Korean Job Discussion Forums

[InDaGu]

I interviewed for a new job the other day, and things were going great. Then, out of the blue, they hand me a text book and ask me to do a 5 minute demonstration of a class over the material. Keep in mind, I've never seen this book and it's a different age group than what I've been teaching.

I don't think this part of the interview went so well, because I tend to get uncomfortable speaking in front of adults (I had to do this in front of 3 interviewers). But the rest of the interview was really positive. Has anyone else been asked to do this?

[marsavalanche]

[InDaGu]

[marsavalanche]

I'm surprised you've been a teacher for 3 years and you've never been asked to do a mock class. You are trying to be a teacher, of COURSE doing a mock class would be considered fair game. The reason why it doesn't come up as often is because most of those jobs you've been interviewing for are typical Korean positions that just care more about your personal habits/looks than your qualifications as a teacher. That was probably a legit job you interviewed at, hopefully you did well.

[jrwhite82]

Freezing up in front of others when forced to speak without notice does not reflect poorly on your ability to teach. It reflects poorly on your ability to be a public speaker. Now public speaking is important to being a good teacher (for lecturing) but they are not the same thing.

My mentor teacher in my MA program would literally sweat bullets and stumble over his words when he had to present things to other adults, but in front of the kids, he was unmatched in teaching and speaking ability. So go figure.

An important part of being a good teacher is prep work. So you could have tried to spin your negative into a positive and taken a minute to talk about how you usually prepare for classes and what goes into your prep work. And how this will not really reflect your best because you won't get a chance to prep.

Don't sweat it. But if you have to do it again in the future, mentally prepare yourself before the interview. Try to think what they want you to do in a 5 minute demo. They want to hear you speak. (Slow and clear) They want to see you move around the room. (Don't stand in front with your hands in your pockets). They want to see you write some notes on the board. They want to see you "manage" a pretend class.

If I had to do a spur of the moment lesson I would start by writing the objective on the board. Explain the activity for 30 seconds. Teach them the content for a minute or two. Have them practice with each other for 2 or 3 minutes. Then test them on what they learned. 5 minutes over. This could be good for you too, because for 3 minutes they are watching you interact one on one as you go around correcting mistakes as opposed to having to speak for 3 minutes which is not your strength.

[TECO]

[edwardcatflap]

[languistic]

The tough part was that you had no warning. As for not feeling comfortable speaking in front of adults, well, that is your problem and one that needs to be overcome if you expect to work at a uni. I mean, these are not children you will be teaching; many 4th year males are already 24 ~ 26 years old (not adults maybe, but certainly not kids).

Most uni positions have a mock class / teaching demo, but again, interviewees are typically told about this in advance and are free to bring in whatever material they want to teach. I guess they wanted to see how you react to a stressful situation and think on your feet. Tough, but I don't think it was to see you teach so much as to gauge other aspects of your personality.

[thegadfly]

While I agree that prep work is important, I have seen good teachers that do minimal prep, and have seen bad teachers that do a massive amount of prep...so preparation is one thing, but not everything....

A good teacher is flexible and adaptable to many situations. A good teacher can "think on his/her feet." A good teacher has a bag of tricks -- previous lessons that have gone well, that can be adapted and shaped on the fly to fit a new or unexpected situation. A good teacher is willing and able to "go off-script" when a teachable moment arises. A good teacher will abandon a lesson plan when it isn't working, and will come up with something new on the spot.

A five-minute lesson with no time to prep is not the optimal test of these things, but it IS a test of some of these things, and as such, I think it is valid. My problem with it is that 5 minutes is far too short to teach much of anything -- as another poster mentioned, 15 minutes would be more appropriate.

As was mentioned, this part of the interview was probably NOT actually to gauge your teaching ability, but to gauge other aspects of your personality -- aspects that can be very important in a teaching position, and so the test is fair and valid.

[InDaGu]

[edwardcatflap]

Having to teach a five minute lesson based on a page from a text book that a teacher has never seen before with no time for preparation is not something a teacher would ever have to do in real life in a well run organisation. Yes of course a good teacher has to think on their feet, go off the plan and all that stuff... but if you just want to test those things you might as well just ask the candidate to tell you a joke or sing a song for all the relevance to real teaching it has. That's why I think it gives an amateurish impression of the people setting the task. Like they've just grabbed the nearest book slung it at the teacher and said teach that.

[bobbybigfoot]

[bobbybigfoot]

[bamboozler]

[quote="marsavalanche"]

[thegadfly]