 Hey, guys, welcome to a new ITTT's live stream. And my name is Lisa. If you don't know me yet, I'm a TEFL and TESOL expert at ITTT. And I also teach English online as a non-native ESL teacher. So I'm super glad to welcome you at today's session. And it's going to be devoted to the very first online ESL class. I hope, yeah, my name is Lisa, not Linda, but it's okay. Hi, Mikey. I hope I pronounced your name correctly. So today's session is going to be devoted to everything related to the very first lesson with your online students. So I'm going to share five main points you have to remember before planning your very first lesson. So hopefully it's going to be useful. I believe that if you're a new teacher, yeah, it's going to be really valuable. So stay tuned. And let me just change my screen a little bit and move on. So I'm glad guys that you're joining me. Thanks for coming. If you are new here, let me know where you're tuning in from. I'm currently located in Russia. So I'm based in the Ural region of Russia, which is really far from Moscow or St. Petersburg, but this region is also really interesting. So if you're curious about teaching in Russia as well, it's a great place to investigate. Yeah, hi guys. Thanks for tuning in. I can see several new faces and also some old comers. And just a quick reminder, these live streams are provided by ITTT. We are a Teflon and TESOL provider. We are presented on various social media. So if you like YouTube, for example, just stay tuned, check out our channel. We share a lot of great stuff there. And if you feel like spending time on Instagram or Pinterest, maybe we also share content on those social media as well. So just keep in touch. And I also want to draw your attention to this, what's going on. Yeah, so I also want to talk a little bit so I also want to draw your attention to this QR code or to this link, let me share the link via the chat box really quick. So if you feel like you want to learn a little bit more about teaching and specifically about online teaching, for example, we've got really interesting courses at ITTT and this is a really nice chance to get this special offer. So if you sign up using this QR code or a link from the chat box, you will get a 30% discount, which is actually the highest discount we give. And it's a special offer which we share during the live streams only. So yeah, just check out our courses and feel free to ask any questions if you have. And let's now start today's presentation. So as I've mentioned before, we are going to spend some time talking about the very first online ESL class and what to include in that particular class. And to begin with, I wanna mention that the first class actually includes some preparation. It actually requires some preparation. And before you actually go live with your new student, I recommend taking some time and spending that time on research. So it is always better to send a placement test and a kind of a questionnaire to your new students and check out their level, check out their use of English probably and see if they have any gaps which you will be able to point out later on during the actual lesson. So my recommendation is send out a placement test and a kind of a questionnaire to your students before you actually start teaching them. It is very helpful in terms of creating a general course and picking out some specific materials like course books and so on. So here on this slide, you can see this placement test highlighted. So I actually placed a link right here to the placement test I usually use. I usually send to my students. And right after this live stream, I'm going to share this presentation with you on my Facebook group. So if you need it, just let me know via the chat box. And what else? So right after you sent the placement test, it is also helpful to ask a couple of questions related to their interests, related to their lifestyles, because if you don't know anything about the person, it is actually pretty challenging to create something interesting and engaging. And the very first lesson might be daunting and boring for students and for you as well. So it is always better to ask what interests they have and to think of some possible ways how to use those interests in order to organize your first lesson. And not actually just the first lesson, but the whole course as well. Because if you consider their interests and needs, you can craft the whole course, specifically for the student or for the group. Okay, and let's move on to the second point that you have to consider when you plan the first class with your online ESL students. So just based on the previous slide, based on the previous information, you would probably think of a speaking assessment. So when it comes to placement tests, they are usually very subjective and they are not that informative. You want to make sure you have enough information related to your student's abilities. So that is why it is important to organize a kind of a speaking assessment. And it is actually possible only when you have this face-to-face communication. The way I usually organize speaking assessments is either a small talk or a kind of a game, like get to know each other game. And it works mostly for teenagers or younger students. With adults, you would probably choose the first idea of a small talk because people usually feel stressed to share their ideas and share what they think with complete strangers. So small talks or this kind of game might be really helpful. And basically get to know each other games are also helpful for older students as well. Some people can't open up easy, so games might be helpful as well. But just bear in mind that this type of assessment also should be based on the placement test and on their interests. So for example, if you see that your student's grammar is at the A2 level, for example, you can't ask them questions that include some higher level grammar because it's going to be too difficult for them. And at the same time, if you see that your students are interested in music or sports, it is not logical to offer them some topics related to, I don't know, science or something like that. So make sure you consider their interests and their placement tests when you organize speaking assessments. And then let's move on to the third point which is also connected to the previous two points. So when you have already assessed their level and then you've assessed their speaking abilities, it is important to give some feedback on their overall results because students have already done a lot of things related to English lessons and they want to get some initial feedback from you as a teacher. So here I should say that the very first thing you should do is to praise. You want to say something good instead of highlighting their mistakes, for example. Sometimes teachers are really picky and they see only some blank spaces like some blank spaces, but students want to feel motivated and want to feel inspired. And the only way to inspire them is actually to say what areas they are good at. So that is why always praise your students, always say that they've done such a great job that they have accomplished so many things already and they are actually brilliant. People like to hear good things about themselves and this is the best way to motivate students as well. Only after this praise all part, you would probably move on to explaining some things, some areas they should work on and they should improve. And you should also give reasons why, like for example, sometimes it looks like students have a pretty high level of grammar or use of English, but when it comes to speaking, they start mixing up, they start making stupid mistakes and so on. So in such cases, you want to explain, you want to give reasons why they have to work on, for example, A2 grammar instead of B1 grammar. So this is the best approach to explain what areas should be improved. So if you guys have any questions related to the first three points of today's presentation, let me know, you can use the chat box and let me just quickly check out the chat box. Yeah, so Bakawa asks about signing up for the ITTT courses if I'm not mistaken. So the thing is, we share this QR code, let me show it right here. In the top right corner of your screen, you can see the QR code or you can use the link from the chat box. If you want to sign up for any of ITTT courses, it's a great chance to get this 30% discount today. So it's a special incentive from ITTT, we share it during our live streams. So if you have this need, you can do so. If you don't need it, no problem, no strings attached. So just ignore it. Yeah, and let me see, Leturk asks for a template, for a feedback template. I actually don't have such a template, but it's a great idea for me. So I have this Facebook group. Unfortunately, I'm not that active on the group yet, but I can create this template for you and share on my Facebook group. So just stay tuned, I'll note it down and I'll try my best to create this one. But basically the feedback is pretty simple. So if you want your student, your new student or your potential student, stay with you, be patient, be friendly, say good things to them on the first place and then move on to the second part where you explain what areas should be improved. They actually don't want to hear that they are failures or they have some problems. People are usually very intimidated by such information. So it is always better to say more things about something good and then to say what should be improved. Yeah, so this is pretty much. So this is the strategy I use when I communicate with my students or with my potential clients. Yeah, that's it. But it's a great idea. So I'll try my best to create a feedback template. Okay, so let's move on to the fourth point, which is also pretty important. So the first lesson isn't actual teaching. So you wouldn't probably start with present simple or present continuous and so on. You wouldn't start teaching some specific points related to English. The first lesson in my opinion, especially if you work online, the first lesson is related to building up some relationship, some initial relationship and setting up some communication ways. So that is why after all of those previous assessments, you can move on to the course outline and explain how you are going to teach those students. It can be a pretty short explanation of some points related to those areas of improvement. And then you would probably explain what resources you are going to use, show a course book, for example, if you have already thought of any. And then it is also a great idea to set up some goals together with your students. Because usually it is the teacher who sets the goals and it is a one-sided approach, but you want your student to be engaged as much as it is possible. That is why, what if you ask them like, what do you expect from this course? What goals do you want to achieve? What will help you to see that you have this progress in English? So basically the fourth step is devoted to some organizational things. To the milestones you have to achieve, to the milestones you have to take and so on. So make sure you take some time during the first lesson when you explain all these details. And it's actually really helpful in those cases when you work with two clients at the same time. What I mean, you teach a child, for example, but you actually communicate with their parents. So in this case you have two different audiences, you know, two different clients. Parents wants to know some specific details like what their children are going to learn, how fast, how to measure their progress and so on. And students from their side, they just want to be motivated. So setting up goals can be helpful for both children and parents. And another way to organize this step is to create some, you know, some board or something related to the way they measure their achievements, they may measure their progress and so on. And let's move on to the last point. It's the most important point probably for you as business people. So the first class should be devoted to terms and conditions as well. Usually teachers feel really stressed to talk about money, to talk about different situations like cancellations or delays and so on. But you don't have to be intimidated by those things because they are still important and it's just a part of this learning process as well. So I strongly recommend you discussing things related to schedule, payment, cancellation and everything related to these routines. So it is important specifically for you. You want to make sure you work effectively. You want to make sure you provide those high quality services. And this is actually the only way to build this strong profile for you as a teacher. So make sure you discuss those things from the very beginning. In other way, I would recommend creating, you know, and something like an agreement. It is important as well, but it depends on the country you work for. It depends on the location you work in. For example, in Russia, I have this agreement and I send it to my students or to their parents before the very first class. They read everything and then they either agree to sign it up or they disagree and then we don't work at all. What I include in that agreement is the payment process, schedule, all conditions related to cancellations and delays of our lessons and stuff like that. You can actually use this agreement to point out that you are allowed to increase or decrease your payment, for example. Yeah, and stuff like that. So it's just some legal things. It's this legal site of your relationship, but it is very valuable and it actually motivates students to work better because it is not like this simple communication, it is something related to legal issues as well. So they feel more responsible. So I recommend doing it as well, but it's up to you. And one more thing to mention, it is subjected to some specific areas and you should probably get some consultation from an accountant or a lawyer if you want to make sure that you follow all the directions of your country. So that's probably it. These are all the five points that should be considered when you plan your lessons, when you schedule the first class with your potential client. If you have any questions related to this topic or to Tefl in general, feel free to ask because this is where we start the Q&A session. I would really appreciate if you give me some feedback related to today's topic. I actually wanted to make it valuable for you. So let me know if you could benefit from these ideas. I'll really appreciate that. And one more time, this is the QR code which gives you this 30% discount of any ITTT courses. And by the way, if you haven't taught online yet, we've got a really nice online teaching course. So if you want to learn different strategies and approaches related to online teaching, just check it out. It might be helpful to you as a new online teacher. But generally speaking, Tefl certification is really valuable for all teachers in general. So make sure you check it out. And now let me see the questions from the chat box. So great question, Glenn. Of course, there are a lot of opportunities to teach college students and adults. It is just up to you who to find, who to teach and so on. So you can basically find whatever students you need online. It just depends on the way you promote your services. For example, if you work for a teaching company or for a teaching platform like Preply or Italki, you can limit your audience. You can narrow down your audience by stating that in your profile. So if you want to teach children only, you can write it down and explain that you work with this audience. If you target students or adults, you can also make like, you can also state it in your profile. If you find students on social media, it's almost the same strategy, but all those marketing things are on you. You have to be realistic in this point because nobody is better, no one is better in understanding your audience and your clients, okay? So ITTT is not a teaching platform. If you have already been table certified, it's fine. You can just create your account on a teaching platform and state all your credentials and experience, what else? You can also try to promote your services on social media like Instagram or Facebook, why not? It's a great way to find clients and students. So just make sure you create a nice profile and you target some specific audience because I usually see that many teachers offer like general English classes and work with any possible students. But from my point of view, it's not logical because you as a person understand that you are more likely to work better with adults but not with children. So it's important to narrow down your audience. Yeah, why not? You can start teaching online without any further certifications. The reason I point out our TEFL courses is that if you haven't been TEFL certified or if you haven't got some specific experience, it might be helpful because everything changes so fast and there are different qualities which are necessary for English teachers and you can just build on your resume this way. But if you have experience, it's totally fine. You can just move on and continue what you have already been doing. All right, do you guys have any further questions related to today's topic? Let me know. By the way, I have something weird with my voice. I don't know why. I hope that it sounds normal to you but I feel like it's difficult to talk right now. Probably that's because of the weather. We have a really severe smoke in here because of the forest fires. Here, it's my friendly invitation to my Facebook group. So I have a Facebook group for English teachers and English learners. So non-native ESL teachers are usually English learners themselves. So feel free to join in my small community. I will try my best to be active and helpful there as well. And right after the session, I'm going to share this presentation on the Facebook group. And as Latak mentioned, asked, I'm going to create this feedback template. So I hope you will find it useful. Just feel free to join in. I will be happy to communicate with you and by the way, this group is a teaching community. So if you have any questions or, I don't know, issues related to teaching in general, you can actually ask other people on the group for their recommendations or for a piece of advice. Feel free to do so. Yeah, that's probably it. If you don't have any further questions related to today's topic, I hope that you found it useful and I hope to see you next week. So next week is going to be at the beginning of September and it's a really tough time for all teachers and students. I'm actually going to take one week break from teaching in the beginning of September because students usually don't know anything about their schedule and it takes some time to get the whole understanding of the way they are going to work in the school year. So yeah, if you have the same situation, let me know. If you have any questions related to today's topic, feel free to ask. You can ask me on Facebook group or you can message me on Facebook as well. I try to be helpful on the chat as well. So stay tuned. See you next week. I hope that today's session was valuable. So thanks a lot for joining in and see you soon.