Training Lesson

A Training Lesson is a kind of a rehearsal

of a lesson with a "real" student (methodologist)

Your task: perform the lesson as if you had a real student in the virtual
classroom. The role of the “student” is performed by the Skyeng School’s
expert (hereinafter - methodologist).

The total duration of the whole training lesson procedure is 60 minutes.

The standard Unit’s materials are designed for 2 lessons, 50 minutes

each. However, according to the training lesson’s plot, the student is 15
minutes late. Therefore you will have:

35 minutes 25 minutes
To go through a bit less than a For comments and
half of the Unit’s materials recommendations of the
methodologist
 Getting prepared

Check your workplace

1. It is to be a quiet place where you also plan to perform classes in the

future.

Public places (such as cafes etc.) is an example of an

inappropriate workplace, as those are too noisy and are lacking
an access to a stable internet connection

2. Only either a desktop computer or a laptop can be used during the

lessons.

Tablets, smartphones and netbooks are not suitable for giving the
lessons.

3. Make sure that you already have a Google Chrome browser installed, as
is mandatory for the proper work of the platform. In case you don't have
Chrome, you can download it via the link

4. Check your microphone, camera and headphones(mandatory as well).

To do this, follow the link

After following the above link, you should see yourself on both screens,
without major lag issues, along with the green bar under the microphone
icon, filling up as you speak into the microphone.
5. Make sure that you do have a stable Internet connection with a speed
of at least 10MBs/sec, both for upload and download. You can check
your connection speed by following the link, and pressing the “Go”
button.

6. All communications with the methodologist are performed via

slack. If you still don’t have a Slack account, please contact our
manager and ask to provide you with one.

Look though the student’s profile (you can find one below) ️ ️

Study the information from the student profile and use it during the
lesson. Student’s profile for the upcoming training lesson:

P.S. you can find your student’s profiles in your private area of the Vimbox
website (it is currently missing to simplify the Training Lesson’s procedure,
so please use the one from the picture above)
Prepare for the lesson

1. Find the General English course and choose the New General section
2. Choose the Upper-Intermediate level.

3. Prepare one of the suggested lessons: No.25 ️“Emotional first aid” ️or
No.11 ️“Superhumans”
 4. Click the View Material button, to look though the content and
materials of the selected lesson

5. All units(lessons) from the New General course are designed for 100
minutes, thus prepare a bit less than half of the pages from the lesson
materials (e.g. pages 1 to 8 from the screenshot below), for 35 mins of the
training lesson.
Lesson materials
 A perfect lesson

• Follow the recommended plan during the class. This will help to
quickly establish a contact with the student (methodologist).
• Do not just rush in and go straight to the material. A good lesson
always starts with an introduction and a warm up

1. Introduction (2-5 minutes)

The first lessons always start with a mutual introduction and a brief
description of interests and hobbies between the teacher and the student.
Introduction part can be performed in the form of a game (e.g. “true or
false” etc.), or in a form of a nice friendly chat. The teacher’s task during
the introduction part is to get extra information about his or her student's
hobbies and preferences, as well as his goals.

2. Warm Up (3-5 minutes)

Just a generic warm up taken from the warm up page of the selected lesson.

3. Lesson aims
The teacher provides the student with information about the skills that are
going to be practiced in course of the lesson and introduces the topic of the
lesson.
4. The lesson
Listening и reading: pre- listening/reading activities are extremely
important
Grammar: start with the practice and introduce the theory via the mutual
analysis of student’s mistakes (the guided discovery)
Lexis: in general, a direct translation of words is to be avoided. It is to be
replaced with definitions, situations, gestures, facial expressions etc. All
new words are to be added by the teacher, to the student’s vocabulary, via
the Search Words window in the upright corner of the page.
Integration of new words and rules into the speaking practice: ask the
student some follow-up questions relating to the page’s materials after
learning a new vocabulary or grammar to practice those.
Mind the STT and TTT balance: teacher’s talking time(TTT) is to be as little
as possible, in proportion to the student’s talking time(STT)
Teacher's notes and You can also discuss boxes prove to be very helpful to
maintain a conversation with a student.

5. Summing up
Demonstrate student progress to him via some summing up questions.
e.g.: What new have you learned today?”
Ask for a feedback: what was simple / complex, what would you like to
add and what would you like us to pay more attention to
Analyze ️student’s work: be sure to praise your student, using his/her
strong sides shown during the lesson
Home assignment: show the pages of homework to be sent to the
student, and make sure he understands what needs to be done to
complete the exercises, then, send those to him.
 Start of the training lesson

Before the start of the training lesson:

1. Log into your Vimbox account via the link

2. Select the lesson you’ve prepared from the list and start it by pressing
the “Start ️the ️lesson” ️button

3. Copy the link to the class via the Copy Link button
4. Send it to the methodologist 5 minutes prior the start of the class
with the following message
Hello! I am online and ready to start the lesson. Please follow the
link below to join me. Best regards, YOUR NAME.

5. Go to the lesson itself by clicking the Continue to the lesson button.

Good luck!
Skyeng