Last week  we extended the Genki English Online program for free to Ukrainian kids – and their awesome teachers!.     But how do you actually go about using it in the crazy situation we’re in now?

Well, to get started, here is the introduction video on how to use Genki English in regular, non-war situations, taken from the Lesson Plans page.   (It was also filmed in Kyiv!)

As you can see in the video, the main focus of Genki English is usually on spoken English proficiency in the shortest possible time (whilst having lots of fun of course!)

We need to change this goal a little when teaching refugee kids or kids in war situations.   Where English isn’t the main imperative then the main focus at this time is on fun & distraction, giving the kids something else to think about for an hour to two.  We create a safe place, which is lots of fun and if we can also get some learning in there, that is fantastic, but in these cases it’s not the main goal.   If you can stick to the curriculum, fantastic.  If not, don’t worry.

If you want to go deeper into this,  here is an excellent presentation on ““Trauma Informed Pedagogy in ELT for Refugee Students” with an excellent section on Post Traumatic Growth that should give you some ideas and things to watch out for.    (Thank you to Brenda at the Ukraine Volunteer Teachers Facebook group for that link!)

Thank you!

If you are already teaching refugee kids or teaching inside Ukraine then thank you and please do let me know what other help you need.

If you’re not teaching refugee kids yet and would like to volunteer online then please do join the other Genki English teachers who set up the Teachers for Peace program helping hundreds of Ukrainian kids so far.

If you are Russian teacher who is appalled by this war and wants it to stop,  thank you and keep on finding ways to make things change (here’s a video on how to do something when you don’t know how to do it) We need you and even the kremlin have said that you are the only people who can stop this.

If you are a teacher who supports this war or choses to believe the Russian propaganda, then please stop teaching English now,  neither your English skills nor your critical thinking skills nor your common humanity are up to par.

And finally if you are a Russian teacher who is just keeping quiet, have a think if that really is the lesson you want to be teaching your kids, that “sit down, shut up” really was the best option after all?

And this is why we do it …..

Thank you everyone who is helping with this, thank you, thank you, thank you.   And if you want a little more motivation,  this is the Kyiv we want to get back to very soon!