Lauryn

8:00 a.m. It’s time for Audrey’s first class of the day. Most online classes are between 30 minutes to an hour long, and Audrey prefers to do shorter classes to get more variety out of her day. She often has between 12 and 18 classes a day (which last 30 minutes each) with students from all around the world. Teaching online globally means that whenever you want to log on and work, there’ll always be somebody who’s awake. Whether you’re a night owl or an early bird, you’ll never be short of a student.

8:30 a.m. Audrey now has a 30-minute break before her second class. During this time, she has a rest and prepares for her next lesson. When you teach online, you’re usually expected to plan your own lessons. However, some employers may provide you with a curriculum to follow, which makes it a little easier to plan your lessons. Audrey has a lot of regular students (because she’s a great teacher!), so she knows what level of English they have and what they’ve been learning about recently, which makes it easier for her to plan lessons for them. Win!

9:00 a.m. Now, it’s time for her second class where she’s teaching a young student about families. She has a picture of a large family and she asks her student to circle the grandparents, the parents, the brother, and the baby. This way, she knows whether her student has remembered everything she taught her last week—a great teaching assessment method.

9:30 a.m. Break time! Audrey has a half hour break to go and eat breakfast. Since she’s living in Italy, it’s an authentic local breakfast of hot tea and Italian cookies—yum! Plus, she spends a little bit of time with her new kitten. Another great perk of teaching English online is being able to spend more time with pets—and spending time with your pets is, in turn, an effective way to break your day up and let off steam in between classes.

10:00 a.m. Audrey’s third class of the day kicks off with a cute picture drawn by her young student to welcome her to the class. How cute! In this lesson, she’s teaching her student about the five senses, so she uses colorful props to illustrate each sense. For example, she uses a cut-out of a nose for smell and an eye for sight.

10:30 a.m. Straight from one class into another! Without a break in between, Audrey moves on to another 30-minute lesson with an older student. When you teach online, you can usually choose what age and level of students you’d like to teach. Audrey teaches a varied mix of younger and older students which keeps her days varied, and also means that she’s got a wide range of skills for any future teaching jobs, too.

11:00 a.m. She now has an hour-long lunch break (remember, you can take as many or as few breaks as you want!) so she can eat some delicious Italian dishes, cuddle her kitten some more, and then start preparing for her afternoon lessons. Being organized is a valuable skill if you’re an online teacher, especially if you’re as busy as Audrey!

12:00 p.m. Since Audrey’s chosen to book eight back-to-back classes, she has a full four hours of lessons from 12:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m.! This is so that she can save plenty of money for her future travels. Another amazing reason to teach English online? The salaries.

Starting out, if you have no teaching experience and/or you don’t hold a bachelor’s degree, you can expect to earn around $10-$12 per hour (or per lesson, depending on your employer).

However, this should gradually increase as your experience increases and your confidence grows as a teacher. As an experienced online English teacher, you can expect to earn $20-$30 per hour! And if you decide to go freelance, you’ll actually set your own rates of pay.

4:00 p.m. Audrey finishes classes for the day—phew! And after four hours of classes without a break, first on the list is grabbing a bite to eat. She tucks in to some delicious Italian leftovers, has a much-needed rest, and then it’s on to her local town to do some exploring.

Just outside of Milan, Audrey’s local town is small and quintessentially Italian with European architecture, a winding river, and colorful houses on all sides. And perhaps the best part, it’s got a little gelateria just a two-minute walk from her house, which she loves to visit nearly every day! Dreamy.

6:00 p.m. onwards: After an eight-hour day, Audrey spends some quality time with her boyfriend and family before getting an early night ready for the next day of teaching