Teaching ESL Adults Online

Being a teacher can be a fun job if you love what you’re doing and whom you’re working with. Teaching ESL adults online was something I never considered.

After teaching kids in the public school system for several years, I was completely burned out and disappointed in my chosen profession. I quit teaching altogether.

I knew about adult schools although I didn’t know that much about the reality of them. I knew they had night classes and that was not appealing to me.

As it goes in life, sometimes what we’re looking for is right in front of us but we just don’t see it.

I will explain my journey as a teacher, including how and why I ended up where I am now, and why it’s exactly what I’ve always wanted, and why I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.

How And Why I Decided To Become A Teacher

I was not a good student as a youngster. In fact, I was probably one of the least likely people ever to be considered as someone who’d one day become a teacher.

Even though I began college at age 18, by the time I was 30, I still had completed only one class. All the others I’d attempted, I dropped for one reason or another.

At age 30, I decided to enroll at a community college. I actually enjoyed the experience for the most part. Perhaps the biggest reason was because I didn’t have to be there. I was there by choice and of my own free will. I actually valued the experience.

At that point, though, the thought of becoming a teacher was nowhere near to being on my radar screen.

At age 33, I received an AA degree in language arts and transferred to a local state university with a major in communication/public relations.

Meanwhile, I worked in a variety of jobs. In many, if not most of those jobs, people I knew as well as people I didn’t know would often tell me I’d make a good teacher. A sales manager for a company I worked for in sales, told me I’d be a better teacher than a salesperson.

After one full year at the state university, I decided to take a little time off from school. I knew that someday, I’d return. Then, one day 14 years later, as I was at my daughter’s college graduation, it struck me like a lightning bolt, that someday had arrived.

I re-enrolled at another local state university the very next day and was in a class that night.

Several people asked me why I chose to go back to school at age 47 and what did I plan to do with a college degree, assuming I stayed with it this time.

At first, I didn’t have an answer. It was then that it occurred to me how many times I’d been told I’d be a good teacher. It was then that I decided that that’s what I wanted to do.

Almost instantaneously, my whole life came into focus. My life had a sense of purpose that I’d never experienced prior to that moment.

I knew I’d made the right decision.

The Following Seven Years–The Glory And The Dissapointment

Onward I went. I took as many classes as I could while continuing to work full time, be a dad, and have somewhat of a life. I knew I had to keep going no matter what. There were times when I didn’t think I could continue, but I did continue.

Three and a half years later, I completed my bachelor’s degree program. I graduated with a degree in communications with the single subject teaching option.

I was very proud of myself. My family and friends were also very proud of me.

On the other hand, there was more work to be done. If I was to become a teacher, I needed to obtain a teaching credential. That meant more classes. Furthermore, I also decided I wanted to receive a master’s degree.

About a year later, I was hired as a teacher in the city where I lived at the time, teaching 7th grade English. I had not yet completed my teaching credential requirements but was able to begin teaching with an intern credential. That meant I was being observed by someone from the university and was actually being graded as I went forward. It also meant I was paid less than a regular teacher.

It wasn’t easy but I was on my way. I looked forward to going to work every day.

There was still a lot more work to be done.

About a year later, I completed the credential program. It would be another year plus after that before I’d complete my master’s program. I completed both. I received a master’s degree in educational foundations at age 55.

I was in my glory!

However, just prior to completing my master’s program, I received devastating news about my future as a teacher. I was not rehired the following school year because I was told “I am not a good fit”.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I was crushed!

In life, we need to take the bitter with the sweet. That’s what I did.

The Next Few Years–More Triumph And Heartbreak

As it turned out, I was unable to find a job teaching in the area where I lived before the beginning of the following school year. I widened my search statewide and even considered moving out of state. I was bound and determined to be a teacher. I’d worked too hard. I wasn’t about to give up.

I was hired as a teacher in another part of the state, about 400 miles from the area where I’d lived my entire life. It was a cultural experience and a lonely experience at first. Furthermore, I was teaching in an alternative school where the students had all been kicked out of their school district. To say there was a lot of drama would not be an understatement.

My personal life took an unexpected positive change not long after I moved there. At least, at the time, I thought it was a positive change.

I met a woman who became my wife within a year after my move. We bought a house, we traveled together and we looked like the happiest people on the face of the earth. More on that later.

In my third year year teaching there, I was told once again that “I am not a good fit” and that I would not be rehired the following year as a teacher in that district or at that school.

I cried like a baby at home to my wife.

I decided to quit teaching and restart my career in the insurance business.

Less than a year after that, the marriage was over and I returned to my home where I’d lived my entire life except for the prior 3 1/2 years that I just referred to.

Hard Times Ahead But Then It Happened

To say the next few years were difficult financially and emotionally would not be overstating the truth.

Then one day, it occurred to me that I have a master’s degree and student loans that are unpaid. I asked myself why I’m not teaching. I had no answer to myself.

Then and there, I applied as a substitute teacher in the two school districts where I lived then and live now. I also applied in several districts to be a regular teacher, although it was midway through the school year.

Within a couple of weeks, I was back in a classroom as a substitute teacher.

A few moths later, I received an email asking if I’d be interested in substituting at the adult school in the English as a second language (ESL) department. It said it would include teaching night classes. At first, I balked but I relented and replied to the email that I was interested.

I went to an orientation and it was suggested that we visit one or more of the classes that were in session at that moment, to get a feel for what we’d be doing.

That’s when it happened!

It literally took me about five minutes to realize I was where I wanted to be. It was love at first sight! I was home at last!

The students were attentive, wanted to be there, and appreciative for the help they were receiving. None of those factors were the case for most of the students I’d taught to that point.

I immediately began applying for every ESL teaching job I could find, both as a substitute and a regular teacher.

The First Two Years Then The COVID Pandemic In 2020

I spent the next year and a half teaching as a substitute and loving every minute of it. My connections and rapport with the students was magical. They loved me and I loved them.

Then, in 2018, at age 64, I was hired as a regular ESL teacher.

In 2020, the pandemic forced all teachers to teach online, whether we knew how or not. At that point, I’d never even heard of Zoom. But, by halfway through 2020, there I was teaching from home on Zoom.

As it turned out, 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 was the best time of my life as a teacher. I loved being able to work from home, which I did exclusively for a full year, before schools re-opened and in-person classes resumed.

When schools re-opened and students returned to the classroom, there were a handful of students who either couldn’t or didn’t want to return to the classroom. They preferred staying home and being on Zoom.

The truth is, so did I. I still prefer it.

What I’ve found is, adult ESL students are some of the most determined and appreciative people I’ve ever encountered. It doesn’t matter if they are in the classroom or on Zoom. They are there because they want to be. They want to learn. Furthermore, I’m honored to be teaching them.

My relationships with them and my rapport with them are awesome regardless of where we both are.

The bottom line is, for the most part, we have similar lives. They have jobs, families, and problems. They are productive citizens in society. They understand life. They just need help learning English. That’s where I come in.

I’m there to teach and they are there to learn. There is NONE of the non-teaching BS that teachers who teach kids have to deal with. Discipline isn’t a problem. Nobody needs to be there if they don’t want to be.

It’s truly a recipe for success.

Going forward, I will continue teaching ESL to adults for possibly the remainder of my life.

My “retirement plan” is to create my own online classroom for adults around the world who want to learn English. That is what this site and I are all about.

Conclusion

Teaching is an honorable profession but it’s vitally important that the teachers and students are a good match. As someone who taught kids for several years, it’s apparent we were not a good match.

Teaching ESL to adults is what I’ve been looking for my entire life and didn’t realize it until I was at the age when most people I know have either retired or are in the process of retiring.

Finding out serendipitously that I could effectively teach from home or wherever I am in the world, as long as I have an internet connection is beyond what was once my wildest dream.

Retirement has a whole new meaning for me now. It doesn’t mean I will stop working. It now means, I plan to work in a way that is more conducive to my students and me. To me, that means, I don’t work because I have to. It means I get to do what I love while enjoying the rest of my life.

I welcome all who want to join me.

I hope you enjoyed this article.

If you have questions or comments, please leave them below and I will promptly respond.

Watch the YouTube video that corresponds with this lesson below.