VIPKid’s mission is to inspire and empower every child for the future. The VIPKid teacher community plays a key role in this vision. We believe that a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community of educators will provide the perspectives and insights to shape the next generation of global citizens and leaders.
In the VIPKid teacher community, there are opportunities for teachers to connect online through the Official Facebook Group, the Hutong, workshops, and more. There are also ways for teachers to connect in-person through meetups, Journey Regional Conferences, coaching events, and more.
Purpose of Our Online and In-Person Communities
Our teacher community space is a place for teacher community members to connect, learn, and support one another. We believe that we are not here to tear each other down; we are here to lift each other up and encourage each other. Typically, the online teacher profession is isolating; the online community helps to fix this challenge by bringing teachers together.
Please note that the Official Facebook Group and the Hutong are not official support channels. If you are looking for support about your specific issue, we recommend contacting the support team by sending in a ticket: https://www.vipkid.com/tp/support-center/contact-support.
The VIPKid Advocacy page is also a resource teachers can reach out to for any unusual, emergency, or escalated situations. Please consider using this channel as a resource if you have not been able to get the support you need through our ticketing system or the Teacher Voice team.
Teachers must remain respectful and open-minded to thoughts, ideas, and discourse that provide different worldviews than their own. If we are not intentionally including people from marginalized communities, then we are excluding members of the community.
We believe that it is important to talk about hard topics. We welcome conversations around race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, LGBTQIA+, socioeconomic status, and other protected classes that intersect with being a teacher on the platform.
When having these hard or sensitive conversations, teachers should have a mindset of respect and consideration. Teachers should consider the impact of their statements, not just the intent.
If there is potential harm in the impact of a comment to the original person or anyone else in the community, then a teacher should refrain from engaging and make sure to ask themself these questions before posting or sharing:
- Will this discussion help teachers gain more perspective on how to become a better teacher?
- Will this question provide an educational resource for others in this community?
- Does this post, comment, or question potentially harm the well-being of others in the community?
- If you were new to VIPKid, the Official Facebook Group, or the Hutong, would it be easy for this post or comment to be perceived as disrespectful or discriminatory to others?
- Does my post, comment or question target a specific person in a way that is accusatory, unfair, or overly negative?
- If a disagreement arises, we expect participants to be respectful at all times. In the comment threads where there is significant disagreement, teachers should stop commenting on a thread before creating the impression that they are harassing, attacking, and/or bullying another person.
- It is never okay to violate our Community Guidelines, even in response to someone who has. If you do see this happening, please report it to the VIPKid Moderation team.
- Be respectful/assume good faith.
- Disagree with respect.
- Hold one another in high regard, assume the best intent and treat other members with respect.
- Recognize that impact is greater than intent.
- Respect the privacy of teachers, students, and parents.
- Utilize the Community Social Directory to discover and find small groups related to your interests and needs.
Don'ts
- Don’t use derogatory language.
- Don't engage in bigotry.
- Don’t harass, bully, pile on and intentionally troll individuals in the community.
- Don’t express prejudice against, attack or belittle someone because of their race, gender identity, age, background, sexual orientation, ability, and/or other protected classes.
- Don’t discourage, intimidate or undermine the thoughts of another person.
- Don’t tell someone that they are less worthy of belonging based on who they are, what they have endured or what they believe in (even if it contradicts a political or religious belief).
- Don’t accuse, shame, or label members of the community for their words or actions in a public forum.
- Don’t post screenshots, pictures, names, etc. of another individual (teacher, student or parent) without permission.
- Hate or discrimination
- Intimidation or bullying
- Harassment of any kind
Following the removal of the post or comment due to the reasons above, our team may do some or all of the following:
- Reach out to the person who posted the item that was deleted.
- Mute the person and/or provide educational resources.
- Remove the person from the VIPKid online community.
We also understand that there are times when a teacher may be unaware of the impact of their words or statement. By muting or removing a post, we are not actively trying to shame a teacher; we are actively creating a more inclusive space for all of our members. Teachers who are muted or removed may be sent resources so they can better understand the reason, learn from this and participate more fully in the future.
How to Get in Touch With the Moderation Team
Teachers are encouraged to report a post or comment that does not align with our Community Guidelines.
Facebook: Please report any posts that violate these guidelines to our moderators by clicking the three dots on the top right corner of each post and selecting “Report post to group admins". This will allow our moderators to quickly review and assess these posts to ensure they meet Community Guidelines.
The Hutong: Please report any posts that violate guidelines to our moderators by clicking the “flag” button on the bottom right corner of each post. This will allow our moderators to quickly review and assess these posts to ensure they meet Community Guidelines.
Events or Meetups: Please report any actions that violate guidelines to our team by emailing events@vipkid-intl.com. From here, our team will look into this further to ensure they meet Community Guidelines.
Teachers are welcome to contact our team directly by doing either of the following:
- Email moderation@vipkid-intl.com.
- Send a direct message to our Teacher Advocacy team here.
Pausing on Weekends
In order to help promote a balance for teachers, our Moderation team, and internal staff, the Official Facebook Group will turn off the ability for members to post during the weekends starting on August 7, 2020.
We hope this break encourages teachers to take breaks from social media as a key part of wellness and mental health.
We would like to clarify that in the event of classroom or personal emergencies, site outages, payment delays, natural disasters, and other escalated situations, VIPKid staff will still be available to support over the weekend.
If you need support over the weekend, please consider the following:
- Send a support ticket to our team here for all regular inquiries.
- Reach out the VIPKid Advocacy account via direct message for any unusual, emergency, or escalated situations.
- Visit the Hutong.
- Check out the Community Social Directory.
During the weekend closures, the Facebook Group will still be accessible, however, posting and commenting will be unavailable. For more information and FAQs about weekend pauses, please see this link.
Please note that we are experimenting with weekend pauses as a temporary change. It is possible that there will be changes to this weekend closures plan, so please stay tuned for updates.
We Welcome Your Feedback
We believe that being part of a community that relates to your experience as an online educator is an important aspect of being successful as a teacher on the VIPKid platform. We encourage teachers to participate in a professional manner that will help you and others succeed as a teacher.
As shared above, our community spaces are a place for the teacher community members to connect, learn, and support one another. We recommend reviewing the Group Rules from the Admins for additional guidance on how the Official Facebook Group and the Hutong is moderated.
If you have any questions or concerns about how the community is moderated, we will work with you directly. Please feel free to email moderation@vipkid-intl.com to get in touch with the Moderation team.
