Advice for those trying to land a teaching job

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For a new teacher, it can be hard to land that first job. 

What advice would I give people trying to crack into teaching and be hired without having extensive experience in the classroom?

I say: start a YouTube channel.

Teaching can feel like being stuck in an experience loop. You can’t get the job until you’ve got more experience; you can’t get more experience until you’ve got the job. This can be enormously frustrating.

Part of proving your worth as a teacher is showing (not just telling!) that you have the skills necessary for effective teaching. That you have a positive and engaging presence. That you can clearly and concisely explain complex concepts. 

YouTube can be the perfect channel to demonstrate this. Let’s say you want to teach Economics but you don’t have an Economics teaching job. Start a YouTube channel focused on Eco content. No major investment required. Use your phone or laptop to record videos of you teaching Economics content, drawn specifically from HSC syllabus (or Biology or English content, or whatever subject you’re focused on).

In discussions with schools, share your YouTube channel. 

I’m giving this advice because my own YouTube channel helped me land my first job. My channel was much smaller then, only a few videos, but I had this video on automatic stabilisers (see below) that I put a lot of effort into. As part of my application process, I shared this video (see below), discussed why and how I made it, and how this would be part of my teaching approach.

The panel watched the video and told me that it was a positive factor in their decision-making process.

It can be tricky to make videos. It can be trickier to make videos that you’re happy with. But, as a starting point, you can use Zoom to make these videos. I’ve got an instructional video below you can check out.

The important point is that YouTube allows you to get experience in being a teacher without having to be employed, for now, as a teacher.

Linking this to COVID

Let’s say that remote learning, in some form, continues. You can demonstrate your ability to teach via a screen really well through a YouTube video. Just give it the same effort and energy that you would give an actual class.

This can be helpful if schools may not be able to bring you on to campus in the near future.