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…

One of the main things that keeps me going with Genki English is because of all the really bad learning materials out there. I love it when I come across something that’s good as I can simply recommend it and get one with something else. But far too often some of the material available is…

Had a busy day today. Started off with a Genki English chat with a teacher who’d flown in from Jeju in Korea. That was good. Then off to my “mini workshop”. The good thing about today was it was nice and pressure free so I could try some ideas and techniques which I hadn’t done…