No matter how experienced online English teacher you are, take at least 30 minutes beforehand to make sure you are familiarized with the material, level and exercises that are assigned to your online class. Remember, we do not improvise!
A good online class must include the following elements:
Quick Questions at the beginning: do not forget to wake up your students with quick questions that will require short answers with auxiliary verbs, for example:
Teacher: “Do you like pizza?”
Student: “Yes, I do” / “No I don't”
Teacher: “Did you go swimming last week?”
Student: “No I didn´t”
Two quick questions will be enough. Remember not to make specific questions like “What did you do last weekend?”, only Yes/No questions.
A good online class practice is the combination of 2-3 activities or exercises per 30 minutes class (making it 4-5 activities per 60 minutes class ect.).
The activities must be combined in order to enhance the vocabulary, grammar, fluency and pronunciation.
Feel free to combine them as for instance: 1 topic activity (fluency) + 1 structure (grammar) + 1 vocabulary + 1 pronunciation (found in vocabulary section). Remember about the pace of 2-3 activities/30 minutes. Never base your class on only Topic activity! Plan the way you are going to develop your class in advance.
If you notice that your class do not have any activities assigned, notify technical support immediately using the “Chat” button on the bottom of the platform.
So, after having taken 30 minutes in advance to review the activities, you are ready to start the class.
When you open the online class, you need to click on “Start Class” button. Remember, if you do not click on “Start Class”, your student will not see you! Make sure you turned on your microphone and camera. Wait for your student to join. Once there, you need to choose the planned activity and click on the button “Select” next to each activity stage (side bar on the right). Click “Select” every time your want the activity to be shown or changed. The student only sees what you are selecting!
Use the chat on the top to communicate / correct / ask questions etc.
Rules to follow during the online class delivery:
Be on time! Start your class 2-3 minutes earlier to get ready and not to set up anything in front of the students´ faces.
Connection issues - don´t panic! Make sure you are connected to your fiber with cable (not wifi). Refresh the page, click on “Start Class” again and continue
Take care of the background in your room. Light, sound, clean, tidy background are of common sense!
If your student doesn't show up within 5 minutes from the beginning of the class, notify IT immediately using “Assistance” button below.
When you finish the online class, do not forget about Wrap Up questions in order to consolidate the material acquired. For example, if your were studying conditionals, ask “Would you go to the beach if it didn't rain today?”. If you studied food vocabulary, ask “Are you going to cook pumpkin today?
After saying goodbye, you still need to take attendance and write a general appraisal to your students:
Write a short comment (2-3 sentences) about the strengths and weaknesses of the student during the class and suggest some practice to improve.
Click on “Attended” near the students´ names (only those who attended of course!)
Click on “Send email” - you will see the next message “Sent 18:59” (for example)
Close the window
This is the last (but not least) step to make - essential to get paid.
Go to the material for the class again clicking on books icon in your timetable.
Rate the activities you used in the class from one to five stars, the green face icon below will appear by default indicating that the content was acquired
Rate the content if not acquired by the student with the red face icon
Send a signature request to the student if not appearing in blue
Make sure that the attendance is taken and there is a green tick next to the students´ names
Sign the class and close the window