How to Teach Online English Classes in a Power Outage

What is the worst thing that happened to you as an online English teacher? Well, I think some of us encountered a power outage during our class which makes us crazy. Your Internet, charging capacity, and light source cannot be used. And because power outages are usually all of a sudden, you can't even let your teaching company know what's going on, which means you may end up with a frightening day of teacher absence and docked pay.

Fortunately, after doing online teaching for more than one year, I have learned some skills to save some classes.

Preparation for online English teaching in a power outage.

None of these plans will work unless you are ready. Make sure to check out this digital nomad technical list to see what type of devices you need.

 If you think there is even a very slight chance of a power failure, if you are in a remote area, or if there are storms, you should be prepared before class.

 Here is what I prepared for my online English class in a power outage:

1. Phones with hot spots (learn how to get a hotspot on your phone ).

2. Portable charger (Make sure that you have already charged your power bank in advance to prepare for the power outage)

3. Apple iPad or tablet.

4. Your laptop

5. Rechargeable selfie ring lamp.

You also need to download the mobile app for your teaching company onto your iPad or tablet.

The selfie ring light won’t make you look great if you have no other light source but at least you’ll have enough light for your students to see your face. You’ll just have this dark, mysterious ambiance. How exciting. Everything is fine. Keep breathing.

 What should you do when the power goes out during your online English Classes?

1. The first thing you should do is take a deep breath and calm down.

2. Then turn on the hotspot on your phone. To do this, go to settings → personal hotspot → on.

Remember to plug your phone into the power bank, using the hotspot will drain it fast, and probably you’ll forget about it while you are teaching

What you need to do next is to connect your laptop to the hotspot. Click on the WiFi icon, as the place will vary with a different type of laptops (You can find at the lower right corner on most laptops, but you will find the icon on the top corner on Mackbook) will an option called “Personal Hotspot” with the name of your phone will pop up. Click on this option, and fill in the password of your hotspot which you can find on your phone at the hotspot setting, your laptop will be able to connect with your hotspot.

3. Turn your computer brightness down as low as it will go to save battery

4. Turn on your selfie ring light and clip it to the top of your laptop.

5. Take a deep breath and refresh the page. You’re back in class now. You are fabulous. And you will survive this.

If your laptop is fully charged and your hotspot phone is attached to a charge bank, you should be able to last 4-5 classes or about 2.5 hours. But, this will vary depending on the battery life of your laptop.

What will you do if your laptop drained out?

1. The first thing you should do is to take a deep breath and calm down.

2. Connect your tablet to the hotspot. Click on Settings → WiFi → On → Click the name of your hotspot under “Choose a Network.” Wait until you see the link symbol to indicate a connection.

3. Log into your classroom or teacher portal on your iPad or tablet.

Remember to calm down and don’t panic when the power outage happens. And follow the above directions, I am sure that you will be able to make it. Remember to download the app or zoom on your laptop and tablet, and get your power bank fully charged in advance. 

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