Help Please: Can you help with the design? Evaluation Workbooks in Order!

Any of you out there with a few design ideas you might like to share?

I’m working on putting all the Evaluation Worksheets into Curriculum Order ( just like the new software menu)

You can see the first two here:

workbookcover

 

But …. I’d really like to update the worksheets themselves.

Especially the straight lines at the top/bottom and the lyrics box.

I’d like to make it a bit less hard, and more genki and colourful.

Any of you have any design skills/ideas you’d like to share?

We just need something simple that can be replicated on all the other sheets.

Please do get in touch in the comments!

I’m sure everyone is wanting them as soon as possible!

Thanks!

Be genki,

Richard

P.S. Β  And if any of you know anyone with basic Adobe Flash skills, I’m also looking for an assistant to make up the other types of worksheets (and maybe games like Hugo’s the other day) for all the new themes. Β  It’s all template based, just copying, pasting, editing and exporting, doesn’t pay that much and is *very* boring, but it might be useful for a student or someone who wants a little extra part time work?

P.P.S. Β And for the workshops next weekend, we’ve just moved into a bigger room for Osaka Β so we’re re-opening registrations. Β And we only have a few seats left for Nagoya & Tokyo. Β Although I imagine they will probably go by Monday morning so if you want your yearly boost of Genki energy, get in touch ASAP!

Richard Graham

I'm on a mission to make education Genkiβ€”fun, exciting, and full of life! Genki English has now been researched by Harvard University and licensed by the British Council around the world. The results have been magical! Now I'm here to help you teach amazing lessons, with all the materials prepared for you, and to double your teaching income so you can sustainably help many more students in the future!

30 Responses to “Help Please: Can you help with the design? Evaluation Workbooks in Order!”

  1. Trevor

    Great! I’m using the new menu system and love it, so having workbooks to match will be another improvement.

    The only thing I feel is missing is something for the kids to do when they pass/finish the level. I’m not big on giving out stickers for everything, but I do like to do something when kids reach a goal, such as completing a level. I don’t what is best but it would be good to have something.

    – Only do an outline of the centre part so the kids can colour it when they finish the level.
    – a place for a teacher’s stamp or signature
    – an extra imagination worksheet where they draw their impressions of the whole level

    Maybe others have better ideas.

  2. Richard

    No worries, I forget what we’ve done all the time! πŸ™‚

  3. Kamila

    I would really love to have more european version of where are you from πŸ™‚

  4. Richard

    I think you guys have deserved that Kamila, let me see what I can do! πŸ™‚

    Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, now why is the Czech Republic so long!???

  5. Hugo

    Hi Richard,

    We’ve been using these menu PDFs since you’ve done them and they’re great. The way we use them; we have one menu sheet for each class and every time the kids come to the lesson we talk about the previous lessons and discuss as a team where they think they are in terms of percentages, after that we colour the ovals (let’s say 50% coloured). They’re very honest and normally even say less percentage than what we think. The reason we do this is to create a sense of teamwork, and we can teach about percentages as well.
    With this new covers we’ll probably give one to each student and have them to colour the ovals at home, then when they come back we’ll have a look at all the students sheets and colour the average percentage on a main classroom sheet. That way they can keep track themselves and be excited for the next themes.
    My request for this covers would be to have the ovals of the lessons with low opacity so they can colour them.

    Regarding the Evaluation worksheets I think they’re great already, but since I love design, I’ll try to come up with something. I can try the covers as well, if that gives you more time to work on the next volume πŸ™‚

    About Adobe flash skills, does it really have to be flash? I’ll be more than happy to help with anything you might need. Genki English made my life much easier and if I can help make it better my lessons will also be better πŸ™‚

    Cheers!

  6. Martin

    Yeah, it would be great to have even more versions of the Where are you from? song…Granted in class we can change the words and sing kareoke, but definitely for certain countries the basic one is okay, but it would be nice to personalize it even more the homework pack or something.

    I use Adobe Illustrator to edit pdf stuff from the site. I’ve actually made some more editable versions of older mini-card sets that appear as one whole page image instead of individual paths and strokes, etc.

  7. Richard

    Hugo has also come up with new designs for the worksheets, what do you think of these?

    And some covers, do let us know your feedback, it really helps! πŸ™‚

  8. gumby

    I like the workbooks. I was afraid that you were planning on a complete overhaul. These look crisper yet include what I liked about the original.

    My only suggestion about the covers would be to make another cover available without the themes in the circle. This would allow those who follow a different order to customize their own workbooks.

    Thanks again for all that you do.

    I am really disappointed that I couldn’t make it to the workshops this weekend. I would LOVE to see Margit’s presentation and of course I really need to attend one of yours.

    Can’t wait to hear how they go!

  9. Richard

    Thanks Gumby!

    Yeah, I just want to lighten them up a touch but keep the same contents there.

    Hopefully we’ll try and get some VIP video of Margit’s talks! πŸ™‚

  10. gumby

    A VIP video would be fantastic!

  11. gumby

    Ah, this is not related to this topic, but I just spoke with Abe-san of Genki English, and I want to say that she was very helpful. She listened to the red tape and restrictions involving billing that our town had and was very accomodating. She pulled her magic and arranged it so that we could put in an order of the Superpack (and I do mean it is SUPER) for all of the elementary and junior high schools in our town.

    Thank you Abe-san and Genki English πŸ™‚

  12. Margit

    I agree with gumby in all matters~
    How do you do this Hugo? Just with the pdfs~this is a hell of work, isn’t it?

    Looking forward to more!

  13. Trevor

    If you are thinking of adding new worksheets I think the next type f worksheet could be mini presentations. Self introductions of different levels, my family, my pets, my school etc..

  14. Trevor

    Great designs by Hugo and also good ideas on how to use the worksheet covers. I will start doing the same thing with my classes. Thanks.

  15. Richard

    Hi Trevor,

    I usually just use blank pieces of paper for the presentations, but do you think an actual worksheet would help? If so I guess they shouldn’t be too difficult to do!

  16. Trevor

    I’ve seen a tendency in Japan for kids to be taught to memorize their presentation word for word or worse, to have it written out in katakana English.

    I was always taught to make presentations from prompts. For older students the prompts could be written, but for younger students the prompts should be visual ie pictures.

    I teach this method to students, so yes I think this type of worksheet would be usefull. As you say they could make it from scratch but it tends to take time.

  17. Richard

    Yeah, totally on board with you there Trevor!

    OK, let me see what I can do next week. I think I am going to have to find another assistant!! πŸ™‚

  18. Debbie Naim

    Hi,
    I just saw the new cover pages for the first two units and think that they are fabulous.
    But when I was looking in the workbook there were no worksheets. No coloring pages or cutting out for card games or board games. I think that almost every song has so much to choose from and at least one worksheet should be included behind every summary page.
    What say ye?
    Also, I wrote you an email that I found the origami templates for fortune tellers on google but I can’t cut out the pictures in order to copy and paste them into the template. My son said that it is because it is in PDF. If anyone can help or teach me how to do this I would be very grateful.
    Thanks, Debbie

  19. Richard

    Thanks Debbie!

    Yeah, these are just for the evaluation worksheets themselves, then I leave it up to you to choose which of the fabulous other worksheets you add! (As you can see everyone likes different ones!)

    With making your own printables, in newer versions of Word or Powerpoint you can just import the pdf files and use those.

    Or if you can’t ….

    1. Bring the A4 flashcard for each item nice and big up on the screen
    2. Press the “PrtSc” button on your keyboard.
    3. Select “Paste” in Word or Powerpoint and you’ll have the picture!

    And be sure to share any you make!

    And here is the template Debbie found:
    http://downloadablecootiecatchers.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/blank-template1.ppt

    P.S. With the songs, they all have dances and movement with them, check out the videos of most of the songs on the lesson plan pages! http://genkienglish.net/curriculum.htm

  20. katya

    Dear Richard,
    I am starting the year with your new level-workbooks. The new covers for the first two are fantastic! Please, make the other ones , so I can follow the levels all year!!!

  21. Richard

    I’ll just check with Hugo!

  22. Hugo

    Katya, Trevor…Sorry for the long wait on this covers. just sent 3 more to Richard. I’ll get the Halloween one done ASAP and start working on the other ones as well πŸ™‚

  23. katya

    Thank you Hugo! Thank yiu Richard!!!

  24. Trevor

    Great! It will be nice to be able to run off the workbooks to match the curriculum and the new look is very good.

  25. Martin

    I don’t use the workbooks in order (CD or curriculum order) but I do hand out the sheets when we do a song that has very different vocabulary and grammar from the main book I have to use. I just handed out the What’s Your Name one today and it looked good but I think the newer version might look better, but I haven’t seen it.

  26. Julie

    I LOVE the new design Richard and want to use the passport and Workbook pages and evaluation sheets for my Japanese students.
    As ‘Genki’ is used for many languages now it would really be helpful to also make available a blank template of these pages (just the pictures) so that the language can be translated and printed on it by the teacher.
    Thank you so much!

  27. Martin

    I actually been slightly altering the workbook pages myself to include a cleaner looking GENKI English Workbook logo and changing the font for the song lyrics.

    I had forgotten about Hugo’s redesign. Maybe we can connect and merge our two things together…and create a template that would allow tech-savvy teachers to simply swap out Genki English for the “Genki” in the local language (though Genki English seems to more of a BRAND name).

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