What you need
Just a few notes on what you need to get started as an English Farm teacher:
- You will need a work Skype account (no crazy Skype names please—we recommend you set up a work account so you don’t get pinged by your mum when you are teaching) and a computer with a mic and camera;
- You will need to give us your bank details if you are in NZ or Japan. Otherwise, we will pay you via Transferwise. As part of the onboarding process, we will send you a form to fill out to get your pay details;
- A profile and profile photo (The profile picture should look somewhat professional with a whitish background. Take a look at other teacher's profile pictures, yours should look fairly similar. Set this as your profile picture on Skype);
- A reasonably quiet place to teach (make sure the background is not too domestic or distracting) with decent lighting;
- If you teach a video lesson, please wear business attire. Jackets are not necessary, just a clean pressed business shirt. Ties are encouraged.
- A headset or at least headphones (a headset because you will be doing a lot of typing in class, and it's pretty loud if you are using a built in mic, and headphones to cut down on the echo).
Once you are set up, you will need to talk with Matthew about how things work. Make sure you have read all the documents in the manual beforehand.
How it works
Students either pay for their own lessons (Indy) or their company buys them lessons (Corporates). Most of our students are corporates. Corporates typically get 50–100 lessons to take in a 6-month term. This can vary, but it is detailed on the company profile.
Indy students get a free point when they sign up to try us out.
For all students, in the initial session, we figure out their strengths, weaknesses and goals. We assign them a book/course, fill out a lesson record and an assessment. We also add any extra useful information we can glean to their profile.
Students then book classes with their preferred teachers online using our booking system.
Classes are 25 minutes with 5-minute breaks in between. We teach structured and well-ordered classes predominately from the books (though we can deviate and take requests). Books are available to teachers online. There is a course library file available for download on the courses page. There are teacher's editions and answer keys for everything.
Independent students buy their own books. Corporate students get the books supplied to them by us. There are also some discussion lessons based on economics, science, current affairs, culture, politics and so on.
At the end of each lesson, we write up a lesson record, and the system emails it to them. All the words and phrases they learn go into lists they can access on their userpage. They can also see past lessons on their userpage.
The details are all outlined in subsequent pages of this document. If you are not sure of anything, contact your Hatch teacher, Matthew, Kara, Jeremy or support.
Admin stuff
You will be paid on the first working day (in NZ) of the month for the month prior. When your wages land in your account depends on your bank and method of payment. Payment is by Transferwise (if not in NZ or Japan) or bank transfer (if in NZ or Japan). When you are hired, you will be asked to provide details for payment.
Your tax obligations are your own, unless you are a New Zealand tax resident. You are paid gross for the lessons you teach or other duties you do. You are hired as a subcontractor. We will do the following for you to meet your tax obligations:
- NZ tax residents: we will deduct PAYE and Kiwisaver.
- Japanese tax residents: we will deduct withholding tax.
- All other staff: we will provide you with documentation beyond payslips if required to submit your tax returns.
Decisions will be made collectively by teachers when practical, or at the very least with teachers’ and students’ best interests in mind. Please be frank and open with us. Any ideas you have to improve our service and your experience and ability to teach are welcome.
If you wish, you are welcome to contribute your own lesson material. Talk to Jeremy if you are keen. This will increase your exposure to students.
Logos
It would be really great if you could print this poster of our logo (if you prefer portrait, then that is here) and put it up in a frame behind you when you teach. That keeps things a little more consistent for our students.
Notifications of lessons booked, cancellations and lesson reminders are all sent to you by email from an @theenglishfarm.com email address. It is essential that you whitelist these messages so that they do not end up in your spam folder.
You can find instructions on how to do that here:
http://onlinegroups.net/blog/2014/02/25/how-to-whitelist-an-email-addre…
Feedback
Your feedback on lesson content, the site and system is very important. If you find something wrong, help us fix it! If you tell us what is good, that is helpful too.