With all online ESL companies, the mock class is the most important part of your application. Whales English is no different and the mock class is the part of your application you should be putting the most effort into. The mock class helps to:
- Assess your proficiency to teach ESL students
- Experience your teaching style, attitude and enthusiasm
- Ensure you are professional in both appearance and your teaching environment
- Holds the most weight in the pay offer you will receive if successful.
Whales English have very recently streamlined their application process. They have done away with an interview altogether (yippee for new applicants!) and the whole application process can take as little as 7 days from start to finish to successfully become an online ESL teacher with Whales English.
Some of the links used below I may be affiliated with. This just means that if you apply through one of the companies I teach with, I may earn a referral bonus if you are hired and successfully start teaching with that company.
**Please note I no longer work with Whales English. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching with this company, the teacher community is extremely supportive. However, I gained everything I could professionally and needed to move on to the next step in my career teaching independently and creating my own lessons. If you wish to apply to Whales English, you can still do so via my referral links within this post. I will not earn a referral bonus for this and cannot track your application. Nor do I have immediate access to the most up-to-date interview process. If you would like more specific support to apply to this company, I highly recommend Tess Wilkinson from Teach with Tess.**
The new application process comes in four stages:
Resume screening – Mock class – Contract signing – Launch
As you can see, it’s only the first two that you need to ensure you plan and are fully prepared for. The following two stages just require your signature and you’re ready for further training as a Whales English teacher.
For more insight into what to expect at each stage, check out the post Become an Online ESL Teacher: Apply and Teach with Whales English.
This post really isn’t about taking you into detail of what’s going to happen at each stage. This is more about providing you with as many top tips as I can cram into this post to help you feel at ease and know exactly what Whales English are looking for in potential teachers.
So, let’s get right to it starting with stage 1:
Resume Screening
- Your application is going to be the first point of contact and impression Whales English will have of you. Make sure to fill in ALL required information, check for spelling mistakes and especially ensure your details are correct. Attach a professional but friendly photo, smiling along with your resume. Your resume doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but it does need to be presented clearly and simply. Though staff are highly proficient in English, it won’t do you any favours adding lots of ‘fancy’ words or technical terms. Ensure to add everything required, so they can easily tick all of the boxes for nationality, experience, qualifications and technical specifications (aka computer specs, internet speed).
NOTE: Please remember, Whales English only hires Native English speakers from the following countries:
- The UK
- The US
- Canada
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Ireland
Unfortunately, they do not hire from South Africa due to technical difficulties surrounding the internet connection. Whales English do use an applicants passport to confirm their nationality.
It is also now a requirement, no exceptions, for applicants to hold a BA degree minimum. You do need a TEFL/TESOL certificate as well to be able to teach Chinese students, however Whales English will pass your application if you haven’t yet completed this but are willing to do so. (You won’t be able to teach with them until you have passed and have forwarded a copy of your certificate).
- Within your application, you are required to open at least 8-time slots, with a minimum of 4 being on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. You should be able to change these before starting to teach if necessary. But ensure from the start to select time slots which meet these requirements. They need to be able to see that a potential teacher can commit to so many hours per week, particularly at busy periods over the weekend.
Top Tip: By opening peak Beijing time slots, your booking rates can increase by at least 50%. Peak times with Whales English are Monday – Sunday 7-9pm BJT. On Saturdays and Sundays, these are between 9am-12pm and 6-7pm BJT.
Stage 2: Mock Class
Before going through these top tips, remember, the mock class is the most important part of your application. Do not rush this stage, allow yourself plenty of time to prepare before your appointment.
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Preparation
You guessed it, this is probably my most important tip I am going to offer within this post.
Preparation is key!
Being prepared could make the difference between gaining an offer to rejection. It could be the difference between $18/hr to $23/hr!
When you have passed your resume screening, you will be sent an email to book your mock class with a Whales English interviewer. Within your email will be a Google Drive link to certain documents that will help support you to prepare your mock class.
Note: Anyone who applies via my referral link AND emails me to confirm they have done so, I provide a personal one-to-one coaching service in order to help fully prepare you for your mock class. This includes:
- discussing your lesson idea and providing feedback
- the opportunity for you to practise your mock lesson
- providing you with top tips covering TPR, props, lesson content and
- also, an opportunity for you to see how you can use the annotation tools within Zoom to boost the effectiveness of your lessons.
You can apply directly here 🙂. Don’t forget to email me with your screenshot and confirmation: caite@caiteelizabeth.com
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Clear Learning Objective
When preparing for your mock class, the first thing to consider is what your learning objective is going to be. Are you focusing on adjectives, action words, vocabulary, antonyms, etc?
Whales English specifically want you to state your learning objective for your student (who will be your interviewer pretending to be your student). So start with this to ensure the lesson you plan and prepare helps the student achieve this.
Your learning objective needs to be:
- Appropriate for a 6-8year old ESL learner
- Specific
- Level appropriate
- Achievable.
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Get Creative
DON’T be dull and drab, reading off the slides for your interviewer to repeat back to you. This isn’t going to do you any favours at all.
Showcase the fabulous teacher that you are. Include your own ideas, elaborate on the materials you have been given. They want to see what you can do, what skills you possess and if you are capable to teach ESL students online.
I highly encourage you to prepare some relevant props and perhaps show a reward system you might use within your real lessons.
Here are a few examples of some simple and easy to find props and reward systems:
Props:
- Stuffed animals
- Flashcards
- Printed pictures
- Masks
- Songs
- Video clips
Rewards:
- Magnetic shapes added to a whiteboard
- Draw stars, smiley faces, hearts on a whiteboard
- Use Zoom stamps on the screen
- Add apples to a tree
- Stickers to a laminated scene e.g. a zoo, space, farm
All of these props and reward systems can be created/found with little time and requiring not much preparation.
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TPR = Total Physical Response
This is a MUST, do not forget to include any TPR during your mock class as you will not pass.
TPR is very easy to learn and practise if this isn’t something you have come across before. But it is a vital part of everyday lessons when teaching ESL learners, particularly young learners or beginners.
TPR helps students to visually see instructions or words simply by the teacher acting them out. TPR can be as simple as
- waving when you say hello
- Pointing to yourself and then giving a Thumbs up when saying ‘I’m good’
- Pretending to hold an apple by rounding your hand and then pretend to bite and chewing it for learning the word ‘apple’
- Placing your arm in front of your nose and waving it for the word ‘elephant’
- Cupping your hand around your ear and placing one finger under your mouth for a student to repeat back to you.
Check out this Youtube video of a teacher demonstrating a few ways you can use TPR effectively.
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Time Management
The Mock class session is only for 30 minutes, with your lesson taking up 10 minutes. The interviewers have incredibly busy schedules and other bookings, hence they cannot overrun the 30 minutes allocated for each applicant.
Your mock lesson needs to stick to 10 minutes. This will show excellent time management and planning skills on your part and help support your interviewer’s decision.
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Professionalism
Of course, ensure you demonstrate professionalism at all times. It isn’t like a brick and mortar school, where you need to be suited up for your interview. However, you do need to showcase a professional appearance – no strappy, low cut tops, no pyjamas, and certainly no slogans.
Not only that but be very aware and careful of what can be seen on your camera. Zoom has a wide screen and can include a large area of background behind you. Make sure it is clean, clear of clutter and professional.
Remember, you are teaching young learners, so your background needs to be friendly, colourful and inviting. If you are able to do so prior to your mock class, grab yourself some colourful ABC posters, wall stickers or even print out and laminate your own background. I have seen teachers use whiteboards, flashcards, toys and even colourful banners as part of their background. Adding the Whales English logo, though won’t impact upon your interviewer’s decision, it can make a great impression.
Having your background set up for your mock class will help your interviewer see that you are prepared.
Additional Bonus Points
The points below are elements your interviewer will be looking out for. Unlike TPR and stating your lesson objective, if you forget to show some of the points below, you can still pass your mock class with Whales English. Remember, when you receive your email to book your mock class, you will have access to a Google Drive link. There is a document which shows what your interviewer will be looking for in your mock class. The following points are based around this document to support you further.
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High Energy
Within your online ESL career, you will be teaching a vast array of students, just like in any face to face classroom. Some students will be keen to learn, others require encouragement. Some students will be scared to even sit in front of the camera, with others bouncing off the walls.
Being a teacher who has a high level of energy and can bring this into the classroom can completely change the whole classroom environment.
Now, by high energy, I don’t mean that you too need to be drinking a gallon of coffee before class and bouncing off the walls yourself. I am referring to being positive, enthusiastic, friendly towards all learners, even the more challenging students. Being able to offer a fun and encouraging learning environment.
There is a complete difference between a teacher who sits still for the full 10 minutes, with a monotone voice who reads word by word off the screen. Compared with a teacher who offers different ways to learn just one word e.g. high/low voice, fast/slow, singing/robot voice, acts out words, uses TPR and props.
I can guarantee you teacher 2 would pass their mock class with flying colours.
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Error Correction
This one is very much dependant upon the interviewer you have your mock class with. In theory, they should make a few purposeful mistakes for you to correct. Within real online classes with ESL students, they will, of course, make 100s of mistakes.
Your interviewer will be looking out to see if you spot any error corrections and how you go about correcting them. These might be in the form of mispronunciation, missing plurals or simple grammar mistakes such as forgetting ‘a’ e.g. I am boy instead of I am a boy.
Being able to hear and positively correct errors students make is a really important part of an ESL teacher’s role.
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High Student Talk Time
It can be really easy to ‘fill in the gaps’ through talking or adding in too much speech for instructions when teaching online. It is important, however, to gain a correct balance between teacher and student talk time within the class. A great balance is generally for students to speak around 70% of the time.
Ensure to not give too complicated and long instructions e.g. ‘Can you read this passage starting from the first word and finishing when you get to the bottom of the page?’ Instead, saying and demonstrating with TPR, ‘Can you read…’ and circle the passage to read or for lower level students, even just say the student’s name then ‘read’ and circle the passage.
If students do not respond to a question right away, it is ok to provide them with some thinking time before trying to ask them again or rephrasing the question. Remember, they are learning English as a SECOND language. It may take students time to recall the correct word or translate to themselves what you are saying in English to their native language.
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Zoom Annotations
Zoom is presently the online platform Whales English uses for their classes along with Powerpoint and Adobe. It can make a great impression if you are able to demonstrate some basic skills in using Zoom.
Whales English interviewers are very much aware that most applicants will have never used Zoom prior to their interview. They are extremely fair with this and do not penalise for not knowing how to use every tool or function Zoom has to offer.
However, it doesn’t hurt to demonstrate how you would use a couple of the annotation functions within your lessons.
A few examples might be to:
- Use the drawing tool to circle around part of a picture when asking ‘What’s this?’
- Use the circle or square shape over a selection of text you are referring to or would like your student to read
- Select a stamp shape to place next to your student’s image as a reward e.g. heart or star
- Use the spotlight whilst a student is reading to help them follow the text.
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Extension and Questioning
This relates more to do with your lesson plan surrounding the material you have been given by Whales English. As I have mentioned, do not plan your lesson to just read through each slide with your student and briefly mention what is in each picture.
Extend upon what you have been given. Add in additional questions, with some aimed at reviewing things they should already know and others aimed to challenge them. This provides a good balance to ensure students remain confident with their learning rather than feeling bored, because it’s too easy, or disheartened because it’s too hard.
Check out the lesson example I have provided ideas for below. I have not used any material that is provided by Whales English for your mock class as they need to see what YOU are capable of as a teacher, not what I can do. But, it will hopefully provide you with some ideas of what you can do with your given 10 minutes.
Lesson Example
This is JUST an example meant to provide you with some ideas to help you plan and prepare for your mock class with Whales English. This is NOT material taken from the Whales English mock class, nor can you use this for your mock class.
‘The elephant stomp stomp stomps.
Stomps on the ground.’
Lesson Questions and Ideas:
- What can you see?
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- Teaching: Elephant. I can see an elephant.
- Do you like elephants?
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- Teaching: yes I do/no I don’t.
- How many elephants can you see?
- Let’s be an elephant
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- Act out an elephant’s nose with your arm
- Can you stomp like an elephant?
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- Get up and demonstrate stomping like an elephant. Each time you stomp, say stomp
- What sound does an elephant make?
- What other words start with the sound ‘e’?
- What colour is it?
- Describe the elephant.
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- Long nose, big ears, Big elephant.
- Can you think of opposites?
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- Big/small, long/short, fat/thin, loud/quiet
- Where do elephants live?
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- In the sea?jungle?desert?city?
- What do elephants like to eat/drink?
- Have you seen an elephant? Where?
- Can link a video as an additional resource:
- Practise language acting like an elephant can you stomp?
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- Yes I can. Can you fly? No I can’t.
If you really would like to apply to Whales English but are concerned about the application process, please do use my referral link to apply. I am very happy to hold your hand throughout your application and be there to answer your onboarding questions once hired with Whales English. Remember to send me confirmation via email to caite@caiteelizabeth.com so that I have a way of communicating with you from your resume screening.
If you would still like my support and guidance during your application process, but haven’t used my referral link, I can offer one-to-one consultations. Please email me to discuss personalised packages at caite@caiteelizabeth.com
Good luck and welcome to Whales English!
Related Posts
Become an Online ESL Teacher: Apply and Teach with Whales English
Top Tips to Increase Your Bookings with Whales English
How to Triple Your Income This Summer Teaching English Online
I wish I had read this before applying to Whales English because I have no mentor and I feel left out. My mock class is tomorrow night at 9:30 pm and I am feeling very left out, meaning I wish I had your mentor-ship. All they gave me was a Frog a boy jumping and a girl swimming and I am supposed to make a ten minute lesson plan out of that. I am needless to say a bit overwhelmed. I know I can do this but would like some help.
Hi Scott,
That’s really exciting you have applied to Whales English! Definitely, check out the blog posts surrounding working with Whales, this one offers LOTS of top tips to help you pass your mock class and check out my other posts related to passing your demo lesson:
https://www.caiteelizabeth.com/top-tips-demo-lesson/
https://www.caiteelizabeth.com/top-tips-online-teaching-demo/
The great thing is Whales provides you with the materials, so you don’t really need to go ahead and create a whole new PPT. Use the lesson PDF they gave you and plan your 10-minute lesson around it. Focus on setting a learning objective which your student is to achieve during those 10 minutes (remember it isn’t a real student just your interviewer pretending to be a student). They key here is to spend time and plan your lesson around the learning objective. Ensure to state your learning objective at the beginning of your demo and a MUST is to use TPR. If you don’t know what this is – check out Youtube and watch some videos to guide you through. There is a lot you can do with the material they gave you. Be creative, use some props/visuals etc. I know interviews and especially demos are nerve-wracking. Be prepared, and have fun with it – show them what you’ve got! Good luck Scott.
Thank you I am very excited about this. But you confused me on one point. Do I need to download the powerpoint? I am not hosting the meeting. Or will they have that there for me? That was never made clear even in the zoom videos. Now I am going back to watch the first and second one to be sure lol. I have some photos and some props but the photos I do not know how to share them except to share my screen and it shows my desktop and then I can open them up then ask questions about the photos and gifs. In any case, I thank you for your support.
Yep, so below I said you DON’T need to create a powerpoint, just have open and ready the relevant PDF pages. When in zoom, you can share your screen as you said and be able to show the PDF document along with any additional materials you have. It sounds great that you have some props and photos ready – again these will be shared when you share your screen. If you have any audio/video, make sure to share your sound also when you share your screen (it is a checkbox in the bottom left-hand corner of the pop up when you share your screen). Remember, they aren’t looking for perfection when using Zoom, this is something that comes with practice. They are focusing on your teaching style, ensuring you have covered a learning objective, use TPR, additional props and reward systems are a big bonus. They will also look at your overall teaching style, error correction and teaching script aka not so much teacher talk time and keeping it simple, level appropriate for the student you have been assigned to teach (e.g. if a beginner). I really hope that helps? Good luck it sounds like you are well prepared!
Hi, I’m just wondering regarding categories for ‘learning objectives’ and how to assign this. What would the LO be for your elephant lesson? Thank you
Hi Lara,
My elephant demo was just an example and not something that is used in the Whales English interview. This was to show you a range of ideas/questions you could create with just one picture.
If I was teaching a lesson based on this, I would state my learning objective was to teach action verbs and use them accurately in a sentence ‘I can’ e.g. ‘I can stomp’.
Hi Catherine!
Thank you for these helpful tips. Is there a way to apply for WE more than once if they reject you or you don’t hear from them? I heard that some online companies allow for candidates to reapply with a new email in 3 months.
Thanks!
Kate
Hi Kate
You’re welcome.
I believe with Whales English, they ask for you to submit a new application after 6 months to enable enough time for you to gain more experience.
Good luck with your application,
x
Hi Catherine!
Thank you so much. This is a wonderful and very insightful article.
I haven’t yet accepted my mock class date as I would like to start teaching in August/September if possible.
If you get the position is it a requirement to start teaching straight away? Or can you postpone it for a month?
Hi Fiona,
Congrats on getting through to the mock class, that’s great news.
I honestly couldn’t say regarding teaching at a later date. This would be something you would need to ask during your mock class. Of course, you will have training to complete first, so I don’t see any harm in asking if once you have completed your training you could postpone an official start date.
Good luck!
The fact that they require a photo at the initial stage is a pretty obvious way to weed out candidates based on their racial preferences. Could you imagine the lawsuits if a standard American company asked you to submit photos with your online resume… But whatever, the online ESL industry is what is is.
Many online ESL companies require images to be sent alongside your resume. They also require your passport usually as many hire from set countries. I can’t comment on all online ESL companies, but I do know that Whales English has a huge range of teachers of all different backgrounds and skin colours. Their requirement is dependent upon if you are a native English speaker in specific countries – UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.
Hi there,
Thank you so much for all these useful tips. I have been sent all my content for my mock class on Wednesday, however I don’t have any criteria and the slides are missing some content. E.g. the story slide has nothing on it, but a comment on that slide in Chinese translates to: ‘Jack has a bad dream about the zoo. Let’s go into Jack’s dream.’ But the slide is blank.
Also some slides have timings and some do not. There are 9 slides in total and 7 of them make up 16 minutes (I can see the timing icon in the corner) but two do not have any timings. All mock classes that I’ve seen talked about online are 10 minutes long, why does mine seem like it could be twenty minutes long?
I have emailed WhalesEnglish for some guidance but haven’t had a response from them. I’ve used my initiative to add a picture of a zoo on a blank slide (the whole class is about bears and zebras).
There is also a game slide where I have boxes with groups 1-4 labeled on them and I’m confused as to what to do with this. As I will only have one ‘student’ (the interviewer) I guess I will have to ignore the group boxes and adjust it to one person. Any advice would be great. Thank you.