As head of department in an international school, hiring new teachers has never been more challenging than during the pandemic.

But the experience has given me a solution to an otherwise common problem: how to observe a lesson from the other side of the world.

Some schools will ask you to record and share a video of a lesson, but this can be problematic if your school won’t allow images of pupils to be shared with a third party. There is also the issue of poor quality video recordings, which make it difficult to pass judgement.

For these reasons and others, many international schools will hire teachers without ever actually having seen them teach, and teachers will take jobs in schools they have never taught a lesson for.

A new solution

With schools around the world locked down, I have instead asked candidates to teach a virtual lesson via Zoom and it has worked really well: I learned as much about the teachers as I would have done in the physical classroom.

The virtual interview lesson could be the solution for international schools even when this is all over and we are back in the physical classroom.

Having seen a variety of video lessons, I have an idea of what works and what doesn’t. So if you have an online interview lesson coming up, here’s how to ace it:

1. Make your lesson interactive

Pupils switch off just as easily online as they do in the classroom. A series of short tasks or activities work better than one long one, and that’s where an interactive program like Peardeck or Nearpod is useful.

Peardeck allows you to create and share interactive slides with your class and you can track pupil progress and see exactly what each pupil is doing using the teacher dashboard. You can also check for understanding during the lesson using formative assessment tools.

It doesn’t matter if the school you are interviewing at does not have Peardeck: just share the lesson code with the class and they will be able to access your lesson online.

2. Plan carefully

As with any lesson observation, planning is key. Those of us who have been teaching remotely for a while know that what used to take 30 minutes in the classroom now takes 60 minutes online.

Once you have planned your lesson, cut it in half. Set realistic expectations for what is achievable in the time you have. Where you might have expected a page of creative writing by the end of a lesson, reduce that expectation to a paragraph, or even one really well-constructed sentence.

Since you have so little time to show off your skills, make sure that each activity has a purpose, is clearly linked to your objectives and develops pupil progress and understanding.

3. Manage behaviour

Behaviour management online is just as important (and tricky to manage) as it is in the classroom.

I invited a colleague to observe a Year 7 Zoom lesson I was teaching and she said: “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard a teacher tell a pupil to put down her puppy and get on with her work.”

I would recommend you insist pupils have their cameras on but their microphones off to begin with. Pupils can then either physically raise their hand to respond or to use the “hands up” function on Zoom, preventing them from all calling out at once.

Children have questions and we would not be doing our jobs if we didn’t answer them, so why not make use of the chat function on Zoom and ask pupils to write to you? That way it won’t distract others or slow the pace of your lesson.

4. Regularly assess for learning

Just like in the classroom, your virtual interview lesson is at risk of being dominated by the loudest pupils.

But we shouldn’t let that happen: the responses of a few do not reflect the understanding of the majority.

Instead, use the tools available to you to carry out regular assessments for learning: tick names off a sheet to make sure everyone has contributed; go for “no hands up” and choose who will answer; ask pupils to physically show thumbs up or thumbs down on their screens or invite them to use the zoom “reactions” to express themselves; make use of the formative assessment tools available in the interactive programs mentioned in this article.

Just like when we are teaching face-to-face, positive reinforcement and identifying good behaviours is key - as is spotting misconceptions and correcting them quickly.

5. Use the technology you have in front of you

The great thing about an interview lesson online is that you don’t need to come armed with a folder of printed resources and worksheets and then fret that you left something at home.

You can prepare for your lesson in advance by sending resources to the school and asking them to share these with the class on their virtual learning platform. You can also share resources as and when you need to during the lesson.

Being online and working from your own computer means you have every resource you have ever made at your fingertips, ready to share with all or a few students during the lesson depending on their needs as they arise.

Thishani Wijesinghe is head of English at San Silvestre School in Lima, Miraflores