Hi, I'm Magdalena Flynn and I teach English online with Palfish, a Chinese online teaching organisation that allows you to teach from your phone or tablet (no laptops or headset requirements unlike other platforms). It operates through an app and is set out quite similar to Instagram, making it quite user friendly.
There are 2 main ways you can teach with Palfish:
Option 1: The Palfish Official Kids Course program
Open to native speakers from the US, Canada, UK, Australia and Ireland. To apply you upload some basic documents, an intro video and perform a demo lesson (without a student)
Material is provided. You are encouraged to use props and you also have facial filters, unique to Palfish, to help engage students. Trial lessons are assigned to you, but getting regular students is your responsibility.
You have to market yourself within the Palfish app
You can read books on their Palfish Read app and post through them to your 'moments' i.e. news feed. You can post pictures, videos or voice recordings. You can follow students and they can follow you.
You can also schedule live videos (length, topic and price per play is up to you, majority of these are free as it is a way of attracting students). These live videos are also able to be categorised so that people can find your live video/replay more easily. This is an option of making passive income which is unique.
Pay for the Palfish Kids course is set in payment brackets
The more you teach, the more you earn. This is done through a points system. These are additional ways you can earn points, like referring other teachers, being on time, doing classes at peak hours, for example. The rate is typically up to $22 p/h plus bonuses.
Here are my top tips for the demo lesson for the kids course
* Make sure you are wearing a blue shirt (Palfish requirement)
* Try and teach for the exact 25 minutes (no less than 15)
* Use a lot of TPR (total physical response, ie. Non verbal prompts)
* USE PROPS (Palfish gives you ¥100 when you start to buy props and you use them
* Have your teaching background set up
* Speak slowly and clearly
* Smile and be encouraging
* Look up Palfish teachers which have YouTube videos, Facebook groups and blogs which provide tips and tricks about all things Palfish, including tips on the interview so USE THEM.
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Option 2: Palfish Freetalk option
This is a different Palfish option to the official kids course described above.
You do not have to be a native speaker and there is no interview but you will need a TEFL/teaching qualification. You simply fill out some basic details and upload your teaching qualification. Once these are verified, you can begin by simply clicking 'online' or students can schedule a lesson with you. You choose your own schedule.
In addition to this you can also create lessons packages for student to purchase.
You have ratings and reviews which get updated every week. This keeps things competitive among the teachers on Palfish. ($10-$18 p/h appears the norm with some charging $30 p/h)
You can teach both the kids course and for Freetalk
Recently I decided to take a 20 hour online English teaching course...
because online English teaching wasn’t covered on my initial TEFL. I recently started to teach more on Freetalk and students wanted specific things. I became a bit overwhelmed as I hadn't realised how different online teaching is to classroom teaching. I wanted to learn more about activities and lesson materials I could use online, as well as how I could market myself to these online students.
The Global English online teaching English course has helped me learn how to prepare and conduct lessons better and learn all the ins and outs of the online teaching system.
I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is thinking about teaching online or has already started teaching online and is feeling a bit lost or overwhelmed.
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Interested in teaching English online?
Find out more about teaching English online for Palfish (please note, this is a referral link from which Magdalena may receive a small commission)
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