Today was this year’s Kobe Conference for recontracting members of the Japanese governments’ JET programme.

This was the 4th year I’ve been asked to present here, but quite a few things have changed, so it was almost like doing it for the first time. First of all there was no AJET info fair, so I didn’t have to bother with any “sales” type things. These were the first group of JETs that I’d also presented to at their Tokyo Orientation last year, and I’d basically used up half of my material and all the jokes then, so had to come up with all new stuff! Usually my workshop is on the last day when everyone is severely hung over, but today I was on first on the first day, so everyone was wide awake and ready to go. So that meant we could get going straight away, with only a small warm up, “The bargaining game” for the first group, and Left & Right for the second. I could tell straight away it was going to be a good conference, and it felt like presenting to a group of mates who were very happy to be there.

Content wise I decided to start of with some basic theory stuff ( e.g. “L+1”, “Multiple Intelligences” etc. ) to give them the background to realise why we do the activities we do, and build on how and why we learn, all along illustrating it with lots of practical ideas from 1st grade, working our way up to Junior & Senior High. I’ve written up the main points on the site, which you can find on the link here: “Kobe 2006 Recontracting Conference Notes“.

Then to finish off it was my Genki speech, which I didn’t do in Tokyo last year, and the room was just buzzing at the end! This is what the JET programme is all about! I didn’t have to prompt anyone to do the activities and everyone was listening to the theory bits and really taking them in. Both groups were great JETs. The only thing that surprised me was how many of the basic ideas and games they hadn’t been taught yet. It might be worthwhile doing more prefectural JET workshops like I used to do, as just getting a grip on some basic strategies really takes the stress out of the job.

Then it was a quick rest and out for the evening. Even without the Genki English t-shirt on it took an hour to walk along the road as everyone kept coming up to chat. Everyone was just so friendly, and as I knew a lot of them from last year, it really felt like the old days again, and it certainly keeps my confidence up about how good 95% of the JET programme really, really is.

So thanks everybody, I had a great time and you were a pleasure to present to! Keep up the good work, and be genki!