For those of you that know, the first half of 2016 was an incredibly difficult time for me. Ā Ā Luckily it ended being quite wonderful.
Especially all the workshops, the live events plus all the chats, coaching sessions and emails, Thank you!!
Here is some of what we went through …..
January – start of the year in New Zealand
As for the last few years in January I started out in New Zealand, getting ready for the New Year’s materials. Ā For all of you wanting a quick start to the term I went over all my Best of the Games of the Year in Part 1, Ā Part 2Ā &Ā Part 3Ā plusĀ aĀ Silly Phonics ReviewĀ & I asked youĀ You can fly????!Ā along with Margit’s tips for super stressed teachersĀ Antarctica: For super stressed or āgot no timeā teachers!
And following on the idea of taking family fairy stories and genkifying ( and simplifying) them we had theĀ Goldilocks & The 3 Bears: A4 Cards & Mini Play
February – Buy one, give one free + Phonics & Games
After many requests I wrote up theĀ Genki English: Buy One, Give One FreeĀ program where you can help with some of the most important projects I do in the developing world (the real passion of what I do). Ā And activities wise we hadĀ Ā New Game: I wanna ā¦ā¦ but I gottaā¦ā¦, Ā Ā Yoga + Genki English Special ClassĀ &Ā Ā How to use the computer games with small classes?
Still in New Zealand and after amazing concerts from Madonna & Simply Red Ā (and just missing out on seeing Prince live!) Ā I started out withĀ Ā How to make grammar drills less boringĀ Ā & added theĀ New Phonics Stories CoversĀ – they are great to put on your wall and impress the parents – a whole story after just 25 minutes of reading!
Whilst being quite stressed myself, I brought you theĀ Being Happy: āThe Reverse GapāĀ and we had lots of posts onĀ Start Your Own School: Who is your avatar? ( + how to crush your competition)Ā and I reopened the Ā Start Your Own School & Double Your Schoolās Income ā Guaranteed!Ā Coaching Program.
March – Crazy times & Super Long Flights in Dubai
March was supposed to be wonderful, but ended up being some of the hardest weeks of my life. Ā Ā So I got on the worlds longest flight – 17 hours non-stop to Dubai.
I got some wonderful words of support with Just Extraordinary!, and I found time to write upĀ Get Fluent Quickly Tip 2: The Hidden Benefits of Getting FluentĀ and of course the eventsĀ Ā Easter Egg Hunt + GamesĀ &Ā Last Minute Genki St Patrickās Day Ideas.
Another bumper month for activities, we hadĀ Ā New Game: Question Balls,Ā 2:Ā Who knows? AppliquĆ© GameĀ Ā & theĀ Ā 10 Best Review Games for Teaching EnglishĀ plusĀ Ā Where is it? Minicards & Do you want the Phonics First Curriculum?Ā &Ā Junior High School Genki English (New Horizon)
And on a brighter noteĀ Takasaki City because the latest City to adopt Genki EnglishĀ for every school in the city.
April – CrazyĀ Americans (!) Arizona
In April I was over in Arizona for a very genki conference with nearly a thousand teachers of all subjects from all over the world. Ā If you’ve never been to a professional conference in America, Ā try it, it’s like Genki English with a thousand percent more genkiness!
And for the first time in a long time had some time off, so I went to the Grand Canyon!
We had Ā A few quick Icebreaker ideasā¦, I teased theĀ Ā Brand New Genki Phonics iPhone App??Ā we hadĀ Ā New Levels 9 & 10 Jumbo & Incredible Workbooks,Ā Ā How to get students to think in English.Ā Ā New Genki Spanish SongsĀ theĀ Junior High First Lessons Top 5 TipsĀ &Ā Ā Bigger Please Pizza.
May – UK & France
In May I started doing the the Facebook Live sessions, it was so good to see so many of you joining in. Ā Ā Wow here’s the recording of the first session ā that was pretty cool! Ā &Ā The second one – lots of amazing Q&AI!Ā plus a popular request was to see me actually teaching kids in video so I dug up some footage and showed youĀ How to teach Genki English to kids ā in videoĀ andĀ Ā How to create amazingly engaging lesson plans? (+ Jelly Beans)
Unbelievably it was May that I first started planning theĀ Online Teacher Training Academy ā What would you like to see included?Ā – hopefully that will be released in January this coming year. Ā It does take a long time to get things ready!
Lesson planning wise we had Ā The Genki English Awesome Lesson FormulaĀ &Ā What to do in your very first minute of English/ESL/EFL class.
For activities we had a great blast from the past withĀ Do you like ā¦? Hippo Worksheet Game
Plus Ā Thank you, thank you, thank you!, Ā getting more students with “Are you as Iconic as Route 66?”Ā &Ā The number one question from my students ā¦.
June – I was back in Japan
In June I was beginning to get back on my feet a little bit. Ā And I relaunched the Ā the School Owners Coaching Program with a Mini Video series with so many comments:
- Ā Video 1: How to get more students? My Top Tip
- Ā Video 2: How to Grow (or Start) your School? My Top Tip
- Video 3: The No.1 Mistake that all School Owners make
Plus we had Workshop News + Tokyo Meetup
For those of you struggling to balance the demands of “grammar” teaching with teaching speaking I askedĀ How does a frog jump?Ā and we had a big Facebook session onĀ Teaching English: What are you afraid of?
One thing I didn’t want to do, Ā put you all pushed me, was after many years of teasing I finally brought you theĀ Phonics First CurriculumĀ for those of you who (feel you) have to introduce reading too early.
Plus a quickĀ Quick Genki Phonics Overview Posters & Snakes & Ladders
July – On tour in Vietnam!
Thank you so much to all the girls who made the Vietnam tour quite amazing. Ā South East Asia certainly does these huge teacher training events with a lot of style. Ā Over 2 weeks and several cities we had one workshop withĀ Five Hundred Teacher Workshop in Hanoi, theĀ Ā First day in Vietnam & Teacherās MeetupĀ andĀ Ā Itās out! The Genki Phonics Homework iOS app!Ā – That was a big month!
I talked about howĀ The world is desperate for great teachers like youĀ and theĀ Ā Summer Heat & Vietnam
I was also back in Japan with the awesome COFFET teachers – and a few very cool Genki English fans – for the Ā Ā Tokyo & Okazaki Coffet Awesome Workshops, aĀ Ā New Game: Samurai HatsĀ &Ā Ninja Communication Skills: Hi Iām ā¦..
To give you a little inspiration, from Korea I introducedĀ The English teacher who earns $500kĀ and I also relaunched theĀ Double Your Impact. Grow (or Start) Your English School in just 6 Weeks. Ā Which even with a much bigger price tag, was amazing to see the growth from the teachers.
Wow, that was a busy month!
August – Ultimate Genki Confidence Live!
I had more live FAQ video sessions withĀ Ā Teach English FAQ in Video: Staying Motivated / Exams vs. Games / High School /AdultsĀ and for the new termĀ Ā Best ESL English Demo Lesson to Get New StudentsĀ andĀ Tell your friends how to get my free Superhero Teaching Email Course
Some of the feedback on my workshop photos promptedĀ Ā Is learning English for girls only?Ā and I threw away the teacher training to do a hugeĀ Ultimate Genki Confidence Workshop ā This is how you motivate a huge room full of Ā people, the news was also full ofĀ Japanās Plans for Primary School EnglishĀ and for those of you doing teacher training there was an excellent quote onĀ Ships to inspire ā¦.
September – in LA!
I was full on answering hundreds of emails from you all. Ā Plus on the blog there were lots of things for the new term includingĀ My Top 5 Games for the New School YearĀ &Ā Ā Lights! Camera! Action! Why multiple intelligences, pictures, music and movement are so important in language teaching
Lots of tutorials withĀ Ā How to get the Genki English Worksheets ā and how to use themĀ and anotherĀ Ā Teaching English/ESL Q&A Live from LA
To get you pumped up for the weekend there was Ā Energise your weekend with the Law of Attraction Genki Rules of LifeĀ and
Another popular request for non-native speaker teachers I wrote up theĀ Start Your Own School: But Iām not a native speaker!
The Teacher’s Set went up in price – it’s crazy how much is in it now – and I did bring you theĀ Installment PlanĀ Ā to make it easier to spread the cost.
As always there wasĀ Ā International Talk Like A Pirate Day and the biggest session was Ā onĀ Ā Fear: What it is, how itās holding you back and how to vanquish it!
Plus for beginners we had Ā How to start your first ESL / English class?Ā &Ā Ā This weekās Teach English FAQ: Harry Potter, iPads, become more innovative & getting more energy.
October – Photoshoot and recording in LA!
Along with lots of work on the blog, I was also in the studio recording new levels for the Genki Phonics App – free updates coming soon – and also had a photoshoot in Hollywood – which is just crazy!
We got in a little early withĀ Ā Last Minute Tips for a Smooth Halloween (or Xmas!) Event,Ā Ā Halloween Spinners!,Ā My Top 3 āNo Prepā Halloween IdeasĀ &Ā Ā The Monster Guide to Halloween Teaching Ideas
A friend of mine, Luis, Ā A Teacher Like You Just Won a Ferrari ā¦ā¦Ā by talking aboutĀ Ā Whatās your transformation?Ā from the conferenceĀ Iām about to learn ā¦ in L.A.
And I also talked aboutĀ Teacherās Set Price is going up now & Why it matters
November – On Tour in Ukraine, Kiev and Christmas wonderland in Lviv!
After a quick week in France, making yet more videos for you:
- First 2 Minutes of Your Awesome Lesson : āHow to teach Englishā Free Online Workshop Video 1Ā ( which was very popular!)
&Ā Ā Online Workshop Video 2: Chaos to Awesome ā Top 2 Discipline Tips + PDFĀ (which wasn’t very popular! Ā But hey, you can’t win them all š )
I was in Ukraine in the beautiful snow forĀ Ā The Best Ever Genki English Workshop in Kiev 2016Ā & Ā Lviv Christmas Wonderland Workshop
Seriously Kiev was like coming home to a family of friends. Ā And Lviv was just the most amazing Christmas experience – you have to visit!
Christmas wise we hadĀ Amyeās Amazing Christmas Book!Ā ,Ā What are you thankful for?,Ā Ā Monster Guide to Christmas Activities!Ā &
On other activities we hadĀ Affirmations & Meditation: Genki RelaxĀ &Ā Ā theĀ Daily Routines: Little Red Riding Hood
Plus after the huge event in LA last month, I wrote up theĀ Complete Guide to Genki English for Adults
December – Winter Sun in Cyprus!
Finally we were in December Ā with the amazing teachers with the Ā Winter Sun Workshop in Cyprus!, Ā Ā Magic Christmas Game,Ā Ā Iāve got no time!!!!Ā , Ā 12 Genki Days of Christmas in VideoĀ and lots more to come.
And on to 2017 ….
As I say that was one of the most emotional years I’ve had in a long, long time. Ā And I so thank all of you for being there, supporting Genki English in the events, in emails, on Facebook and everywhere else. Ā You are all awesome!!!
You really kept me going through the first half of the year. Ā Ā And really brought joy back to me in the second half.
I thank you all.
I appreciate you all so much.
There is so much more to come next year, with new Hip Hop Songs, Ā the online Teacher Training Academy, new teaching challenges for you and hopefully live events in Greece, Vietnam and maybe Italy.
I wish you all a wonderful, wonderful 2017!
Be genki,
Richard
I am also very thankful for finding your blog this year and comming into contact with you! You are like a mentor to me – you inspire, encourage and teach me soooo much! Right now I’m in a difficult position, but just wait a little and I’ll report back about all the awesome impact you’ve had on my life. I am so happy to be a part of this big, genki family of so many like-minded teachers who want to be the best teachers! What a wonderful community!
I wish you a happy, successful, energetic, but peaceful, fulfilling 2017! š