Being a teaching millionaire does not just come without a little bit of hard work. You must constantly improve your teaching and lessons to attract more classes and positive reviews. It is the best way to market yourself so that you stand out in front of the crowd.
But the question is, "how can you achieve that?”
Here are some of the ways you can get stand out;
The first thing is for you to collect all your awful lessons so that you can rework them during your free time. The trick is to make those boring topics or lessons into something epic and intriguing to the students. Realize that English as a language can get boring – especially when tackling some of the hardest topics.
One thing that is important to note here is that you are responsible for these lessons. To make them cool and interesting to the students, you must step out of your comfort zone and collect input from various sources. You have to be willing to level up so that your students, too, can level up. Gather information, bring on real-life examples they can relate with, and encourage open discussions and practical lessons to help your students connect with what you are teaching – first hand.
If you are going to get positive reviews, then you must be willing to learn from past mistakes. You must take into consideration the feedback you get from them. That is how you improve and help them know that you value their feedback most. Realize that students are what we do – the center of the classroom. We are not the center of the classroom. However, you are the one that is to make the greatest impact, and taking feedback from your students, fellow teachers, and parents will help you level up.
There are times when feedback and reviews will make you laugh, cry, or even mortified. But, what you must realize is that every piece of feedback is honest and is meant to make you a better teacher. You are a great teacher – and great teachers are never afraid of inviting difficult discussions and criticisms – because they are what make you grow and make teaching an exciting thing to do.
While students give you feedback, it is also important that you give them feedback. It is time to quit telling them, "Good job, or well done!" and replace that with more specific feedback.
Some of the tips that will help you give your students great feedback include;
If the students in your online class offer you their undivided attention, you must mention that. Say something like, "I see you all paying attention." The truth is that when you give feedback to a class that is noisy, restless, and squirmy, the chances are that they will not get it, and that will not help improve their behavior.
In most cases, the students will feel as though you are disingenuous and manipulative. Rather than trying to help them improve, you will run the risk of undermining the connection you had built with them.
“I love it when you all join the class on time.” When you use such statements, you not only commend the students for their time consciousness but also emphasize your approval of them. You communicate to them that the primary purpose of maintaining good behavior is so that they can please you.
But, what if you changed that a little bit to “You attended the class in time today, so we will have more time for the lesson.” What this suggests is that you are proud of their capabilities and suggest to them the importance of being in a time-conscious – allowing them more time to learn and enjoy the class.
This is a habit that most teachers often use. For instance, a teacher might say, "Cheng, you are doing well in grammar today" as a way of encouraging others to do the same. Well, when you do this, you stir up resentment of Cheng and feelings of discouragement on their part. How about you save these remarks for when you hold private conversations with the students within their individual feedback.
That said, commend your students in a specific way instead of just saying a Good job!
For instance;
“Margaret, your use of past tense is impeccable today.”
"Cheng, your grammar and spelling of words are impressive, keep it up!"
“Janet, your composition is well written – with proper sentence structures and lots of details.”
When you do this, your students get the motivation to keep working harder to earn more points.