A huge massive workshop today with over 500 teachers from Hanoi. And this is just day 1 of a 2 week, 5 city tour!
Thank you to everyone for getting so genki!
I tell you though, after the awesome teachers in the Coaching Program and all the Genki English fans in Tokyo & Okazaki last week, it took a loooonnnggg time to get the teachers this genki today!
Just like in India or Thailand, or anywhere else I’ve done workshops, government primary school teachers do take a long time to get excited about things. And I guess for some of them workshops are a chance to sleep through speeches 🙂
Now of course, I’m not going to allow that in my workshops 🙂
Remember, the kids don’t listen to what we say, they just copy what we do. So in order to get awesome kids who ask questions, pay attention, have fun and are disciplined, that’s what we have to become first. 🙂 And by the end of the day you girls certainly managed it.
Come help me next year!
To make things even quicker next year I’m definitely going to make sure that all you Genki English fans in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City can join the workshops – I want you to show the primary teachers just how awesome things can be right from the start 🙂
My brief today was to do lots of games and activities, so here is some of what we did:
– Genki Disco Warm – yes, you all have to participate 🙂
– How are you? & I like everything game – remember to finish the class on positive words. And don’t worry about pronunciation, that’s what the computer is there for. You just concentrate on motivating your students!
– How old are you? & Mingle – introduced as a way of making groups but as always the most popular game.
– What’s your name? & Stopwatch game – this game gets around the mixed ability problems you have in class, the kids all work together in a team and teach each other in order to win the game.
– Superhero – change your body language to change your mind for when you need that energy boost before lunch!
Then after lunch ……
– Lines quiz – easy reviews
– Pronouns & dinosaur danger & Sticky Fingers game
Actually just reading this I am quite surprised we got through it all! You guys reading this would be able to whizz through all this in no time, but I guess the teachers today, many of whom had never heard of Genki English before, did actually do quite well to get through it all in one day. So thank you!
Although if today was quite tough, so should see what happened tomorrow …..
Amazing work. Why does it appear to be women only?
You’ve been to my gigs Trevor, it’s rare if there are any guys there 🙂
Having volunteered as an English teacher with kids 6 to 14 in Hanoi for a month I’m surprised the kids remain awake after 15 minutes with the books and teaching they’re subjected to.
There is a desperate need for a radical change in the way English is taught to kids.
As a Tefl teacher I became increasingly frustrated with the books I had to teach from. Deviating from the books doesn’t go down to well with the local teachers but the kids love it !!
In my humble opinion Richard you should move to vietnam before the kids die of boredom.