When I was teaching ESL in a Public Elementary School in South Korea, I quickly discovered that I loved teaching ESL and it was so much fun….

 

The Public School System gave me the freedom to put my spin on the curriculum.

 

I took 2 successful programs Genki English and We Are Busy Beavers to fill in the gaps in the curriculum and I made it fun for my students. It became so successful I was the teacher to see in the area. All the small public schools would bring their ESL teachers to watch my classes for training.

 

Since then I have taught in the Philippines, Myanmar, and Saudi Arabia.

In 2015 I started to teach ESL online to kids. A year later, I won the most popular teacher award with VIPKID. I won a free trip to China. It was the best experience of my life.

 

So the following year, I made the decision to teach teachers’ how to become successful in teaching kids online from home.

 

For almost 2 years, I would have daily calls with teachers helping them to get up to speed quickly to teach ESL online to Kids. I was doing pretty well but I wasn’t getting the results that I hoped for. I was frustrated, tired, and then I got sick.

 

I had no energy for almost 5 months. I could barely work and walk around the house. I went from over 200 lbs. to 158 lbs. I went to multiple doctors and it took them almost 4 ½ months to figure out that I had some kind of allergy that I was itching my throat and I could not sleep at night.

 

This made me really think what I really wanted to do with my life going forward. I have a family to support. My wife and 3 beautiful kids.

 

As I was sitting at my computer, I thought about what really makes me happy. Something that I could do that I would be excited about everyday.  At that point, I knew creating a curriculum to teach my own students is what I wanted to do. I love creating curriculum for my own students. 

 

I had no idea if this was going to work or the time needed to get it ready for teachers or how much money it would cost. I began planning and exploring my new idea. I planned everything out on paper and was so excited to begin. 

 

My level 1 curriculum took 11 months to build.  I’m sure I will be adding new things to it every few months. So without creating it from scratch, it wouldn’t be tailored for online ESL teachers that teach kids.

 

Today, I teach kids ESL online from my home and I feel that I’m making a big impact on students’ lives more than I ever did before in a traditional ESL classroom.

 

And I also get to help online ESL teachers.

 

That is a little bit about me and my journey and how I got to where I am today.

Helping online ESL students and teachers is my passion.

Daniel Anthony DiDio

Happy Teaching!