UPDATE:  Thank you to everyone who joined us, it was amazing!! As you may have seen on the schedule page, I have a big symposium in Okinawa in June. As the travel expenses will be paid for, the plan was then to spend a bit of time down there, maybe visiting the islands and doing…

Hope you had a nice weekend! Last term we had a request for ideas for teaching “school subjects” ( math(s), English, PE, science etc.). Although I explained that it’s not one of the themes I personally like, as it’s usually not kids but teachers who make the request, I’m glad to say that Atley Jonas…

And to the final post in this series, what to do in a first lesson when you don’t speak your students’ language. I know whenever I do a class in a new country for the first time it can be terrifying. You walk in there, nobody speaks any languages you understand ( because if they…

The number one top idea for a first Junior High School lesson is without doubt the “What’s your name?” lesson. As I wrote in the “6th graders” article, even the hardest nosed too-cool-for-school 6th graders turn back into little angels in the first year of Junior High. And after a week full of entrance ceremonies…

I was putting up some new stuff on YouTube yesterday and noticed that someone had uploaded the documentary NHK did about Genki English a few years ago. So I’ve linked it up from the site. The show is in Japanese but you can see a bit of how I write the songs & some of…

To be a bit more constructive today I’m going to start a series of three posts on what to do in the first lesson of the year. ( Quite a few countries start their school year this week). The first one today will be the number one super best lesson lesson I have, but you…