I’m always on the look out for new and interesting material to introduce to people. Basically the more good stuff I can recommend, the less I have to make myself!
Whilst I was over in Korea last year there was a very popular presentation by a group of guys called English Tiger. I thought their stuff would work really well in Japan, especially for private English teachers who teach in small groups. But their website is only in Korean! So we’ve worked out a nice package of games which are now on the Genki English site. Have a look: : English Tiger’s Board Games & Card Games
Right, now it’s time to send off the February newsletter!
← Please click once a day if you like the blog!
Similar Posts:
Comment Competition: Every month I'll select a random comment to win a Genki English CD of your choice. Comment a lot and you have more chance of winning.
One of the ( many ) slogans I have at Genki English is “Not tested on animals. Tested on kids”. Basically as soon as I put an idea up on the site thousands of teachers use it and I get a lot of feedback on what works and what doesn’t.
I’ve been thinking though that it’d be cool to try and get more feedback on things before they actually go on the site. Most of the stuff I test out before hand with lots of kids, but when other teachers get hold of the materials they often have even better ideas on how to use them, and in some cases, such as the new CD 1 remix, the materials actually work better in a slightly different version.
I was thinking that the new forum could be a great way to try out demo versions of some of the new projects, so we can try out a few experimental type things without the risk of them going on the main site just yet. You can give your input on how you’d like them to be before they get on the site and of course you get to try out new materials before anybody else. As an avid computer user I don’t usually like “beta” or test phase products, but it can be really fulfilling to see a new feature make it into a finished project.
So if you’d like to join in, I’ve put one such project on the “wishlist” section of the forum. Let me know what you think!
← Please click once a day if you like the blog!
Similar Posts:
Comment Competition: Every month I'll select a random comment to win a Genki English CD of your choice. Comment a lot and you have more chance of winning.
The last picture book proved really successful, so here’s a new one - “I love vegetables”
The cool part of the book is, of course, the twist at the end. This time it fits in very nicely with the upcoming Valentine’s Day. It’s not going to work for all your kids, but for the ones who are into this type of thing it’s bound to get a chorus of “ahhhh”s and make you a very popular teacher! It certainly has every time I’ve tried it out.
The nice thing about these books is that I can use them to introduce new language that is difficult to do in song form. So here we have vegetables and Do you like…?. Having separate International and U.S. printed versions also gets over the zucchini / courgette and eggplant / aubergine problem. This way you can choose the ones you want, or even do both. Very nice.
I’ve also collated the various Valentine’s Day games and things onto one “What to do on Valentine’s?” page and there are a couple of new games on the Readers Games’ Page.
← Please click once a day if you like the blog!
Similar Posts:
Comment Competition: Every month I'll select a random comment to win a Genki English CD of your choice. Comment a lot and you have more chance of winning.
The Teachers TV website has put up two videos of how MFL ( modern foreign languages) are taught in UK schools. As you can see the situation is very much similar to those in Japan.
The most useful aspect of the videos is that the reactions the UK teachers are having is exactly the same as Japanese classroom teachers. If you don’t speak Japanese it can sometimes be tricky to get a sense for what they are thinking, but here you can really pick up on the sense of nervousness and need of the teachers for someone to just help them out and more importantly show them where they are going wrong or right.
Over here this role is filled by ASTs or Advanced Skills Teachers. They are used in a similar way to ALTs in Japan - just that the government doesn’t leave the training up to Genki English! The way the AST deals with the classroom teachers is a good role model for elementary school ALTs.
There’s also one more video called “Activity Based Learning“. It wouldn’t seem to be the most exciting thing on the planet, and a few of the ideas are considered a little old fashioned, but you can see how kids do indeed get a great deal from language classes and are really focussed on the lesson - or maybe this is the influence of the TV cameras?? ; )
← Please click once a day if you like the blog!
Similar Posts:
Comment Competition: Every month I'll select a random comment to win a Genki English CD of your choice. Comment a lot and you have more chance of winning.
← Please click once a day if you like the blog!
Similar Posts:
Comment Competition: Every month I'll select a random comment to win a Genki English CD of your choice. Comment a lot and you have more chance of winning.
I don’t think you can have jet lag from Germany, but I was strangely wide awake at work at 7 this morning. And I spent the next 6 hours trying to get the Genki English forum back again. And I think I’ve done it!
Apparently what took the forum down last time was simply a computer worm. The old backups were no good, but as lots of people have been asking for the forum back I figured a new one starting from the beginning is better than nothing. You can always access the old archives on google as they have cached everything. So if you have any questions or need help or advice about your teaching, requests for new things on the site or would like downloads and previews of new songs….
…. welcome back to the Genki English forum!
Update: and by the evening it was already packed with comments! Thank you.
← Please click once a day if you like the blog!
Similar Posts:
Comment Competition: Every month I'll select a random comment to win a Genki English CD of your choice. Comment a lot and you have more chance of winning.
