Today I was invited to a school because the deputy head wanted to know why I would offer to do the Summer workshop at his school for free. Hmmm, OK, take half a day up explaining why I’m not going to charge, interesting use of time there! But I was in town anyway and was…

It’s always the simplest things that seem to be in demand. So the other day I put up a series of 12 number picture cards. The first eight fit in with the numbers mix ( e.g. “I have 2 rabbits” etc.) of the “Do you have any pets?” song, and I’ve added in an extra…

It’s Summer and you can feel it. Not just in the super humid air, but in the whole carnival atmosphere as the yearly Yamgasa Festival gets underway in Fukuoka this week. It’s nice, it’s great, but it’s not good for working as all the coffee shops are full! In my break I was reading in…

One of the big points in my workshops is fixing teachers fears of making mistakes. There are plenty of tricks to use and usually it works out very well with plenty of “Ah, I see”s by the end. One of the simplest tricks is to do the “stand up”, “sit down” thing, but get them…

I’m a firm believer in being nice to people, what’s to be gained by being nasty? Luckily most people are the same. Unfortunately on the internet some people aren’t and experiments like making the Discussion Board open to anyone didn’t really work! It’s also true that “it’s the squeaky wheel that gets cleaned” and I…