VIPKid is a rising start in the world of distance education. It was founded by Cindy Mi in 2013 with the goal of connecting "fluent English-speaking teachers with young Chinese students for one-on-one 25-minute virtual tutoring lessons, in which students are taught English through an immersive curriculum that covers simple concepts like holidays and more complex topics like current events."
If you are a teacher looking for new opportunities to connect with a global network of teachers and students, VIPKid is definitely a good option to consider. VIPKid provides you with a platform where you can put to work your ESL teaching skills for an hourly wage of $14 to 22.
VIPKid's online teaching pedagogy is informed by a flipped-classroom approach. All the classes are one-on-one and as a teacher you are not required to prepare your curriculum. VIPKid's team does the job. It provides you the with required teaching materials for all the assigned classes and you only need to read the materials and get prepared. "You can preview class materials in the classroom on the teacher portal 6-12 hours in advance." However, I personally see this as one of the weakness of this online platform. As a former teacher with over 12 years of classroom teaching experience, I think teachers should be able to design their own teaching materials. In doing so, they will get to develop an intuitive skill that enables you to know what will work and will not before they try out the lesson in class.
As a Vipkid teacher, you will not always teach the same students. You will only teach students who have booked your class and teaching takes place through Vipkid's own LMS. In other words you are not guaranteed a class even if you make the cut and become VIPKid approved teacher. You teach per class and each class extends is 25 minutes. Also, using VIPKid's Teach App you will be able to set your teaching availability in advance. There is no limit on the number of hours you can teach, you decide your own teaching schedule.
If you are a new or seasonal teacher keen on exploring new teaching possibilities (and generating extra revenue) within a global networked community of teachers and students, VIPKid is definitely an option to try out, not the best out there nut definitely an interesting one.
