Friday, May 1, 2009

Mock Interviews with Students

Today, I held mock job interviews with my students. I have taught job skills to my classes each year, but this is the first time I've done mock interviews that were video-taped. The suggestion was made during one of our common planning sessions. Then, another teacher at my school did the mock interviews with her class. So, I decided to give it a try.

We only got finished with half the class. So, I can hopefully finish the rest of the class on Monday if students are not absent. I must say I underestimated how exhausting it would be. I tried to maintain the same demeanor with each student, but by the time I was doing my 10th student in the last class, I was pretty tired.

A few of the students really impressed me with what they had to say. Others, who I thought might really "ham it up" based on how they behave in class were actually pretty subdued. Once I'm finished with all the students, we will watch the video as a class and have some constructive criticism. I think watching themselves and their peers on the video is where a lot of the learning will really take place.

Though it has been a lot of work, I think this was a good lesson and a great time to use it. At the end of the year, teachers really have to try to find lessons that will be engaging. This one worked really well. I think I will do this each year toward the end of the term.

2 comments:

KM said...

Just out of curiosity, did you impose a dress code requirement? After seeing some of the student videos entered in the Techo Expo this year, I was shocked at a vast majority of the students were so sloppily dressed! I noticed that those students who dressed appropriately when presenting stood out more to the judges than those wearing hoodies and jeans.

Victoria Thomas said...

When I did the interviews, I encouraged them to dress up but I did not require it because I was trying to be understanding toward the students who were less fortunate. Those who dressed up received extra credit. However, I do think it's an issue that students don't seem to know what qualifies as "business dress." We have a program called Dress for Success at HHS for business classes where students are required to dress up each Wednesday, and it counts toward their grade. I think it helps them realize what will be expected of them in professional situations. I'm surprised that students didn't realize they should dress up for the Technology Fair. Do you think you all will require business dress next year?