I’ve been teaching for just over four months. As part of my full-time job, I’m required to travel for work occasionally. Initially, I thought that I would just not teach when I was on travel status, but given jet lag, and the fact that the time zones are such that I’m usually wide awake even earlier than normal when I travel, I decided I would try it. This is my VIPKID travel kit that I take, along with a map, and a couple of reward backgrounds that correspond to the rewards in the box.
I always stay in hotels when I am on business that have internet available in the rooms. I’ve taught on wifi without an issue some of the time, but you need a backup. Each time I have arrived, I have to figure out how to put up some sort of background behind me, and how to position myself for teaching. In one hotel, I was able to use blue sticky tack to put my map on the wall behind me.
In another hotel, I tried several things, but could not figure out how to sticky tack my map to the wall… then I had a brainwave… and dug out binder clips from my bag (I’m a corporate trainer, so always have teaching-related items on me), and used them to pin my map to the curtains. It worked like a charm. It is important to be prepared for anything. My binder clips became part of my standard ‘teaching kit’.
Sometimes I have had to be very creative with my setup. In this hotel, there was no way to create a background with the orientation and location of the desk and chair. So, I turned the garbage can upside down and used it as a laptop stand. This gave me a ‘standing desk’.
I then affixed my trusty map to the curtains.
Accessing WiFi
In some hotels, wifi could be quite spotty and not strong enough to load the classroom and maintain a video feed. One location resulted in five Teacher ITs, the only Teacher ITs I have ever had. I was out of the country and didn’t have a mobile hotspot as back-up. In trying to solve my network connectivity issues, I moved from my room to teaching in the hotel lobby. On the second day, I actually taught in the hotel lobby down the road instead of the hotel I was staying in. While teaching in the hotel lobby, I ended up using a binder clip to clip my reward system to the collar of my shirt. I then stuck my rewards to myself. I did not have a background in these makeshift alternate locations. I also learned the value of my noise-cancelling microphone, because my students never heard the vacuum cleaning happening in the lobby, or the people talking as they walked by. For the most part, it was quite early in the morning, on a weekend, so there were not a lot of people in the lobby at either hotel.
Another location, since I was still in Canada, allowed me to use my mobile phone as a hotspot to maintain stable internet. This worked well, and I will use it as a backup for home if the need ever arises.
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