An Interview with Kyla: Creator of Spark ESL

As an online ESL teacher, discovering Spark ESL was a teaching lifesaver! It’s a Mary Poppins’ bag of colourful, imaginative and easy to use resources specifically aimed at online ESL teachers.

As someone who is fascinated by what people do and how they get started with creative ventures, I decided to ask Kyla, the fabulous founder of Spark ESL if I could interview her and she said YES!

An interview with Kyla, creator of Spark ESL

Can you describe your ESL background?

I’ll start by saying that I’ve only ever taught ESL online!

When I finished my Bachelor degree (Social Science) in 2017, I knew that I wanted to be set up to work online from home as my fiancé (soon to be husband- three weeks!) is Canadian and I knew that in the future we would be moving around a lot and spending time in both countries. This would make it difficult to have a standard office or 9-5 job somewhere.

I began working online in a VA, digital marketing, content creation capacity. I enjoyed the work but found that I was missing the human connection in my work life. It was very solitary, and I spent basically all my time alone staring at my computer screen!

Around this time, a friend of mine started teaching ESL online and I was intrigued. I did some research which led to me taking a TEFL qualification and eventually getting hired by one of the larger online ESL companies and I’ve been teaching ESL online ever since

Who do you teach ESL online with?

I’ve worked for DaDa (ABC) for three years now. The first few months were a huge learning curve (and to be honest, quite stressful!) but once I found my groove, got some regular students and started to relax I really loved it!

When I first started with the company, I taught about 20 hours a week. I’ve had over 200 students come through my “classroom” and taught nearly 2000 classes.

Due to other commitments, I now teach considerably less hours. My schedule is filled with the same regular students that I see each week, some of whom have been with me almost for the entire three years I’ve taught for the company.

Find out more about teaching English online with DaDa

What are benefits of teaching ESL online?

I think most online ESL teachers would come up with this answer – Flexibility! In this line of work, we really can work from anywhere, at any time of the day or night – as long as the wifi connection is strong!

The opportunity to connect and form relationships with students, parents and families from anywhere in the world is also great!

It provides you with an international perspective. As online teachers we really do get a little window into a completely different culture and way of life. I love hearing details about my student’s day to day life and they seem to find details of my own life just as fascinating.

Oh and another benefit, I can teach in yoga pants 🙂

Are there any negatives to teaching ESL online?

Depending on where you live in the world, you can end up working some pretty wacky hours to fit with your students’ schedules, wherever they are in the world! For me, living in Australia and my students living in China, it’s not too bad. I usually work from around 7:30pm until 11:00pm – luckily, I’ve always been a night owl.

Sometimes it can be hard to switch off. Having no separation between work and home life can be challenging at times.

Why did you decide to start Spark ESL?

Print screen of Spark ESL website — Check out Kyla’s great resources!

When I started teaching online, I was looking for resources to use with my students – flashcards, reward systems, activities, games etc. And while there were already many great resources available online, I just didn’t find exactly what I was after.

So, I started making my own, initially just to use with my students. I loved creating and designing digital ESL resources so much and my students seemed to enjoy using them, so I decided to make them available online to other ESL teachers as well. And Spark ESL was born!

Do you enjoy creating resources? Where do you get your ideas from?

I LOVE creating resources! It’s a great creative outlet and it’s so much fun for me and I hope that that shines through my products. My inspiration is always my students. Without really meaning to, I find I usually have one of them in mind when creating a particular resource.

My goal as an ESL teacher has been from the beginning to make learning to speak English fun for my students. I truly believe that if they are relaxed and enjoying themselves, they will learn and retain more of the lesson content than if they are bored and not wanting to be there. I keep this in mind always when designed resources.

My ideas are usually inspired by what I find myself needing in class to help my students progress.

cute colourful dumplings in a steamer - reward chart — These dumplings are my favourite!

Can you describe your experience of using your resources with your students?

I use a lot of flashcards and rewards in my classroom. I know many teachers don’t like to use flashcards, but I find them to be a super versatile tool! I do use them for vocabulary practice and a little bit of drilling, but we also play a lot of games with them as well.

I like to change my reward systems up quite frequently. Where possible, I try to keep them relevant to the time of year or holidays or events that are happening around the world – maybe a summer or winter-themed reward or else Valentine’s Day, Earth Day or whatever celebration is coming up! Otherwise, I’ll pick one that has vocabulary relevant to the lesson or something they need a bit of a review on.

What is the feedback from other users of your products?

I often hear feedback about how bright and colourful they are and how much students respond to this. I find this to be true with my own students as well – visual stimulation can really wake them up and get them interested in the lesson

I also hear from teachers that they love how little time they need to prepare Spark ESL resources. This is always centre in my mind as I design. I try to keep the user experience as simple as possible. Most of my resources can be downloaded, printed and prepared at home in just a few minutes! This is important – because we are all busy these days!

Check out my review of Spark ESL’s resources here!

What plans do you have for the future?

Keep teaching and creating! I plan to expand the Spark ESL resource store (I have so many ideas!) and continue teaching my regular students each week.

I’d also like to complete a Masters in TESOL Education and open my own online English academy – but I think those are a little way in the future still.