Chapter 4
Short Self Introduction Video for ESL Teaching Job Seekers
1- What should I wear?
Dress like it is a face to face interview.
As a teacher you have to look smart and presentable.
We all agree that we don’t judge a teacher because of her or his appearance but some school might do think you’re not serious about the job.
Just to avoid prejudices try to look smart.
2- Write a script before shooting.
Take time to prepare a script before you shoot.
Mention important points like your education, your work experience why you like teaching, your personal temper and why you are interested in working for this school.
3- Background of your video
Make sure your background is neat! If you’re already a teacher and especially online teacher just use the background you use when you teach Online!
If not just find a nice and neat background. It can be a wall, a book shelf or anything that makes YOU looking good so that you’ll feel more self-confident and you won’t need to shoot hundred times. Think about it before you start shooting.
4- Make sure you have a good lighting.
Stand or sit near a window to use natural light. Natural light can give better results than lights you have at home.
If you are like me, wearing glasses, make sure the light do not reflect into your glasses.
Oh yeah! Avoid sunglasses. Just kidding!
5- Suitable moment for recording.
Record when you know that nothing or nobody will disrupt you from shooting!
Peaceful environment is perfect. Shoot many times till you feel that it looks and sounds good!
I’ll give you an example later in the course.
6- What camera do I need for Shooting?
For shooting you can just use your phone. No need of any special costly camera.
Phones nowadays are great for that. Even for the audio, your phone will do.
Just find a quite place. And avoid the app that can make you look like NOT THE REAL YOU! Got my point? Be true and “we are what we are” and if they don’t like your look just don’t care much.
You’ll find a far better and professional school.
7- Shooting position:
Close-up shot is perfect for the shooting.
Check out the image below.
Make sure that we can see your hands. Use them naturally when you speak but not too much.
As an ESL teacher body language is a real skill.
8- Video length and short content that can make you get the job.
Your self-intro video can’t be too long or it will be impossible to load it on WeChat or other Apps.
2 minutes would be fine but not more than 3 minutes.
When you introduce yourself, you can use some short videos (10 seconds) or photos to illustrate your speech.
Like showing yourself teaching students, doing a “Warm up” and any other kind of videos that shows happy children with an active interesting teacher.
Those videos must be like flash videos short but at a crucial happy moment of your class or warm up. I will show you later in the course how to do it. It’s easy to make even if you know nothing about video editing.