hello everyone and welcome back to slightly noisy mexico and also welcome back to working wednesday
firstly just a bit of an apology if you were expecting this video last week i had an ear
infection i was deaf as a post i couldn't hear a thing hence we are here today what is working
wednesday it's a series on my channel where i talk about anything related to working online and or
becoming a digital nomad and travelling full-time as i've been doing for the last five years now in
the last two videos i talked through 10 online teacher mistakes i.e mistakes that i made when i
became an online teacher and ones that i continue to make and today in this video we're talking
through mistakes number 11 to 15. you know what i mean it's the last one of this series i hope you
find it useful so on that note let's get going okay mistake number 11 may seem like something
trivial but actually this is something that i'm probably asked the most questions about and that
is technology and logistics oh where do i start on this one there is an expectation as a teacher we
need to have like a headset and a separate webcam not using the one on our laptop and actually if
you are thinking of getting employed becoming employed by one of those companies that teaches
children in china it's actually one of the prerequisites or one of the criteria that you have
to meet in order to actually get the job with them so keep that in mind if you are thinking of doing
that however if you are in a position similar to me maybe you're thinking of teaching adults using
a platform like italki verbling cambly whatever you might not want to have a headset you might
not need to have a separate webcam because your laptop camera may be fantastic so what do i use
seriously headphones earphones that came with my phone and that's okay i don't need to have
a headset they work perfectly fine in terms of my laptop i used to have a very not very
good laptop and it really wasn't good enough in order to handle skype calls so what i did and this
is an important question that comes up as well i actually use my phone for about the first
two years maybe of teaching online i wouldn't say that teaching on a phone should be your
go-to way of communicating with students because yeah in my opinion it doesn't seem professional
i used to have it on like a small tripod thing that i got in japan therefore it's stable it's
not like you're holding the phone in front of you that would just be ridiculous if you do kind of
want to come across as slightly more professional and serious i would advise investing in a decent
laptop one which you can use the camera on the laptop and you know like i said something like
this is fine think about what your students do have i ever had a student in the last five years
that has a headset like they're in a call center never zero zilch so why would you do it so think
about mirroring you know what are they doing do the same thing many of mine use like air pods or
they might have they just fell on the floor or they might have you know those big headphones
that's fine but whatever works for you obviously it's completely up to you what you use if you
want to use a headset and you feel comfortable with that go for your life it's no problem but
the mistake i made is thinking that you needed to do that that that was an absolute obligation when
it's just not the case mistake number 12 i haven't got enough fingers to do this anymore is shut up
by this i mean stt student talking time and ttt teacher talking time this can be a bit of
an issue particularly if you are someone that is quite vocal about certain subjects you like
having conversation you know if you are doing a conversation lesson you might be tempted to
kind of take over and overpower the student you have to remember that that student is there to
speak to get speaking practice you're a native speaker you can do that already you need to be
conscious of the fact that that's what they're there for and give them the time to really talk
and explain things think of ideas and come up with things even when you have like awkward
silences i've said before that teaching online can often be like going on 10 bad dates every day
and it can be like that you know with those awkward silences be patient and give the students
some time to actually come up with something and quite often you're surprised actually they
come up with something really insightful and intelligent that really adds to the conversation
i know it can be tempting to jump in and i'm not saying that you shouldn't talk for an entire
lesson because that would just be ridiculous ttt is equally an important part because you have to
explain things you have to suggest things you have to correct errors you have to guide the lesson and
prompt the student at times one exception with this might be if a student is running through a
work presentation for example they've sent you a powerpoint document and they just simply want to
talk through it and they might specifically say you know can you just let me talk through it as
i would in real life and then you can give us some feedback at the end that's great you know
don't jump into them allow the student to kind of what's the what's the phrase guide the way that's
it mistake number 13 is the dreaded subject of homework this might be quite controversial because
as a teacher of course you would give homework to students that's what you do in a classroom
at school whatever but when it comes to teaching adults advanced adults particularly or ones that
are already at a level in which they don't need to study grammar they already have a near perfect
level of grammar ask yourself the question is homework necessary do they need to be doing
exercises at that level one other thing to think about as well is the fact that just because you're
the teacher doesn't mean that you're the only driver of that student's learning equally if
not more the student is responsible for taking the time in their own time to watch tv shows to
watch things on netflix to read articles so don't just think that you know it's just down to me to
encourage the students learning because it's also down to them you know you're not a magician
you're not a miracle worker a huge piece of advice to consider when you are teaching particularly
adults is around the fact that they're an adult they have a life they have commitments they have
a full-time job they probably had children i had a cat walking over a piano the other
week you know things are happening in their lives and you know in the past i've made the
mistake of you know this is your homework you know talking to them like they're a child you
know in all reality they weren't going to do it because they haven't got the time you know
obviously with some of them it's a good idea and they might specifically ask for homework
and that's where the trial lesson comes in again have that conversation with them at the
beginning you know what do you want is homework gonna be something that you're realistically
gonna be doing and have the opportunity to do as an alternative to homework and this is something
that i've done i've set up an instagram page where i post things every well three times a week with
useful vocabulary grammar common errors things like that i've also just literally yesterday
set up a new page on my website with quizzes so i'm updating quizzes every now and again
for students to go on whenever they have time to practice their grammar and vocabulary things
like that so think out of the box when it comes to homework you don't necessarily just have to send
old style exercises of course this is different if it's an earlier level student mistake number 14
is not understanding asynchronicity that's a wonderful word isn't it what i mean by this
is talking about business hours so i've seen many comments on forums and other videos and things
like that where teachers are talking about the fact that they have specific business hours like
nine to five that might work for you obviously as a teacher you might have other commitments
just like your students you've got maybe another job you have children in the evenings you might
not want to be disturbed that might be your family time completely understandable however the reality
is you're working in an asynchronous environment i.e you've got people in other time zones
maybe 12 hours ahead of you who want answers who may contact you at certain times of the day
i'm not saying that you should be awake at three o'clock in the morning responding to messages
because again that's just ridiculous but think about your flexibility and your willingness to
be there for your students because that's what creates rapport and relationship and retention
student retention if a student contacts you and you don't reply for 10 hours or the whole weekend
because you're saying i'm not available at the weekend then it's not going to work you're not
going to retain that student so just have a think about you know your ability to respond
24-hour skype that's what i do but it might not work for you the other point about business hours
is thinking about your target market so where are most of your students for me most of mine
are in russia when i'm living in poland latvia for example i'm basically on the same time zone it's
like one hour difference so pretty much i can work alongside them at the times they want lessons i.e
in the evenings when they finish work right now as i said at the beginning i'm in mexico that's
eight hours difference eight hours behind moscow meaning that i can't work in the evening as i used
to in europe because for them it would be the middle of the night the next day so i work in
the daytime from like nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon for them it's
like five o'clock ten o'clock between those hours in moscow that works you know if you are traveling
full-time you have to consider you know can i realistically go to indonesia when all of
my students are in europe because then you'll be working from like midnight until four o'clock in
the morning it's just something you kind of have to accept and it can limit your travel
options if you know what i mean so i largely stay in europe and mexico because of that
reason we're on to the state number 15 and i've purposely left this one to the end because it's
quite a positive one i wanted to leave this on a positive note and hopefully help you with your
confidence as a teacher because that's the most important thing only for a student but also for
you mistake number 15 is about thinking that a student disappearing is a reflection on you of
course sometimes it might be a reflection on you you might just be terrible or it might be the
case that you're just not a good match together but the thing that i got asked a lot is you know
this student was with me for a few weeks and then disappeared and never responded again
or you know they cancelled a package or they cancelled a lesson or whatever and then they came
back six months later then they did it again you see where i'm going with this right again it kind
of connects to the earlier point about the fact that students have a life and sometimes they might
come to you for a specific reason they might not have practiced english for a long time
they might do it for six weeks they might think okay that's enough for now i'm going to have a
break and they might not communicate that to you that's fine and then they might come back again
in six months fantastic that's just how it works not everyone is a long-term student so you have to
obviously aim to have long-term students and student retention but that's not necessarily
the case at all times some people prefer to come and go it's not a reflection on you so drop that
thought process immediately don't take it as like a personal attack that you know someone has booked
lessons for weeks and then all of a sudden they've disappeared off the face of the planet i wouldn't
go asking them you know where are you you know being forceful in you know the fact that when you
start lessons with me you have to continue it's up to them what they do you know those students
will be replaced by others so don't take it to heart don't think that you're crap don't think
that you're rubbish because you're not so thanks for watching this series of 15 online teacher
mistakes i hope it has been useful what i'm going to do next with this series is going to be
business related so there may be videos about how to set up a website but particularly the first one
i'm gonna do is about pricing as an online teacher i've done a video about this before
about three years ago but that was a long time ago and i want to kind of do an update one with
things that i've learned over the years so thanks for watching if you have any comments down below
share your experience down below you can check out the end screens over there which takes you to my
online teaching playlist and the next video will be down there once i filmed it alright so
thanks for watching don't forget to subscribe as well and i'll see you soon catch you later