Hey there! It’s Allyson from OnlineTeacherAllyson.com, where stay-at-home moms come to learn how to teach online so they can earn an income from home – no experience required. Today we’re going to be talking about intro videos. I was completely blindsided when I started teaching online because: one, I didn’t know I was going to have to do an intro video, or an introduction video. And two, I didn’t even know what in the world it was. So I had a little bit of a learning curve there when I got to that spot in my onboarding process. I had to stop and come to YouTube to figure out what in the world they were talking about, what it was supposed to look like, and learn how to do it. Today I’m going to cover all of that for you because I don’t want you to be blindsided. So let’s get into it!
PS – If you prefer to watch, you can grab the YouTube video below! If you prefer to listen, you can grab the podcast episode here, or at the very bottom ๐
What is an Introduction Video?
Before we get into the how to do one let’s talk about what an intro video is. It’s in the name – it’s introducing you to prospective students to you as the online teacher. You’re showing your teaching style. Teaching styles vary from teacher to teacher. So my online teaching style will be different from yours, and that’s okay! What is important is that you reflect who you are as an online teacher accurately within this introduction video. That’s one of the quickest ways to get a bad review from a student is not portraying yourself honestly in your introduction video. If you portray yourself as a teacher who sings songs and brings lots of props and lots of movements, but that’s not who you are, don’t do it! If you are more of the reserved teacher who asks open-ended questions, and listens, and you really want those higher level kids.
Think About Your Teaching Style
So if we’re talking about ESL do that because you don’t want to have the brand new kids who don’t know any English coming to you when that’s one, not your joy. We talk about that a lot. And two, it’s not your teaching style. For me it was my teaching style. I do enjoy the older ones and I can bring that in. You kind of learn how to cater to that student’s learning style so there’s some that, I taught students in China so think about that, they are very reserved. They only speak when you want them to speak. They don’t want any of the song, and dance, and all the hoopla. They want the lesson. There’s other kids who need the song, they need the dance, they need the movement, because otherwise they are not going to be able to hold their attention. They’re going to get bored and they’re going to walk away. So, you learn that. But think about who you want to be and who you are. I want you to portray that in your introduction video because it can change.
Your Introduction Video Can and Will Change!
Don’t feel like you are locked into this introduction video. If you’ve been an online teacher for about six months now and you’ve decided, โYou know this intro video really isn’t me anymore. I thought this was who I was going to be but it’s not.โ then change it! There is no harm no foul in that.
Why You Should Make an Introduction Video
Okay now let’s talk about why you should do an introduction video. Online ESL platforms like VIPKid and Cambly require them of their online teachers before they even let them book a class with a student. With VIPKid I had to submit mine. With Cambly I had to submit it, and I actually had to do my Cambly one more than once because it was too short. So let’s talk about why you should do them. With Outschool it’s not required but there is a place for them. There is a place for an introduction video for you as a teacher but there’s also a place for an introduction video for your class. So each class you list on Outschool you can have a whole different introduction video for it. This is not something I ever did and it’s something I did end up regretting because I’m pretty sure it hurt my bookings because parents couldn’t see me who I was and what I was teaching. There are visual learners out there and I did not cater to them in my listings. I just typed it up. So if they can’t learn by reading and they actually want to watch it, I know that’s both visual but they’re both different ways, then I didn’t cater to them and that’s totally on me. We also talked about why you should do them as in it shows who you are as a teacher. We already covered that you want to be honest. You want your families to know what to expect when they come to you so you can avoid that bad review just right off the bat. If you’re going to get a bad review you want to earn it!
What to Include in your Introduction Video
Now let’s talk about what to include in your introduction video. So for me I said โ?y name I’m Teacher Allyson. I’m Miss Allyson,โ whatever you go by. Then I kind of did my teaching style. I pretended there was a student on my screen when I was recording. And I brought in props, I brought in toys, and all the things I bring in my class. I brought those with me and I recorded them and then I did a voiceover. So it was me pretending to teach, and then I did a voiceover just in my normal voice. I’m glad you’re here, here’s what we’re going to learn about, here’s how we’re gonna learn it, and that was it. It wasn’t anything crazy! So when you’re making it keep it pretty short – the rule of thumb is about two minutes. Think about attention spans. Think about if families are watching a bunch of intro videos trying to pick a teacher they’re not going to spend a lot of time on it. It’s the brutal truth. So try to keep it short, and sweet, and to the point, because that’s what’s going to benefit you the most.
Student Privacy
Now I want to get to privacy. One other way you can do this, I pretended to teach, but you could record yourself actually teaching. Now here’s the downfall with that, or the caveat if you will. You should not have another student in the frame especially if they’re minors. I always taught the kids, I taught 18 and under. If you teach adults you probably want to get written consent, but this is one of those really fuzzy places where you just kind of want to be careful. We are parents, my husband and I, we have a three-year-old. And we don’t like his picture out there. His school asked โHey, can we publish his picture?โ and decided โNo, I don’t really want to.โ I don’t post my son on any of my public places. We believe in privacy until consent and he’s too little to truly understand what he is consenting to. So for now he’s getting privacy. We’ll talk again maybe when he’s 16 or 30. I don’t know! But I want you to think about that privacy for your students, too.
Privacy Until Consent
If you’re not that type of family that wants to keep your kid private that’s completely fine! That’s your choice as a family. But, it might not be your student’s family’s choice. So if I wanted to show my son all over the Internet that would be perfectly okay with me and my family because that’s the choice we made. But if I’m teaching little miss Sally over here Sally’s parents might believe in privacy before privacy until consent and I need to honor that. Otherwise you’re going to lose a student, you’re going to get a bad review, and that’s just not going to be good. Always fall back on the side of caution. My best recommendation is keep your students out of it. It is just not worth it. So a couple things you can do in the editing process: you can fuzz them out, you can completely crop them out, or you can have someone pretend to be a student. I could have had my husband pretend to be a student if I wanted. That’s not the video I wanted so I just pretended. It felt a little goofy but it actually ended up being good practice for the kids that aren’t ready to produce anything. They’re not ready to speak they just want to sit and listen.
Editing Your Introduction Video
All right now let’s get into the editing process. How you do this, how you edit it, how you get it out there. Don’t spend money on thi!s I didn’t! Use the tools you already have. I talk about this a lot. I know your stay-at-home moms. I know budgets can be tight especially when you’re just getting started. My very first intro video I used my phone. I grabbed my camera, and I went to the video, and I recorded myself. I just got little snippets. They’re quick and then I uploaded them into iMovie. if you don’t have a Mac but you have an iPhone you can have iMovie on your iPhone and you can edit it all from there. So I brought them in, I put them on iMovie, and I got them in the order I wanted, and I got the timing all set, and then I did my voiceover. So I took the volume off of all of my clips from my phone and then I did my voice over and that was the volume. It’s kind of like creating a Reel or a TikTok if you’ve ever done that. It’s crazy to think that that’s now like the same thing. You’re creating a Reel or a TikTok of you. Not necessarily for any of those platforms but it’s for your families.
Why Independent Tutors Need an Introduction Video
Now I know I’ve talked a lot about this with the ESL in mind, on a platform, but let’s talk about if you’re independent – because this is completely your choice! I still really recommend that you do this. Think of it as like a reel, as if you were like a news reporter and you’re looking for a new job. You grab your best snippets and you send it in like a job application. So whenever you’re talking to prospective clients, prospective students, and they’re asking questions you can say, โHey, here’s a short and sweet video of my teaching style to kind of give you a better understanding of who I am, of what you can expect during classes.โ Honestly it’s going to save you so much of that back and forth with those families because it’s all right there in your two minute video. You’ve done the work, it is saved on your phone, it is saved in the cloud somewhere, and you just pop it in an email, you pop it in a direct message and so many of their questions are answered. It can be a pain in the butt. This is one of those one and done preps that I talk about. I talked about this last week with your pricing of your classes. It’s your one and done prep. You spend an hour or two on it, you make it really good, and then you can use it over and over and over. The idea is families are going to view this and they’re going to pay you money to teach them online, to be their online teacher.
Your Introduction Video can Always Change!
So all this to say this is you as an online teacher in the best light possible. Can it change? Yes! Will it change? Definitely. My videos have changed. I’ve made a couple. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. I did not change my intro video, it was the same for like two years, I did not change it until I started losing bookings and I wanted more. I also realized that this video is not good. I can totally do so much better now, and I want that to be reflected. So it’s not something that has to be changed every month. It’s not something that has to be changed every six months. If that is a marketing strategy for you, go for it! Even if it’s on a platform it’s a marketing strategy because it freshens up your profile. So use what you have at your fingertips. I used iMovie because I have Apple products but if you have PC products use what’s already on your your Windows PC. If you have something else just use whatever’s free. If you have to use TikTok or Reels for Instagram, use it and download it to your phone. Use whatever you can. Don’t spend a ton of money on this if you don’t have to, because you don’t have to. That is my motto: do it on the cheap if you can do it on the cheap.
Donโt Let This Stop You From Getting Started
I hope that was helpful. I hope that this prevents you from being blindsided when you apply for your first online teaching job. I was totally blindsided and I almost froze right there. Three years ago being on camera freaked me out! I was already nervous enough just for the live on camera with my students, let alone pretending there’s a student there and trying to create this intro video as an online teacher. I had no idea who I’d be so try your best. Don’t let it freak you out, don’t let it make you stop. It’s really, truly not the end of the world. Here I am three years later, much more comfortable on camera and much more willing. I hope you have a great day, I hope you’re having a fabulous week and we will chat soon! Bye!
