Currently on the train to London, then hopping on the underground to Kings Cross station, then finally jumping on a train to Cambridge. Today is officially a train-hopping day, with over 6 hours of traveling. A prefect opportunity to fill you in on the latest...
It’s been a good four weeks since the lady from Hong Kong contacted us with news of interviews with two separate kindergartens. Both myself and Jack received emails with details of the interview process. We were both expected to create a lesson plan suitable for teaching 3-4 year olds, with the choice of teaching numbers, colours, or animals. The lesson plan had to consist of a song to begin, a story as the main, and lastly end with a game, relating to the story and teaching the chosen topic.
This seemed like so much fun, and was aimed at the age group we both want to teach! Although, we had received this email just three days before the interview processes were due to begin, so we weren’t left with a lot of time to prepare! Jack’s mum was very helpful and gave us many children’s books that she had kept from when Jack and his brother and sister were children. We spent most of the next day at the children’s section at the local library, researching and preparing our materials.
I already had an idea of what I wanted to teach; it was just a case of finding the right books to combine everything with my chosen topic. Jack was a bit less aware of what topic and theme he wanted to base his lesson around. We got to work the following day, creating games to link in with our topics. I created a numbers game, coinciding with sea creatures, and Jack created his own storybook and game, entailing farm animals.
Our interviews were with different schools, both very early in the morning and both through skype video. Jack was first, although was very embarrassed as we were both expected to act as though the principles of the schools were the children! He didn’t feel comfortable doing this at first, and ended up just explaining his lesson plan. This didn’t work out so well, as he wasn’t offered the job. We both learnt from this, and left our shame behind us.
My interview was the following day, at 7am! I had everything prepared and rehearsed in front of Jack’s mum. I was so nervous before hand, but also very excited! Jack’s mum advised us to use a lot of body and facial expressions, and to encourage the principle to interact with the lesson. It went quite well, although the principal was concerned with the fact that Jack didn’t yet have a job. She was chatting with the sponsor lady in Chinese for a while, then the lady explained that the principle had six different opening in six different schools, and wanted to interview Jack for a place. If we both were to secure these jobs, it would mean we would both have the same curriculum to teach, and holidays. J I soon woke Jack up from bed and told him the news. He was half asleep when he had his interview, although did a lot better than the first one.
We were both told we would hear back from the school in the next couple of days, to let us know if we had the jobs. In the mean time, we were sent links to the school’s website, so we could check it out. It looked amazing, very colourful and very wealthy! We felt as though this would be an amazing opportunity, and the perfect jobs! J The only draw back was the waiting….
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