(upbeat synthesizer)
- Okay, I'm heading out on my morning walk,
usually I listen to an audiobook while I'm walking
but today I'm going to talk to you guys.
So I live on the second floor of this house,
I guess so it's an apartment kinda of feel to it.
(gate opening)
Locking up my gate.
This dog always hangs out here, I've named him Larry,
I don't know why, he looks like a Larry to me.
So I just kinda walk down the street here.
Try to just get a little exercising in the morning.
And it's usually pretty hot during the day,
so I like to get out as early as possible
when it's still pretty cool out.
Okay, let me take a minute to introduce myself.
My name is Melissa.
I am 29 years old.
I'm originally from Chicago, but had been living
in Las Vegas for about 10 years before I came traveling.
I took the ITA TEFL course in person
in Chicago last January, January 2018.
I've now been traveling throughout Asia
for about 10 months, just over 10 months.
And I've been teaching online for two of those months.
I taught in Bangkok, Koh Samui, and now here in Ubud, Bali.
Okay, I'm going to show you around my place.
So we come up the stairs here, like I said before I live
on the second story of this house.
So just up the stairs here.
Here is my patio.
A nice little outdoor bench and chair.
Beautiful front door.
You walk into the dining area.
There's the kitchen over there.
Bathroom
Sink
Now I do have a roommate,
this is my roommate's bedroom door.
And then we'll go into my bedroom.
So you can see my classroom setup there in the corner.
My big queen size bed.
My little homemade yoga studio.
It's a really really nice size.
- Excuse me!
(motorbike engine)
(casual crowd)
- Okay, we are at my favorite vegetarian warung.
Warung is just the name of a restaurant in Bali.
The first time I came here I thought
I was walking up into somebody's house.
And here it is.
I just made it.
(motorbike engine)
Okay I'm teaching a couple of classes tonight.
I have three total.
So I'm just gonna talk to you a bit before they start,
I have about 15 minutes until they begin.
So welcome, this is my classroom.
I found this yellow paper at a convenience store
in Bangkok and decided to go with an emoji theme.
Literally all I had was white paper,
yellow paper, and black markers.
So I think I pulled it off pretty well.
The smartphone over here in the corner is when
I teach the younger kids, the reward system
is the smartphone gets a happy face, yay!
For the older kids, they don't really vibe
with that, so I have this coin.
If they do a good job, I flip the coin.
If it lands on the question mark,
I ask them a fun question not necessarily
related to the lesson like what's your favorite
color or your favorite food that sort of thing.
The other side is a music note, so instead
of a question we do a silly dance.
That one...
Okay, now that I'm done teaching and I got a little snack
I can talk to you guys a little more.
So I work for two different companies.
I work for VIPKid and for GoGoKid.
I really enjoy working for both companies.
With VIPKid, I teach higher level students.
So I teach levels four and five.
Most of my students on VIPKid are 11 and 12 years old.
So I'm teaching a lot more higher level
reading comprehension and vocabulary which I really enjoy.
With GoGoKid, I teach a lot of entry level classes.
So a lot of 3, 4, 5 year olds.
So it's more like letter sounds, simple words,
sight words, that sort of thing.
Which is also a ton of fun, a lot of songs,
a lot of TPR.
Happy!