What makes a good teaching demonstration?

Having been invited to judge teaching demonstrations for the fifth time, I'd like to share some humble opinions on the ultimate test of becoming a qualified English teacher in public junior high schools:

1.     Pronunciation and intonation are a fundamental and crucial part of the whole process. If you have poor pronunciation and speak in a boring monotone, it can be quite excruciating for the judges to sit through your teaching demonstration.

2.     When pronouncing words such as “raise” your hand, “wrong,” don’t “make” mistakes, or put “down” your hands, please pay attention to the underlined vowels and ensure you say them correctly. You definitely don’t want to repeat these errors repeatedly.

3.     Within two minutes, judges will immediately decide whether to give you high scores based solely on your fluency. While some appear to be teaching in English, in fact, they’re merely murmuring or repeating what they’ve written on the blackboard word for word, not to mention switching back to Chinese—all of which indicates inefficient language skills. Even worse, “OK. 老師要 quickly review 今天我們 learn 的東西,” is totally a disaster. Without a shadow of a doubt, you'll want to work hard on your English speaking and other presentation skills to stand out from other competitors.

4.     You can do a lot to showcase your capabilities in fifteen minutes, yet some teachers choose to spend over half of that time, or even more, focusing solely on grammar. What a waste of time! While you were busy jotting down those grammatical patterns on the blackboard, the other judge and I were yawning behind your back.

5.     When teaching grammar, some teachers try to use technical terms, like “third person singular,” “past progressive,” “conjunctions,” and so on, to explain how to use the pattern. Given that English is not our first language, and you may already be struggling with fluency, I fail to understand why you would put yourself in such an awkward situation. Why not simply set up a real-life situation and have your students work in pairs to practice the structure? Then, perhaps you won't get stuck in the jargon.

6.     Instead of overwhelming the judges with patterns that won't impress them whatsoever, why not incorporate innovative teaching strategies—such as cooperative learning, differentiated teaching, or reading strategies—to make a stronger impression? All you have to do is give clear activity instructions, such as: "This question is a bit difficult/easy. All Spongebobs/Patricks (advanced learners/slow learners) in each group, please stand up. If you know the answer, raise your hand." Or: "Now, use the pictures on pages 11 and 12 to make predictions about the main idea of the dialogue." Or even: "Look at your role sheet. If you take on Task 1, please go to Group 1 (Expert Group) now. Your job is to master Task 1 with your new group members. When time is up, you must return to your original group (Home Group) and share what you learned with your members."

7.     To my surprise, 9 out of 23 teachers today used identical teaching procedures: "Good morning, students. You look energetic today…", "Let’s review the vocabulary we learned yesterday.", "I’ll write down three questions before I play the CD.", "OK. What is the answer to question NO.1? Any volunteer? Peter? Good. Yes, the answer is… Good job. You got one point for Group 1.", "Now, we’ll play a game. If you think it is true, make a circle with your hands. If you think it is false, make a cross with your hands. Good. Question 1. Any volunteer? Good. Mary, what’s your answer? Very good. You’re right. The answer is…"

Simply put, as a judge, I want to see professional skills in both English and teaching demonstrated within 15 minutes. After all, we’re "English teachers." You must be an expert in both, not just one.