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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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Previous Entries are here
I’ve had quite a few of people getting in touch to complain how they can’t find the Genki Christmas software section on CD4. Well, it is there. To find it you have to think like a kid. Or give a kid the mouse and see it appear instantly!
It’s cool that so many people are using the software as well as the music this year though.
The KOTESOL people are really into using computers to help the kids. In yesterday’s workshops I had a break so checked out some of the CALL (computer aided language learning) workshops.
Jason Renshaw ( of English Raven fame ) did a great one on how he uses his own OnlinEnglish.net ( just one “E”) and YackPack to set his kids speaking homework. The kids are set assignments and record the answers online. There’s no pressure of having to talk in front of others and apparently works wonders with shy kids. It looks great.
Elsewhere Moodle was the hot topic of the moment. Everyone was raving about it!
Today was another very busy conference in Korea with lots of presenters mixed between CALL and the Young Learners group. Plus of course a massive meal in the evening with a whole pig as the main course!
First up I had a special workshop for kindergarten teachers. And they were great. It was the first time for them all so it was basics of How are you? + Monster Game + requests of Mr Wolf + Mingle, Left & Right and Thank you.
Then it was the conference proper with quite a few people from last year so it was Name song warm up, Under the Sea + Sticky Fingers + Nemo Game, then Do you like..? + Do you like Karuta. It was interesting to see the Korean teachers make the same mistake as Japanese teachers by asking “Do you like apple?” instead of “apples”. My Korean isn’t quite good enough to explain why yet though!
Generally though the level here is way ahead of Japan. People are very much focussed on research and getting numbers and concrete results to compare teaching methods and ideas. You really have to be on your toes to keep up and there’s none of the “well, that seems nice but….” attitude that you often find in academic circles in Japan.
Then I had a CALL workshop. I was intending to go pretty deep with the hows and whys of using the computer side of Genki English. Mainly the rule of “it’s got to be so, so, so simple!” and of course “kids first!”. There were quite a few kids’ teachers there, so I showed off the GE material with Under, on, in + the game, the talking picture books and the Hip Hop quizzes. They really jumped at the hip hop stuff!
Then lots of chats with lots of very interesting people, lots of fantastic food and some beers and great company in the evening!
So once again, thank you very much and let’s work on getting even more genkiness into Korea!
PS Things to remember for next year: Tooth brush ( Korean hotels don’t have them!) and a power convertor.
There’s a new picture book to try out on the CD Owners Forum. This time it’s clothes and is great for this time of year. Clothes is always a tough theme, mainly because of the US/UK difference in words. Luckily with this picture book they all turned out to be international which is quite nice!
I also put narration on the Where are the Christmas presents? picture book. I was planning on doing all of them, but it just seems to be missing something without any music in the background. Music is going to take a long while to do, but is it worthwhile just putting up narrations on their own for the time being? What do you think?
For the first time in ages today I’ve had the chance to sit down and work through my “non urgent” email folder. Hopefully I’ll be up to speed with everyone by the end of today!
Some really great ideas have been sent in on the Readers Games page. I’m really impressed as they are nearly all in the “so simple it’s brilliant!” style.
We have…
There’s some real genius in these games and I’m looking forward to trying them out myself. Thank you very much, and please keep them coming!
On Saturday the 25th of November ( that’s this Saturday!) I’ll be having 3 workshops in Korea. One in the morning for Korean kindergarten teachers ( very basic songs + games), one for elementary school teachers in the afternoon ( more detailed games, songs) and then a CALL workshop on using Genki English and computers to add magic to the classroom. It’s organised by the Daejon - Chungnam chapter of KOTESOL, so please get in touch with them if you’d like to attend!
The other new workshop is in Cologne Germany on January 20th ( so you have a little more time!). It’s 3 hours in the afternoon and is sponsored by ELTA-RHINE so please get in contact with them if you can join us!
Both workshops should be really good, so try and attend if you can!
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