So you meet the requirements to be a VIPkid teacher and now you must book an interview with someone. How can you pass it? Here is some helpful advice to passing your VIPkid interview, and demo lesson.
1. Have a reward system. I would not spend a ton of money on this since you are not hired yet. You can do something as simple as drawing a face on a whiteboard and giving the face a tooth when the student does a good job.
2. Students will also get a star in the classroom when they do a good job. Classes are 25 minutes. I usually give an extra reward at about 3 minutes and a star at 5 minutes. Tooth at 7 minutes and a star at 10 minutes, you get the idea.
3. Talk Slow and articulate. Remember these students do not understand much depending on what level you are teaching. The slower you go the more they will understand.
4. Use TPR. Total Physical Response. When you use your hands to help augment the vocabulary word or how you want the student to respond helps them understand. An example can be holding your hand to your ear and touch your lips if you would like them to speak to you. Keep in mind you are in a very small space where the camera picks up movement. Make sure all movement is within the camera's view.
5. Avoid incidental language.Remember these students do not understand what you are saying. Do not use extra language such as awesome. Keep it simple, "read please" "Listen and repeat" and stick to the words and phrases that are outlined in the lesson such as "I feel sad".
6. You are on camera and as soon as you are in class you are hosting your own kids show for the student. Go into every task this job requires using this mindset. You are a face on a screen and it takes practice to hold the student's attention. Be energetic, and happy, and outgoing.
7. Use Props. White Boards, puppets, letter cards. I often use google images and pull them up on my phone to show the students. Since you can not move around much this is very effective in showing them things such as dance, stand up, sit down, touch your toes.
7. Good internet connection. During your interview, the interviewer will be assessing that your internet stays good throughout the whole interview.
8. Good background and good lighting. Lighting is a must. I have 4 lamps set up around my workspace. you just need to click on your camera and adjust them to where you can see that the lighting is good on camera. Again, I would not spend a ton of money on a background until you actually get hired. The cheapest and simplest way to achieve this for the interview is to buy wrapping paper and tape it up behind you. Christmas wrapping paper would be a good background for the month of December.
9. High entergy. This is very hard at 4AM but you cannot show you are tired. Be energetic and outgoing.
10. Watch lots of other VIPkid teachers on youtube. These teachers do demonstrations for their own referrals but they are all on youtube. I think it is important to watch several teachers and steal parts of all of them. In the end you have to work with what works for you and watching others will help you find the teaching style you are comfortable with. If you are uncomfortable it will show on the screen. Just like in a regular classroom it is common to collaborate and beg, borrow, and steal from others around you.
11. Look directly at the camera. This is something I struggle with daily. Avoid the temptation to look at the student or at yourself, it looks like you are looking down on camera. Look directly at the camera with a smile and it will look like you are looking at them.
12. Minimal noise, use sound reducing headphones, very important.
13. Pacing, this takes practice. You do not want to end too early or not finish all of the slides. A good rule is about one minute per slide give or take. The first slide will not take a minute but there are usually more than 25 slides so it evens out as long as you watch your time.
I hope this helps. I am going to try and track down the slides you will be teaching for the teaching demo and videotape myself teaching them and explaining to you what you do for each slide.
As always feel free to email me with any questions.
Teacher Kortney
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