Thanks for the requests sent in to my shout out on Friday. I managed to get quite a lot of games and songs videos shot for you this weekend. Here’s the first one from CD7 and the Download Pack: “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
First we have the song with the gestures and claps:
Then the Brothers and Sisters version of the mingle game:
If you can’t see the videos then check out the main “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” page at https://genkienglish.net/brotherssisters.htm
Do you find having videos like this useful? Does it make it easier to figure out what to do?
Be genki,
Richard
P.S. Very special present coming for you tomorrow or Wednesday – stay tuned!
50% Black Friday Discount (until Nov 30th)
Yes, thank you.
Never having been able to get to one of your workshops (yet!), it’s great to see this video.
So, in answer to your question – yes! Very useful! More please!
Yes, of course!
Thanks for the comments! I was just asking because yesterday some of the teachers were having real difficulty trying to figure out the games from the one page lesson plans. So then I got them to try the themes that have videos online and they were still just as lost! Glad they help you guys though!!
What a simple game to add to the theme. I totally agree it really helps to see the game live! Thanks for the commentary also Richard, it helps to clarify everything that is going on.
I agree with the others, the videos are helpful. What videos did the teachers see? The best ones are those that show how to introduce the game with real students. Maybe they just aren’t sure how to explain it or confident enough that their students will understand it.
Actually I had a come together of a few of the teachers from the Shiga workshop and they were having the same problem.
If they just READ the instruction they seem lost, and if they have a video, or some of the games you did in the workshop they are so stuck to that, that they are not able to change things even slightly to adjust the game to a new situation.
Might be that the reason for this is their own very different way of learning the language.
But for sure the videos is the best thing I think. Teachers who have problems just should watch them many many times!
Thanks !
Yeah, I think that it’s just that they don’t play enough. Hence why I was wondering if it is worth the expense of doing the videos if they didn’t help that much. Hence I’m glad you guys do find them useful!
Maybe we should just make all teachers play Nintendo for an hour at the beginning of each workshop! At least that way they’d never have any problems with the “losing just means try again!” part!
Then again it always comes back to the same conclusion, the best way for the kids to learn is to have no teacher – just let them play on the computers – that was the whole inspiration for the Slumdog Millionaire movie!
Videos are a must for me! To see how you teach songs gives me inspiration for my own lessons.
I wonder which game teachers didn’t understand. I’m afraid the comments/changes I added to the lesson plans book made them confused, becuase you have never had this kind of problem in the workshop before…
Even with the Under the Sea games we had problems!
Don’t worry about it, we’ve been having this problem for 10 years!
Oh, really?
Then the problem is their lack of imagination. If they can’t picture their lessons beforehand, how can they prepare for various levels and situations??
But thank you for telling me it’s not the problem of my comments and changes.
That’s what we have to figure out what to do! Text, photos and video don’t seem to work, and I can’t do workshops everywhere….. so we have to find a different way to help them!
I find the videos helpful. It allows me to have an ‘ahha’ moment! Perhaps the order in which teachers prepare is important. First see the video then read the description and review the pictures? I don’t know. But I do know that in the beginning, using GE, a teacher is so overwhelmed by all the information but it gets better the more familiar you get with the songs and games.
I know the mingle game, but applying games to a new context is sometimes hard. i was thinking before viewing the video, how is he going to do this? And then I thought after having seen it, of course, it was easier than I thought!
I just had to tell my friends yesterday:” You don’t have any “challenge spirit” as a teacher you want to be perfect and are scared to hell to make mistakes”
They agreed.
When they get in the role of a student (like in a workshop) they are good and are okay with making mistakes. But they want to grab everything perfectly with their head and do the perfect lesson. That’s great, but if they don’t start with doing the game at least once, they’ll never see how it works.
Well, yesterday we did 3 hours of games and I think they grabbed at least a bit. I think if you would have somebody who does some “aftercare” after the workshop that would help a lot.
On the other hand, I can see that somebody who takes part in your workshop for the first time is so full that it’s almost impossible to do anything more than listen and do what you are saying.
When I took part in the workshop in Osaka I was so full (though I knew many things you were saying from videos) that I couldn’t even think of a question.
So somebody who doesn’t know GE at all will have a hard time to do any games. I think that needs a few nights of sleep.
@Carol: Thank you for the insight!
@Margit: Yes indeed. In the one day workshop it’s too easy to just become a student and watch me doing stuff! That’s why overseas, and also as often as I can in Japan, I do the 3 or 4 day workshops. In those the teachers get the lesson plans then have to teach them, rather than me doing everything. The first time they are always terrible, the second time (like in the videos here) they sort of get it, but it’s not till they’ve done 3 GE lessons that they get how it works. And yes, the night’s sleep in between makes a huge difference! Usually the 2nd day ends on a really “this is impossible” note (check out some of the blog entries!) but then the following morning everything magically falls into place!
For these “teachers” in the videos for many of them it was their first time ever to teach (they are just starting training to be English teachers). It was really eye opening to see how terrifying for them just standing in front of other people was! Half my coaching time was getting them to relax!
Definitely I find it useful to see the videos – especially for songs. I have no musical sense myself, so some of the more “singing” based songs (like brothers & sisters) I find really difficult to introduce – The kids can never get a clear idea of the song from my toneless voice! I think seeing how other groups sing your songs really helps to see the way in which you intended a song to applied to a class for both ALTs and HRTs alike.
For the “singing” part the mini lessons should really help, a couple of times through and they usually have the song!