I scheduled my demo class! Now what?!

I scheduled my demo class! Now what?!

Congratulations! This is what I call The Home Stretch. The interview anxiety is over, now it's time to prepare for the real deal. Whether you are a seasoned online English teacher or this is your first time teaching English to children online, it can be a little nerve wracking. There are a few things you can do to alleviate that anxiety and log in with confidence. Creating a warm and welcoming classroom environment, knowing the lesson material and having leading questions are just a few things you can do to prepare yourself for the big day.

Smile! You're on camera!

How we feel and what others see can be completely different, I'm sure we can all agree on this, so practice that lovely smile while you're rehearsing your demo class slides.

Self-explanatory, I know. But this is something I still work on daily. Occasionally I'll catch myself on camera with a stern, bitchy look on my face, and it surprises me. My face looks like that when I'm thinking, but I'd like for my students to stay comfortable, engaged and focused so training yourself to keep, even a slight smile, will help your class feel welcome throughout the class.

Lesson material and goals of the demo class

It's time to learn to teach the material for your demo class. Your 'performance' during your demo class will be monitored by hiring staff to ensure you are a good fit for teaching with the company. Knowledge is your best tool here!

Most lessons with have goal vocabulary words, terms or a general topic. Know what these are before you start planning your leading questions! Write it down somewhere you can see and as you practice teaching the demo class, make sure those goals are the main focus in your lesson.

Decide on leading questions

It's the longest section for a reason. Questions will guide the entire lesson, so let's get comfortable with them. Let's say that your first slide is an introduction slide to the lesson. This is a common first slide and its basic function is to help you get an idea of your student's knowledge of the lesson material. Let's say the slide is a picture of a beach. There is boy surfing the waves and there is a girl on the beach drawing a picture.

The key vocabulary words are surf, surfing, draw and drawing. Asking leading questions like, "What is the boy doing?" and "Where are they?" will help you figure out what your student knows and what you will need to focus on throughout the lesson. Write down all the leading questions you can think of but keep them simple. When in your demo during this slide if, "He is surf." is your student's answer, then you have your first little goal for the lesson!

Now, if your students are more advanced, you will need to have more complex leading questions. "What is the weather like?", "What else can you do at the beach?", "What animals live in the ocean?" It's okay to get a little off the goal topic. Getting the student talking is the best way to gauge their level of English and I say, just do what works.

Keep on working those little goals into the lesson as you go. You will learn over time to take insane amounts of mental notes on your students progress and implement them throughout the lesson to maximize that focused practice that helps our students reach the key goals for that class.

And for those notes that you want to write down, I've been using a Rocketbook. It's a neat little reusable notebook and it's kind of magic to me! Here's an article if you want to learn the ins and outs.

Logging in to teach your demo class with a bright smile, focused goals, and the questions to complete those goals at your fingertips will have you prepared, confident and ready to teach your demo class!

If any of this article has helped you in any way, or if there is something I can improve, please drop me a line! Thanks for reading!