05/04/2021
hello everybody uh welcome to the itt uh weekly live
stream my name is lisa and today we are going to discuss um an extremely important topic which is
related to english teaching as a non-native esl
teacher and it's rather controversial because the field is pretty competitive
so many people uh want to find out uh if it is possible to
stand out um or not so um let's just quickly
yeah change the slide so um the reason i decided to choose this
topic is that uh one of my regular regular viewers watchers
visitors asked me about how to actually stand out um as a
non-native esl teacher especially online and i find it
really important uh so let's discuss it today and
um befo before we move on please let me know that you can hear me
clearly and you can see me clearly because uh just right now i speak in front of
myself and i cannot see anyone but i hope that you guys are there and
um i can reach you okay so let me know via the chat box that you can hear and
see me clearly okay and if you don't know me
my name is lisa uh i am an itttttt tefl expert and i'm super glad
to welcome you to this live session thanks for coming um
okay so moving on i'd like to uh remind you
that because you guys are super active uh and you come to uh watch this live
sessions itt um shares this 30 discount of any itt tefl courses
so if you guys um feel like you want to take a tefl course or you want to move
your career to the next level uh feel free to scan
uh this qr code and um yeah you will get this 30
discount or otherwise you can just follow the link from the chat box and
you'll be good okay uh so if i have already mentioned today's live
session is devoted to um the problem of being a non-native esl teacher
online in such a competitive field and i'd really
love to correspond to this problem and share my personal experience on how to
build your personal brand uh on various social networks or just online like with your website
or any other resources and to begin with i would like to
refer to your personal brand so basically a personal brand is something
related to marketing and i believe that uh most of you are pretty uh familiar
with this topic with this point however i still feel like um this um approach can be
applicable to tefl teaching as well so for example if you are
a tefl teacher uh in the beginning of your online teaching career it's a great idea
to uh implement this personal brand strategy uh to your uh
profile and um it's it's pretty simple actually uh what you have
to do uh in the very beginning is telling your story and uh when we talk about this
point uh we want to make a clear picture uh to help
other people to see you and uh to see you the way you want them to see
yourself and to do that um i'd like to draw your attention to
uh these two very points uh the first one would be
uh it is necessary to understand who are you and um
it is always um important to show what are your interests um and maybe
passions uh what traits of personality you have
and what are your values so these key uh
points uh will help you to make up to build to build up your personal
profile and share your story
[Music] with the rest of the community and another point
is that um it is really important to uh show what is your purpose
um for example um it is necessary to uh explain what's your
mission and how to um and why are you going to
express yourself at the very beginning okay um and here
is actually where you can add your credentials uh usually uh people uh
get a lot of certificates um they become really um professional
uh theoretically however they don't know how to express it and how to show it to
potential clients and this is how it is actually done so uh if you really want to connect with
your uh prospective clients uh it's a great idea to include your
credentials into your uh brand story um and when we talk about your personal
brand uh it's almost the same as a brand of any other company
so you want to make sure that you um look reasonable
and you build this trust credentials actually help you to do that
and uh here i'd recommend you to list your certifications
diplomas and other stuff related to your professional development but at the same
time it is really vital to show off your experience if you don't have any
uh it's not a problem uh the thing is you have to be proactive uh to work on your um
feedback like you have to find someone who will be able to give you this first
feedback uh and for this sake it's a great idea
to do some volunteer volunteer teaching for example uh also what is really valuable
uh by other people is something you share for free so apart from volunteer teaching uh it's
a great idea to share some resources as well and i'll dwell upon this point a little bit later
but now um i just want to um yeah i just want to share
this example so for example i want to reach
other people and i want to make sure they understand me as a brand
so what will i do i'll try to tell them my story and here it is so i'm
a tefl certified esl teacher uh with seven years of uh
international experience uh passionate about foreign languages cultures
and travel so in this part i try to include um my credentials partially
uh my story like how i began doing that i and what are my
interests and passions and in teaching i try to implement a
personal approach to every student and strive to build a relationship with everyone
uh so it is also really important to express your relation uh and approach
uh to uh your teaching to your uh work and finally
i'll try to explain what is my mission but it should be rather brief because people
don't pay much attention to long reads to long stories so um try
make sure that you keep rather short and so
to so my mission for example is to help students to overcome uh a language
barrier uh and cross um cross the cultural boundaries um and think out of the box
by sharing my knowledge and experience so this is um a sample story
uh but how to share it actually and uh for for this point
uh i'd move on to the next slide uh because this is where you start uh
building your community uh so when you are at the very beginning of
your career and you basically don't have any clients uh you have to think of building
uh trust with other people and here i'd recommend you to think of
your friends and families those are people who are usually supportive
and who can help you to reach other people as well sometimes
devil teachers in the beginning of their career still have old clients like some
previous clients maybe uh from your um past jobs for example uh
i used to work um in an amusement park uh when i was at university and
uh i found several um close friends there so i reached them out and
shared my story and shared that i started to t i started teaching
and like asked them to tell other people about myself
and usually if you have this close connection with others uh they are
pretty um open to tell about you and what is the most
cool about this approach is that uh word of mouth works best when people
uh say good stuff about yourself other people just believe and that's it
and uh the last point would be it is still important to uh find some new loyal
followers uh so this is something to keep in mind you still want to make
friends with others and you want to show yourself as a professional so here what is
quite important is to show others that you're interested in their stories
and uh that you are engaged with them um as just other people
so it's it's just uh something that matters in any type of relationship
either business ones or just some friendly relationship okay
the next point is that when you have your small community like even 10 people
um is a community you want to give value to these people
and um here is when we start building trust um over different
resources like social media um using various strategies and content
uh and also we build this engagement and trust with others
and what is really important on this stage is that uh you have to stick to your
values you want to show that you are always consistent
in your sayings in your vision and whatever so
just remember that when you build this um community uh you can't change your
opinion that often however it is still possible and
uh if we move back to the point of uh how to build your personal brand i'd say that um
it's not just about social media uh it's also possible to do um in
real life on the first place and then uh to do it with some other
resources apart from social media however um it is bad it is always better to know
where your audience uh exists like for example youtube some people prefer
to watch youtube so maybe it's a great idea to start building your social profile
on this network however um some other people are more often
to serve facebook for example so this social network might be
beneficial as well so try to just try to think of
as many resources you you could use in order to um
achieve your goal like in order to show that you are a professional and
to make sure everyone uh knows it and believes you and
here i'd say that another factor which helps teachers uh to create this
personal brand story is um an ability to sell
um of course we don't want to um seem salesy we don't want um
everybody uh to pay money for um whatever uh for
just use useless things uh however we want to um
show that we are trustworthy uh that we are professional and stuff like that
and it is also uh related to this ability of selling yourself of
of telling the best stories over other people and
yeah this is actually how it's done and if you ask me like
if it's possible to tell stories over such resources
as teaching platforms here are a couple of examples i just um
went to italki to research some um interesting teachers and i found
these two guys um the first thing i done uh the first thing i did was
uh i watched their uh introductory videos and i learned something about themselves
uh so the first girl she was really really um open-minded in her video
she shared her interests she told about her life experience uh and uh why
she chose to teach people uh and it was really um it was in a friendly manner
so she actually uh did a great job from my point of view and she
basically told her story and um this is how uh she helped me
uh to find out about her personal brand uh the other guy uh he was
really consistent uh in uh expressing his strong opinion on the point of
sharing language experience like he's proficient in different
languages because he lives in india and in different parts of india people speak
different dialects as as i understood that however those dialects are pretty
different and still this language helps to um broaden
um yourself like to open your boundaries and it was also
interesting to learn about his approach and his personal story so i'd really like to take
a couple of lessons with this guy as well um apart from that um i also
uh checked um their profiles in order to find out if they
connect with their audiences uh somewhere else and it turned out that the first girl
she actually runs a youtube channel which is pretty successful uh and this is where she
distributes um her content just for free so she basically
uh gives value for no money and uh it helps uh to build trust as well uh
so it's also i'd say it's also a part of her personal brand
because this way uh she helps other people to understand um in which areas she is
actually professional um so uh basically
uh you don't have to create your social media uh it's it's just pretty normal to
um use this um personal brand approach uh over online
teaching platforms however if you still want to reach out to a lot of people
it's a great idea to use the power of social media as well
as for me uh it's a really challenging uh approach because you have to be
consistent and you have to um spend a lot of energy
on creating materials like creating content you have to spend time uh communicating
with your audience because it is also important to uh correspond to questions and maybe to
comments uh online so um you still have to um
you you still have to pull on your weight and um
like uh take a lot of efforts uh so it's something to think of
uh and still i'd recommend you to consider this approach because uh it's
proactive one it's a proactive one and nowadays uh when we
when we teach in this competitive uh field uh it's it's quite important to
um be flexible and try different uh ways and ideas so i still believe
that um something like that is real and um a lot of teachers can try
that if we talk about
this problem um from another perspective like um if the
strategy actually works uh with real employers like um like english teaching schools for
example uh i'd say yes as well because such approach helps you to create your
perfect resume and basically resume is also um a paper
which contains your brand story however it should be shorter and it
should be really brief and focused on details
however you still can use it to tell your personal story uh
and it is vital as well this is how you can actually reach um your potential
um employers right and um
as for this part um i believe that is all what i wanted to say however
um i'd like to hear from you and uh let's have this q a session uh and
i i'd rather say let's have a discussion so if you have any ideas on
the point i've just mentioned i've just talked about please share your opinions uh
and let's try to work productively right now um i think that uh
this approach um is really interesting um all although it's not the easy one
uh but as for me there is no there is no easy way to uh stand out of the crowd
and be the best teacher online so this is the only way you can um find clients and uh build this trust
uh and by the way um i forgot to mention that um another key factor
in your brand story is um your clients feedback
um so basically if you have some experience you can uh reach uh out to your previous
clients and ask them for for an honest feedback
uh if it is not that positive it's okay you can use it for the sake of
working on yourself and working out your problems however if you still have
some positive feedback uh it's a great idea to store all of the good comments and
words uh in your address and later when you figure out how to
represent yourself online um well make a folder or maybe a part on a
website related to feedbacks because new clients and potential uh students
they prefer to uh choose um between this teacher or that one
based on some positive feedbacks and if your feedback is pretty
reliable it's something to show off as well okay
hello guys so um yeah let's move on to the q a session and i can see
that there are several uh questions already uh and i'd really
move uh to the comments box okay yeah uh thanks a lot for joining i can
see a lot of familiar faces yeah okay
um so this uh question isn't related to uh today's
point however uh we can briefly discuss it um i believe that the only way to become
fluent is to practice as much as you can but your practice shouldn't be um
circled over just one particular um skill uh but rather on various
different skills like uh if you want to be fluent uh as a speaker uh it's not enough just
to speak uh it is also important to listen a lot uh and to read different articles books and
whatever uh so i i know that many uh english teachers uh that many
non-native english teachers when they become pretty experienced in terms of
english learning they just stop [Music] working on their problems and they focus
on teaching as itself however it is still necessary to
polish your skills so think of just being a student yourself
um a student of like advanced level okay so
yeah basically this is the only way you become fluent
all right
okay so yeah phillip uh you you can totally comment and
i'll reach you back after the session however if you still have any uh questions right
now or any uh feedback and i don't know maybe
suggestions please feel free to contact right now over the comments section and
i'll try to be helpful and i'll try to respond okay
hello amitabha nice to see you thanks for joining again so guys um if you
have any questions related to today's point like how to stand out as a non-native english teacher uh feel
free to comment right now or if you have just um other questions related to tefl
maybe um english teaching itself please feel free to ask me as
well and by the way here on the right you can see this qr code
which can move you directly to my facebook group uh i created a facebook group
um to communicate with those who come to this live sessions so with a
teacher uh with other teachers uh with those who are interested in tefl and uh in online teaching
uh if you want to stay connected if you want to keep in touch with me please um scan this qr code with your
um cell phone uh and yeah just i'll be i'll be really glad
to communicate with you i think this way uh is really nice and
i am open to new people and appreciate when you guys um
reach me back okay uh when you when you reach me out
actually [Music]
okay so um lisa asks uh if uh being a cheerful and a happy
person might harm her professionalism
i think no because it is extremely important uh to possess those qualities that
you've just mentioned so i don't believe that
there is anyone who prefers to work with uh modest and i don't know
gloomy people so especially when we talk about teachers
um and i have actually a really good example from my personal experience
uh so uh last friday i spoke to one of my students uh father
on the phone and he mentioned that the only thing that
[Music] keeps his daughter with myself
is is not actually my teaching but rather the way um the way i
am so um his daughter really likes to work with me uh as with a person uh
and i i believe that um such qualities as cheerfulness
uh is something that helped me to um create to build that uh connection
with the girl um of course i try to put a lot of efforts uh to
creating uh interesting materials for her uh to explaining everything
um as interesting and engaging as it is possible however
um my personal qualities are probably even more important because students
especially the younger ones they want um other people to be kind with them
especially teachers and if we for example distinguish between
um tutors and school teachers we know that those uh teachers who
work with bigger groups they don't have this opportunity to build close relationship okay
uh so yeah i think that cheerfulness and being a happy person
is actually something that really can help you to look even more professional but the thing is
you have to um tell your right story so try to
make this personal brand be based on your cheerfulness and happiness yeah
something like that um okay so the next question uh
so what is the best and easy way to change parents mindset uh to lift up their
children to learn english so do you mean some parents don't want their children to learn
english uh if yes then probably it's a great idea to show
um the benefits uh which english uh gives to those who
who can actually speak it and who can um do other stuff english like
read english books watch movies without translation
and stuff like that so for example when you um talk to
uh open-minded parents uh they usually mention that uh the most beneficial aspects
uh from learning english for their children is an ability to be successful
in future like uh to have more um career perspectives uh to have more um
opportunities to study abroad for example and this is something uh which drives
those parents a lot i know that for some parents um it is challenging to
pay for private classes for example or just for some extra classes however
uh they still know that knowing english is a necessary skill
this day what is um what is important for you as a
teacher uh to make sure that you feed your potential clients like if you meet
parents with the mindset like that who don't want their children
to learn english and who don't uh understand why it is necessary
then probably uh um it's it's it's just not
a perfect fit for you as a teacher and uh the most important thing here
is to stay comfortable as a teacher because we
usually think about others we usually think um how to comfort other people
how to comfort clients but we don't think about ourselves so if it's not a perfect fit just
don't worry just don't take it personal and move on
to the next opportunity okay
yeah thanks a lot i'm glad to share my experience although it's not that rich i should say
however i i really like to um give this value okay
um yeah and thanks a lot uh thank you for uh being so kind with me
all right yeah that's that's true so uh sometimes
teachers just um just think about
so many things uh but not about themselves uh which is
actually um not the best approach probably okay
and i also um a couple of days ago um i follow one um teacher blogger
on instagram uh so just something for you to know um in
russia uh a lot of teachers create personal blogs on instagram
and this is the way they actually um share their knowledge and experience and
at the same time build their personal brands so a couple of days ago i came across
uh my my colleagues uh stories on instagram and she shared
that uh she she has burnt out um recently like she doesn't want to
teach uh she doesn't want to uh spend time um teaching one-on-one classes and she
feels uh tired constantly and then she started explaining like what what's her schedule
and i just i just thought that she burned out not because she doesn't
like it but because of the amount of hours she spends on
one-on-one teaching and moreover uh she tries to
give value in some other areas which are actually not related to
teaching itself for example when her students come to her classes feeling depressed
and being in a bad mood she always tries to comfort them she always tries to ask like what what
happened sometimes they share stories of being bullied or stories of having troubles
uh in their families and she is not a teacher at that time she is a psychologist or
psychiatrist even yeah so uh in this from this point of view
uh we spend so much of um our energy uh
we just don't have time to recharge our batteries and um yeah it's it's not the best
approach probably so if you feel like you burn out
being a teacher try to look at your teaching
from a different perspective like do you actually teach or you do something else
okay all right guys so uh we've been 40 minutes online
already and i believe that we've discussed a lot of things however if you still have anything on
your mind and you want to ask me something just feel free
to do it right now or we will just wrap up today's session uh
because i don't want to spend too much time on it okay
all right thank you thank you so much for sharing your feedback with me because
usually these live sessions are really challenging um on the first place i'm
not a native speaker and i'm not the best speaker probably so every time i go live
i i try myself yeah so thanks a lot for sharing your
attitude and opinion i appreciate it and thanks a lot guys for
your support and that you come to the sessions regularly
all right guys so i believe um you don't have any questions further so
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um let me just quickly share the direct link over the chat box
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and yeah i'll try to give you even more value okay so thanks a lot for coming and bye
