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Being a tutor can be isolating, especially if we tutor online. Without access to peers in the same field, it’s difficult to learn about different approaches to teaching, new developments in our field, and exciting professional opportunities.

To give you a hand, we’ve put together three ways a tutor like yourself might stay connected with interesting people and discover new opportunities and ideas.

This piece was originally posted on our Linkedin.

1. Join a Professional Association

First, consider joining a professional association. Professional associations not only host training sessions and conferences, but also help you network with others in the same line of work.

You can find professional associations of:

Tutors (In the US, for example, there are two: the National Tutoring Association and the Association for the Coaching and Tutoring Profession.)
Language professionals (A famous one is the UK’s Chartered Institute of Linguists)
English teachers (You can find some through the British Council’s list of teacher networks around the world.)
Educators in general (e.g. the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)

You don’t have to limit yourself to your country only. There are international associations you can join as well. The most famous ones are TESOL International Association and International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL).

In addition, there are also international teaching associations focusing on everything from online teaching to intercultural education. Check out a list of them here.

Finally, if you’re looking for something more chill, you can meet up with peers in your vicinity. One of our tutors in the Philippines told us that she meets up with other Engoo tutors in her area on a weekly basis!

And don’t forget social networks, like Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin. You’d be surprised by how many groups for people like us there are on Facebook.

There are also plenty of online tutors who have Instagram accounts they use to share tutoring tips. To find them try the hashtag #onlinetutor. You can also use the hashtag #engootutors to connect with tutors from Engoo.

2. Pursue Additional Schooling

Attending a teaching or education program is a surefire way to connect with interesting people, opportunities, and information.

If you’re a college student, check out what courses your school has related to education, pedagogy, and linguistics. Even if you’re no longer a student, consider auditing relevant classes at local universities or community colleges, or going to graduate school.

Popular programs for English teachers include:

TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) or TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages)
Adult learning
Early childhood education
Applied linguistics

Just make sure to carefully check the qualifications for each school. Some require teaching licenses, a certain number of years of experience, and relevant undergraduate degrees or certifications.

However, if the thought of going back to school gives you shudders (or you simply don’t have the time or resources to be a full-time student), you might consider online Masters programs, which tend to be more affordable and flexible.

You can also consider shorter certification programs. For more information, check out our piece on getting TESOL/TEFL certification.

Finally, don’t feel a need to limit yourself to programs in education. You can choose to study something that would help you better understand your students needs or simply something you’re interested in.

For example, a former member of our staff once taught English to pilots. To better understand his students and because he was interested in flying planes himself, he took a course to become a pilot!

3. Keep Up With Trends

Every day, new research comes out shedding light on some aspect of language we didn’t know about before. However, given that most of us don’t have time to wade through research papers and journal articles, how can we stay up-to-date on recent trends in our field?

An easy way to do this is to follow the social media accounts of leading organizations in our field. For example, you can find the following on many social media platforms:

The very bottom of their websites is usually where you’ll find links to all their social media accounts.

You can also follow the accounts of relevant university departments and programs. For example, the Language Resources Centers at the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and Newcastle University all share interesting news related to languages.

As tutors, it might also help follow the major tests (e.g. IELTS, TOEFL, and TOEIC) on social media, as many of our students take lessons to prepare for them.

These days, there are also plenty of podcasts by linguists and language teachers. Here are just a few:

👋 That’s it for now!

We hope you’ll find these professional development ideas helpful to bringing your online tutoring career to the next level. In the meantime, happy tutoring!