Richard's Diary!

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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First Lesson in Junior High School

The number one top idea for a first Junior High School lesson is without doubt the “What’s your name?” lesson. As I wrote in the “6th graders” article, even the hardest nosed too-cool-for-school 6th graders turn back into little angels in the first year of Junior High. And after a week full of entrance ceremonies and often very boring lessons they appreciate having the chance to move around the class and get a bit of the “good old days” of elementary school back. The song gets all the important points like eye contact etc. and lets the Japanese teacher see how much the kids can do. ( It also helps that “What’s your name?” is the first topic in many textbooks!)

Then it’s usually on to the alphabet. I really, really recommend getting the kids into the computer room and playing with the Genki English phonics games for this. The kids play around for a few minutes, then they race to see who can finish first.

You might have a tough job persuading a stuck in the mud old teacher to go for this ( you could try showing them the explanation in the front of the Foxy Phonics book), but the computer teacher will usually be very happy as they have to spend the first few lessons teaching about the internet, using a mouse, links etc. anyway and the chance to use some real content from other classes is always appreciated.

If you can get the basic phonics cracked in these first couple of weeks you won’t believe how huge an impact it will have on the rest of the year!

« First Lesson in Video with NHK

First Lesson when you don’t speak the lingo »

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