Japanese Version

Genki English Newsletter

April 2003

Welcome to Spring ( or Autumn!), and the new school term! I hope things are going well, and all your students are very genki!

1. "What are you doing?" Ideas
2. New Lesson Plans
3. New talking "Mini Lesson"
4. How much English?
5. On the road


"What are you doing?" Ideas

"What are you doing?" is a great way to introduce verbs, especially when you add gestures. Some new suggestions are:
"Walking, Running, Swimming, Playing" or "Writing, Drawing, Cleaning, Flying". Try them out with the karaoke version of the "What are you doing?" song!
http://genkienglish.net/doing.htm


Huge New Curriculum Guide

The big news this month is that the website just got a whole lot easier to use! I've pulled together the free flash cards, curriculum, songs and games pages together into the all new "Curriculum" section. Basically you look down the 30 themes (e.g. weather, adjectives, body parts etc.) and with one click you have a lesson plan complete with suggested vocabulary, printable picture cards, a suggested game, song and even an online explanation video of how to teach it! These pages used to be "advertisements" for each song on the CD-ROMs, but seeing as many of you already have the CD-ROMs the new pages are a lot more "informative" and should really help your teaching!! Check it out at http://genkienglish.net/curriculum.htm


Free "How old are you?" Talking Mini Lesson

The talking mini lessons on CD/CDROM vol. IV have proved so popular that I've made this new one of the "How old are you?" theme! It's a great way to teach the kids the new vocab, and it's great to view as a teacher as you get to see just how much time you can save by using the songs (this one is free on the website!) right from the start!
http://genkienglish.net/howold.htm



How much English to use in class?

One topic that has come up quite a lot recently is that of how much English and how much of the kids' native language to use in class. It's quite an important point, and one that a lot of people have opinions about. The simple answer is...... it depends on your situation!
My personal view, taken from quite a lot of experience, is that if you have the time (e.g. at least an hour everyday) then it may be possible to do it all in English.
However, if you are teaching in Elementary School (especially in Japan) where you only see the kids once a week, once a month (or even less!) then using the kids' native language is very useful for explanations, especially games. The reason being that it takes a lot longer to explain a game in English than the kids native tongue, and for me I'd much rather have that time spent as game time, i.e. when the kids are speaking!
I also find that at first it's much easier to motivate the kids in their native language rather than English, and motivation is so important in what we do!!
But what do you think? Please put your views up on the Ideas & Discussion board, there are some great gems of information on there already, why not add some more!
http://genkienglish.net/discussion.mv


April / May Live Events

We're out and about again these next couple of months (I'm so glad it's warm now!). If you'd like us to visit for a FREE elementary school visit or you'd like to organise a paid for event, get in touch and we'll send you off a free info pack. Or you can have a look at the website at: http://genkienglish.net/show.html (kids shows) http://genkienglish.net/workshop.htm (for teacher training seminars)

April 20th Ibaraki JALT - "Teaching Kids using the Genki English Songs"
We'll be going through as many of the Genki English songs as we can in this 3 hour presentation. It will be similar to the great presentation we did in Omiya last month, click here ( http://jalt.org/chapters/omiya/review03-03.htm ) to see what they wrote! Please come along!
Click here for contact details.
http://www.kasei.ac.jp/JALT/Ibaraki.html

April 26th - 27th Tokyo Bookfair
We'll be hanging around, please pop along for a chat!

May 4th - Nagoya "How to make Elementary School English Genki"
In this presentation, in Japanese, I'll be going through some of the principles of teaching in Elementary school, how it differs from teaching private lessons and giving techniques and motivation to the teachers. Afterwards, along with Yoko Matsuka of Matsuka Phonics fame, we'll be holding a question and answer session.
If you'd like more info in Japanese,
http://genkienglish.net/nagaoyamay4.htm

May 11th - Nagasaki JALT "Teaching Kids using the Genki English Songs"
We'll be going through as many of the Genki English songs as we can in this 3 hour presentation. It will be very similar to what we did in Omiya last month, click here ( http://jalt.org/chapters/omiya/review03-03.htm ) to see what they wrote! Please come along!
Click here for Nagasaki JALT contact info.
http://kyushu.com/jalt/nagasaki.html



May 18th - Kids Show in Hiroshima and Teaching Seminar for Hiroshima JALT
This time we'll not only be doing a fantastic teaching seminar, but we'll also be doing a Genki English kids show!! If you have any elementary school aged students then be sure to bring them along, it's only 1,500 yen per kid and it'll probably be the best hour's English they'll ever have!!


May 19th - Nakayama Elementary School - Okayama City
In the morning we'll have a Genki English show for all the kids in the school, then in the afternoon the teachers will gather together for a teacher training seminar, showing them how to teach English and International Understanding in their classrooms and answering any problems or worries they may have. If you live nearby, get in touch with the school and they may let you attend! Tel 086 - 284- 6083

May 26th - 28th JET Recontracting Conference Kobe
June 2-4 JET Recontracting Conference Tokyo
We really want to do the Key Note Speech!! Similar to the "Getting the most out of JET" speech we did last year in Tokyo (about which one JET wrote "I went in there hung over and feeling terrible, I came out feeling I could wrestle a grizzly bear with one hand tied behind my back!"), instead of teaching techniques, we'd like to go through the stuff you really should know to make the most of JET!! I can assure you that this could be one of the best JET speeches you will attend!! But it's still not confirmed yet, so please write and tell CLAIR you recommend us!!!!

June 1st Kids Show in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture
We were here in February for a kids show and they loved it so much they've invited us back!! So if you live anywhere nearby, get all your elementary school students to come along, at only 1,500 yen it'll be one of the best English experiences they could have!!

August 26th - Huge Kids Show in Nagoya!!
We've been to Nagoya quite a few times this year to get the teachers Genki, this time it's for the kids!! Hundreds of them all singing, dancing, learning Genki English and above all getting motivated that English is cool and mega fun to learn!! Bring along your students, at only 1,500 yen each it's a bargain!!!



And Finally,

Enjoy the new stuff, there'll be lots more coming up soon, and don't forget, if you have any great ideas, please post them on the ideas and discussion board!!
http://genkienglish.net/discussion.mv

Oh and keep a look out for mentions of Genki English in quite a few magazines, we might even be in "Newsweek" magazine this month!!

Be genki,

Richard


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Richard J. Graham  B.Sc. AMInstP
Primary School English Games, Songs and Activities 
Email: richard@genkienglish.net
http://www.genkienglish.com

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March 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
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July/August 2002
June 2002

May 2002
April 2002
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January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001Newsletter
September 2001 Newsletter
June 2001 Newsletter
May 2001 Newsletter Part Two!
May 2001 Newsletter Part One
April 2001 Newsletter
March  2001 Newsletter
February 2001 Newsletter
January 2001 Newsletter
December 2000 Newsletter!
November 2000 Newsletter
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August/September 2000 Newsletter

July/August 2000 Newsletter
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April/May 2000 Newsletter
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