Hi Guys. Last week’s training went really well. It’s was so good in fact that I’ve been asked to stay back another 8 days to do the training for the New Delhi government school teachers this week!
This is a pretty huge project with intervention and control groups, lots of schools and a ton of data collection to see how effective everything is and I am very excited about it. They’ve been talking about some pretty huge targets as to how far they want to roll Genki English in some of the poorest schools over here!
Hopefully I’ll have some video of the training to show you soon (we had a film crew in all week.) But for the time being, have a look at this latest TED talk (thanks Roy!) It’s not about our project as such, but it goes through the types of issues that we have to deal with every day in how to implement educational change to so many schools.
I really like the idea of the “Chinese restaurant” approach, the “pull” aspect and the informal learning sector!
Anyway, these are the sort of big issues that are keeping me up to all hours at the moment, so if email responses are a little slow please bear with me!
What are your thoughts on all this?
P.S. Β if you can’t see the video on email, click here to see the online version.
P.P.S. Β If you like this please click the “like” button below!
To me it sounds as if he is talking about Genki English.
It’s not Mac Donald’s but more like a Chinese Restaurant, it’s pulling and not pushing…
Maybe some of these Chinese restaurants still have a lot Italian, French, Korean Japanese, …cuisine in there though.
But as long as the Chef keeps cooking it won’t become a Mac DONALDS, nor a Family restaurant.
Nice video!
The “McDonald’s” scale is a way I teach now at 2 colleges (Not EFL classes but instead typical college level courses to native English speakers). I hate it. It is a popular model right now in USA with for profit universities and colleges. As I stated…I hate it though been teaching this way for some time. At a separate university in USA where I teach academic EFL (academic reading/writing, grammar, speaking)allows me to teach with my own experience which is the OLD way and not the “standard” approach that is becoming popular these days. I get great evaluations and my students do well on their standardized exams. I prefer having the responsibility left up to me to do well in my teaching. Standardizing the curriculum turns me off and steals my passion. Yes, I like the “Chinese restaurant” approach too. Nice way of putting it; I couldn’t find words for this system but now have.
In terms of educational reform, I like Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone model. It seems fairly comprehensive. It’s a community-based program following kids from cradle to college, living in Harlem, NY (low SES from poverty)! This is no small task. If Geoffrey can accomplish this in his community it certainly encourages me and those of us dealing with similar demographics to mount greater efforts to follow in his footsteps. http://www.hcz.org/
Thanks for posting this video. There’s lot to digest. This ties in nicely with Sir Ken Robinson’s “agricultural revolution” idea he mentioned in his most recent TED talk.
I see now more possibilities for motivating some of my more “difficult” classes within our Bismarkian system.
Thank you.
Richard you are a pro! Great Video, I loved it. I listen to TED all the time, but missed this. I also loved the Pull idea, Chinese Restaurant. So true. Next term I have a new contract and school, and I will use the Start with a Question at the start of every class. Super idea. You can either ask an advanced class verbally, or as I have done before write a question of the day on the board, as a next day answering excersize, or throw a question or two out there.
If you ever need any help on these kinds of projects, please contact me! I would love to be involved in this project, and I know how to teach Genki quite well now! Good on you Richard!
Barbara
I like the TED’s video because he talks about something you do as teacher every day and the way I want to do in my classes becouse, the most important thing is that my students love English,(the subject I want they to learn), so if when they are three years old, they sing and play with me in English, they are waiting for me every day as teacher because they are happy in English, if they are not going to be happy, maybe they could cry when they see the English teacher.
Keep going Richard, you are doing a great job (obviously since they ask you to stay longer ;)). I love the TED videos. The first time I even heard about them was through Liza and the blog. An amazing site and much to learn there.