Students and teachers alike love iTalki, and whether you are looking for a way to earn extra money or share your love of language learning with others, iTalki is a great way to teach a new language to eager students. If you want to become a teacher on this platform, it is easy, and the process is comprehensive to ensure only the best teachers teach on iTalki. iTalki has useful guidelines and requirements to make the process professional and easy to use. In this article, we will talk about the steps on how to become a teacher on iTalki.
Create an Account
Before you can become an iTalki teacher, you must apply for online teaching through iTalki. To apply, you must create an account. Go to the teacher application, click apply now, and sign up to create your iTalki account.
When you click on the instructor application, there is quite a bit of information to read to decide if online teaching is for you. You will read about the different languages available, teaching certifications, and how to prepare an introduction video.
You will also learn about iTalki teachers and decide which type of teacher you are. After that, you can become a professional teacher or community teacher. When you read more about the kind of teachers, you will discover which type best suits you. We will discuss this a little more in a minute.
Application Process
Once you’ve created an account, you will begin the application process for online teaching with iTalki. The application will ask you to enter some necessary information like name, languages you speak, and the language you teach. Following photo guidelines, you will upload your profile pic and choose your language level. There are language requirements to pinpoint your language; you will upload any support documents such as teaching certificates if you choose to be a qualified instr during the processor.
Create an Account on iTalkiProfile Features
You will include a written introduction highlighting your language skills, background, and teaching method for your profile. A video introduction is a great way to give students an idea about your teaching, classes, and prices. It is required, and there are guidelines to help you.
Video Introduction
ITalki wants your video to follow several guidelines. These guidelines will help you shoot the best introduction. iTalki wants you to appear in your movie and speak in all the languages you have listed as “Native” or “C2.” These are the languages you plan to teach. No personal contact information can be shared, and advertising or promoting other services and using copyrighted media is prohibited. Your video should be shot horizontally with your camera on the level with your eyes and have a stable surface.
ITalki even goes into details about lighting, sound, background, and editing. They offer a variety of examples to assist you in creating the best graphic possible to introduce yourself to your new students adequately and, in turn, gain more students.
Minimum Requirements
iTalki wants its students to have a pleasurable learning experience with only the best teachers and tutors available. For this, they do have requirements for applicants.
Basic Requirements
All types of teachers need some of the same basic requirements. These requirements include being over the age of 18, a 1-3 minute introduction video, and native or C2 (advanced level) in your teaching language.
Types of Teachers
iTalki has three kinds of teachers with various teaching abilities and qualifications. While you go through applying, you will need to choose which type of instructor you are, based on your qualifications and certifications.
Professional Teachers
Professional teachers have a background in language or teaching. Having a teaching qualification status or university qualification status also allows you to charge more for each hour. For example, a university or education qualified teacher can set a minimum of $8 per hour. These teachers need to upload documents proving their status.
Professional Teachers can teach specific categories like general, business, test prep, kids, and conversational practice.
Type 1- University Qualification
This type of teacher is over the age of 18 and has a bachelor’s degree. iTalki prioritizes applicants who majored in language, linguistics, education, culture, or other specialized studies.
Type 2- Teaching Qualification
To receive type 2 teaching status, you must have some teaching qualifications. This could be a state teaching license or PGCE, DELTA, CELTA, or TEFL. If you are already an instructor, iTalki is a great way to supplement your income.
Community Tutor
A community tutor is a basic type of teacher. A student will more than likely choose this instructor when they wish to have conversation practice. They are friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and utilize their time to conversate with students. There may not be a lot of curriculum taught but practicing conversation is a tutor’s strength. Their category options include general and conversation practice. Community tutors do not get to charge as much. For a minimum lesson price, they can charge $4 per hour.
Ready to Start
It could take ten business days for approval, but once you receive approval, you are ready to start working for yourself using iTalki. You will need to create your profile and make some decisions. Your profile is what each student will look at when they want to find a teacher to give them classes. A good profile is comprehensive and cohesive. There are so many pieces to the profile. Here are some of the essential features to be sure of and edit.
Lesson Categories and Tags
Lesson categories and tags offer each student a way to search for teachers. They can filter teachers by categories and tags. It is essential to have more than one assigned category and tag. This will ensure many students can find you.
Contact Teacher Form
The Contact Teacher Form allows potential students to contact the teachers before a class. You can set 3-5 questions to display on your form to find more information about new students. This is optional for students, however, and they do not have to utilize it. Many teachers like getting feedback before class.
Availability Settings
There are three availability settings for a teacher. You can allow session requests from all students and enable session requests from current students to enable nobody’s requests. You will change your availability as the amount of students increases or decreases.
Time Schedule
One of the best benefits of being an iTalki teacher is setting your schedule to teach during times that work for you. You will click your available date and pick from the time slots in a drop-down list. Teach as much or as little as you wish. You can set a vacation mode, so class requests will be blocked while you have a vacation.
Adding/Editing Lessons
You can customize your lessons at any time to target different language levels and student’s needs. Sessions differ by teachers and students. For example, other English teachers may teach differently. One English teacher may start with nouns while another teacher will teach English using movies and songs. When adding or editing a session, you will give your session a specific title, the language being taught, a brief description, a price, and lesson/class availability.
Packages
During this portion of your profile, it is essential to consider packages to make more money if you provide lessons in a package. You should also consider the time and effort it takes you to make your classes. How much time did you put into creating your lessons? Be sure to request an appropriate rate. You also get to decide how long your lessons will take, whether 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes. Look at other teachers for an example to determine how much people should pay you.
Trials
At this point, you should decide if you will offer trial classes and the rate you will ask. Keep in mind that because you are new to iTalki, you can ask for lower prices for your trial lessons. Your rate for trial lessons is up to you. Once you’ve established some good ratings, you can require a much higher rate for students to continue taking classes from you.
Proper Technology
After you make your profile, you will need to make sure you have the proper technology to teach your student. You have to have an internet connection with a speed of at least 20 Mbps. Having excellent video communication tools is essential. You can use Skype, Google Hangouts, Facetime, QQ System, or WeChat. Each student may have a different preference. You will also need to get a microphone and webcam. Headphones are recommended. It is best to have an external camera and microphone for good video and sound quality. For an online platform like iTalki, it is vital to have the proper technology.
A Final Word
Applying for the iTalki platform is not challenging, so becoming a teacher on iTalki is not a challenging process. Choosing which classes you want to teach, the rate you will require, and setting your own work schedule are great benefits you’ll get. It won’t seem like you are at work but just having a conversation in a language, you love. If you are already a teacher, iTalki is a great way to teach online from the comfort of your home. If you think online teaching is for you, consider applying for iTalki.
