Job Discussion Forums

[ratdog]

So demos are illegal, but interviewers typically require you to do one? Are some with kids, and others role played with adults? How long do they generally go for? Would anyone like to share their ideas for, or experiences of, good demos? Or just offer some advice on coming up with a good demo, especially for someone with no experience teaching english to kids (I did a supervised practicum teaching ESL to adults in a TAFE, and have tutored kids one on one in mathematics, but never classes of kids, or ESL to kids). It would be much appreciated.

[surrealia]

I would suggest that you always be prepared to do a demo. Sometimes you will be asked to do one without warning.

Get a few teaching ideas from websites such as Genki English and ESL Kid Stuff. You can find links to many such sites here:

http://www.geocities.com/allhou/lessgames.htm

[JZer]

You will almost always be asked to do a demo. I don't think that there is any job in Taiwan without a demo. Funny since one cannot really show their skills in five minutes or what they know about teaching an entire lesson.

[pest2]

add this topic to the long list of sh#tty things about the schools in Taiwan.

There's nothing wrong with doing a demo class. It's a great way for the school to see if you are a worthy teacher, and its a great way for the teacher to interact with the school to see how well he/she fits in...

BUT, the schools in Taiwan are too friggin cheap-arse to pay you to do a demo SO.. either you do one of these inadequate, 10 minute demos, or they ask you do teach an entire class for free. This has happened to me about 10x now.. the school I finally did work at paid me to just teach a class as a sub and that was like my demo...

Taiwan schools are C H E A PPPPP

[NEP]

Yes, expect to do a demo. Though, Kojen didn't want one. Typically, the manager meets you and chats a little bit, then gives you a couple books from which you will demo, and you have 10 minutes to plan something before they put you in front of the kids. Maybe a grammar bit, or just reading a story. The demo lasts about 10 minutes. Yes, sometimes they'll want, like, 2 20-minutes sessions, which is annoying but maybe worth the job.

Broadly, I think they just want to see if you are friendly, fun, and appear to like kids. Try to include everyone, and be a little wacky.

[ratdog]

Thanks for your replies. It's good to have some idea what to expect in an interview, which I will start to arrange soon. I'll try to do some demo preparation; role play by myself or with others - something I found really helped me when I did my prac at uni.

And thanks for another great link surrealia - very much appreciated!

[I Rub Ruchi]

I suggest that you agree to do a demo only in the morning and that the students wear name tags.

I once had to do a demo at a private school where the students are kept there from 8:30 to 6:00.

My demo was at 4:00 and the children (grade 3) were taken out of their PE class for my math and ESL lesson. The boys kept asking when they would go back to play soccer and the girls were distracted by one another. All this, while the homeroom teacher and PE teacher had an argument in Chinese at the back of the classroom.

After the the demo, they claimed that I could not manage the student attention, I don't think anyone could have performed well in that situation.

Had I not been intimidated by the situation, I wold have demanded to return the next morning and do the demo in the proper atmosphere with kids who were not angry about being taken out of their favorite class.

This was at a large private bilingual school near the Lakeshore Hotel in Hsinchu.

[JZer]

Well, if you have lived in Taiwan and Korea you probably have seen it all. Many things that are done are crazy. I have been not hired for a job in which the only questions were.

1)What is your expected salary? I said 650.

2)Do you like teaching? I said that I plan to return to the United States in two years to get a teacher's license.


Humm, why was I not hired. They hired a young girl instead.

[JZer]

Even better is the managers I could kill for telling me over the phone that the hours I was looking for were ok then after arriving at the school to find that they needed someone for different hours. I have even skipped Mandarin class and other things just to show up to meet someone and be told that they were not hiring for the hours I was looking for.

[parrothead]

I start every kids lesson with 2 or 3 minutes of TPR, or Total Physical Response. It gets them out of their chairs, moving, pointing, touching, and actively participating. Especially if it is just after lunch time, TPR helps to wake the kids up and gets them engaged in the lesson. If you are doing a demo, the manager won't be able to say that you couldn't manage the students' attention.

[pest2]

[Ki]

The worst for me is when I travel across town for interview and then asked to return the next day for a demo. I am here now.

[JZer]

Yes or a month ago a school asked me to come on Saturday and preceded to say that there were no kids in the school that day for a demo and that I would need to come back.

[saloma]

I know this is really late, but I used to observe demos for my school. So, after watching 100's demos by both foreign and Taiwanese teachers here are a few things I remember liking.

1. Write your name clearly in the corner of the board right at the beginning. This was something few people did.

2. Relax and go slowly! (Even if you're nervous!) People who took a light hearted - (not silly or goofy) approach scored big.

3. Try to write some words down on the board so they can see your writing and try NOT to capitalize the first letter of each word. If you can draw - excellent!

4. Have a bit of a plan written down to refer to - and over-plan another activity if you can, have something for emergency. DON'T bring in a bunch of fussy games with lots of bits of paper, useless or goofy props, or food. Flash cards and some simple useful props would be good.

5. The key is to do as little as possible! Let your students, (or teachers pretending to be students) do most of the talking. If they are higher level - make them ask each other the questions and you can just monitor and CORRECT.

6. Make sure you correct as many mistakes as possible. We really looked for this. If a lot of students are making the same mistake - stop everyone and correct it, then continue.

7. Asking the students to stand up or move was good.

10 minutes is what you should aim for. If you can get into the classroom beforehand and write your name on the board and "good morning" or "good afternoon" and organize yourself, that would make a good impression.

The deal breakers (for foreign teachers) would be - showing up drunk (it happened), not having a pulse or not showing up at all.

For foreign teachers we were pretty much checking to see how much work we were going to have to put into you. If your demo went well, you may have been trusted with upper level classes right away. If it went badly, low levels and lots more observations were in your future.

For the record. My demo was probably the worst in the history of my school. I had no clue as to what I was doing. In the 100's of demo's I saw, none of them compared to mine in downright awfulness. But I worked hard at it and became a pretty good teacher. (IMHO!) Even when I was in management, I thought demos were rubbish and didn't see the point, but they were required by the director. We discussed the demos a lot as I hated watching them and thought they were a waste of time. My (Chinese) director liked them though as a way of introduction to the teacher and his/her potential teaching style, and she really wanted to see creativity with the games.

Hope this helps!

[JZer]