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 Printable Lesson Plans Genki English CDs:  Volume 1  Volume 2  Volume 3  Volume 4  Volume 5  Volume 6   New CD Vol. 7   MP3 Songs |
Take any problem in the World and it's invariably caused ( or made worse)
by a lack of education. Too many kids hate school because it's too boring.
The aim of Genki Learning is to have all subjects in all countries taught
in a fun, engaging and effective way. There are already a few million kids
benefiting from this, and even a whole country where the government has
put it in all their schools. But there's still a long way to go!
While I'm on the road you'll hear about my travels & workshops, and
when I'm doing studio work I'll keep you up to date with ideas, updates
to the site and some of my favourite teaching resources. So if you want
to find out what's it's like behind the scenes or how & why I do what
I do or even if you're just nosey or a bit bored, have a read.
I'll update the diary as often as I can, so keep coming back. And of course
whilst I'm away, the office staff are always ready to send off your CD orders just as soon as you send them in!
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Over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to remix the software section of CD3. So it was on/off as to whether I go with another run on the current version of the CD, or work flat out to get the remix done. And today I realised I’m not going to be able to make it before the current stocks run out! So I had another look at the current software and it is actually really good, and certainly has all the features teachers need! So once I’d made my mind up it was a phonecall to the factory and a huge, huge weight off my mind!! Doing both production and training work isn’t the best lifestyle to lead!!
So I’ll take a half day off, then put my full effort into all the workshops I’ve got coming up over the next month!
Today was a production day doing the new CD remix, but in the morning I just popped out to a school in Fukuoka to do a demonstration class for 600+ kids!!
They were actually really good and although it took the 6th graders a while to get it, they eventually got really genki by the final What’s your name song!
Then in the afternoon and evening it was production work.
Today I was soooo tired! But I have a load of production work to do and a very, very full schedule for the next 2 months!
A long time ago the business model of Genki English was that in order to keep the Elementary School visits free, I’d also do private shows where the kids pay to attend. These did work well, but the amount of work for the people who organise the events is just way too much! So three weeks ago today’s gig was looking well dodgy!
But the organisers and I all started putting a lot of extra effort in and things actually worked out OK. There was also the idea ( not mine by the way!) of doing a “mini genki” show for little kids and their parents. Now that idea didn’t particularly grab me, but people wanted to try it so I had a go! And it worked, but you have to give up any semblance of trying to act like an adult and just go mad like a kid!!! I can’t think of anyone who’d want my job, from Friday having tough negotiations with hard-nosed Osaka businessmen, to today jumping around like a madman in front of a hall of kindergarten kids and their Mums!!
But it worked, just by going over the top, a nice mix of Genki English songs and Kids English songs plus a couple of phonics songs and it was great. Actually at the beginning I was really surprised at how fast the kids were picking up the phonics songs, they were really good. Then I came to do the “g” song and they could sing it even before I’d taught the melody, so then it twigged that they must have the CD at home!!! But it was pretty cool as the CDs only been out 3 weeks! Parents aren’t half into phonics, all the phonics CDs had sold out even before the show started, and the superpacks all went just after the show!
People were also asking how come I can jump so high, I think it comes from carrying around 15 kilos of baggage on my shoulders all week!
Then a 45 minutes Q&A session with the parents, and then a show for elementary school kids. It’s always difficult in these private shows as the teachers often ask for “high level” stuff, but the problem is that the kids may have studied the lower level stuff, they can’t actually use it straight away!! So that’s why in the beginning I always do test stuff and then see how far they can go. Although actually it’s the “dekiru, dekiru, dekiru” way of thinking that’s the most important indicator of how well they can do. So anyway due to popular request I did What are you doing? ( very chilled out song) and the Harry Potter game, which the kids and teachers all loved even though the kids were determined to just run and save themselves rather than helping the other Harry Potters! Then “Where are you going?” ( always a big hit), a few other songs and even the phonics “l” song. So everyone seemed quite happy!!
So yesterday the teachers all seemed to get a lot out of it, the kids and parents today were all happy and then at the end the finances also worked out, so eventhough there was a huge amount of prep work to do, everything worked out OK. So thanks to the organisers for all your amazing hard work!! The trick now is to find a more sustainable way of doing this!
But for now I’m shattered and I’m off to sleep on the shinkansen back to Hakata.
Today was just so good. It was up early, a meeting at 8:30 and then from 9:30 till 7:30 in the evening a full 8 and a half hours of Genki English! I wasn’t sure how many teachers would come, but in the end there were 15 from all sorts of teaching backgrounds ( even shogakkou teachers and even three guys) and it was really, really cool. We did a load of games and songs ( the Harry Potter game was just fantastic!) and lots of other sessions on goal setting and stuff, which was great. I think most people were surprised at how deeply the educational aspects of GE are planned, but everyone had a great time and I myself thought it was just a fantastic day!! Check out this page for a run down of all the stuff we did!
So pretty long but well worth all the effort - thank you everyone!
The only place in Japan my wireless internet doesn’t work is the mountains of Hiroshima! And it took my computer over night just to download the 2 days worth of email ( mostly spam of course!). And this morning I had loads of deadlines to get things sorted, so didn’t leave Hiroshima till lunchtime!!
I also put up a page about Craig Desorcy’s “Super Teaching in Japan Handbook” - it’s a great collection of all the hints, tips and advice that all the successful teachers here use. I’m so glad that someone actually took the time to put them in a book, it saves me having to write the same sort of info down in reply to all the emails I get!
Now I’m on the Shinkansen to Osaka where I have a few meetings today and then a full day workshop tomorrow! That will be so good, just being able to present everything, not just the very simple stuff!! I had a run through the materials on the train and the GE website is just so useful, even I’m impressed and I wrote it! Best of all most of the ideas don’t need any preparation, just the picture cards and CDs. I’m also looking forward to trying lots of the Readers’ Games for the first time, Cowboy and Harry Potter look really great!
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