How to Conduct a Teaching Demonstration at an Academic Job Interview

good afternoon everyone you can wave at me or make little signs or do little things i'd like to see some faces instead of just like dark screens so pop in now and then okay there you go all right so this is the second workshop in that the cgl is offering this month under the heading of professional development for teaching and this workshop unlike the last one isn't quite so much of an introspective journey for you in the last one when you were writing a teaching philosophy you had to think about your own personal preferences and what you would eventually create in your own in the way of your own belief system about what you believed about or teach how teaching should occur in the classroom and then so it was it was an introspective journey this is not like that this this workshop we want to call a workshop is mostly me telling you what to do and what not to do so this is like you know cgll's version of what not to wear and um i think i'd actually like you to still participate but it you know in a different way this time so if you get to the point in the process of applying for an academic job a teaching job at a college or a university if you get to the point where they've invited you in for for an in-person interview or for a zoom interview because that's the way of the world now so whichever one if you've gotten that far then that means they like you there's something about you that got past the paper filters you know your your vitae your cover letter your your teaching philosophy the documents you submitted the application they saw something there and they want to hear more from you so this is now a little bit scarier does that does that seem like a fair way to assess how your emotions would hit you if you you're rejoicing that you made it to this point you're happy you're going to have an interview but this is a little scary than handing it a piece of paper so i want you to think about the phrase that first impressions are powerful or you don't get a second chance to make a first impression would anybody like to just push back on that a little bit about the importance of first impressions but also the chance to redeem yourself if your first impression doesn't start off the way you want anybody got any thoughts on the idea of a first impression walk in the room what do you want them to know about just from how you walk in and say hi do you want to convey janine you know i'm going to call on you so go ahead and take it um i don't know i mean i definitely like to convey confidence confidence perfect and friendliness i like to because of course you want them to you want to be the person that they would see themselves being around so i try to display confidence kind of a friendly warm feel right you don't come in you know telling jokes and you know being very casual you come in sort of friendly and here i am and but i'm still here for my job i take this seriously so yeah friendly confident but serious professional theresa what thank you danny what did you want to say teresa i would add you also come dress professionally right yeah i'm going there don't worry yeah yeah yeah there's a there's a saying about you know you don't get a second chance to make a first impression but i want you to think about this when you when you walk into this interview yes you're making a first impression but the first impression is going to take not just a few seconds to form but maybe the entire time you're there they know that you they've called you in for a reason and they know that you're probably nervous and they know that if you come in immediately a little nervous that doesn't that doesn't cancel it out right then and then they'll give you a chance to warm up and thaw out a little bit so when i say first impression i don't mean the second you walk in the room but i mean the hour or the half hour or however long you were with them that's the for the formation of the first impression is happening over over some generous minutes so don't be don't be too afraid to walk in and think this is it they'll give you a chance remember everybody on that committee was once in your position everybody in that committee is invested in your success if they've picked you to come in for this interview they are interested in you and they want to see you succeed so take that put that knowledge in your head walk in knowing that okay and relax a little bit but do maximize your chance to to make a good first impression now you've got some homework before you go to a teaching interview and your first assignment before you go is to find out if you can and you should be able to you should be able to find out who your audience will be so you need to ask the people who are conducting this interview or your contact person you know the person who's reached out to you to set this up ask them is the demonstration for the hiring committee only or is the demonstration for actual undergraduates will it be a mix find out if the hiring committee is comprised solely from your discipline members of your discipline or is it an interdisciplinary type of committee would someone like to tell me why the answers to each of those matter it's just someone from your discipline versus it's interdisciplinary it's only faculty it's it's no faculty or a few faculty and mostly students what are you doing with each of those audiences different disciplines will speak different languages so the people who are in your discipline understand your language you can use more commonly known concepts and be relatively confident that they'll know what you're talking about but if it's interdisciplinary they may not have no idea what's going on in your discipline or what the topic is you're teaching you have to be really careful with your language that's exactly right that's that's the answer i have nothing to add to that thank you amanda i think when you know to whom you are speaking you can tailor your language to that audience and generally hiring committees are interdisciplinary but that doesn't mean that the people on the committee who are not from your discipline don't know how to listen to you what they're going to be listening more for is your process so for example i was on a hiring committee for the institution i worked at before i came to uncc and i'm a psychologist but we were high we happened to be hiring for the history department i'm not a historian i don't pretend to know anything about what this candidate was saying but what i was able to watch closely was this candidate's process and their method of delivering the material and it was good that they were members from the history department on the committee because they could pay attention to whether or not this candidate was saying things that were accurate and true because that's important also does this person know what they're talking about but i was i was just i was almost it was as if i was freed to just watch process and so i could see how they were handling the delivery of an idea concept how they were involving us or pretending to be students and but it would have probably helped me a little bit if i felt every now and then that i could have understood the content so try to adjust your content to your audience you may hear tales from the field from fellow students that they've gone on interviews where they were actually teaching a real undergraduate class how would you feel about doing that if your demo was completely for what we would call live undergraduates not fake ones just you know the real thing how would you would that make you nervous or would that make you more confident show a hands for nervous not nervous okay amy's giving me you're not nervous all right because you feel you've seen them before and you kind of know they're they're you know they're you can handle them so so you you might relax in front of students and that's a good thing you do have to understand though that if there are students in the room they actually are there for a reason they probably have a say in the decision so they will be polled after the interview is over by the faculty to say what you think of this person would you want to take a class with this person they're not there just to fill the seats they have they have a role to play in um offering feedback about your skill as a teacher so i want you to think about doing your homework and finding out who's in the audience and think about when you prepare your materials what would i be comfortable saying to all adults versus all students versus a mix versus my discipline versus interdisciplinary and if you are able please try second piece of homework please try to find out whether they're going to allow you to pick the clap the topic you want to deliver or are they going to assign it to you this is something that isn't that unusual to ask and they should be able to tell you yes we'd like you to teach a class on abc and that's it now you know what you have to teach if they say no you can teach anything you want at the undergraduate level you can teach an intro class you know but derive your lesson from an intro type class derive your lesson from an upper level type class but they give you some latitude do you want to use a lesson that's super complex so you can impress them with how smart you are or would you like to do the simplest lesson imaginable would you like to fall somewhere in between so who wants to who wants to take a stand on that cornelia tell me what you think all right um i would teach a class where i know i can count on student engagement okay so i would teach a class where i'm not sage on the stage but a class where i'm asking for student input uh a class with some discussion portion where i can be seen guiding discussion and you want that you want to be able to pick the topic because you want to show them your skills and method well i mean i'm i'm not so much worried about picking the topic i think i could skew it in a way where discussion is a possibility but right i would i would want a class where there will be discussion and student input i don't want a class where people are just quietly listening okay i want some critical thinking questions i want some pros and cons type of situations right so my question to you was would you prefer to pick your topic or let them pick it and your answer was i'd like to show off my method and i think that i could show off my method more confidently if i picked my topic but let's take the argument the other way what if they gave you the topic they said this is what we want to see you teach don't be afraid to use your dazzling method and process even if you didn't pick the topic so you can still take the topic they've assigned to you and show them critical thinking and active engagement and that kind of methodology and it may even be more impressive here's a here's a comforting thought it may be even more impressive if they've given you this topic and you've still managed to show them your dazzling skills so look at the the chance to pick a topic versus being given one only in the light of uh the amount of preparation you have to do if they've given you a topic and you're not comfortable with it what do you think that will do to you as you're trying to make an impression on you see someone who's let's see um beth lorenz are you there yes i'm here sorry no it's fine i'm looking at a picture so let's say they've given you this topic and you don't know it that well what does this do to your prep um it would make me definitely a little more nervous but i would make sure that i have done enough extensive research into the topic um seeing what i can pull in that i am familiar with that can maybe help enhance the topic that they have selected okay so this is all circling back to impressions first impressions even if the topic isn't um something you're comfortable with that doesn't mean that you're not capable of researching it and coming up with a lesson of course you are you're you're going for a job you know your stuff and i'm going to repeat this several times through today's workshop you know what you're talking about please please understand how smart you are and how talented you are and how much knowledge you possess so even a topic that that may be a little daunting to you shouldn't throw you you you have what it takes to present even on a difficult topic as long as you prepare because you do want to give the impression of confidence you do want to give the impression that i can handle what you throw at me it's also good preparation for the possibility that this can happen don't be afraid you get hired and they just tell you you've got two weeks to prepare a course in something that you've never done before and that has that happened to me multiple times in my career you know mid-august here teach a course on the psychology of okay that's not my specialty yeah well that doesn't matter if two weeks why am i teaching because so and so didn't want to do it and you're a low person on the total vote so you get it so that happens it happens all the time and it's fine you can handle it okay so let's reiterate find out who you will be teaching to okay in this who's present in the committee find out what your topic is does anybody want to guess what i'm going to say for the next find out it's really important it's critical i would i would say what is the research interest what are the research interests or teaching experiences of the people on the committee if you end up teaching deeper than i win okay i'm gonna i'll come back to that but actually that wasn't my next critical critical thing i will come back to that cornelia but this is something you really you have to know theresa you have a big one sitting behind you on the wall time how much time that's right amy find out your time limit and i'm going to say this in a way that will sound as if i'm speaking in caps but i am find out the time and stick to it do not go over your time limit second you go over your time limit you're perceived as someone who can't follow directions who uh doesn't doesn't respect the rules very well you know whatever there might be a number of ways it's interpreted but it's never good so they've given you a time limit for a reason they want to see if you can stay within it now what does that do to you if the time limit is now a test of your time management skills what does that do to your prep where do you feel the boundaries exist in terms of your prep and how much you want to bump up against the time limit what i mean is you have 30 minutes how much of that 30 minutes are you going to prepare to be teaching someone shout a number at me okay 20 destiny yes okay so you're saying 20. i would go with 20 absolutely maybe 22 23 if you want to be generous but don't prepare 30 minutes of you talking okay yeah 25. the idea is stay under the time limit a couple of reasons what's going to happen to that 30 minutes if it's an actual class and you like cornelius says is want to show off your critical your your ability to evoke critical thinking in your students and your ability to engage them in some type of activity which we will talk about that's going to eat up the clock you can't control how many people will raise their hands and ask you a question you don't know how well the activity will go so you need the even though it might feel like oh i haven't prepared enough i'm going to i'm going to stay in there with empty time probably not the thing you're doing will expand to fit that that limit and if you do finish early no problem just ask them questions just pretend that you planned it all along this way that now you want to ask questions of your students in you know your audience whoever's listening to your presentation they're playing the role of student even if they're faculty they're playing the role of student so you can say okay this is the part now where we're going to have some discussion and here are some discussion questions and that's how you fill your 30 minutes keep an eye on your clock run it run a you know set a set o'clock and keep keep your eye on it when your time is up you say well that's it you know class we're out of time today we'll pick up next week you know just talk the way you would in a class you're almost doing a little bit of acting up there you know pretending to be something that you're not but they're they understand the role you're playing the um the thing that cornelius said i'd like to address it you're not at a res this is not a research forum this is not a an academic conference where you're presenting research so cornelia why would you want to find out the research interests of your audience what what would you use that for um if there are multiple views on certain research i'd want to make sure that i don't alienate or anyone if i'm presenting to a committee or if i if if it if i'm going to include different views and i'd want to make sure that i don't forget to include very important views of the committee members or if they are a leader in their field and i happen to teach on a topic related to that field i i would want to make sure that i'm being very thorough um and uh you know if they have published certain things then i want to make sure and read that before i even get to the teaching presentation point okay i understand where you're coming from does anybody want to respond to cornelia before i do you see that as something that's necessary or something that's overkill or somewhere in between she can take it don't worry looking at all these dark screens is anybody back there shout you are you in there yes i'm here what do you think what do you think of what cornelia just said um okay so so for me if i want to give out a lecture i will prepare just two to three questions that questions for students so this question is based on what i talk okay so you're not you're not taking the the hiring committee's research into account because you're protect you're you're actually playing the role of teacher and you want to show that you're teaching what you came to teach not necessarily to incorporate the interests yeah because if i even my audience just a student i i prefer to provide some not very hard question for students to to discuss because i need to level up my engagement okay all right i follow what you're saying i i appreciate that point amanda stone you just throw something into the chat box about knowing the interests helps with conversation what do you mean um i just think that you know uh you want to connect with the committee and you know uh and i think you know if you can kind of reference some of those research topics and kind of make something some of your conversation with those committee members even more meaningful outside of of your teaching demonstration i just i don't know i think it shows you're a well-rounded person and able to to connect with others i don't know just team teamwork and just being sort of empathetic yeah i i think that what you're saying is that this is a matter of place that it's absolutely do your homework about who's on this committee and find out what interests them because they may very well take you to lunch and you do want to know what they're what they're interested in and it makes for good conversation and it shows that you did your research on who they are as far as simulating a classroom environment during a teaching demonstration you would not research what every student in the room was interested in so you could tailor your lecture to them but you would try to tailor your lecture to your students in general so try to find the middle ground between making it appear as though you researched everybody just so you could mention something that that's interesting to them because they'll see what you're doing they'll see that device they'll appreciate it but it doesn't represent how you behave in a classroom in a classroom you need to find the the greatest common denominator to reach every student in the room so so focus your teaching presentation sorry everyone that you will um in a teaching demonstration or in an actual classroom you will try to meet as many of your students where they are as possible and that means you're looking for the general facts that this demo this lesson this topic that they've handed you this topic that you chose yourself look for the the broadest representation of the information so that everyone in the room can latch on to something you're saying so do you see cornelia where you don't wanna the thing you're describing is better for a luncheon for an interview for a one-on-one meeting but when you're showing them how you teach you don't have to necessarily impress them that you know everything that they've that they're interested in that make sense don't not do it but sprinkle it judiciously among the demo okay so we've got three things now we've got find out who's in the room find out whether you get to pick the topic or they do find out your time and stick to it this is a this next point i want to make to you involves public presentation skills everyone try to speak slowly someone unmute and speak slowly to me i can do that go ahead all right the rain in spain stays mainly in the plane go ahead the rain in spain stays mainly on the plane i think she's got it okay anybody ever does anybody know what movie that's from okay my fair lady okay here we go all right so think of yourself as a referee standing on the sidelines and the basketball team has five seconds to inbound the ball and you are swinging your arm to count off the seconds okay think of yourself in your head with a little bit of a time ticker slowing your pace down it is so easy and this is coming from a fast talker believe me i am one it's so easy to speed up and in the speeding up your comprehensibility drops so practice some good public speaking skills and slow down slowing down will improve your listeners ability to understand you and it will also force you to breathe more because breathing supports slower speech and when you're breathing you're bringing in oxygen and you're calming down okay so it's all tied together speak slowly speak clearly and now i'd like to say something about what not to do when you're speaking which is do not read from your notes if i ever if that ever gets back to me that any of you did that i'll i'll be upset there's nothing worse than a someone doing a teaching demo holding a piece of paper shaking with fear everyone in the room already knows how to read don't read to them if you've put up slides don't read the slides just talk to them you're having a conversation talk to them the way you would talk to undergraduates okay the committee knows that you know your material they have confidence in you they've read your pat your application packet and they see what you've accomplished they may have even read something you've published they know that you know your stuff they want to hear you just tell them as casual a narrative as you can what material what the topic is what the content is that's what good teaching is anyway good teaching is not a research presentation at a research conference it's not a public speech it's not an opportunity to stand at a podium and just deliver it's an opportunity to have a conversation with students and if you're going to have a conversation with students you need to use a conversational conversation of tone and manner does anybody not get what i'm saying or do you do you get it and you want to expand on it do you what does it feel how do you feel when you're having a conversation what are some of the emotions that come up um yes you can have notes to refer to absolutely come in with your notes they're your little lifeline have them there on the table so that when you blank out which will probably happen you can just look back at your notes absolutely have notes for reassurance now who is saying something um it's this is johnny i was saying how are you good how are you dr crowley uh one of the things that i'm saying that when you're having conversation it evokes connection um so i would envision when you're teaching the same thing should occur that you are connecting with your audience and that they walk away with something that you said to them more of like a feeling um or action or a piece of information um they should be left with from your teaching demonstration okay because if you've been a ta you know how many people thank you janine how many people here have been tas already or instructors of record so i'm seeing some hands okay so you already know what it feels like to talk to students and that's exactly what you want to do in this demo you just want to keep talking to these people as though they are your students because they are for that brief moment in time they are your class and you're talking to them that way so again please don't read your notes at all of course if you're nervous have notes as a support as i said all right bye jill okay um what i would also like to say now is that if you plan to use technology during your teaching demo check that it works before you start it sounds like a dumb point to bring up in a workshop like this but go in and do a check you don't want to be standing there with the podium failing i mean i've had podiums like spit sparks you know like you just you just you know podium catches on fire you just never know what's going to happen so why not just go in and make sure none of that's going to happen so do do a technology check before your demonstration starts but i also want you to remember something regardless of how you plan to teach going forward in your career or the purposes of this demonstration that you're doing for this hiring committee the technology is there to assist you but it's not there to do the teaching do not put up slides and read from them that's you're not getting hired with that okay the technology is there as an assistance and the committee wants to see you communicate information effectively they want to see you show an interest in helping students to learn so figure out for your discipline and for your topic how technology can support that but not dominate if you think about the physical relationship that you have to technology in the classroom let's say it's an actual classroom let's say you're doing this demo live okay um because i really hope you wouldn't have to do them over zoom i would hope that's that goes away at some point but if you're let's say you're in a live room the podiums are usually somewhere off to the side and the screen takes the center position in the room the screen comes down it's occupying the front of the room if you step aside to make room for the screen you have seated your position of power to the screen you've stepped aside and allowed the screen to be something that everyone's looking at instead of you i want you to think about that physical interaction that you have with the screen and the podium you want them looking at you and listening to you and answering the questions that you're raising and having some fun and getting involved in an activity or a discussion or however you plan to conduct your demo you want eyes on you not on the screen does that make sense i know i sound like i have a psychological problem with screens and podiums which maybe i do maybe i need analysis i don't know but um are you grasping my my desire to have you amy you're not in your head i'm gonna go with that tell me what i just said i think it's important um to recognize i think i do it a lot i stand off to the side and i point to the screen but when i'm like you said feeding my position to that screen is not what i want to be doing that should be backing up or supporting what i'm saying rather than the other way yeah and and i think thank you i think we don't even i mean you say you've you've noticed this so you've already processed this in your own experiences if you haven't now's the time to think about it you want them watching you and so even if you have to go back and forth between that the screen and yourself make sure that the focus comes back to you if you're going to use technology and you're going to use powerpoint for example make your slides be very word sparse have them be the kind of slides that the committee or whoever is pretending to be your students for the day we'll enjoy looking at you can use you know visuals graphics images one line of catchy text and um then return to yourself being the focus of explaining the information further and then involving them in whatever you're asking them to do after you've shared this bit of content they get to listen to you sort of doing a lecture but also evoking from them responses and that's that's how technology can support you it can showcase your communication and your organization of the information show what great slides you can make but you know you get my point i would very much like you to start your demos with a clear statement of the lesson's title its goal and the expected outcomes so you know hello everyone good morning and welcome to my class on yeah again you're playing a role so you know good morning everyone welcome to the class on xyz uh at the end of this class we're all going to be able to do that and we're going to know this and you should all be able to demonstrate something else to me so you frame your lesson your demonstration is a framing of of what you do in the classroom good morning everyone this is what we're doing today and by the end this is what we should be able to do in addition it lets the committee know that you're organized that you've thought about goals and outcomes that you've mapped this class out that everything you're doing as you proceed through the lesson has a plan behind it i like to think that we can still use humor when we present material who would like to tell me the limits to humor in the classroom and thus in a teaching demo which is sort of a high-stakes classroom yes no sarcasm absolutely douglas yes no attack no jokes at the student's expense ever ever right make sure it doesn't derail the focus of the lesson right keep the joke relevant to the to the content if possible and right no discrimination no politics yeah no you've all got it right no no jokes expense of others yes you've got it the jokes can mostly be at your expense you can tell a story about how dumb you were once you know and what a mistake you made and that's fine because then it jokes on you and i think that you only use humor to advance the lesson the joke has to fit into the lesson somehow um regardless of your personal humor and your personal style when you're among friends that this is not the time to reveal that okay at the end of the demo everyone should have a very clear view of what your classroom looks like this demo is a window into your future classroom it should really represent what would go on if you were hired to to work for them that what they're seeing in front of them right now in this demo is pretty much what they can expect to see if they walked into your classroom one day after they've hired you you're not going to do things that are you're not wearing a ball gown okay or a tuxedo you're not coming in and i i mean that look i mean that metaphorically not literally okay in other words you're not coming in overdoing things you're not coming in super jolly if that's not who you are you're not coming in overly energetic you're coming in the way you would come in in the classroom maybe up just one or two notches so you know you're making the effort to show how happy you are to be there of course but you you want them to see this is what if you hire me this is what you're getting now how do you feel about that how do you feel about revealing your true selves to a hiring committee or did you think you had to be above and beyond julie are you there i'm here all right let me hear from you i think i mean i've never obviously been up for an academic position in a university before but when i've been on hiring committees in other places i appreciate when someone kind of is able to show me they're human this is going to be someone i'm going to be a colleague with i don't want them to appear too perfect too robotic too rigid and so i think it's kind of good to show a little bit of the human side yes totally i like the word human i really do um professional authentic self amanda says yes it's it's it's you're right julie this is this is who you are and if they don't want you as amanda said maybe it's not a great fit now there are versions of ourselves that are a little more a little more authentic than others you know you're not strolling in your bathrobe you know with a cup of coffee in your hand going oh i'm so tired it's not that authentic self it's the best professional authentic self as amanda said um if you think about it you have some rights too from your stance you want that you want to see them too you want to see how the hiring committee responds to the you that is you because these people are also going to be your colleagues and you want to know how they're responding to you because you want to know do i want to work with these people are these people do these people appear to be the types that i can work with so that we everyone in the room needs to be authentic and professional and you'll get a good sense of who they are just by the way they handle you if you come in as your true self so i now would like to speak about the final point which is your appearance so comb your hair kidding i'm not kidding does it surprise you that i would say that in this type of a workshop what is the phrase comb your hair really represent it's a large phrase what do i mean by it amy go ahead you have to unmute can't hear you there you go i was pushing my car but it didn't work um i think you know comb your hair just means you know make sure that you've done the hygiene stuff make sure that you are you know you're presentable and you look your best and i don't think that that's not authentic i think that's just you know walking um looking the way look in your bed looking the way you want to be perceived right there's nothing wrong with with paying attention to your appearance because people unfortunately do judge you by your appearance if you come in and it shows that you haven't bothered to groom yourself properly before this that immediately signals that you're not taking this seriously and you're not getting hired okay now i'm not saying you have to buy new clothes for this interview the phrase that's often used is business casual so pick something that is neat and clean and respectable i always wonder about the um the assumptions made if you come in in clothing that's just a little too fancy they think huh how can they afford that maybe we shouldn't hire them they got to expect a big salary you know i i mean just you just never know what's going on in the committee's mind if you come in looking too shabby they think oh we better hire this person right now because clearly they need new clothes so you you don't want your clothes to send either of those messages it's not about the clothes you don't want the clothes to be speaking saying something different than what's coming out of your mouth so just come in business casual meet and again when you're using those good public speaking skills definitely no clicking the pen no fidgeting make eye contact i mean don't do this that would be inappropriate but unless you really don't want the job then you go you know be conscious of the fact that there are little mannerisms that public speakers possess that keep under control the little fidgets and the gum chewing and the clicking you know don't have anything in your mouth no candy no gum uh again no no pen clicking make eye contact smile don't fidget and i would like to advise you all to have some water with you or try to not drink it because i you can take this to the bank when you go to sip it you'll probably spill some of it down the front of your shirt that's just that i've never seen that not happen because people are nervous and their hands are shaking and so keep the water there for if you really need it but don't be don't be chugging the whole time you're speaking i remember watching one interview once where this guy just kept drinking coffee through the whole thing and i thought are we bothering you so you know it just i'm sure it was a nervous mannerism but it it it was a turn off okay for me personally take that as you will the last thing i have to say to you is practice set a timer with your time limit practice practice again practice a third time and then when you're ready don't practice again just walk away and then give it a day or two and walk into the room knowing that you know what you're about to say take a breath smile greet everyone have confidence keep in mind what i said before you know your stuff you do know what you're talking about relax into the conversation and have the conversation if your discipline and your topic is such that you can include discussion and maybe an active learning component great it depends on your time limit and what they're asking you to do if you can't do an active learning component because it's something like a lab and there's no equipment or time to do it you could say to the hiring committee step out of my out of my position for a moment i just want to let all of you know this is the point in the lesson where we would now be doing this activity worthy equipment to be available and so forth we would have done it but this is what the activity would have looked like it would have taken up x minutes and this is what i would have expected to see afterwards so you can kind of step in and out of the box if you feel that your audience is is willing to listen that way that's probably going to happen more if you're just talking to a committee of faculty only if you're in a classroom with actual students then yeah by all means engage them in discussion maybe even get maybe even get them to do an activity if it's possible so limit your technology and get them as involved as you can of course don't have the whole 30 minutes be them talking and you're not doing anything they've come to see you and hear you all right so that's my that's my my steps of advice does anyone have any questions or feedback or comments okay then that's if if that's it that's it all right oh does anybody want to hang out afterwards and ask me anything i'll stay on for a few minutes all right well thank you everyone good luck email me if you have any questions i have a question for you dr krauss if you don't mind no i don't i'm just going to i'm going to stop the recording okay okay now you can just talk away go ahead okay so i am um a recent grad um i guess august of 2020 what year is it everybody yeah i know i mean it's 2021 so yeah i know yeah so but um i'm working as a visiting assistant professor right now so i'm i'm going to be um interviewing for a tenure position and so i'm just i've already i'm a known entity to this university and so i'm wondering if you had like how different is your advice if if it's like if these are already colleagues i also used to be a student of theirs because i got my master's degree there so i just wondered if you have any advice for me about how to go about this being professional but what have they told you what have they told you they're going to ask of you they are going to have um me do a teaching uh demonstration and again even though they've hired you once yes let me get this straight you did a demo for them to get the the visiting position and they want to know i did not i did not do a demo to get the visiting but they've seen me teach now for a year but who's the they in that sentence who's they you said they've seen me teach who's senior teach well the whole all of the faculty and of course the chair and so the people that are now on the committee that will be hiring have all seen me and they've worked with me so it just seems weird and odd it may literally be something that they have to do legally in other words if they're okay um the and i don't know i i don't know and it's something you could potentially if you're comfortable enough with them why not just ask them like and they may say well we just want to see you teach a different topic or we want to we want you to take it to a higher level or something they may have a reason they may say everyone's just um you know pro forma this is just something that's required of us legally anybody who goes through this job interview process has to has to do this and that's kind of what i was thinking yeah just yes there are other people interviewing so i think that they it kind of is like you said it's something i'm going to have to do because other people are having to do it too and then maybe that wouldn't be a legally that wouldn't be a level playing field if you got away with not doing a demo and other candidates did so you have to look at it that way right and again because you know them and you're comfortable with them and they're comfortable with you maybe the only advantage that gives you is that you can be a little less nervous but do the same amount of prep that you know do the same amount of prep that you would do for for anything okay um right yeah do it do a full-on lesson you know give it give it give it your all yeah as if i didn't already have a temporary job there you know i'm just going to act like it's a yeah yeah it just seems so odd so it's um i think it is too yeah and cornelia i don't know who else is well i know who's applied but i don't know who's getting invited okay they are trying to say above board right like you know so i doesn't appear that i have an advantage or that i don't have an advantage so it's just been it's kept me a little anxious yeah i mean it's it's because it's funny because you're doing the job so you're thinking well i'm doing this job why do i have to prove myself again but it's not even about that you you're not doing here's the thing you're a visiting professor for a year right now it's a tenure track position you're not actually doing that job you're doing a different job right now and so they may want to see you up your game a little bit you know show a little bit more of active involvement by the students more just what's your discipline um counseling so counselor educator teaching master's students okay so take your best practices that you've developed over the last year and really showcase them in this demo like you after after doing this for a year you know it works now for i mean yeah teaching i don't mean to get a job i mean you know what we're right show them your best stuff you know show them um i mean i remember you know in my younger days trying to recall going back to those early days but i remember that i didn't always have all of the methods that i have now it took me a while to develop them so i think they would like to see that as a result of teaching for them for a year you've grown and you've developed new methods and you know you don't have to flag it by saying this is a new map that i developed this year look at me i'm you know wonderful just just show them show them what you've got yeah show them show me your best stuff yeah this time you put on the ball gown okay that's right that's a great way to think of it right you know but of course you know tastefully done yeah so um right yeah that way that's my response okay well good luck you know thank you i appreciate it i appreciate your time today this is very helpful sure no it was fun it was fun i enjoyed all right so is that it on my line am i getting off this thing okay so long everyone

Channel: UNC Charlotte Center for Graduate Life & Learning

Views: 26,273

Keywords: CGLL, UNCC, UNC Charlotte, Teaching Demonstration, Academic Job Interview, How to Conduct a Teaching Demonstration at an Academic Job Interview, Dr. Judith Krauss, Krauss

Id: 8YcqsIFxagk

Length: 49min 41sec (2981 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 26 2021