It is no secret that I teach ESL online. I love it, and I have so much fun meeting so many new students every week. I feel in my element entertaining and educating youth. I guess being the third oldest of 15 siblings (I know…big family), paved the way for my love of working with kids. Many of my younger siblings (the youngest being 10) home-schooled, and as the big sister, whom was 17+ years older than the youngest kids, I took on a lot of responsibility assisting in their curriculum development. I’ve always been around kiddos, and life is just dull without the energy a child brings into the room. This was my primary reason for seeking out a teaching gig online. However, as much as I love working with kids, there were a couple other reasons that convinced me ESL online was the right choice for me.
1) The Cross-Cultural Experience:
I love the cross-cultural experiences teaching online affords its teachers. We teachers are not just TEACHING kids about our American culture and the English language, but we are also, LEARNING from our students, about their culture. This is an extremely important trade. Students should always see that their teachers care enough to learn about who they are as a person, within a given culture. We cannot expect a student to care to learn our language and about our culture, if they do not think we care about theirs. Learn, learn, learn all you can about your student's world. Teaching online allows us a window into real homes across the world, giving us an opportunity to learn about those communities. During any given class, you might teach a child, while in the background you can see mom and dad cooking in a typical Chinese home. You’ll hear children and their parents laughing and joking with each other in their own language. Your students love to show off their favorite TV characters, pop musicians, and toys. It truly feels like you've been transported across the globe, and are spending time with a family in across the world. What a blessing to be a part of such an experience.
That being said, some of my reasons are definitely financial in nature. Don't judge, you know you want money too. ;p
2) The Financial and Health Struggles
After my husband and I temporarily moved to Maine for a year, for his job, my own remote work (before I started online teaching) dried up. I had not expected for most of my hours to disappear, but when they did our family’s wallet felt it, big time. The loss of my work hours happened to occur just after we had rescued and fostered a litter of orphaned kittens. I had just spent thousands in vet bills to bring these kittens back from the brink of death, and losing work just after shelling out all that money, hit our family hard.
But wait, things get harder:
Just after losing my work hours, and after shelling out our savings to rescue these adorable, but sickly kittens, my sweet 4-year-old goldendoodle dog Tilly, was diagnosed with liver disease. This frightening discovery cost another several thousand dollars in emergency vet bills, putting our family in the tightest financial spot, we had ever experienced.
Think our family couldn’t take any more stress? I thought so too, but the universe had one more play in mind…
Just after I lost my work hours, saving those kittens, and funding my dog's vet bills, my own health went downhill fast. I began suffering from severe vertigo and abrupt hearing loss in both ears (which luckily turned out to mostly come back). After shelling out even more money we didn't have for doctor bills, we discovered I was likely facing an autoimmune disease flare-up, the exact nature of which would take even more money to investigate.
Haha, ok, ok. My point to all of this, was not to be a downer, but to be real with you. My family was in a really tight spot financially, before I discovered online teaching. And, I’d be lying If I said that my need for making money, wasn’t also a big reason I turned to this profession.
I imagine I’m not alone in the need to make some extra money for the fam, so I assume you can relate. I dreaded the idea of taking any random low-paying, and soul-sucking job that would pay me. I was also terrified that my health would prevent me from being able to keep a regular 9-5. What if I had another flare-up? I can't drive to work, or stand on my feet, when my vertigo hits. I was stressed enough at home, without adding these additional worries to the list. Then came online teaching.
Online teaching caught my attention because it offered an opportunity to work a flexible schedule from home (important for my health recovery), while offering me a job that was fulfilling and exciting. Teaching would bring a sense of adventure into my work day, allowing me to set my troubles aside each morning, and feel like I'm traveling across the globe, for a few hours a day, learning from my amazing students about their culture, while teaching English. This was a welcome reprieve for someone whom is home bound with chronic pain. Teaching would also afford me a sense of pride in the work I was doing, while funding the vet care for my beloved fur family.
Thus, I began the application process, recorded my demo lesson, passed my live mock lesson, and got things rolling with the online teaching platform I decided on (I happen to teach on the VIPKID platform, but there are many options out there from what I've learned).
Before you know it, I was an online teacher.
Now I choose my own availability, work only as many hours as I want, and feel excited to work each day, while being able to help my family stay financially afloat.
In short, these are my WHYS: I love kids, I love teaching, I love cross-cultural opportunities, and I love being able to take care of my sweet family of fur-babies, as well as my own health.
Curious about teaching yourself, but not sure yet? That’s cool, just come up with a list of your own WHYs, to see if it’s a good fit for you. If you have some good reasons, then maybe online ESL is something you should look into.
If it is, feel free to reach out and ask questions.
Already an online teacher? Please leave a comment and let us know your list of WHYs, what countries you teach, and what programs you use to teach online?
Thanks for reading, and have fun thinking through your own list of WHYs.
Teacher Gillian G
NewTeacherontheBlock
P.S. These are the kittens now! They've been adopted into amazing forever homes (two of the kitties are basically Nantucket Island celebrities, thanks to their adoptive family, and owners of Geronimo's pet store). They were worth breaking the bank. Look how cute they are!
But, I digress, yay teaching! ;p
Comments