I hoped you very much enjoyed this year. For me, the highlight was definitely working in the low income areas of Africa. Thanks to the amazing people in Tanzania, I got my first trips over there this year. Plus of course there have been a whole host of other ideas for you on the blog.
Here we go…
January – Tanzania!
After New Year in Scotland (in my kilt!) and a New York Treasure Adventure it was off to Africa (blogging everyday!) with Day 1 – First Impressions, Day 2: Meeting the people, Day 3: Look round the schools & Why Genki English in Tanzania?,
(quick pause to catch your breath!)
Day 4: The workshops start & Tanzanian Tea Breaks, Day 5: Herbal remedies, L+1 & the most efficient way to learn English,
(another quick pause to catch your breath!)
Day 7: Demo lesson day!, Day 8: Doubts & When to teach phonics?, Day 10: Saying Goodbye, How Education Changes Lives & You Next? plus the US State Department joined us, training on Granchy Gaks
February – New Zealand
Whilst working on updates for later in the year, I was in New Zealand working on our Internship Programmes, we had New Game: Clever Buyer! and I asked What is your ideal (digital) textbook?
March – Japan & lots of updates!
We started with New Game: Footwalker, I asked Which New Stationery (pens, books etc,) Song?, we had Updated Phonics & No More Foxy Phonics, and always a popular question with teachers, Prizes & Addiction: Give them or not?
Kids in China & Hong Kong were doing shapes & *How Many* Turtles? there was a New Song: Possessive Pronouns “Whose is it?”, a Quick Homework Recap & Upside Down Classroom, New Game: Super Egg! and in Japan the The new “Eigo Note” was here: “Hi friends!”
More Tricks & Tips for Teaching Songs, New Game: Bunny Hopping and I asked What’s your favourite craft lesson?
April – Tablets & TED
(As usual!) in April lots of people fell for the “Falling Petals” Posters, we had New Games with Phoneme Feet!, Flash the Flashcards Game, Spelling / Phonics Hopper, Coming to Japan,
We had some very motivating videos, Listen to your eyes, not your brain i.e. learn how to draw and Genki English on an Android Tablet
Dr Pauline Dixon did the TEDx talk on How the poorest are being educated, and I wrote about Traditional Songs for Teaching English & Teaching Colours (Colors!)
May – Food & Sports
We started with Discipline: The bad kids at the back! & Discipline: The Agreement!. New Games with Circle of Doom, It’s over my head, Mission Impossible: Code Breaker and we made you some New Workbook Pics for Teaching Food, Jobs A4 cards
I wrote about How can I build my teaching charisma?, How to teach abcs, Phonics is rubbish, it only covers the letters a to z!, a Super Easy Lesson Plan to Teach English and why School is just like Angry Birds
June – Harvard University & Russia!
Harvard University Researched Genki English & I did my first workshop in Russia!
This was the month of major software updates, starting with Amazing (!) New Fruits Software & Games!, New Drinks Update with Picture Book! , Do you like? Big New Update with Picture Book! ( + Retina Mac Book Pro), New “I’d like some food” Software Updates!
Game wise we had Match Maker! (Fruits), New “Simon Game” – with goals!, I’d like sooooo many foods game, Blob! and I wrote about 12 Top Tips for Starting Your Own School, Grammar Games: To do/have be verb negative and past, Help, My Junior High Kids Are Dead!
July – Summer & Sports
To go with the Olympics, we had more software updates with New Summer Clothes & Sports ( + New Sports A4 Flashcards, Mini Cards, Games & Workbook)
New Games with Throw the Cards, “Irregular past” Dinosaurs and “Don’t forget…!”, Picture Books & Vol. 7 became a Download
A few extras were Report on how other countries do Primary Languages, Summer Play for Camp or End of Term & Printable Certificates – for Summer Camp
August – eh?
Whilst you were (hopefully!) enjoying your summer holidays, I was hard at work with Workshops in Tokyo (Aug 26th) & Nagoya (Aug 25th), Genki Spanish was Back and here was my Top Tip to Take Away the Summer Heat!,
If you’ve just started as a JET teaching English … and the Baby Rabbit Family.
Extras were The Earth without Art is just “Eh?”, New Games with Preposition Obstacle Course, The Future of Education – Khan Academy, I asked What videos would you like to see? Plus the most popular ones on the site
And for the new term we had Top 5 Ideas To Make Workbooks for Your Students
September – Back to India & 800,000 Tablet Genki PCs
I was doing workshops with fantastic teachers and kids in rural India, we had How to get started with Teaching English, Top 5 Games for the new School Year,
Julia wrote in with One of the most important days in my life,
We had the best Halloween Ideas, Songs & Lesson Plans, Phonics “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down” Game + Video of Kids from India, Eat! Drink! Dance! Freeze! Game, Discipline: The helper! & New Stationery Song Video
Plus the big huge news was the Thailand Government Puts Genki English on 800,000 (!) Tablet PCs!
October – Halloween
Back to computer work this month, with popular requests for Weather: My Top Ways to Teach It!, Super Cute Mini ABC Alphabet Cards & Genki English FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions.
We had Amazing Halloween Worksheets & Games, New Game: Pop the Pumpkin Pics!, How to Upgrade your Genki English CDs –, Skeleton Spiders Scavenger Hunt!, along with Start Your Own School Tip 12: Getting Permission to Photograph Students & Why Parents Refuse,
More games with How much? Candies Game!, Pick it up! Game & Who is in the card game …,
Genki Phonics was now better than Jolly Phonics? and What the parents notice ….
November – On TV & Genki Phonics 2.0
Genki English was on TV again and after a *lot* of hard work we launched Genki Phonics 2.0: Insane Reading!
You wanted more discipline, so I wrote my My Best Discipline Teaching Techniques & Ideas, there was a new song: Phonics “U U U Umbrella”,a new game + How to be truly, really happy, You’re better than the best of the best! and I did a fantastic workshop in Osaka
Other popular games were Board Twister! and the Monster Xmas Printables eBook – now over 120 pages!
And in preparation for going back to Africa I wrote about How not to lose your voice as a teacher.
December – Back in Africa! & Kindle
After the success of January, I was invited back to Africa but still managed to bring you 2013 Genki English Calendars, some Last Minute Christmas Games, talked about our new Technology Enhanced Education Lesson Plans and I launched my first Genki English book on kindle!
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Wow that was a pretty full year – again! I hope you enjoyed it.
After doing two CDs last year, I didn’t feel pressure to do another one this year so I really focused on updating the Teacher’s Set & Phonics to really make it the best I could, and having the Harvard research validate it was so nice.
The biggest thing for me, as I said before, was working in Africa. Genki English works really well in developed countries, but it’s all the fringe benefits that make the difference in other areas. For example corporal punishment is a huge problem in Tanzania (along with a 97% exam fail rate!) so it was amazing to hear one of the teachers saying:
Wow, with Genki English I don’t need to cane my students anymore! Imagine if we could use it all over the country!
You can’t put a price on comments like that.
Plus the results it has been having with girls, who usually fair far worse than boys, where they were stretching out and jumping in, especially with the computer games, and getting great results. That too is something truly special.
So next year I’ll be working more on the development side of things in low-income areas, it really is where we can make the biggest difference, and of course I can only do that thanks to all your amazing support in writing in with comments, using the materials in class and telling your friends about Genki English.
Education in the world is at a turning point, and I really believe that the confidence and enjoyment factors – the “stop studying and start learning! 🙂 ” – aspects of Genki English can really make a difference, wherever your school is.
Next year I’ll also work on new songs for you, we’ll see what happens with the Thai government putting GE on tablets for all their students and I’m sure we’ll also have a ton of new games and ideas to really bring your classroom to life.
Thank you again for all your support, keep tuned in, sign up for the free Ninja Teaching Tips if you haven’t already, enjoy the videos above and I’ll see you in the New Year!
Be genki,
Richard
