If you’re been called in to help with the provincial Thailand training workshops this week then thank you very much! I’m really wanting to make sure this project works as well as it can, so I’m very happy to support you in any way. Here are a few ideas that may help.

Presenting to 100s of teachers is tough, but the Genki English materials are designed for large groups, so things scale very easily.

With 200 teachers you can’t really do much “individual teaching practice” as such as there are just too many of them, so I usually just go through several of the lessons and mix it in with lots of motivation talking.

Your biggest challenge will be to make sure there is a big enough sound system that sounds loud even with all those people.

If you have a computer and projector things will be quite easy.

I usually start with a bit of TPR warm up then one of the really simple songs like “What’s your name?” or “How are you?“. Once everyone was relaxed I’d put up on the projector the first instructions page of the Genki English Teaching Book ( in Thai of course), and get one of the genki teachers from the front to come up and read it to everyone. This gets them into the way of thinking we’ll need.

Then choose a new song, bring up the page in the teaching book in Thai on the projector screen, get a teacher to read how to teach it ( not the game yet, just the song), then run through the words, then Mini Lesson on the software CD. Using the book means all the actions etc. in the song are in Thai so everyone understands. The translation is pretty much directly what I wrote in the English version, but is designed to be funny so don’t be surprised if they start laughing part way through!

Then check to see if they are OK, get them motivated to sing nice and loud, then play the song from the software. It’s important to do the words with gestures first, then the mini lesson before doing the song. If you do the song first they’ll just get lost, but if they practice it in the mini lesson ( maybe even twice) they’ll really enjoy it when the funky music kicks in. They should all be nice and happy then!

If you look at the individual song pages on the website there are photos etc. showing how to do all the, very important, gestures which you might want to have a look at beforehand yourself.

I’d also recommend you try teaching each song and game in the mirror beforehand to iron out any problems.

Next is to get someone to come and read the classroom game explanation from the book ( again in Thai and again on the projector screen) , then for them to try the classroom game together. ( Note this is different from the “game” part of the computer software). In the songs they learn the new English, in the game they practice it.

For 200 people try and choose themes where the game doesn’t need any extra materials, otherwise you’ll end up spending half the time handing out cards/worksheets etc.

Then simple rinse, wash and repeat. Near the end I put up the final page of the teaching book and get a teacher to read it, it’s a huge confidence boost for them. Then end with the “Thank you” song.

If you don’t have a computer and projector you’ll have to have picture cards printed for each theme you want to do and all the teachers will have to bring their own copy of the teaching book, so if you can I’d say a projector is very important!

All 32,000 elementary schools in Thailand have the CD packs, books etc. but distribution is sometimes a bit of a problem and many of them may be held in the Director’s office, so tell them to have a look in there.

Motivation wise I tend to just concentrate on the main two rules of Genki English

“Can you do it? Yes, I can!” and
“Losing means try again” ( for the games).

The Thai teachers are usually great, and with just a little confidence building and letting them know that mistakes are OK they’ll be fine . I get them to stand up and sit down really quickly at the beginning, then trick them by saying “sit down” whilst raising my hands. I then do a shocked face, then relax and say “mistakes are no problem!”.

Please email me for anything else you need, either materials or advice. The Thai teachers are always so grateful to see how the ideas work and the kids love them , so your hard work is very much appreciated. Thank you and good luck,

Be genki,

Richard