Online ESL Teacher for PK Fish
Summary(Review): PiPi Fish (PK Fish, Wuhao) is a relatively new school, found in 2017 and a recent founding in June 2018. Only hires teachers from US and Canada who have a Bachelor’s degree or above, or if they are a junior/senior in college with a solid GPA. Having some sort of certification like TEFL or TESOL is an advantage but not required. You will be teaching kids from 4 to 12 years old. The pay rate is $9 – 11 per 25-minute (or $18 – $22 hourly) lesson as long as you reach the bonuses of up to $1.00 per lesson for participation and up to $1.00 for performance. Their peak hours are from 6:00 – 9:10 PM Beijing standard time. You are required to work a minimum of 6 lessons (4 hours) a week.
Job Overview for Online ESL Teacher
Pay Rate per Hour:
Minimum: $18
Maximum: $25
Class Size:
1-4
Student Ages:
Preschool (age 3-5)
Elementary & Junior (age 5-15)
Class Schedule:
Evening (6pm-9pm)
Job Details for Online ESL Teacher
Accent(s):
Native North American
Degree Required:
College Student
Associate
Bachelor or above
Certification:
No/Preferred
Years Experience:
Min Hours Week:
4
Internet Speed(Mbps):
Min Uploading: 5 MB/s
Min Downloading: 12 MB/s
Online ESL Teacher Job Description
- US$15 – $17 per 40-minute lesson (US$22.5 – 27 per hourly rate)
- Peak hours from 6:00 – 9:10 p.m. Beijing time.
- 6pm – 6:40pm
- 6:50pm – 7:30pm
- 7:40pm – 8:20pm
- 8:30pm – 9:10pm
- Minimum of 6 hours per week (8 lessons)
- Bonuses of up to $1.00 per lesson for participation and up to $1.00 for performance.
- Student ages from 4-12 years old.
- Teach 1 – 4 students
Do I need to prepare any teaching materials?
No. PK Fish provides all of the teaching materials. However, teachers are expected to preview the lessons and prepare supplementary materials.
How long is each class?
Each lesson is 25 minutes long.
How many students are in each class?
You will be teaching up to 4 students in a classroom.
Will I always teach the same students?
No. Students will vary from class to class.
Where do the lessons take place?
Classes will take place through our online platform.
Will I need to communicate directly with parents?
No. The staff in our headquarters will communicate with parents.
Scheduling
How does scheduling work?
After submitting your availability, we will schedule your classes for the 3 month term.
What time slots can I choose from?
We have classes every day from 7:00 – 9:00pm Beijing time. Please refer to the table below for time slots; it’s your responsibility to note the time difference.
U.S. Class Times
Monday-Sunday (Standard Time) | Monday-Sunday (Daylight Savings Time) | |
EST | 7:00 – 9:00 am | 8:00 – 10:00 am |
CST | 6:00 – 8:00 am | 7:00 – 9:00 am |
MST | 5:00 – 7:00 am | 6:00 – 8:00 am |
PST | 4:00 – 6:00 am | 5:00 – 7:00 am |
Is there a minimum number of working hours?
Yes. Teachers are required to commit to at least 6 lessons (4 hours) a week.
Can I change my teaching schedule?
Teachers will submit their availability to Teacher Support during an agreement term one week before the first lesson commences. You may close unbooked slots by contacting Teacher Support.
What will be included in the professional training?
The teacher applicant training lasts 3 hours over the span of 1 day. You will be guided through our working policies; Chinese educational expectations; curriculum pacing and delivery; instructional techniques; how to use our online teaching platform, etc.
Online ESL Teacher Job Requirements
- Candidate from US and Canada Only
- Bachelor’s Degree or above OR College student (Junior & Senior) of an accredited college
- TESOL or TEFL certification is preferred but not required.
- Our current Internet server supports teachers from the United States, Canada, and Mainland China.
- Minimum 3-month contract. The contract can be renewed.
Online ESL Teacher Salary and Compensation
Will I get paid for this process?
Yes! Should you complete the training, pass the mock lesson, and sign a contract, PK Fish will pay you 30 USD, which will be included in your first paycheck.
Payment
How will I be paid?
Teachers are paid each month through direct bank deposit.
How much do I get paid?
As an independent contractor, your payment is calculated based on a per- class rate with incentives. Base pay is 9-11 USD per 25 minute class, or 18-22 USD per hour. This is based on your education-related experience and your performance during the demo and mock lesson.
Additional Pay Incentives:
Pay Rate | Details | |
Helping Hands | 25 USD per month | This is based on active participation and mentorship within our teacher training groups. |
All Star | 1 USD per extra lesson | This is based on A+ rating from Teacher Support. |
Reliability Bonus | 1 USD per taught lesson | Teacher opens at least 60 class slots and has no absences or tradies. |
Early Riser | 1 USD per taught class | Arrive to your first class of the day 10 minutes early.
|
How much tax do I need to pay?
PK Fish teachers are hired as independent contractors and responsible for their own taxes in accordance with their individual tax jurisdictions or country’s laws.
How to Apply to Online ESL Teacher?
Online ESL Teacher Interview Process & Tips
- Submit Application
- Skype Interview & Demo class
- Teacher Preparatory Classes
- Mock Class
- Signed Contract
- Upload Teacher’s Profile & Information
- Open Time Slots for Teaching
- Teach Real Classes!
The interview will take place over Skype. In the initial interview, we hope to get to know more about you and your teaching experiences. The interview will last approximately 20 minutes, including a 5 minute demo lesson. Please check your Internet speed and equipment before your interview, as we will be evaluating to see if it can maintain a stable connection from China. You will receive feedback for the initial interview within three days.
What will I be evaluated on?
Please refer to our Teaching Performance Guide for Applicants (imbed link to pdf), which highlights the areas our recruitment team will evaluate candidates on throughout the interview.
What will be included in the applicant training?
The two hour teacher applicant training will include:
- Company policies
- Classroom expectations
- Instructional techniques
- The use of our interactive teaching platform
What is a Mock Class?
After you’ve completed the applicant training, your trainer will schedule a time for you to teach a mock lesson. Prior to the mock lesson, you will have the opportunity to practice using our platform. In the mock class, you will teach your lesson to one or two members of our staff. They will respond throughout the lesson as students might typically respond.
Afterward, they will provide feedback, including tips to help you improve your teaching style. You will need to pass the mock class with a satisfactory score in order to move forward with a teaching offer.
What if I don’t get any response after I submit my application?
If you don’t hear from us within 3 business days it’s likely that you have not been selected in the recruitment process.
If I wasn’t selected, can reapply again?
Yes, you may reapply after 3 months of your first application submission.
Company Information for PK Fish
We’re the new company in China with a new attitude to go with it. Founded in 2017, we aim to provide the quality elementary school experience enjoyed in North America to Chinese children, by working hand in hand.
PK Fish English is an Internet online English learning platform which belongs to Beijing WUHAO Education Technology Co. Ltd. Organized by leading domestic Internet experts, united with top educators and curriculum developers who bring expertise and experience from prominent world educational organizations, our goal is to create the highest quality and number one leading product in both domestic and abroad online teaching classes.
Small classes (3-4 students to one teacher) are a proven traditional teaching method, which precipitates a teaching mode and environment, to enable children to achieve better communication and cooperation capabilities. Through the small class scenario, combined with Gagne’s nine-step program and the flipped classroom learning mode, as well as drawing upon North American textbook content and public school teacher resources, Wuhao Education Technology’s PK Fish English could very well achieve its goal of training the whole world’s citizens through Internet technology.
Founded in April 2017. A recent VC founding in 6/11/2018. HQ in Beijing. 北京吾好科技. 京ICP备 18012620. www.pipifish.com
Tori says
Good to note that only Caucasian applicants will be accepted as well.
oetjobs says
So sorry to hear about that. We will keep our eyes open in our group and other areas since this is a fairly new school.
Jessica says
I also had a bad experience with PK Fish. They require applicants to go watch about an hour’s worth of training videos before a two hour training (that was only paid for if the applicant was hired), have a classroom board set up, and practice a mock lesson extensively before giving the lesson. They also ask applicants to watch two twenty minute videos of teachings and fill out an extensive form about the teachings before giving their mock lesson.Their online teaching platform, ClassIn, was not connecting to the server for about five hours during the time that I wanted to practice. Despite trying to get in touch with multiple PKFish representatives about the technical problem, I was not given a response until three hours after I responded. I practiced my lesson for about an hour and thirty minutes, had my board set up (and bought about twenty six dollars worth of materials to set it up), and did my best I could do through showing the TPR signals, enthusiasm, and positive reinforcement, and I was not hired. I believe it’s because my time went over the limit (although they never told me why I was not hired), and there didn’t seem to be much grace to help me grow in that area. I have six years experience teaching English for a private college preparatory school with a well-known, positive reputation in Columbus, Ohio, and although PKFish said in the training that applicants could be great teachers but not right for their company, I am under the impression that they expect near perfection with their online platform before hiring teachers.
I’m pretty disappointed with how much effort I put into this process to only receive a vague rejection e-mail that did not say what I needed to work on to improve my online teaching skills. I hope my experience can help someone know what they are getting into as they consider this online teaching opportunity.
info oetjobs says
Sorry to hear your disappointing interview experience, hopefully they’ll improve the process in the future
J says
I too had a horrible experience with PKfish. I have extensive experience as a teacher and was hired. I went through their training and was ready to teach. A person sent me a skype message saying I should change my skype name. I had no idea who she was. I thought is was another skype scammer. Really, what person named barges into another person’s life and starts bossing them around without some much as an introduction? It turned out to be a woman named Jodi, who was assigned to me as a mentor. I declined to change my name and said nothing. One day in their forum I made a funny comment as did another woman. Jodi attacked just me for the comment. She said nothing to the woman. It’s like she has a hatred of men. I have had many mentors over the course of my life and NONE of them ever treated me this was. I looked up the definition of mentor and took a screen shot of her comments to me. I posted the definition and the comments, and a few questions to her in their forum. I said nothing. I just posted the info and questions. I was summarily dismissed, threatened in an email and cheated out of my salary. In addition, I got a message from a woman who they wanted to work there, but she refused. She was still a member of the forum group. She sent me a screen shot of one of the admin people calling me a creepy guy and they would screen better in the future. I have evidence of all of this. The woman who sent me the screen shot told me that there had been past situations where they had falsely accused a teacher of teaching students about alcohol. You not only want to avoid this company, but you also tell your friends.
Alana says
Thank you Jessica for your input as to what to expect. I feel you were too experienced for them. As you stated that they said you may be a great teacher but not right for their company. You appear like someone who will use this experience to forge on to higher heights. I hope for the best to you choice with your next teaching company/organization.