Being able to work from home and be an effective ESL teacher at the same time. Is that possible? I know from living in one of the largest cities in the world, Mexico City, that I have always dreamed of the day that I could skip out on the traffic, and get to class by simply turning on my computer.
Teacher benefits:
1) No commute. 2) No lost time in traffic. 3) Lower costs as you don’t need to pay for busses or gas. 4) More time to do other things, as when you’re done your class, you’re already home. 5) Potential to increase your student base. (You can get clients anywhere.) 6) Possible for greater Teacher/student attention and personal coaching. (Email, social media like twitter or facebook, mp3 recordings of your students practicing pronunciation and dialogues. Teacher would have great opportunities to interact with students in realistic settings. Maybe your student already hangs out in Twitter or Facebook – what a better spot to begin practicing English using platforms they already love? 7) Potential for Green: you don’t need to rely on textbooks. If you are creative, you can bring in plenty of content from around the web for class work. No paper = Less pollution. And likely many more that I can’t think of at the moment, but there are for sure lots of benefits.
Over the last year, I have actually been able to provide virtual classes to a few clients, and love the results. Aside from the ones mentioned above, I would also say having to telecommute has improved my teaching, as I’ve had to do more prep work, and think about alternative lesson plans if (and when) tech glitches slow things down. Teaching from a Distance via Videoconferencing echoes this mindset of an improvement in teaching methods. You really do need to be a little more prepared in a virtual class vs. a face to face session.
Business Trend Should Equal a Teaching Trend
We’re here to meet our student’s needs, aren’t we? Companies everywhere have been forced to make budget cuts, and business travel is one of the hardest hit. One of our clients has seen a steady decrease in their business travel, and a massive increase in the amount of video conferencing they do each day. Mostly in English. Out of their 200+ employees, only about 15% can carry on an English conversation at native speaker level without difficulty. The rest must suffer through those conference calls that sometimes last hours.
Service Opportunity: Classes should mirror student need. Activities should have direct relevance to what your students do each day on the job, so that means that video conferencing should become a regular part of the corporate ESL classroom.
Benefits for your Students:
1) Realistic Practice: If your student does any kind of teleconferencing at work, he or she would likely LOVE to have the chance to practice. Remember: talking over the phone or internet with someone not physically in the same room with you is a whole other ballgame. When you can’t see the other person, you loose a great deal of communicative help like facial expressions, gestures, and body languages. (Some say that 90% of communication is taken from visual cues from the other person.) The more you can help your student be in that difficult space with a friendly coach like yourself, the easier facing the real monster will be. (My students have told me that anyway.)
2) Employee success: Helping your students become English teleconference rockstars will help them professionally. Managers, bosses, supervisors and foreign coworkers are always watching. When they see someone who can communicate well, and whose first language is not English – you can bet they’ll notice. Great ESL teachers don’t just teach English. They become active participants in the success of their students.
What do you think? Should ESL classrooms have virtual options?
(And in a different, but related vein: Telecommuting saves companies $10K per employee yearly. )
