Most people in this industry know that there have been a lot of changes going on among pretty much all of the China-based English teaching platforms, and since I’ve just renewed my contract with Qkids, I figured that now is a great time to look back on my experiences, and kind of reflect on how things are now, versus how they were two years ago. Just to keep this review kind of short and sweet, I’m going to provide a spreadsheet containing the main information about the company, and I’ll dive into the details below.
Alright, so with that main information out of the way, I really want to jump into some of the more notable features of working for Qkids. Yeah, it’s great to know the pay and all of that, but the review would be incomplete if I didn’t talk about my experiences.
My experience with the staff:
First, I just want to highlight the fact that Qkids really sets itself apart from the rest of the industry in terms of how the staff treats their teachers- in a good way!
This past year was extremely rough on me, and my work reflected that. I called in a lot, canceled classes, and over all, I don’t feel like I put forth my absolute best effort in 2020. Despite all that, my coaches and support staff treated me with a great deal of empathy and compassion. They never complained or wrote me up, even if I canceled on short notice. Most companies won’t let you get away with that no matter what your circumstances are, so for me, it really solidified my faith in them as a company that they cared to actually check in with me and offer support.
My experience with students:
Remember when I said I wasn’t putting forth my best effort? Students have been stressed out as well. I’ve certainly had a fair number of students who weren’t attentive, and didn’t really want to talk or participate. Sometimes, we need to let things like that slide. At the end of the day, the student will get much more value out of how you lifted them up than the content of the lesson.
I may have had a handful of students who were bummed out, and from time to time, there wasn’t a lot I could do but work through the lesson and try to put a smile on a student’s face. More often, though, I’ve had students who really brightened my day and made me remember why I love teaching.
My experience with the platform and curriculum:
These past couple months or so have been huge for both the platform and the curriculum. They rebuilt the classroom layout from the ground up, organizing all of the tools in a way that is much more sleek and user-friendly. Additionally, they’ve added new tools that will help students pick up on your cues.
One of the greatest new features they’ve added is a “speak,” reminder button, which you can use to let students know it’s their turn to participate, just in case they don’t hear or understand when you tell them they need to be participating.
In terms of the curriculum, they’ve been updating a lot of the lesson material to a more conversational form of English, meaning that if your students ever travel to an English-speaking country, their skills will be more practical, and they will speak more casually.
My experience with the schedule:
There’s nothing fun about waking up at the crack of dawn, but I have bills to pay and a college schedule to work around. So, while I may not enjoy it, I work from 5:50 AM until 7:00 AM every morning, and a night shift on Friday nights. During the summer, I work every night. It’s not a lot, but it works for me. If I wanted to, I could wake up even earlier and get a few more hours in, but I don’t know if my household possesses enough coffee for that.
Final thoughts:
Qkids is a wonderful company to work for. I’m not the type to continue working somewhere unless I absolutely love it, and lately, I’ve been extremely pleased with all of the new changes they’re rolling out, and of course, how wonderful the staff is. It’s not up to me to try and convince you to work for Qkids, but at the very least, I hope you found this information to be useful.
As always, if you have any questions at all, feel free to comment below, and if you do decide to apply, feel free to use my referral link, that way, they know I sent you! https://teacher.qkids.com/ref?code=FMXAMD
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