It was a second time school again today and although we only had 3 hours I figured we’d try the “getting the teachers to teach” workshop. OK, so that was a mistake! First up half of the teachers were new so didn’t have all the Genki English basics, and the other half of the teachers…

There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post today entitled “Schools Try Elementary Approach To Teaching Foreign Languages” ( You’ll need to register to see the article, but it’s free and easy). One of the first paragraphs is: Educators say that the youngest brains have the greatest aptitude for absorbing language and that someone who…

“What’s your name?” and Mingle are almost Holy Grails as they are guaranteed to get people singing, moving and hence smiling and genki. The teacher also gets a bit of a rest to prepare the next part of the lesson. The other songs though require a bit of teacher supervision as the English is so…

Apparently, and I bet you didn’t know this, if you are on the JET Programme you can qualify for Apple’s Educational discount. You get 7% off iPods and MacBooks, and 10% off PowerMac and MacBook Pros. That’s especially great if you are a JET from the UK as the Japanese prices are already considerably cheaper….

Many ALTs have written saying how their board of education has asked them to do a workshop for the Japanese Elementary School teachers in their town. Many people have written asking for help so here’s a post I put on the forum a few weeks ago: I’ve also put up an article on the site…

OK, so the aim of today’s workshop was to get the teachers able to teach on their own. The plan was quite simple: 1) Put them in groups of three or four. 2) Give them a printed copy of the curriculum in Japanese and 45 minute lesson plan and let them choose a theme to…