Job Discussion Forums

[thunder_god]

I'm sure where to post this but I recently had an interview for an online teaching job. The HR manager has asked me to prepare a 15-20 minute demo class before a job offer is made. I'm quite nervous about this and could really use some help preparing for it. Here are the details I was given:

1st time teaching student
1 warm-up (ice-breaker) - 5 min
2 Grammar explanation and practice -10 min
3 working with the student's book (Module 1 any pages) 5 min
idroo.com
titanpad.com
islcollective.com
busyteacher.org

They want me to play some sort of games with the students, make it visual using those programs which I have never used before in my life.
They also gave me a link to some student handbook.

I was thinking about breaking it down into something like this:

1. Ice breaker 5 minutes

Greet student, introduce myself, ask student their names, ask them how long they have studied English for, what are they hoping to accomplish with learning English (maybe need to dumb it down?), quick outline of our lesson for today

2. Grammar explanation and practice -10 min

I'm kind of stuck on this section. I'm not sure what sort of grammer explanation and practice I could give them. I know that they want me to play some games with the student and use those programs like titan pad.

I was thinking about creating some true/fale or multiple choice questions for them like for example:


Tell a short story and write it out:

Then ask the student questions with true and false answers

and doing a roleplaying game: fast food

role play having student order food at a restaurant

Ask student questions:

Me: Hi, welcome to Mcdonald's, what can I get for you today?
Student: Answers:
Me: Is there anything else?
Student: Answers
Me: Ok, your total is XX, how will you be paying?
Student: Answers
Me: Do you want ketchup or mayonnaise for your meal?
Student: Answers

3. working with the student's book (Module 1 any pages) 5 min


Wrap up lesson

[nomad soul]

[LarssonCrew]

Couple of points.

I always in demos try to be lively and interactive, if I know something [anything] about where the person interviewing is from I'll mention it. 'Oh I like x y z food' because it creates an instant bond.

The introduction is boring as hell, she/he would have heard that fifty times at least, try to change the introduction for an introducing game.

Next up, I hate grammar rules and teaching it, but it depends on the level of the student.

I always find teaching 'instead of' interesting for the students because many languages don't translate it well. I explain the situations in which you can use it.

If the student is REALLY simple just do tense rules with them and show examples. With online teaching if the student is really really basic you can use google images and find something like a group of animals, group of buildings etc. and go through them

[scot47]

I always walked away from any set-up where they expected me to do a demo lesson. Who are these people to judge my competence on the basis of a totally artificial "demonstration". Horsenuts.

[spiral78]

It's probably one of those jobs you might get from abroad, sight-unseen - is it? Who are the students?

[thunder_god]

[thunder_god]

[Hod]

[scot47]

In a "real class with real students" - maybe. Not with some wallah from Personnel pretending to be a student.

[Hod]

Just to role play your role play.

Me: Hi, welcome to Mcdonald's, what can I get for you today?
Student: Big Mac
Me: Is there anything else?
Student: No
Me: Ok, your total is XX, how will you be paying?
Student: Cash
Me: Do you want ketchup or mayonnaise for your meal?
Student: Mayo

The student's spoken five words. It's not a set up to encourage much conversation, which is what you want.

If you really wanted do such a role play with one student, make them the McD worker asking the questions, with you as the customer. Pre-teach some vocab, and you can then ask some ad libbed questions containing that vocab. Assuming the vocab was sort of useful, e.g. fork, spoon, cup, glass and tray, and not Egg McMuffin or McFlurry Delight, that wouldn't be too terrible a demo vocab lesson.

[nomad soul]

[Shanghai Noon]

A word of advice: you only have one student. Make sure you have enough material. I had a demo once, and I brought enough material for a class of about 20 students. They gave me five "students" from their HR department who had already studied in the West. I ran out of stuff to teach very quickly. The demo totally fell flat and I didn't get the job.

[thunder_god]

[thunder_god]

Ok after practicing with 4 "students" (non-native speakers from another country) it seems I'm actually going way past my time limit with lessons usually ending around the 1 hr to 45 minute mark. Anyways I think I'm going to go with something like this especially my icebreaker which I got a lot of positive feedback from:

1) icebreaker: Role play booking a room in a hotel (can switch roles if not enough stuff to say)
I usually end up helping the students out by asking about things to extend the conversation longer such as size of bed, how many people are checking in, soft or firm pillows, champagne and snacks, hot tub & jacuzzi, restaurant recommendations, how they will be paying for their stay, etc) A lot of the students seemed to enjoy this since they felt it was practical and useful and since I'm assuming the role of the staff first, it gives me greater control on how to steer the conversation. I'm going to post up pictures as well on an online whiteboard as well of hotel staff so they know what I'm talking about. I also experimented with the two truths/ one lie game but the students said they preferred the role playing game.

2) grammar and pronunciation:
I have a question worksheet filled in on titan pad with some questions about past simple tenses. There is a list of words that are written in the present tense along with a set of incomplete sentences which the student needs to fill out with the correct word written in past simple tense. I have two sets of these questions on the worksheet. In addition, I have prepared another exercise where I give the student a list of words and ask them to create a sentence in the past simple tense using those words.

3) Module 1 from textbook:

The questions from this book is horrendous and there is no answer key wtf. I'm currently trying to pick a page that is easy for me to teach and also easy for the student to complete.


I hope this demo will be sufficient for getting me this job.

[nomad soul]