I have so enjoyed getting to tutor students from around the world through Cambly! It has been a fun way to meet new people and gain self-confidence in tutoring too.
As a tutor on Cambly, you are not required to have extensive education or credentials, however, they always come in handy if you do have them. I have been a tutor on Cambly since March 2021, but I didn’t start utilizing the site until August 2021 because I didn’t understand how it worked! If you’re like me and hate reading instruction manuals, this post is for you.
So far I’ve met students from Japan, Korea, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Brazil! It is fascinating to meet with people from around the world and be able to learn from and help each other. Here is what I have noticed and experienced with Cambly so far, I hope you find it helpful!
A Relaxed Atmosphere
Whether you are a tutor wanting to teach, or a student wanting to learn, Cambly offers a low pressure and low-stress environment for you to do just that! The sessions between tutors and their students can be as short as 15mins or go for as long as you both are comfortable. A typical time frame that I have noticed is 30minute sessions.
It is a highly flexible schedule for both students and tutors. Tutors have a public availability calendar where students are able to view which days and times are available to book for a tutoring session. Tutors have the responsibility of keeping their availability updated and accurate! This means as a tutor you get to set your own schedule, which is pretty awesome. You can work as little or as much as you like.
When students make a reservation with you, it will give a brief summary of what it is that they would like help with during your future session. Most Cambly students are looking for a tutor to practice their conversation skills with. So, essentially the entire session is getting to know one another and talking about things you are interested in, as well as answering questions.
If you want to take a super relaxed approach as a tutor on Cambly, you can bypass your availability calendar altogether and still manage to tutor students & get paid. Here’s how: On your accounts dashboard, it will display a button that determines whether you are visible or invisible to students. Meaning, you can log onto your account and click the button to visible, which will show your profile to students as being online and available for tutoring! It is not guaranteed that a student will be in immediate need of you, but it is likely. Be careful to remember to turn off your visibility when you are no longer available.
Additionally, as a tutor on Cambly you can sign up for priority hours. A priority hour is a slot of time that you sign up for, making yourself available for the entire hour(+) no matter what. There are no specific students who have reserved a lesson with you, but you are expected to be online and visible for the time you’ve selected. I’ve tried priority hours once or twice and there is always a student eager to meet with you!
Take care to follow through with any priority hours you have signed up for, because if you miss too many then your account will have restricted activity for a few days. Nothing serious, but a firm reminder to be present for your students.
Tutor-Student Dynamics
I’ve noticed that it is common to have a tutoring session with a student, and then never see them again! Under regular circumstances, this may trigger fear that you somehow made a poor first impression, but this is far from the truth when using Cambly. It is a less structured tutor-student dynamic in that many students enjoy trying different tutors each time. This of course depends on the individual, and on which tutors availability is consistent for students needs. In any case, don’t worry if you never hear from a past student again, it’s nothing personal!
Some students on Cambly are true beginners, while others are advanced in their English skills and looking for more specific help. Each student is different, but every student I have encountered has shared an enthusiasm to learn and to meet a native English speaker. The tutor’s dress code is casual while retaining professionalism.
Payment
Tutors get paid by the minute ($10.20 USD/hr) which is less than the current BC minimum wage, so if you are looking to ‘rake it in’ immediately then Cambly may not be for you. However, it is empowering to get paid at all for doing something from your own home that is so enjoyable.
When you create a Cambly account, you will also need to create a Paypal account if you haven’t already. This is how Cambly pays you for your work! At the end of each Monday, Cambly will pay you through Paypal. Your minimum balance to get paid each Monday is $20.00 USD. If your earning balance is lower than this, it will be carried over into the next pay period until your balance surpasses this minimum.
Earning a side income in this way is a great strategy for working remotely!
Resources & Notes
There is a new Cambly Instagram account for tutors to follow which provides some teaching resources and a Cambly Website for students to start their learning.
Remember that there is a separate student vs tutor login for Cambly. If you login on the wrong one, it can get confusing because there are different resources and functions available on the site depending on which portal you use! I always type into my search bar: Cambly Tutor Login and it shows up right away. Then you can log into your account and get yourself familiar with its functions and available resources. One such resource is the Cambly library.
If you’re someone who is a little rusty in keeping a conversation going, the Cambly library will be very helpful! It provides lots of resources such as lesson plans and language games ranging from beginner to advanced for you to use during your sessions. Many students are satisfied with just conversing, but sometimes it’s good to mix it up a bit with new material.
An important note is that you must be using the Chrome web browser on a desk top in order to engage in a tutoring session. You cannot do this job from your phone or tablet. However, if you’re just wanting to check your messages or something similar, an alternate browser and device will work fine, you just can’t host a tutoring session.
Interested?
There is so much more to Cambly than what is described here, but hopefully this has given you the crash course you needed in order to know whether or not you’d like to become a Cambly tutor! I strongly encourage you to visit the Cambly website if you’d like to investigate further.
Feel free to shoot me a message via the contact page if you have any questions ^_^
The logo used as the feature image on this page is property of Cambly Inc. with all rights reserved.
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