Guangzhou Worlda: Tips for teaching demo

1. What to Prepare

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” – Bobby Unser
Arriving to an interview prepared not only impresses your interviewer but is also a reflection of your character that your resume and achievements don’t always clearly show.
-Find out about your audience. Will it be just the faculty or will there be students? What are the ages of the students? What is their level? How many students are there? Will there be mixed ages and levels in the class? Prepare age-appropriate and level-appropriate materials. Make sure that it is not too easy or too hard for the students but also that you have activities that are suitable for a range of abilities.

-Ask if you can observe a class before your demo class. It would be best if you can request to arrive the day before your demonstration lesson so you can prepare better. Find out about the style of teaching of the school. Some schools prefer including games and activities in their lesson while others are strict by-the-book.

-Find out whether you are being assigned a particular topic or you can choose freely what you’d like to teach. Some schools assume that as an experienced teacher, it is not necessary to inform you of this and that you can easily come up with a teaching plan even with just a few minutes before your demo class. It won’t hurt to find out and asking this will show the interviewer that you are proactive and responsible.

-Ask what resources are available in the classroom, smart boards are gaining popularity these days. If you can show that you are capable of utilizing the latest technology in education, that would be beneficial. Otherwise, make good use of the available resources. If you are printing handouts, make sure that you prepare extra copies. Consider any possible circumstances that may occur on your demo class.

-Always create a lesson plan to give to your interviewer. This will give your observers a clear idea on the target language to be taught, the activities involved and a general structure of how you will teach.

2. DO NOT arrive on time

Instead, arrive earlier. In the Japanese culture, arriving “on time” is actually considered late. The work culture of the Japanese has always been praised and recognized by many – punctuality is just one of them. You also don’t want to arrive at school stressed out because you spent too much of your energy worrying about being late.

3. It’s OK to be nervous, but still appear confident

Sometimes, even experienced teachers can feel intimidated and nervous when doing a demo class. Who wouldn’t be? Everyone has their eyes on you and you know that you are being evaluated. But according to the famous motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins, being nervous is not really a bad thing. Psychologists too would agree that all emotions are valid and being nervous is simply signaling your brain that you have to stay alert and focused.

However, you may not appear nervous and you can’t show this emotion to your students and observers. The best way to overcome this is to be prepared and practice a couple of times before the big day.

4. Build a quick rapport

You don’t know your audience and you have no idea about their interests and backgrounds. You may not have a lot of time to establish rapport with your students so you have to accomplish this in just around 5 minutes. I have observed excellent speakers and one of the effective methods they use as an icebreaker is humor. You may tell a joke or two and this will help warm up the class.

If you are the serious type or maybe your audience is, you may use the method where you start by getting two “yeses” from them whether mentally or orally. You may ask 2 questions where the audience would normally answer yes to both questions or simply state two facts that everyone would agree with. It is very important to have a strong command of the subject that you are teaching, what matters most however, is your ability to develop a good positive relationship with your students. I understand that building relationships may take time, but there are ways to a bridge that gap quickly and allow your students feel safe around you.

5. Make it student-centered

It is very important that you give the students a lot of opportunity to speak out and participate in the demo class. Make your lesson communicative instead of just you doing all the talking. Plan a lesson that is interactive in nature.

Make sure that you also include everyone and not only focus on the stronger, more active students. For younger learners, it is also important that you allow them to move around once in a while. You cannot expect them to sit still and focused longer than 15 minutes. Plan games and hands-on activities. Take note that there will be kids who are more hyper than others, so be prepared for that as well.

6. To learn and not to use is not to learn

When choosing a topic, choose something that is simple but can create a lasting impression at the same time. Make it a goal that by the end of your demo teaching, your students are also able to demonstrate what they have learned. If you teach them too much, they may forget most of what you have taught. Teach new words and also include old words that they are familiar with. Put emphasis on the sentence structures and make sure to include examples on how they can apply what they have learned in their daily lives and conversations.

If you can demonstrate something out of the ordinary, your demo teaching will definitely stand out. Plan something that would make you unique compared to other candidates.

7. Online Demo Teaching

If you are living overseas, you may be required to do a demo class through Skype or they may ask you to record yourself on video while teaching. Do not think of this to be less than the actual demo teaching, consider everything that has been mentioned above. Prepare yourself however, to teach with no actual students, with just the interviewer listening to you. Do your best to create interactions between you and your observer. You may also create imaginary students where you ask questions and pause to hear “them” respond, acknowledge their answer by giving a positive feedback.

Teach English in Guangzhou

     Teach English in Guangzhou and experience life on the move in China’s third largest city. With a population of over 12 million Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province, a prosperous metropolis full of life. Located in the south east of China with a history stretching back over 2200 years, Guangzhou is a port city with Hong Kong and Macau within easy reach and Vietnam just 800 km to the south west.

Guangzhou is well known throughout China for its abundance of restaurants and huge selection of dishes, the food here is what westerns typically think of when they talk about Chinese food. In fact, Guangzhou has the most amount of restaurants and tea shops per capita in China, so if you teach English in Guangzhou you certainly won’t go hungry.

Guangzhou enjoys a sub-tropical climate with an average year round temperature of a balmy 22 degrees. The city is also well known for its ceramic, ivory carving and embroidery industries not to mention hosting the annual China Import and Export Fair since 1957 which attracts traders from across the globe.

Teach English in Guangzhou to Young Learners

There is an enormous demand for young learner teachers in Guangzhou for the 7 to 10 year old age group. Parents see English education as an essential long term skill and classes run by foreign teachers generally focus on developing the students’ speaking and listening skills through a variety of fun activities, stories, English based games, songs and projects. Moving in the opposite direction of the traditional ‘listen and repeat’ style of teaching of the old days, teachers encourage real dialogues and make use of pair work and group work to get students using the language together. As well as detailed student and teacher books, schools stock a host of ESL teaching materials and resources such as flashcards, posters, songs, activity books, toys, games and interactive white boards offering animated digital content.

 

Tips 2: Chinese Culture, networking and relationship

   In China, social and network are big issue to care about in working and daily life. China as an collective society, people will consider relationship between people as an important scale. Having a good relationship with your coworker is more important than your working skill.
   In Worlda we have seen teacher and school have misunderstanding sometimes, this is the moment to see the cultural difference. Most of the westerner will insist that "they are right" to defend themselves. But in Chinese culture, who is right or wrong is the second important issue, the more important issue is not to harm the relationship. Shouting and defending is consider "not friendly" in the Chinese people's mind. It will affect the working and cooperating in the future.
   So, if we meet incident or misunderstanding, keep a friendly face. Sometimes even if you are the wrong one, if you show a nice attitude, people will forgive you very easily.

Tips 1: Chinese Culture, greeting

     When teacher comes to Worlda, they will receive a curtural training before they start to teach. It is very inportant to know some of the cultural differences between China and the western country as teacher first land on China.
     In this bolg, I will introduce some of the cultural difference to my readers, so that you will not make misunderstanding or embarrassed while dealing with Chinese people.
 
     Tip 1: Greeting
    Instead of saying "hello", Chinese people say "ni hao", but I guess most of you know this already, today I am going to talk about the conversation after "ni hao".
Mostly, after "hello" we will say "how are you?", but in China, after saying "ni hao", people will ask "ni chi le ma"(have you eaten). Yes, you may feel weird chinese peole always like to ask people eaten or not. But it doesn'r mean they want to invite you for a meal, many of the westerner will think in this way. They are just asking, they don't really care about you eaten or not, and also not a hin of invitation, it is just a way of opening a new topic. So, don't misunderstand.
     See you next time.

Adam's experience in Guangzhou Worlda

   There is a big teaching team in Guangzhou Worlda, everyone of them, have their own story. In this blog, we will share some teacher's stories to you guys.
   Adam was born in Bournemouth, England in 1984. Before arriving in China he was working in risk management in a financial services company. Adam decided that working behind a desk wasn’t for him, and he packed his bags and never looked back. Adam is currently teaching English and Math in a primary school in Guangzhou Worlda. In his free time, Adam likes working out, going out for nice dinners, playing football, and ping pong.

Since arriving Worlda, what differences have you noticed between China and England? 
  "The first thing I noticed was the difference of food. Everything here seems to be healthier. Street food and people eating outside is a very different thing here, everything seems like it's a lot more social. Grandparents come outside early in the morning and late at night to do exercise, take their grandkids to school, play chess, tai chi, and other social things. Here is very crowded compared to my quiet little hometown. I’ve enjoyed the hustle and bustle and the experience of getting on the metro during the rush hour. It’s an exciting challenge!” 
In the half year you have been living here, how have you enjoyed it? 
  "The first few weeks were difficult to adjust. The cultural differences, new job, and knowing no one when arriving was daunting. Worlda played a key part helping me settle in to my new city and lifestyle. From the first moment when they picked me up from the airport till now they have been very supportive. The training they provided helped me feel a lot more confident heading into the school. The first few weeks in the school was exciting, however quite difficult. Through the various Worlda social events I have made some great friends who will stay with me for life. My work schedule has allowed me to do a lot of site seeing in Guangzhou, and travel a bit as well!” 
How have you found teaching so far? 
  "The first few weeks were difficult as it was very different from my previous job in England. The support both the school and Worlda offered me helped me overcome any obstacles and I soon began to settle. Since then, I have enjoyed every minute of my new role. I find teaching to be very rewarding, challenging, and a whole lot more fun than sitting behind a desk. The smiles on the kid’s faces makes it impossible to be unhappy, even on a Monday morning. Worlda has always been on hand to offer new ideas, games, and methods of teaching.” 
What’s do you hope to achieve over the next semester? 
  "I hope to continue to improve my teaching abilities and methods. I am confident I can do this with the support of the school and Worlda. I hope to improve my Chinese through my private lessons and the free lessons that Worlda offers to their teachers. Outside of work and Chinese, I hope to continue to see as much of this beautiful country as I can. I hope to travel to Xi’an, Beijing and a few of the smaller cities. The spring festival will allow me to travel to Thailand for almost next to nothing.” 
Have you noticed any changes in yourself since coming? 
  "I think I have noticed myself becoming a lot more tolerant. You have to be prepared for taking time to understand people from different backgrounds and cultures. It has really opened my eyes to the many different ways about doing things. I have more confidence in myself having overcome the huge challenge of coming to China knowing no one and succeeding in completely new lifestyle. America is called the land of opportunity, however China’s rapid growth means that business is booming and there’s plenty of chances to make it big here as well. The decision to give up my comfortable lifestyle in the UK and try something completely new wasn’t an easy one, but it was one of the best decisions of my life.” 
   We thank you Adam for being a great team leader, teacher, and friend to everyone!

Cite from our home page story:
http://www.worldaedu.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=lists&catid=70

How to Teach Your Kids

This is an article that cite from our wordpress blog of guangzhou worlda.
https://guangzhouworldablog.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/how-to-teach-your-kids/

How to teach your kids:

here are some tips for teaching kids to learn in a better way:
1. Encourage your kids more often could do a great help with the self-confidence of the kids, and that helps a lot with kids’ learning;
2. Try to keep teaching the kids in a stable pace and make the process fun;
3. Don’t focus on memorization when you teach kids, try to teach concepts, so that they won’t feel bored
4. When they make progress, reward the kids.

When teachers come to teach in Guangzhou worlda, before they start teaching, worlda will conduct teaching training for all the new teachers, to improve their teaching skills, as well as the way to interact with students.