If you are looking for an online money-making opportunity by teaching English to Chinese children, learn what is Magic Ears about and then decide if you will join or not.
What Is Magic Ears?
Magic Ears is an online English teaching platform that mainly caters to young Chinese students aged 4-12 years old.
One look at its website can easily make you feel fascinated, and it could be enough to tickle your fancy to become part of this platform.
However, it is not a pleasant habit to make impulsive decisions based on what you initially see.
Requirements/Do You Need A Degree For Magic Ears?
To teach English here, you need
- to be a native speaker (either from the US or Canada).
- to be at least a Bachelor’s Degree holder (on any subject) or to be actively/currently taking up a Bachelor’s Degree.
- to possess a 120-hour ESL certification.
- to possibly (not required, but preferred) have teaching or ESL experience.
- to have a passion to teach and- love for children.
Now, if you do not have the required 120-hour ESL certification, you could start taking a course straight from Magic Ears. Magic Ears offers a 120-hour Advanced TESOL Course for $20.
Teaching Setup
When parents book for a class, the Magic Ears system will automatically and randomly assign the teacher who is available.
You will have different students for each class and you will see their names displayed on the platform.
Although the lessons are ready-made here, Magic Ears requires you to teach 4 kids in one class unlike other online English teaching platforms like VIPKid, where a teacher caters to one student per class.
One class lasts for 25 minutes. The Magic Ears learning program ensures that children can sufficiently interact with the teacher and that there are many opportunities for interaction during the class.
While the teacher cannot interact with the parents and vice versa, you as a teacher could view the rating that parents gave you.
The Magic Ears team will convey the parents’ feedback to you. Once the 25-minutes class is over, you must provide voice feedback for the students within 18 hours starting from the time the class started.
For effective classroom management, you may follow the checklist below.
1) Always prepare for each class.
2) Enter the classroom a few minutes before the scheduled time, but do not leave even before the 25 minutes are over.
3) Do not skip any slide.
4) Always check the timer for your pacing.
5) Make use of mute or block features when necessary.
The first in the checklist is about preparation. This means that you should familiarize yourself with the different lessons, and how to operate the games used in the sessions.
Learn how to manage your time and make the most out of the timer. You should read other resources on what challenges you could expect and how you may handle these potential issues during a class.
Always practice professionalism. Although you are teaching children, never think you may slack off from your duties.
Do not
- yawn
- use your phone while the class is ongoing
- eat while teaching
- leave the camera and
- teach while you are in bed.
There should be no other kids, adults or pets in the space you are at while teaching so as not to distract the students. Practice good posture and wear appropriate clothes while you teach.
When submitting student evaluation, make sure the student’s name is correct.
The feedback should have over 30 words with evaluation content that will encourage student’s performance through detailed and personalized suggestions.
When you see an asterisk beside the student’s name, it means that he is a trial student.
Despite this, treat him as if he were a current student. If there are no students in a classroom during the scheduled time, click on the Help button and wait up to 25 minutes so you will still receive the base pay for this class.
You may disable the camera when
a) there is over one student
b) the parent is visible in the camera
c) the student does not wear full clothing
d) the student is inside a bathroom
e) there is a distracting toy
f) the camera is unstable
g) the student is eating
You could also mute the mic when
a) there is static disruption
b) the student is in a noisy public space
c) the student is crying
Sometimes, you need to mute the mic and the camera. Always click on the Help button when such instances occur.
How To Apply
The online application takes about 5 minutes to complete. Visit https://t.mmears.com/v2/ and enter your email and password.
Afterward, you need to fill up your basic information. Provide your photo, name, gender, birthday, mobile number, contact email, citizenship and residency.
State your teaching information, namely if you are a Native English speaker, years of teaching, if you have ever taught online, what your highest level of education is and what your English teaching certification is.
Share about how you heard about Magic Ears and you may upload your resume after.
After submitting these details, I received a message saying I should check for the application results after 2 working days. Each step of the application may also take up to 2 days processing.
If they approve your submitted application, you may choose between a Live Demo 1 (3 minutes Intro, 8 minutes demo) or a Recorded Demo 1 (8-10 minutes).
After watching Magic Ears’ training video, the next step is Live Coaching Demo 2. You need to complete a trial class and go through a background check before they present you with a contract offer.
A contract will require your 6 months commitment to Magic Ears, although there are no minimum teaching requirements.
After this time, a Development coach will review your performance and determine if you will receive a new contract offer or not.
How Much Does Magic Ears Pay?
From the homepage of Magic Ears, you'll see that the hourly rate you could earn is $15-$26.
However, there are additional details regarding tutor or teacher payment at Magic Ears.
Just like in other companies, Magic Ears implements its Base Pay Policy.
Bronze base pay will give you $7.50 per class, provided you met the basic recruitment requirements. Thus, if you can complete 2 25-minutes classes in one hour, you could earn $15.
The Gold base pay is $8.50 per class or $17 per hour. This base pay only applies when you have taught over 1,000 online English classes with other companies
OR
if you are a Bachelor’s Degree or Master’s Degree holder (in Education or in English Language Teaching).
The Platinum base pay is $10 per class or $20 per hour. Thus, is the base pay of teachers who have taught over 1,000 online English classes on other platforms
AND
who holds Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees (in Education or in English Language Teaching).
The contract they will offer you if you pass the recruitment process will contain the base pay rate that applies to your English teaching experience and teaching credentials.
Apart from the base pay, you may also receive additional bonuses. If you will open at least 60 peak time slots per month, Magic Ears will grant you a bonus of $1 per class.
It pays to be an early bird because you could also receive $1 per class you teach if you will arrive in the class 3-10 minutes early.
Magic Ears issue payments (of previous month’s classes) on every 10th day of the month. They release payslips every 3rd day of the month.
One thing I find inconvenient regarding payment is that you still have to sign and then submit your payslip by the 8th of the month if you want to receive your money on time.
Work Schedule
As mentioned above, they recommend you to open 10 slots per week although there is no minimum required hours for you to work.
It is possible that this could be a factor to put into consideration when they will determine if they will offer you a contract or not.
If you want to earn more, then you should open more time slots for teaching and during peak time.
Peak times are
9-10 PM, Saturday and Sunday and
7-8:30 AM all days of the week.
These are in US Eastern Daylight Time.
You may take a leave during your contract, but you must inform the company 14 days before.
If you do not want your classes getting transferred to other teachers, make sure you enter the class at least 2 minutes before the scheduled time.
Sometimes, technical issues can also cause the class to transfer to another available teacher. While this is unavoidable, keep your computer in excellent condition and have a backup internet connection.
Some people think that online work from home jobs is hassle-free. However, these home jobs also have their share of annoying and stressful situations.
Sometimes the computer acts out or the internet connection becomes intermittent.
Magic Ears Review
Benefits
One thing I find favorable here is the possibility to receive bonus payments such as when you arrive early for your class.
There is also referral bonus of $50-70 dollars if you refer a teacher and if that person officially signs a contract with Magic Ears.
Looking For A Legit Work-From-Home Job?
Is Magic Ears Legit?
PROS
CONS
Magic Ears is legit, but no platform for earning money online is perfect. No matter how good the offering of a company is, if these conditions do not suit your personal needs, circumstances and expectations, you will still find something to complain about that company.
This is possibly the reason several English teachers leave or decline the offer from Magic Ears (as you could see from many YouTube videos).
Yet, I believe that Magic Ears can be a wonderful work from a home option for qualified individuals.
Use you side income from Magic Ears to fund your blogging start-up cost. Blogging, when done right, can result to a good income online.
If you are not qualified for Magic Ears but have the passion for teaching, divert your energy to teach in your own blog or vlog instead.
I'll teach you how to build a blog from scratch, how to attract viewers/readers, and eventually, how to monetize your contents in an auto-pilot mode.