we're on to point number five now or should i say mistake this is mistakes
not points the last one is very simple conversation not interrogation teaching
english online is all about speaking practice it's all about conversation it's not a strict
interview you're not interrogating someone with a big light in their eye putting them
under pressure and stress to answer questions of course you will get situations you do get
many students who haven't got the confidence to make conversation that's what you're there for
to help build that capability in them honestly it can feel like sometimes that you are
an interrogator like you are answering questions of course when you're doing an interview situation
then that would be the case however when it comes to general conversation
just be conscious of your own behavior and your own speaking are you answering asking questions
rather not answering are you interrogating or is it more of a conversation are you encouraging your
student to actually ask you questions and bring up points or examples that they can think of that
can extend that conversation are you using small talk are you thinking about phrases that you can
use to insert you know in those awkward silences i often say and i've often said since day one
that teaching english online is going on it's like going on eight different bad dates every day you
know like speed dating it's a little bit like that and it and it actually really helped develop your
own conversation skills my advice here and i'm going to use an example of a guy in russia that i
have who's really developed from a point where it felt like i was interrogating him to the point now
where he actually leads conversations at times and asks me questions and comes up with great examples
to talk about and situations and why did that happen because i gave him the feedback of the fact
that i felt as the teacher that it was like i was interrogating him asking him questions with under
you know punishment of death and he took that on board i said to him you know try and ask me
more questions don't feel scared to get it wrong when you ask a question the change in him that i
saw was astronomical you know the the change in his confidence by just giving him that feedback
and encouraging him to make conversation and ask questions was monumental so those are my first
five teacher mistakes apologies for my voice i've had eight lessons today that's probably why maybe
i should stop speaking so much and focus more on student talking time which will come up in
the next video if you would like to catch that video don't forget to subscribe you can also
check out the what they called end cards on that side of the screen where you can access the next
video down there if you are watching a later date alternatively you can click up there to access my
playlist which is all of my teaching english online videos which go back about three years
so i hope you found this useful like it if you have had value added to your life in this
and i'll see you next wednesday for another episode of working wednesday catch you later