WOW. I can not believe I have been teaching Chinese children English for an entire year..from my home! Let’s just get down to the nitty-gritty and talk about my VIPKID job review.
When I first began, I didn’t really believe that I would actually make any REAL money. I hoped I would. But I wasn’t a believer. Before I even started with VIPKID, it took me over a year to even take the action steps to begin the application process. If you missed the posts from last year about the beginning of my VIPKID journey, you can read about them here: VIPKID: The Beginning and VIPKID: It’s Been 21 Days.
Looking back, I am so thankful that I finally made the leap. In this first year, I have made:
$10,425
This can be looked at two different ways:
One: Wow, that’s barely anything. You can’t live off of that!
Two: WOW! That’s a lot of money for a small part-time job.
I prefer to look at it the second way. I did not apply thinking that I would make the whopping $30,000+ that I made teaching a classroom full of eight-year-olds. I simply wanted to help provide for our family financially. But making roughly a quarter of my teaching salary only working an average of three hours a day (with my pajamas on!) is pretty incredible if you ask me.
So here’s my thoughts on VIPKID after being with them for 365 days.
The Pros
- I make $20 an hour. What other work-from-home, part-time, consistent job pays that much per hour? And there are opportunities to make even more than that!
- I teach in my pajamas. In recent months I have been waking up at 4:15 only to begin teaching at 4:30. Matt looked at me one morning and said, “If only your students could see what you are wearing…” as I stood in front of him in a nightgown, with a shirt pulled over it and big, thick winter socks. I was definitely a sight. I wake up, brush my teeth, throw on some mascara to make me look awake, give my hair a quick brush and head to my computer. When I first started I would put on real pants because I felt I needed to ‘feel professional’. That went out the window very quickly when I realized the students really only see me from the neck up.
- I spend very little money. In my personal brick-and-mortar classroom, I spent lots of money on my students. I was constantly buying school supplies, rewards, books, decorations, activities to supplement my plans. And the list could go on. The only money I have spent since joining VIPKID is money for ink and paper to print some visuals for my students. Even this is not required but as a teacher, I know visuals are very effective. The background behind me when I teach is a simple world map that I already had. And even if I wanted to spice up my background a bit, a quick trip down the aisle at Dollar Tree would be all I would need.
- I spend very little time prepping. Lesson plans. Lesson plans. Lesson plans. Every teacher has a love-hate relationship with those two words. With VIPKID, the plans are already there! When I first began, I felt the need to go over the lesson slides before each lesson. But I quickly learned that each lesson was so similar that it became unnecessary to do. As a teacher, I know how to challenge a student when a lesson is too easy or re-mediate a student if they are struggling. There is no longer a need to look over the lesson before I teach it (which means I can sleep longer!)
- I can take off anytime I want and make my own hours. VIPKID does not have a minimum number of hours that I am required to work each week. If I want to go on vacation, I go. If I have a late night and want to sleep in the next day, I can. If I have family in town and don’t want to work, I don’t have to. If I want to pick up some extra money and work on the weekend, I can. I am currently taking maternity leave. I didn’t have to tell anyone in advance. I didn’t have to decide in advance when I would be back. I could decide right now that I want to teach tomorrow and that would be okay.
- I can work from anywhere. I normally work in our guest room/office. But I have also worked from a hotel here in Montana, from a beach house on the east coast, and even from my friend’s basement during a birthday party. All I need is my iPad and I am good to go!
- I still get to know the students personally. Now that I have been teaching for a year, I have students that I teach on a regular basis. It is such a good feeling to teach these familiar faces each morning and know that they chose me to be their teacher.
The Cons
- They do not take taxes out. This sounds boring but it’s good to know. When my paycheck is deposited into my bank account no taxes have been withheld. Luckily, I knew this beforehand and opened a separate account and withdrew the taxes myself so that I wasn’t blindsided when tax time came around. So, while this is not a big con, it is an important fact to remember.
- The hours are not daytime hours. Waking up at 4:15 has certainly not been ideal but that’s where the hours are. China is on the other side of the planet and there are very few hours when my awake hours and their awake hours overlap. When I am teaching from 4:30-7:30 AM, it is evening/nighttime for them. Often times I have my schedule open from 6:00-9:00 PM as well but only occasionally will a student sign up for these times as this is when they are in school. School holidays are a great time for these slots to fill up though.
- I need to be completely alone. This is not a job I can do with Liam running around beside me. I have to have a quiet space where I can focus solely on the student before me. In that respect, it’s good that the working hours are in the morning when he is still asleep. When I do work in the evenings, Matt is always on child-duty or I have Liam watching a movie in his room.
- Oversleeping can be detrimental. Each contract period is 6 months long. And each period you are allowed seven Teacher No-Shows. After that, they will reevaluate your contract and are able to terminate it if they feel it necessary. A Teacher No-Show is when you fail to show up for a class you have scheduled with no prior warning. Seven seems like a decent amount. I mean, that’s one a month pretty much. But one day my alarm didn’t go off at 4:15. I woke up a little after 6:00. I had missed FOUR of my classes in just one mistake.
Other Things I Have Learned This Year
- Patience is key. As I shared in one of my previous posts, getting students did not come easily. I had to work at it. But once I started getting students, I realized that many of them were returning to me. And before I knew it I had regular students that I taught several times throughout the month. It has been so rewarding watching them grow and knowing that I am helping them in their English journey.
- More is not always better. When I first started, it was suggested to have some props to excite the students and some type of printable reward system to offer encouragement throughout the lesson. And that’s what I did. A few months ago, I discovered a group on Facebook that was dedicated to Google Slides. I had no idea what that meant but after some research I found out that these people no longer used the suggested printable items but were strictly digital (digital rewards, digital background, even digital props). I suddenly felt behind and as if I wasn’t a good enough teacher (despite having a full schedule). After some research (and a bit too much time playing around with this technology), I discovered that sometimes the most basic ways are the best. I have moved to digital rewards but I feel my trusty, printable props are much more effective (and a whole lot less complicated to figure out).
- It fuels my passion for teaching. Even though it is a digital classroom and I am teaching children in China, I still get the same feelings of excitement, enjoyment and frustration as I do in a regular classroom. I still have the ‘trouble making students’ who just can not seem to focus no matter what tricks I try. I still have the ‘over corrective parents’ who want perfection out of their child. I still see students get so excited when they master something that has been hard for them.
Right now, I am currently not working. I let all of my students know that I would be taking a break but would return in a few weeks. I’m still not sure how my return will look but I am determined to make it work. My hope is that a lot of my regular students will return to me. And after reading this comment I have a bit more confidence they will:
I’ll have a post in a few weeks about how my return to the virtual classroom is going and how I make it work with a newborn. Any bets on how many months before I’m back to my “full-time schedule”?
Be sure to check out these posts for more VIPKID info!
VIPKID Job Review: It’s Been 21 Days
VIPKID Job Review: The Beginning
If you have any interest in beginning your VIPKID journey, feel free to reach out. It took me over a year to make the leap. Maybe I can help you leap a bit faster.
If you are ready to make the leap, click here and I can help you every step of the way!
