Qkids Teacher
2020-04-30
Hiya, Howdy, Hey! How are you today?! That’s the greeting I always use to welcome my lovely students to class each and every day. My name is Crystal, and I’m proud to say I’ve been a Qkids teacher for nearly 3 years. I’m a jack of all trades of a sort, with a wide variety of interests alongside teaching that include art, construction, and anything feline-related because I’m a cat fanatic! I have 43 kitties in my cat sanctuary, which keeps me pretty busy, but I want to share more about what I’ve learned while working for Qkids. Every class is such a fulfilling experience! You never know what to expect, so it’s best to be prepared for anything and go in with confidence! Here’s a tip guide to help you be the best ESL teacher you can be! Have a ball!
Time to Teach!
Once you get hired and pass the demo courses, you get to sign a 6-month contract as an independent contractor with Qkids. This is a huge honor as you have now entered the wonderful world of online education! Welcome to the club! The first thing to do is to secure your scheduling. It’s very important to be reliable so there will be less trouble in finding substitutes for your classes. You are always welcome to request time off, just try to do it 5 hours in advance from the time your class is scheduled so the complications of finding replacements will be minimal. Qkids is very understanding of situations and emergencies that can come up in daily life; however, if you intend to take an extended leave, or if a certain time has become difficult for you to fulfill your obligation on a regular basis, then simply contact Qkids to adjust your booking accordingly. It’s never a problem and this will ease the stress for everyone! You can always add extra availability at any time with a quick message to the class coordination team, and you can also pick up some extra courses via class invites during the busy seasons. There’s plenty of opportunities for teaching to go around!
There’s No Place Like Home…Except in the Classroom!
The next thing to do is to create a welcoming and productive learning environment. Many of the students who are enrolled with Qkids are quite young, so having a background that shows a lot of color and enthusiasm helps to make the kids feel more intrigued as it stimulates by simulating being at school. Adding some of the company mascots to the decor is also an excellent practice as it shows you are representing the company and proud to cover your walls in monkeys and koalas. Always make sure you have good lighting to help extenuate the atmosphere and try to make your area of teaching in a less obtrusive part of your home where there’s no noise or distractions. Don’t fret about locking your pets out, the kids love seeing your furbabies; so long as they don’t require you to jump up in the middle of class to yank them off of the bookcase, they’re fine to keep around. Lastly, be sure to dress to impress! You can rock the professional look from the waist up while still wearing PJ bottoms. Dress like a teacher because that’s what you are!
Pulling out the Props
Organizing your work station is equally as important as decorating your classroom. In many of the courses, the addition of props is very helpful and should be stored within arms reach so you can access the needed tool as soon as necessary. However; one of the biggest props you will ever utilize is yourself! TPR stands for Total Physical Response, and essentially that’s when you use gestures and exaggeration to aid in comprehension. For example, small gestures like tugging on your shirt to facilitate “wear” and putting your hand above your eyebrows as if you are searching for something to indicate “where” are key skills to help kids differentiate words that sound the same and understand their meaning. Don’t be afraid to go crazy, one of the best ways to keep the kids interested is to have fun! I’ve also taught my students how to snap their fingers and whistle. Show them what you can do and you’ll be amazed at what they can do!
Encountering Brilliance Brilliantly Beaming
Qkids offers a wide variety of curriculums that compensate for all students ranging from beginners to experts. There are some differences between teaching the younger kids in the earlier curriculums and phonetics series as opposed to the higher-level students. For one thing, the kids in the advanced classes are more fluent in English and many are older. In such happenstance, you can speak to them more maturely as they have more developed comprehensive capabilities. They are also more prepared to complete tasks on their own, so you act more as a guide during several areas of the lesson. To ensure an enriching experience, try to be creative and challenge them with relative questions. Think outside the box! Try adding to the information contained in the lessons, such as the “earth rotates on its axis” like “the wheels on a car rotate on their axels”. Utilizing comparisons and testing their knowledge is a great way to extend time in shorter lessons while broadening their horizons beyond the objective. Don’t feel intimidated or self-conscious, feel free to act silly from time to time and be yourself, they are still kids after all.
What to Do? What to Do? What to Do?
There will be circumstances that are beyond your control after all your students are on the other side of the planet! However, you are the adult in the room, so to speak, and so you are responsible for not just their education, but also for their wellbeing. It’s always prudent to stop disrespectful behavior the moment it rears its ugly head. Never let the students bash each other, always encourage kindness without being too overbearing. If little David is being rude to you or little Susie, simply tell him that’s not nice and he needs to be nice. Most of the time the kids will respond or drop the unwanted behavior if they aren’t getting the desired reaction. In the event that expletive remarks or gestures are made, it’s very important to always report the occurrence to Qkids as this is not acceptable by the company’s standards. You can always take screenshots to help show the situation in your report. Qkids protects the teachers as well as the students. If there is a dangerous situation either on your end or the student’s, Qkids has handy emergency procedures you can utilize in the teaching program or via the mobile app. In such a crisis, be strong, be steady, and stay calm! It’ll be okay!
Going the Extra Mile
The most vital thing to remember is that every time you enter the digital classroom, you are representing Qkids. Families are investing their children’s understanding of English to you via Qkids. If you demonstrate excellent teaching practices that make their investment worthwhile, they, in turn, will not only extend their child’s education with the company but also recommend Qkids to their friends, relatives, coworkers, etc. This will help the company to expand, adding more students, opening more class availability, and allowing Qkids to continue renewing contracts of veteran teachers while still being able to hire on new ones. There’s also the “do onto others” perspective. Just think, whenever you buy or pay for something, you always want great service with quality products, right? In Qkids, you provide the service of relaying the product! You should never want to settle for being substandard. The philosophy of “do onto others as you would have them do onto you” is a great mantra to keep in mind as a reminder to always do your best in providing a quality experience for these kids, because you would expect the same professional courtesy. Make it productive, make it fun, make it memorable! Trust me, the rewards are well worth the effort and extend beyond just the paycheck.
If you think you got what it takes to be in the big leagues of learning, feel free to join up here Qkids – Register and happy teaching!
Shaping the future of E-learning together! Helping Qkids family grow in your own way!
Love,
Qkids Family
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