In order to be a teacher on the italki teaching platform, you will need to enter in more information about yourself.
First, you will need to choose what type of teacher you are.
Professional TeachersProfessional teachers are people who have taught professionally.
- Taught professionally (as a job)
- In general should have educational certifications
- Have a structured teaching method
- Have prepared learning materials
The burden is on the teacher to have a structured study plan. Language TutorsLanguage tutors are people who have a strong command of a language and can help someone learn a language.
- Are generally native speakers of the language
- Strive to be helpful to the student
The burden is on the student to have structured questions, and study needs.
You will need to choose what languages you teach, and also what languages you can speak. For teaching, please only select languages that you are a native speaker and have a very high proficiency in. Students who are learing the Beginner levels of a language will often need a teacher who can speak their native language.(For example: Teaching beginner English to a Chinese person, will likely require some basic understanding of Chinese).
The italki teaching platform allows teachers to choose how much they want to charge students on an hourly basis. Since this is a "marketplace", students will be be able to a choose a teacher that meets their experience and financial criteria. The rate that you set is in US Dollars. The site is written in italki credits which is always fixed.
10 italki credits (ITC) = 1 United States Dollar (USD)
It is important for teachers to post what times they are generally available for lessons. By posting this information, students get a sense of when they should contact you for appointments.
You can always change what times you are available. Make sure you hit the "save" button to record your time choices. Your times will be automatically converted by timezone for students.
italki recommendations
italki recommends using Skype, a very popular voice and video chat software in the United States and many other countries. It is free for computer to computer, video and audio calls. Many users also use MSN or Yahoo. Since italki is not responsble for the quality of the connection, it is important that both teacher and student use the best communication tool they have.
There are more details about tools in the Teaching a Class page.
The "Bio" section is where teachers can show their teaching experience and their educational and professional credentials.
If you are a professional teacher, we recommend listing your credentials as a way of assuring students of your background. This can be a direct copy of your CV or resume. If you have a website or blog, you can post links to there. More information about who you are will help students feel comfortable and to ensure you find students who are more suitable.
Once you have completed the information above, hit the submit button. Once your application has been submitted, the approval process to open a teacher account should generally not take more than 2-3 days.
italki's approval process will continue to change and improve in the coming weeks.
If you have any questions about the application process, please write to us here.