Job Discussion Forums

[lychee]

I would like to open up a discussion about your experiences when you interview for a job or for a company, how you go about doing "the demo."

I am probably targeting people who work in training centres.

In my town there are so many new training centres and the competition is fierce.
Before, any white face was good enough, now they have to have some ability which personally I think is great.

A good friend of mine was telling me about a couple of demos he did and how the companies were quite open about bagging previous FTs from different training centre.

Their comments were valid, not prepared, did not adequately demonstrate their teaching style, did not engage the students, just waffled on about their life in whatever country they were from.

One of the companies who wanted a teacher for their lower intermediate class had someone going on about idioms.

When I do demos I have 3 levels prepared, ready for anything that is thrown my way, also at the end of the demo they will be able to communicate basic greetings, say where they are from and what they do.
This is for the true beginners.

Many people on this forum are quite negative about training centres. I have no problem with them. It is a business, I do a good job I keep them in business and I get work.

[Babala]

I have never been asked to do a demo at a training centre. I've found it's more primary and junior schools that have asked me to do a demo.

A few centres in my company require a teacher to do a demo but because our lesson plans are provided by the school, the teacher doing the demo would come in early and prepare for the class using our material.

[william wallace]

I start by telling them to review my resume, and if anything further is needed(demo) that's when I tell him/her/them to go to hell...or a country on the equator(if an atheist)

[lychee]

William, if I had a training centre, I would certainly want an interview with the teacher and to see how the teacher performs in the classroom. If you had a training centre, how would you approach hiring teachers?
Would you choose the PHD with a thesis in some obscure poet or an MA in linguistics, or personable teacher that actually engages the students and encourages them to learn.
I am going for the last option
Remember I am talking training centres here.

[Shan-Shan]

[Shan-Shan]

[tofuman]

Training centers in particular sometimes use the demo as a free recruiting opportunity by advertising it as a freebie to prospective students; it is therefore, not really a demo but a promotional device that you are being swindled into doing for nothing.

Some of these places are interested in teaching English simply because the money is "good." "Good" means that if they can rip you off, that's "good." If you feel "good" about participating in things like that, you might want to check out your standards of goodness.

On the other hand, I have done a demo once or twice. In both cases, they turned out to be a waste of time. One was in a government school. The class was full of students that were hand picked because of their English ability. While my methods were reviewed by a group of teachers, later I considered that the purpose of the class was to deceive me into thinking that I would be working in small classes of good students instead of classes of 60 or more indifferent ones.

The other demo was supposedly the first lesson of a class for a training center. It was really a promotional event contrived to recruit new students. I insisted that I be paid for doing the demo and I was. If you are smart, you, too, will insist on payment. Schools that cheat you going in are quite likely to cheat you during and at the end of your employment experience. Set the ground rules yourself. If you act like a victim, you will be treated like one.

[Shan-Shan]

[Anda]

I give a straight normal class demo, nothing more, and nothing less. I�m somewhat like William in that I expect my teaching history to be the major consideration. There is no point in doing something at an interview that you are not going to carry through on once you start the job.

They tried for three years to get someone to come to where I am currently working so the competition wasn't that insurmountable to overcome!

[lychee]

Shan-shan loved your imagery.

Tofuman good point, the demo is often used to recruit students but I don't see the problem in that. I do see a problem in doing a demo and the students think that I will teach them and they sign up because they liked my teaching style only to find out that they have a different teacher.

Anda with all due respect. I would still want to see how you handle yourself in the classroom if I was an employer.

The bottom line. Even after you have vetted the resumes, observed the demos, there are no guarantees that the teacher will fulfill the expectations of the employer.

[Anda]

Yep, at a demo you have a class of angels but once the admin are out the door then you need to be able to get the students to study from month to month. The little angels might have hated your demo but because they smiled the admin thought that you were good. He, he, so much for demos!

[kev7161]

[james s]

...

[clark.w.griswald]

To me the demo class is a process through which the school can get an idea of how the applicant presents him or herself in front of a class, and not so much a sample class for the foreign teacher to get an idea of what the school and students are like. As such it could be argued that schools who require demo classes are in a way better than schools who just throw a new teacher into a classroom without first checking his or her suitability.

What seems to be an otherwise good applicant on paper or even in a face to face interview, may certainly change once the person is in front of a class. I agree with the OP that the employer should have a chance to see you in action before employing you if this is what they want. I see this as being an advantage for the teacher too as it is probably better to know at the interview stage if the school has a problem with the way that you conduct yourself (rightly or wrongly), rather than believe that you have yourself a job only to be given the boot after the first week for the same reasons.

Having worked in a school that insisted that new teachers give demo's it became clear to me that the people who resisted the demo's the most were the ones who also misunderstood their purpose - and this was the schools fault for not explaining things properly.

A demo is not supposed to be a snapshot of a teachers teaching that can then be used in every class and every situation. A demo is just a chance for the employer (and hopefully some experienced teachers) to get an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of a teacher so that either improvements can be made or both parties can agree that they are not a good match. Things such as clarity of voice, body language, eye contact, presentation of ideas, use of aids such as the black or white board, and interaction between the teacher and the students are all of the important things that can be learned from a demo class.

I am realistic enough to understand that some schools will ask for demo's for other reasons, but I don't agree that this nixes the idea of demo's altogether.

Finally, I don't agree that a teacher should be paid for a demo (assuming of course that it is less than a full class period), but I certainly respect the right for people to require payment for their time if that is what they want, and if the request is made clearly upfront then everything will be clear.

[vikuk]