11/10/2022
Hi, welcome Linda here, from ITTT. Back with another live session this week. And this week we're talking about the demo lesson and how to hold effective demo lessons for your TEFL interviews so you get hired. Yeah, welcome back, I'm back here again. You know we go live every week. I hope you know by now. Don't forget to like and subscribe so you always stay up to date, you never miss any of our upcoming live sessions. We usually go to go live at this time on this day so please stay tuned, give us a like, give us a subscription wherever you're watching from. We're actually live on Facebook and on YouTube at the same time, so whichever platform you prefer you can tune in.
Of course you can leave a bunch of comments as well, please let me know where are you right now, where are you watching from today, how are you doing, what's your name? Please let me know, join us, join the conversation. I always like to have conversations and chat with you guys. I don't want to just sit here and give a lecture. I'm not a professor, so I want to have a conversation with all of you. Okay. Yeah, so let's see what else, what else we gotta mention. Yeah, maybe first off. Let's see. I don't want to do this one. Come on, my slides don't give up on me.
Okay, first off, we also, as always, have thirty percent off today during our live sessions. A 30% discount for you guys for any TEFL or TESOL course from ITTT. So whether you're not sure whether you don't have a TEFL certificate yet, now is a great opportunity to do so, or if you're already certified, you can get an additional specialized TEFL certificate. For example, that will really boost your portfolio. We have teaching business English, we have teaching English to young learners, we have teaching online, we have grammar and phonology, all these good things that will really boost your resume and kind of make you stand out from the crowd. Of course, we also have a TESOL diploma course, which is an advanced level course. So that is a great next step if you're already certified.
And yes, have a look, have a look. What you can do is scan this QR code right here to get the discount. It will lead you to the application page. But you can also follow the link that I'm going to share right now. Bear with me. This is the link, so it ends with "Facebook live minus Linda." It looks like this. This is the discount link. Copy and paste this one and you'll get 30% off today.
Yeah, maybe before we jump in a little bit of an introduction about me. And please don't forget to answer where you're watching from right now. I'm really curious. I really want to know where you are right now. What time is it there? What's the weather like? Let me know. My name is Linda. I am many different things, but I am a passionate traveler and I'm a travel writer and content creator under the name Linda goes east because I am super passionate about Asia. I've been living in Asia for almost 10 years, and my website is lindagoseast.com. And on Instagram, I am @lindagoeseast. So if you're interested in Asia, particularly Korea, China, I'm also going to be traveling to Southeast Asia very soon. So if that's something you're interested in, give me a follow, check it out. And also if you have any questions, you can just DM me on there as well, and I'll get back to you. I'm originally from Germany, in the US. My mom is German, my dad is American, and I live in South Korea. I also lived in China before and I taught English there. And I've been living in South Korea now for seven and a half years. I am also a TEFL/TESOL marketing professional, which is why I am here for ITTT today. And ITTT, if you don't know yet, stands for International TEFL and TESOL Training. We help people become English teachers abroad or online or in your own home country with TEFL and TESOL courses. You can find our courses at teflcourse.net, and we are a leading TEFL/TESOL course provider worldwide. Lots of different courses. I know many of you watching are already certified, so you already know what ITTT is. But I know we also have a lot of new viewers today and you might not be familiar yet so I want to give this quick intro.
Again, 30% off, just want to leave this on here real quick while I'm looking at the comments. So we have Lid Turk here. Hi, Le Turk. He says, "Hello Linda. I'm watching from the Philippines. It's nice to watch your live session again. Thank you so much. How are you doing today? What's the weather like in the Philippines?" I wish I was there right now. Yeah. Then we also had an early comment before the live started from Marina. She says, "Hi Linda. This is Marina. Thanks for this topic. It's very, very useful." Yeah, I hope it's going to be very useful for you guys because we covered the interview before the intro video, so now it just makes sense to also talk about the demo lesson next. It fits in very nicely in our live session topic calendar, I suppose with Daniel here. Hey, Daniel, how are you doing? I'm doing very well. I'm getting ready for today's live. I'm watching from Mexico City, as always. Nice. What's the weather like over there? I really want to go to Mexico one time. I have not been yet, and I really want to go. I want to see the pyramids, and of course, I also want to go to you know, Cancun and stuff, and see the beach. All the beautiful pictures you always see from Mexico, it's just very nice. And the food, oh my gosh, I could just go for for the food alone. Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much for being here today and for joining me when we talk about the demo lesson.
So maybe I know that some of you are already teaching, so let me know in the comments. And I should have prepared this as a banner, but did you have, did you do a demo lesson before? Let me know, did you or have you done a demo lesson before? Let me know. Can I put this up? Yes, okay. So let me know in the comments, have you done a demo lesson before? A teaching position in person or online, or whatever else. Let me know in the comments, just yes or no. Yes or no, let me know. And then maybe you know, I always like to invite people on to our live sessions, so you know, if anyone has done a demo lesson in the past, feel free to share your experience. That'd be really good. That would help us all right, learn more and improve. So that'd be great. Let me know, guys. Have you done a demo lesson before? How did it go? Did you get the job, or you haven't done that yet, that's why you're here? You get, you want to get more tips for if and when you need to have a demo lesson in the future, perhaps. So let me know, guys. And then we can begin the lesson. I just want to know before if anybody had to do this before. I'm actually, I'm thinking, I think I haven't had to do one before. I had interviews of course, but I don't think I had to actually do a demo lesson. But we would have in our once I was hired in my job, sometimes we were observed and by fellow teachers, and we had to get feedback sessions and stuff, so it was kind of similar to that, but it was not for the interview actually. Okay, Le Turk says, "Yes, an online demo."
Interesting. How did that go? Let us know. We're also going to cover online demos in this presentation, so maybe that time you can give some input, how your experience went. That's really interesting. Cool, an online demo. Very interesting. Nice. Cool. While I'm waiting maybe for more answers, just say yes or no if you have done a demo lesson before in the comments. Let us know. Let's go over today's agenda, today's aim, basically, and this is a little small, so I'm just gonna put this here. So this is what we're going to go over today. Basically, that's the aim. By the end of this live session, you should know what a demo lesson is. You'll learn what a demo lesson is if you don't know yet what it entails, why we have demo lessons, and all of that good stuff. Then also, how of course to prepare for the demo lesson. How do you prepare? What goes into it? What materials do you need to use, and then the last point is to understand what happens during the session or during the lesson and after, all the steps from before, during, and after, basically, for a successful demo lesson that gets you hired for your job. Basically, that is today's agenda. That's what we're going to talk about today. All right. Then let me just remove this big banner so we can all see this better. I am keeping an eye on the comments, so as always, feel free to ask your questions or just give feedback, input if you have experience. Daniel says “No, I haven't just yet, but I'd like to learn the ropes. Show us how it's done, Linda.” Love it. Thank you.
Daniel, I'm, I'm gonna try my best. Amitaba is also here. Hi Amitava, how are you faring? I'm very good. I'm watching your live session from Kolkata, India, as usual. It's 7:00 a.m. right now. I have not done any demo lesson as of yet. It would be a nice experience to know it for future purposes. Also, absolutely, yep. Great. So that's why we're here today. We're going to talk about the demo lesson. I'm gonna show you how it's done to the best of my abilities, and maybe Le Turk who also has some experience with a demo lesson can also share some thoughts. So that'd be really great. So let's have a look at the first, first things first, right? We start at the basics.
What is a demo lesson?
A demo lesson, or demonstration lesson, is a demonstration of your teaching abilities. The purpose of a demo lesson is for the employer to find out what kind of teacher you are, and to assess your skills, such as pronunciation, classroom management, teaching techniques, language awareness, and more. A demo lesson typically takes place as part of the TEFL interview, either as a combined part of the interview or as a separate stage of the interview on a different day. The school will usually provide you with information in advance about the length of the demo lesson, the level and age of the students you will be teaching, and the topic. It's important to prepare for a demo lesson in advance, and we will discuss how to do that next.
Materials for a Demo Lesson
Next point: We're going to look at exactly the materials you'll need. How is the preparation going to go for a demo lesson? All right, so there are actually two ways. One is the materials are sent to you in advance. So when you get your material, sometimes it depends on the school how they do it. So in many cases, you will actually receive the lesson materials via email in advance of your interview. It might be a week, might be a few days in advance, but basically this means that you'll have time to exactly plan your lesson out and put your own spin on the materials. You might also make your own additional materials. We're going to also cover that in a little bit. But this also allows you to ask the employer if there's anything you're unclear about at this point.
If it's sent in advance, you can check back with them if you have questions if there's anything that's not clear. I'm also going to show you in just a few slides what questions should be answered before the demo lesson so that you can prepare to the best of your abilities. So, if one of these questions is not answered by the employer before your demo lesson, you can check back with them and ask them for more information. That is not a bad thing to do, to ask for more information. If anything, it shows that you want to do a good job, you want to do your best in preparing. So, I think that's not something negative if you check back and just clarify things. That is one thing, they can send you the material in advance. However, some other schools might provide you with the materials on the day of the lesson. Right, so a little bit less time to prepare here. You sometimes might be given some preparation time of course before the demo lesson. So it might be on the same day, might be you might have an interview, and then they'd be like, "Okay, here we want you to teach a demo lesson, and you have 10 minutes, 15 minutes to prepare for it, and here is what you should teach." So, you'll be given either materials to teach. They might give you like a little paper of level and topic and things like that, or they might also give you a page or two from a book or a worksheet that you should make a lesson around. Right, they're also going to let you know how long the demo lesson should be.
Of course, this way is a lot more frightening, right? But if this happens to you, and it's you have less time to prepare, just don't freak out. Don't overthink too much what you're doing. Just use your Tefl, TESOL, and CELTA to good use and make the most out of it. Don't overthink too much, just try your best. So, of course, this way is a little bit more scary. You don't have as much time as when they give it to you in advance, but some schools prefer this way. Right, they can also see how you work under stress. It might be an additional test for you. While some other schools might provide you the materials way in advance, a couple days or a week even, and here you might only have 10 or 15 minutes. So, it depends on how it goes.
Planning for your Demo Lesson
Okay, and then so for preparing for this demo lesson, for planning it all out, you should have the answers to all of these questions. So first, you should know what is the age of the learners that you'll be teaching and what is the level of the learners? So, age and level. So, usually they would let you know, "Okay, you're going to teach beginner kindergarten students, or for example intermediate high school students." So, very different, right? So you're going to, you need to adjust your lesson, then your demo lesson. They also might let you know if there are going to be any real students, or is it going to be a fake student? We're going to talk about that too.
How many students are there going to be?
They should let you know how many teachers or observers will be there, and of course, this is the most important part: how much time do I have? So usually, they would be like it might be 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Usually not longer than that for a demo, but this is very important information because this is for structuring your entire demo lesson. You need to know how much time you have, and then of course, also very important: what is the topic of the demo lesson? Usually, they would let you know exactly what topic they want you to teach. So this could be a skill, for example, reading, listening, pronunciation, whatever, or it could be a certain grammar point, for example.
Or, I actually have a list here of example topics that I have seen come up. So, for example, for beginner kindergarten, a really popular topic is just colors and fruits. And you can do a lot of things with that. For more advanced students, you could do a grammar topic, for example. The difference between present simple and present continuous, or maybe something like irregular verbs. Or, they give you something a little bit more broad, where they're like, "Okay, can you make a demo lesson around Christmas, for example, or Thanksgiving that's coming up, or anything like that?" So these are all example topics that can happen to you. I'm curious if the Turk, if you're still watching the turg, do you remember what the topic of your demo lesson was? Yeah, let me know. I think I had to do one before, and it was actually colors and fruits because it was really young students. I think I vaguely remember something about that, that's why that was the first thing that came to mind because for very young students, colors and fruits are always very popular. And grammar things like simple tense versus continuous tense, that's also very popular for a demo lesson. So these are some example topics that might be asked of you.
And then let's have a little bit of a talk about who the students are during a demo lesson, because depending on the school, there might also be some differences.
For in-person demo lessons, if you're actually in the real school and you teach a demo lesson in person in real life, you might be even teaching real EFL students who go to the school. So, they will have this scheduled, and you might get some time from their regular schedule and you'll be asked to come in and teach those actual students. That can happen, but you might also give a demo lesson to just members of the school staff. So, very different, and most of the time, an observer may also be in the room and take notes. That's very common as well. Don't freak out about that. They just note things down so they don't forget. But nothing to be worried about, of course. If someone's there, and usually, they have a stern look on their face and they write stuff down, it can be, you know, a nervous situation. But just don't worry too much about it and just go with the flow and do your thing. And use the things you learn from your Tefl or TESOL courses, and you will do great. Now, for online demo lessons, most of the time, you won't be actually teaching a real class or a real student, but rather a fake student. And they are often experienced teachers within the company. So sometimes, they're even larger online teaching platforms where they have specific staff, they're hiring HR staff that always take on this role of onboarding new teachers, and this includes a demo lesson. So they're very experienced with demo lesson evaluation and feedback and things like that.
And one thing that might be a little bit weird to you if you've never done a demo lesson before is that these fake students, who are actually adults and also English teachers, for the demo lesson, they will often adopt mannerisms and accents and errors of a typical student. So they kind of slip into a role of a student, and it might be a little bit weird, right, because they pretend to be a child or a teenager, or they pretend to be from a different country, they put on like a different accent and they also will make a lot of mistakes. That obviously they wouldn't make in real life, but they want to see how you deal with a real student who has this accent or who makes those mistakes.
How you go about with error correction and so they kind of just slip into this role. But then after the demo lesson, they will be back to normal and talk with you for feedback. Just be warned that this can often happen. So, yeah, it's a very funny situation sometimes, but you know, don't laugh or anything, keep your cool and also slip into your role of the teacher. So both of you have these roles and you can put on your teacher face, your teacher voice, smile and you'll be good to go. These are a little bit of the differences where in person you might actually be teaching real students versus online where you're most likely going to be teaching or having a demo lesson for a member of the company.
How to prepare for your TEFL Demo Lesson
We are looking at how to prepare for your demo lesson. I see a comment here from black vulture music who says, "Linda, you're awesome. Thanks for joining and also let us know." I'm just going to put this banner up one more time. Have you done a demo lesson before in the past? Let us know and also let us know what your experience was. I'm very curious, let us know in the comments please. If you have any other questions or comments, put them down below. I'm always curious and I want to see your feedback and just join us, join the conversation.
All right, so let's have a look at how you can best prepare for a demo lesson. I'm going to split it up into three different sections. The first point is preparing your materials. The second point is researching the company. The third point is some online considerations. So, if you do an online demo lesson, there are some additional things to think about which we will cover in this third point here. All right, so let's have a look at how you can prepare your materials for a demo lesson.
So, of course, you can and are encouraged to use technology. While they might have their own equipment, try to use your own laptop or tablet if you have one because then you'll have all your materials and the programs you need on it. If you've had any presentations in the past, you might have experienced that you bring a USB thing and it's not compatible or something, and then it would just be a bad situation. So just bring your own device if you can or have it all online in Dropbox or Google Drive. But then you also need to make sure that you have the right programs on the school computer to run your files, so it's safer to bring your own laptop or tablet.
In terms of activities, of course, try to put in a lot of activities into your demo lesson. My number one tip is just to follow the ESA methodology that you will learn in your TEFL or TESOL course. ESA stands for Engage, Study, Activate, and if you follow this format, this layout of teaching, you'll be really safe. It's a foolproof methodology and you can have some fun activities at the end for the Engage phase and for the Activate phase. So just games and communicative activities for the target structure and you may also have handouts or worksheets for the Study phase.
Of course, because your demo lesson will be very short, it might only be 20 minutes, so try to fit in everything, the whole ESA methodology, into those 20 minutes. They know that this is just a demo and it's not what an extra class would be like. It would be much longer in real life.
Slides can also be very useful because we get very nervous during a demo lesson. If you've had any presentation or demo class or even teaching your first class before, you will know that time goes by quickly when you're nervous. Having some slides keeps you organized, keeps you on topic, and you will have everything you need to avoid forgetting something. They also save time. If you have slides, you can focus on them and don't talk too much around the topic to waste time. Keep it short and simple for your demo lesson, and the slides can really help you do that. If you have some fun slides, it makes a good impression.
Practicing your Demo Lesson
Once you've taken all of this into consideration and planned out your lesson following the ESA methodology from your TEFL or TESOL course, you have your lesson plan for this demo lesson. Of course, after that, you'll practice it. Practice, practice, practice so that it comes as natural as possible. I also recommend practicing teaching the lesson at home and, if possible, have a friend observe and critique your lesson. Especially if you have any slides or worksheets or anything like that, you only have two eyes, so having more eyes to check over it can be very helpful. And then, of course, if you have the opportunity, you can even practice in front of a real student, and then you can get some feedback from them as well.
If there turns out to be an error on your material, just say, "Oh, there isn't a typo on the worksheet here. It's spelled like this. How do we actually spell this word? Who can tell me how it is correct? What's the typo? Let me know." You can kind of turn this into a teaching lesson. That's what I always do because we're human, we make typos. You can just turn this into a lesson. "Oh, how is this actually spelled correctly? Who can let me know? Who can tell me?" So, yeah, own it. Just own your own mistakes as well because teachers aren't perfect. We teachers learn all the time as well, so might as well just own it, and I think that comes across as really honest and also again a good teaching skill to have. I think, yeah.
So this is the first point, how to prepare your materials. Again, you can have some technology in there, you can have activities in there, a great of course, slides will help keep you on track, and as an overall structure, follow the ESA methodology that you learn in your TEFL or TESOL course. And have some friends or family members look over what you have created and put together. If they spot any mistakes, okay, very good. Let me know if you're still here in the comments. I hope you're still here. It's been very quiet the last couple of minutes, but if you have any feedback, let me know.
Researching the School or Teaching Company
Then, we're going to look at researching the company. And I think a lot of people actually forget this point: they don't really do that. You know, especially if you work if you apply for a big school or like a chain, what you can do and what can really make a difference is searching forums like Reddit or company review sites such as Glassdoor or you know, reviews dot IO or whatever, trustpilot. And these sites might bring up helpful information about what other people went through. Right, other people share some thoughts or blogs.
You know, some people share that stuff in blogs, what their demo lesson experience or interview experience was like for this company. And you can get some ideas of how this company, in particular, that school, in particular, handles and deals with demo lessons. You can also have a look online for any demo lessons that have been uploaded and YouTube is a really good place to start.
Obviously, so what you can do is search for the company name or the school name and demo lesson. And you can see if there's an example out there. Right, a lot of big schools, big chains, people will usually have something uploaded, or you know, you can just get some inspiration from other demo lessons that people uploaded. So anyway, you know, searching on YouTube or forums is a really good way to just see what other people are doing, what worked for them, what didn't work for them, so have a look around and kind of absorb as much information as possible, dos and don'ts and things like that. So yeah, and for this particular company as well, that can be really useful because, as we've talked about in the beginning of the slide, some companies, you know, or schools, they do it one way, and other schools do it a different way. So it really depends on the individual school and how their system is.
During the Demo Lesson
All right, this is the second point, and now we're going to talk about the third point, which is considerations for when you're doing an online demo lesson. Because there are some additional things you have to think about. So the first, and probably this is like a common sense thing, but you need to set up and get ready to teach online. So have all the necessary programs you need installed, obviously like Zoom or Skype or whatever. Some schools might also have their internal platform. Just make sure everything is up to date. The worst thing that can happen is on the day your computer suddenly needs to update and install like 20 different updates, and it takes an hour and you miss your scheduled interview time or your demo lesson time. So that's really bad. Just be prepared already because, as we all know, technology sometimes doesn't do what we want.
Right, so just start your laptop or your computer in advance, be early, have everything updated, everything set up, download the necessary software. Also, have your equipment ready. I always have a microphone here ready. Have that plugged in. I have some lights here. You know, it's also a huge advantage for online to have a headset this way, because now if I'm doing this, you don't know I have a microphone because you can't really see it a little bit, but you might not have known. And if you're applying for an online teaching job and you're doing an online demo, they want to see and it's very important to online teaching platforms your internet speed and your equipment that people can clear, uh, hear you clearly, see you clearly. So if you're wearing a headset, you can show them, "Oh yeah, I know this is important. I care about it. I have a nice headset." You can just, you know, even if you're not actually using it normally, you can use it for the demo lesson because it just looks good, right? And also, we talked about this last time when filming your intro video. And this is kind of similar to that.
The Right Background
If you watched that live session, you'll remember that it's important to have an appropriate background to sit in front of and also be well lit. I have my window here in front of me, and I also have an additional light here. So make sure you have this all set up so people can see you clearly. Don't sit in a dark room where nobody can see your face. That would be really bad. Also, again, have an appropriate background.
You can have something like bookshelves or a map of the world in the background, or what we talked about for the intro video last time. If you apply for a teaching job for children, you can have something more fun and colorful behind you like a board with ABC magnets or like flashcards of animals and colors and things like that. You can have that. So these are just additional things to think about when you do an online demo lesson.
Good Audio and Video
The most important thing really is the audio and video right. They can see you and hear you clearly, and that the technology cooperates. You have all your updates installed and ready and there are no complications. That's the most important thing for online demo lessons. Basically, good. Alright, so this was your planning and how you can make sure that your demo lesson will go smoothly. Next, we're going to talk about what happens during the actual demo. Okay, so we've gone over the planning, how you prepare for it, and now what actually happens during the demo.
The Beginning of your Demo Lesson
Of course, you are going to teach during your demo. You're going to teach what you've prepared. But at the beginning, most likely, you'll be introduced to the students. So if you are doing a demo lesson like in person in a real classroom, the actual teacher will introduce you to the students.
They'll be like, "Oh, this is Miss Linda. She came in today and she's going to teach you about this and this and this." And everybody say welcome Miss Linda or something, and then you can take it from there. And then you also introduce yourself. Right?
You introduce yourself, who you are, maybe a little bit about where you're from, and then what you're going to talk about today. Also, same thing if you are teaching a fake student. That's the same. You should also do that. And it's okay to be nervous. We're all nervous in situations like that, and everybody knows that it's okay.
Just keep calm as calm as you can be, keep smiling. That's very important. That you have a "teacher's face". You always want to be smiling, you want to look welcoming, inviting, you want to look friendly. And yeah, having your professional material and everything, and you know your material. You practiced it, you know the software. You've done everything you can. You've done everything you can now. It's just up to fate, I guess, or in the moment. A lot of things, I think, are also just luck. You never know what kind of students are there. You know, maybe they're just not really good students. It's not your fault. Right?
Do your best, and if you followed all of these steps we talked about until here, you've done everything you can. There's nothing more you can do. It's now just up to the school if they like your style, if they like how you talk, you know. There's nothing more you can do. Also, just make sure to speak slowly and clearly, use your teacher's voice, and just make sure that the students understand everything before moving on. This is also something you learn during your TEFL or TESOL course, right?
To ask your students if they understand it. How you check for student understanding, use those techniques you learn, and most importantly keep your time limit in mind. Right? Don't end early, but also don't go on forever. Right? You've practiced your demo lesson, so you should know exactly. You should have planned it out exactly to fit that time limit that they want. 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. So don't end early, and also don't do much longer than that.
More often than not, the Observer or the fake student will stop you and say "okay, thank you, that's enough." Once they have seen everything they need to see and made their decision (yes or no), they might just end it early. That's not necessarily a bad thing. People just don't want to waste anyone's time more than necessary. If they say "okay, that's enough, you can stop," it might just be because they are already impressed and think "that's what we're looking for." It doesn't have to be a bad thing.
So, just keep that in mind. During the lesson, there are many other things that go into it with the skills, but I can't teach you how to teach during this live session. That's what the TEFL or TESOL courses are for. If you've taken a course, you'll learn how to teach, how to structure and teach with the ESA methodology. You'll be more than prepared for a demo lesson like this. Then, it's just about combining the skills you've learned in your TEFL or TESOL course with what I've put in my slides: smile, stay calm, and use that in the moment. Keep your time limit. That's the whole package here, basically.
Feedback for your Demo Lesson
After the demo lesson, you'll usually receive some feedback. Sometimes you'll receive feedback immediately after, or you might receive feedback by email after the demo, or both. If the demo lesson was successful and they liked your demo lesson, you might be hired. Consider all feedback carefully and make adjustments to help you improve next time. Even if it didn't work out, you can turn it into something that will help you next time. Learn from it and improve on the points they told you to improve. After feedback and everything, if your demo lesson was successful, you'll usually be offered the job. You'll be given some further information or documentation, and you'll have to do all the paperwork. You'll get the contract and need to sign it, and maybe you'll need to start your Visa process. These are the next steps.
Again, if it was not successful, you might even be offered the opportunity to do a second demo lesson. This also happens quite often because employers want to see how well you can take this feedback and turn it around and improve. This is a really good skill for employees to have, and they want to see if you can do it. If that's the case, make sure the employers really see that you have made improvements based on the feedback you were given. Take every point of the feedback into consideration and improve that in your next demo lesson. If it didn't work out, there are other teaching jobs you can apply for. Take this feedback, learn from it, and go on to the next thing. It's not the end of the world. There are so many other teaching jobs out there. It's just life sometimes that it doesn't work out. Don't worry too much about it.
Recap!
We talked about why demo lessons are done and what demo lessons are. Employers really like demo lessons to get to know you and assess your teaching skills. Most importantly, they want to see how you teach and if you fit in with the school.
We also talked about using the materials provided to create a lesson following the ESA methodology, which you learn about in your TEFL or TESOL course. We talked about how to prepare for a demo lesson: take it seriously, put in your activities, think about the technology, bring your own laptop or tablet if possible, and think about the online aspect for online demo lessons. You want to be in a quiet and well-lit space, dress well, and use proper equipment.
Even if you normally don't use a headset, if you wear it, it just makes a really good impression. Just smile and use your teaching skills from your TEFL course. Everything else is up to the stars, up to the gods, if it works out or not. This is the best you can do. There's nothing more you can do if you follow all of these steps. You can be proud of yourself. If it didn't work out, use this experience for the future. If it worked out, congratulations! You are hired and starting a teaching job.
This is really all there is to it. Take to the internet, do your research, use YouTube, use Google to find demo lesson examples. Then, I think you're all set. Just let your personality shine, as well. That's very important. Show them who you are. We also have lifetime job assistance at the end of the TEFL course, which includes things like preparation for a TEFL interview and some pointers for the demo lesson. This is also included, and you can get some more insights and help with that as well when you complete a TEFL course with us.
Thanks for watching!
