Congratulations on getting your first student!
Make sure you set up a second meeting with your mentor to go over things with them BEFORE you teach your first lesson.
Come prepared, it’ll make things easy.
Avoid canceling the initial lesson with your student and refrain from giving away a new course unless really necessary. Such actions can bring bad luck to all parties involved and potentially harm your prospects for future course opportunities.
For technical info on how to start, teach and finish a lesson using Fluentbe platform, check this article:
An individual lesson with an adult student
Before the first lesson
Go to the course view and check the course plan based on provided materials, typically the Fluentbe presentations, but some students may also use eBooks like Oxford or Pearson.
Review all available information about your student, such as level and history.
Look at the lesson list, it may happen that your student has already had lessons with a different teacher. Make sure that you continue with the program, don't repeat subjects. (Marked as no. 9 in the screenshot)
Watch tutorials and webinars.
If you are not sure what to do, ask your mentor questions during the meeting.
More about course programs:
In the first lesson
Introduce yourself, get to know your students, allow them to ask you questions, and verify their level.
Conduct needs analysis if necessary.
At the end of the lesson
Agree on the date of the next lesson. Upon agreement, you can book it for them.
You can agree to have recurring lessons.
Your students can also choose available slots from your calendar.
After the lesson
If needed, amend the level of your students (unless they are company or group students).
There’s no admin needed after the lesson 🥳
Individual company 💼 students
Follow the steps above, but remember that company students (with 💼 symbol in their courses) have taken both written and oral placement tests and have their course goals confirmed in their companies, so to change their:
course and materials level,
course programme (e.g. Business English, not General, or specialistic vocabulary),
you should tell a student who asks about it that they need to discuss this with their company coordinator who should come back to us with the proper information on [email protected].
❗ Only after receiving a confirmation from a company coordinator, we can make changes in a student's course.
You can find more in the Teaching Company Courses article.
💡Extra tip
Already after the first lesson all our students are asked to answer two randomly assigned questions. Go to the Feedback tab in your profile to find out more.
A group class with adults
Before the first lesson
Go to the course view and check the course plan based on provided materials - the Fluentbe presentations.
Review all available information about your students, such as their level and history. Look at the lesson list, it may happen that your group has already had lessons with a different teacher. Make sure that you continue with the program.
Check your first lesson subject and preview the materials.
Watch tutorials and webinars.
If you are not sure what to do, ask your mentor questions during the meeting.
More about course programs:
In the first lesson
Introduce yourself, get to know your students, and allow them to ask you questions. Ensure equal participation. You can incorporate activities from the lesson materials to get to know each other, that's why it is important to check the content before.
If you notice big differences between students' levels, contact our team via chat.
Contact: [email protected]
At the end of the lesson
Remind your students about their next lesson date, and encourage them to do pre-lesson and homework activities.
After the lesson
There’s no admin needed after the lesson 🥳 As mentioned above, you may contact our team if you are not sure about your students' level, etc. All group students have taken both written and oral placement tests.
Contact: [email protected]
Company 💼 groups
If company students ask for a different course (e.g. Business English, not General, or specialistic vocabulary), you should tell your students that they need to discuss this with their company coordinator who should come back to us with the proper information on [email protected].
❗ Only after receiving a confirmation from a company coordinator, we can make changes in a student's course.
A lesson with kids, teens and young adults
Before the first lesson
Go to the course view and check the course plan based on provided materials, typically Oxford or Pearson eBooks.
Review all available information about your student, such as level and history. Look at the lesson list, it may happen that your student has already had lessons with a different teacher. Make sure that you continue with the program, don't repeat subjects.
If it is your student's first lesson with us, you need to evaluate the level during your first lesson. In the course plan you can check if you have a placement test to do, or just use a Starter unit.
Watch tutorials and webinars.
If you are not sure what to do, ask your mentor questions during the meeting.
More about Course programs here:
In the first lesson
Introduce yourself, get to know your students, allow them to ask you questions, and verify their level.
If you need to do the placement test, share it on the screen, choose some questions, and see what your student can do. Don't ask them to write here, make it fun, not test-like. Explain that you need to check if the book level is appropriate. You don't need to do all the questions, move to the book when you know the level.
With younger students, there are no placement tests, just a Starter unit.
If you notice that your student's level is too low for the starter unit or the placement test, ask easier questions, work with pictures, etc.
If your student's level is higher, ask more complex questions, move towards the end of the book, etc.
If you have your own ice-breaker activities, you can use them.
At the end of the lesson
Agree on the date of the next lesson. Upon agreement, you can book it for them using this aid: Book lessons
You can agree to have recurring lessons. Your students can also choose available slots from your calendar.
After the lesson
If needed, contact us via chat to request a book and level change for your student.
There’s no admin needed after the lesson 🥳
I’m a sub teacher
First of all – thank you for replacing a fellow teacher! 🌟
The first thing to keep in mind is that the students already know each other, they have a flow with their regular teacher, and they expect to continue their course plan with the sub-teacher.
Having that in mind, let’s prepare for the lesson:
Check the details of the course (the level, no. of students, etc.). See above how to find it.
Check the lesson topic that is planned for this particular date.
Plan and prepare the lesson.
At the beginning of the lesson please remember to introduce yourself and say that today you replace their regular teacher. Getting to know each other should take only a minute or two, unlike the first lesson with your regular students.
Enjoy the lesson!