Job Discussion Forums

MissWelsh · Joined: 10 Oct 2013 Posts: 18

So here I am again 3 post in about 5 days. Needy I know, I am sorry.

Anyway, I have to give a demo lesson tomorrow. It's come as a bit of a suprise to me as the email correspondence between me and the school only mentioned an interview at 10am tomorrow. I just phoned to confirm this as they hadn't replied to my last email and then suddenly got a text to say it was a demo lesson at 9am!!

So with hardly any time to prepare, no resources and no information from the school, what should I do?

The school said they would have the woman who is interviewing me to call later and give me more information but then I'll have even less time to prepare. So any hints and tips on what I should do now?

deadlift · Joined: 08 Jun 2010 Posts: 267

There's a fairly spirited discussion about demos in this thread (demo discussion starts on page two):
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=102716&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Personally, I'm not totally against demos, but I wouldn't bother jumping through this school's hoops. The way they are screwing around a prospective hire is a warning of what they'll be like to work for, IMO.

1st Sgt Welsh · Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 1:22 pm Post subject:

MissWelsh · Joined: 10 Oct 2013 Posts: 18

Having read the other discussion I am suprised so many people are against demos.

It's pretty much standard practice back home in Primary schools. Despite this I did however come to Vietnam ill prepared. I should have brought a handfull of flash cards.

I also forgot to mention that it's for a job in a Kindergarten. There are 12 children between 4-5 years old.

I have asked if I will have access to an interactive white board to use powerpoint but the reply I got just confirmed that there is a white board in the classroom. No idea if it's linked to a computer or just a bog standard write and wipe board.

In preperation I've created two powerpoint presentations on colours and animals. If there's no computer then, with the colours activity, I can either sit the children down and show them the slides straight off my laptop or use coloured whiteboard pens to show the colours on the board. With the animal activity noise and action will have to do without the slideshow.

Luckily I'm pretty confident and don't mind making a fool of myself. Bouncing around the classroom pretending to be a frog doesn't really bother me.

Anh Dep · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 56 Location: Bangkok Thailand

Once you have been here awhile you will get a feel as to how things work at a lot of these schools.

8balldeluxe · Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 64 Location: vietnam

You will not be so surprised at how many people are against demos once you have done enough of them and seen what a kangaroo court they can be, and how they just use them to count off points against paying you the higher end of their scale, or have persons who obviously aren't students, or who just use you to do a demo and then move on to the next one, or when they never bother to call you back after a demo. You talk of bringing flashcards but when you work here a while you may find that you are criticized for having flashcards if it is not exactly written in the lesson book, or asked where you got the flashcards and then ask you how much they cost and then say" you must have a lot of money" or some other probing question. Once I had a demo for what was said to be a private businessman, who wanted a private teacher, and he wanted a demo. I started teaching him from the front of the room and in walked in four staff members and started raising their hands and asking questions, pretending to be students. "Did they not get the memo?" I wondered, and watched them slowly ruin my "private" demo lesson. It's doesn't matter if you try to prepare in advannce, if they decide they don't like you they will fault your preparation as not being part of the lesson. Or they may say something like" so- you didn't prepare? " If you did. It really doesn't matter at all. It is nothing like teaching in the states.

skarper · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 477

Sorry we couldn't really help. (I would have chipped in but the Typhoon stopped me).

Demo lessons sound fine in theory but in the end are usually a waste of time or something more sinister.

I would tend to decline doing a free demo but be happy to teach a week on approval (and on full pay). If I don't fit their profile I don't want to work there either.

Let us know how you got on. Inquiring minds want to know...

ExpatLuke · Joined: 11 Feb 2012 Posts: 744

As I said in the other thread, I've always felt being prepared for demo lessons should be standard practice for professional efl teachers. I think most of the people on here who are against them are generally older teachers who hate the thought of someone criticizing their teaching. Getting comfortably set in your ways is something very easy to do with the lower standards in Vietnam.

Just out of curiosity, how long is the demo? I'm guessing around 30 mins or so?

vabeckele · Joined: 19 Nov 2010 Posts: 439

skarper · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 477

Indeed. Demo lessons can be made to sound like a reasonable step in the recruitment process but they seldom are especially here. Either the observer will be utterly clueless or they have an ulterior motive.

No demo but by all means a week 'on trial' to see if both parties can get along. I'd actually prefer that to a lengthy interview process followed by a contract set in stone anyway.

VietCanada · Joined: 30 Nov 2010 Posts: 590