Working for VIPKID

I took on a new adventure in teaching this past month...working for VIPKID! VIPKID is an online company based out of China that teaches English as second language. You teach children one on one in their virtual classroom. The company has the entire curriculum set up so as the teacher, you just have to make your own schedule and then show up to teach!

So how does it work? 

1. Age- Children between the ages of 5-12 sign up.
2. Levels- Children can take a computer test to see what level fits them best. Not all kids take the test however. So you might encounter some trial classes where you are trying to find the best level fit for the child.
3. Schedule- YOU SET YOUR OWN SCHEDULE. I repeat... YOU MAKE YOUR OWN schedule!! Now, Beijing is about 12 hours ahead of the United States depending on your time zone. I am in the mountain time zone so currently Beijing is 14 hours ahead of us. VIPKIDS has peak hours in the evenings from 6-10 pm during the week. This means that for us, peak hours are first thing in the morning from about 4-9 am. You can also work many more hours on weekend evenings. I personally work from 5-7am during the week.
Classes are 25 minutes long, in 30 minutes blocks. This allows you to change classrooms and leave feedback and take a breather in between classes.
4. Planning- No planning! They have the curriculum already set up for you. The night before I log onto their virtual classroom and review the slides. I pull props I might need.
5. Pay-You get a base pay for every 30 minutes. On top of that there are bonuses such as $1 for being there on time and $1 for leaving feedback. There are also monthly incentives that change.

What is the hiring process like? 

To apply, you need a bachelors degree. Experience with children isn't a requirement, but it is defiantly a plus. The hiring process is quick and a little intense. There is an interview and 2 mock classes you teach. The interview takes 30 minutes and each mock class is 1 hour long, but you are only teaching for 25 minutes. You spend the other part of the time discussing what you did well and what you need to improve on.

I completed everything within 2 weeks. I only took that long because I scheduled everything during my son's naps. To prepare, I reviewed the slides and practiced. I also watched YouTube videos to help me out.

Do I need to buy things for the job?

There isn't much that you need to buy for this job. Props are important for young learners but if you are already a mom or a teacher  (or BOTH) you probably have everything you need. I usually walk over to my sons toy bin and pull a few items.

Here is what I did buy.
1. A small personal white board to hold up to the computer. It's the most important prop I have and probably the only one that I say is a MUST.
2. A poster for my background. I found a map at the dollar store! I love it and use it all the time in my introductions with new students.
3. A few sets of flashcards from the dollar store
4. Puppets to model conversation....but truthfully my son loves playing with them at the library so it was really for both of us!

Here are a few articles I found about the company.
1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/01/31/work-from-home-in-2017-the-top-100-companies-offering-remote-jobs/#5acfc0ba42d8
2. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160823005760/en/Kobe-Bryant-Announces-Investment-Chinese-Education-Company
3. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-19/if-the-u-s-won-t-pay-its-teachers-china-will

Are you interested in making $14 - $22 an hour while working from home in your yoga pants? Click HERE. 

Telling Time

Time is a pretty exciting math unit because the kids can immediately apply it to their own life and use it. So, I wanted to make it even more fun.

For this math game, I found that 3 students at a time worked best. 4 was a crowd. I couldn't let just 2 students play at a time because they were so excited about it!

To play, student 1 is the time keeper. The time keeper gets to set the time for the other players. I emphasized that the time keeper must know what they are are setting so they can check the other students. When the time keeper sets the hour and minute hand on the clock, they say "tick tock what time is on the clock?" This lets everyone know they are ready.

Students 2 and 3 are the time seekers. They write down the time on their white boards. The time keeper must check that the time seekers got the time correct. This way, everyone is practicing their time!

I also wrote the minutes on the table with dry erase markers for the first 2 weeks. They wipe right off with a lysol wipe.

In addition to our super awesome life sized clock we learned a time cheer! Students should just repeat after you. I got my inspiration from hearing army cadences. Lyrics are provided below!

Teacher: This is how you tell the time
Students: This is how you tell the time

Teacher: Have no fear you'll be fine
Students: Have no fear you'll be fine

Teacher: Step 1 short hand
Students: Step 2 long hand

Teacher: This is how you tell the time
Students: This is how you tell the time

Teacher: Have no fear you'll be fine
Students: Have no fear you'll be fine

Teacher: Short hand tells you the hour
Students: Short hand tells you the hour

Teacher: Small number has all the power
Students: Small number has all the power

Teacher: This is how you tell the time
Students: This is how you tell the time

Teacher: Have no fear you'll be fine
Students: Have no fear you'll be fine

Teacher: Long hand tells you the minutes
Students: Long hand tells you the minutes

Teacher: From 1 to 60 you did it!
Students from 1 to 60 you did it

The Holidays Are Coming

I can't believe it is so close to holiday season! Stores are filling up with Halloween candy and costumes. Once Halloween hits, all the holidays just come so quickly. So, this year I was inspired by a resource I saw a teacher had in her room. She had a holiday word bin that had special holiday words listed. During holiday themed unites, especially writing and centers, I get a lot of "But how so you spell...." I thought this was a genius resource to help with that problem, but I wanted to adjust it just a little. So I created this holiday word dictionary. Each of the holiday words has a matching picture to go with it. So hopefully the kids will get help spelling the words they need, or completing the FUN holiday worksheets, and I hope the visuals of the pictures will help spark their creativity when it comes to their writing during the holidays. I am a huge fan or writing activities during the holiday season to match any craft we do.

I am really excited to use this but it got me wondering, what are your tips or tricks during the holiday season?

Flash FREEBIE!

Get it before it's gone! This literary elements flipbook will be FREE from 9/2 until 9/9 on TeachersPayTeachers. It is SO easy to use. There is NO cutting and NO gluing of pages. All you do is print, copy double sided, and fold to assemble. Pages will even print in the exact way you need them to be copied. It doesn't get easier! See this YouTube tutorial to see what I am talking about.

What's Inside? 

Student practice identifying literary elements from the story they just read. This isn't going to teach them the skills. It's a fun and interactive way to practice them and apply them to the classroom.

My favorite ways to use this flipbook: 

1. End of the unit review
2. Put in in their reading interactive notebook
3. Perfect for sub plans!

GET IT HERE! 

You know how at the end the of the day, it looks like someone decorated your floor with pencils? And every student that day has probably said "I can't find my pencil!" Eliminate the drama with this easy hack!

HALLS Classroom Management Poster

It's back to school so it's back to refining all our little classroom management tricks. Here is a new FREE poster that you can download. Go over it each time before you leave the room and you will have some hallway HEROS this year!

CHAMPS classroom management posters

CHAMPS is a classroom management system. It's overall goal is to teach students how to be successful in different classroom situations by establishing clear behavior expectation using the chart. The CHAMPS system is actually very new to me, but I fell in love with it right away. 
I like this system much more than the standard color change chart that I have used in the past because it is SO clear about your expectations for the students. This makes it ideal for the primary teachers classroom. 

The posters describe the following... 

C- conversation - what should the voice level be?
H- help - how do I get help? 
A- activity - what are you working on? 
M- movement - how can I move around the room? 
P- participation - how do I participate in the lesson?
S- SUCCESS! 

It is also very easy to use as a teacher. Buy some circle magnets to put on each poster. Move the magnet along the poster based on what you need the students to be doing for the lesson. I found some HERE that match PERFECTLY with the posters

You can purchase these CHAMPS posters HERE.