After all the excitement of 2012 and the projects in Africa, I thought 2013 would be kind of quiet.  But with massive tours of Russia, China & Thailand, 2 helicopter trips and my first TEDx talk it was quite an experience.  And most of that was thanks to all the amazing people I met.

Plus I somehow managed to answer every single email I was sent and find time to produce vol. 13 as well.  I must be crazy!

Anyway, this is how it all happened ….

 

January – Why I like teachers

January I started out in New Zealand and whilst working on what would become vol. 13 I also did my Top January Lessons,  You never know what’s going to work …., plus Extra Phonics Teaching Tips & Gestures and Days of the Week Videos & Gestures from Tanzania.

The most popular post was Why I like teachers.

 

February – Teaching Babies & 2/3 Year Olds

Lots of teachers were asking for more tips about setting up their school, so we had  Teaching English to babies & 2&3 year olds.  How did I get my very first students? &  How to do a Genki English Warm Up (new video)

We also had a Quick tip for teaching “What’s your name?” and “I live in …” a  New Game: The Ice Eating Wolf! and a A few Valentine’s ideas ….

 

March – Cherry Blossoms & Grammar Rules

I was in Japan so had plenty of blog entries,  Carol Gaab’s  A springboard that launches you into lively engagement (+ an Easter Present), How Cherry Blossoms can get you more students & A few bonus sports for you.

One popular question was  When to teach grammar rules?  along with How to teach classes of different abilities  and I asked Are your 6th graders this Genki?

We had quite a few games with Ideas for Easter, Harlem Shake Cha Cha Cha Pizza, New Game for Classroom Objects & Prepositions!,  Hidden Gems / Hidden Monsters

We also had  The “Grandmother Technique” of Teaching, New Phonics Stories Covers, Software Update: Where are you from? More Countries! & How to be the hottest school in town 

 

April – Hundreds of teachers in Thailand!

I started the massive Ministry of Education tour of Thailand with First Impressions on the Thailand One Tablet Per Child programme, Ubon Ratchathani Workshop & How to get teachers to read lesson plans.

We had lots of new games with What am I drawing?, Who is it?, Hungry Dinosaurs Game!, What’s your name? Picture Cards & Grammar Efficiency,

Other news had Genki English on Windows 8 Touchscreen – pretty cool, eh?, “Secret” Pronunciation Ninja Trick for Adult Students, Software Update: What’s your name song? plus Attention Skills for your Teenagers.

And of course  Genki English from International Space Station (do check the date of that one!)

 

May – And still more!

I was still on tour in Thailand with another thousand or so teachers in Chiangmai Song Videos  and More Teacher’s Videos from Thailand – lots of Gesture Ideas! and thanks to all of you, we managed to bring you Start your own school Tip 15: How to name your school? plus How to escape education’s death valley.

New games were  Tic Tac Toe Grammar Game, Total Physical Phonics, Turn & Circle & Wallball

Popular questions were Quick tip for future tenses, I will …. I won’t …, When (and how) to correct pronunciation mistakes?, How to keep discipline in large classes & get all the students joining in,  What does “fluent” mean anyway?,  Curing “th” pronunciation problems &  the ever popular “Fake it till you make it!”

 

June – Terracotta Genki!

We had workshops in China in Xi’an & the Terracotta Warriors!

New games were Step in it! (Only for *that* class!), Huge list of Lego Printables & Games, Lightning Jump, Teacher Says, Throw in the cards with New Flashcards: Stand up, sit down, hands up, hands down etc.

Questions wise it was  But my students don’t want to learn English!, Ninja Tips For Setting Your Goals and Designing Your Curriculum,  Get Fluent Quickly Tip 3: The lazy way to start  & How to evaluate students

 

July – Live in Tokyo

On tour in Japan this month with Tokyo & Nagoya Catch up! and are you doing a training workshop this summer?

As I was busy finishing vol. 13  I only had time for a few extra games with Funky Baby Monkey Minicards!, Top Summer Lessons, New Game: Blowball, Learn by making mistakes, &  New Game: Hot Seat

 

August – It’s here!!

Over in the UK I finished off Vol. 13 is here for everyone now!    And after 3 days off to recover we had How to (nearly) double your amount of classes, More on young learners, babies & 2/3 years old, Teaching “This is …” and “These are ….”, How to learn Russian in 3 weeks?, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Flashcards

I tell you I was exhausted after doing vol. 13 in the summer heat – some of the songs took over a year and a half to perfect!

 

September – Russia!

My first tour of Russia and it was absolutely amazing.  It was sooo good seeing so many great teachers!

The adventure starts with Masterclass in Yaroslavl & 48 hours to get here!,

Then First day in Russia! + What to do with kids who say they can’t and What’s Russia like so far?

Next stop was the Masterclass in Izhevsk & Kalashnikovs,

And finally Genki English in the Polar Times & How to get free advertising for your school ,

Amazingly I also managed to bring you 2 Hour Lesson Plan( or even 3!), Behaviour Management Tips from Lucky (cool printables!), a very popular request for How to cope with multi-level classes and how to teach grammar?, Halloween Lessons for this year!, What is the ideal class size and class length?, How to teach grammar?,  plus more questions in the How to teach English FAQ,

It’s amazing what a great group of teachers can do to motivate me to write more!

For the new term we also had Help! My Kids Don’t Pay Attention! Ninja tips to get the kids’ attention & Lesson of the Week: What did you do in the summer? + Grammar Tricks

 

October – App Time! & Oxford University Research

October was back to computer time with the First Genki English App is here!  & How to use Genki English on an Android Tablet

Benito brought his Story of Getting Rid of Shyness! & we had Last Minute Halloween & Look at other Teachers’ Parties!

The big software update was for the Superhero Vegetables with Picture Book! and the most popular question was How much of the students’ native language should you speak in class? L+1 is the key

Games wise we had Mystery Bottle Game,  Little Known Great Games For Halloween – or Anytime! – Part 2 & Part 1, Orange & Yellow Pirates!,  Look at these great Halloween pictures Teresa’s kids did!

After Harvard did their research on Genki English last year, this year was the turn of Oxford University (!) Research into Genki English Songs vs. Stories    Harvard & Oxford, you can’t ask for more than that can you!

And I finally wrote up some Games & Ideas learnt from a Russian Tea Party! (+ How to teach fairy tales in English.)

 

November – TEDx in Okinawa!

This month was dominated with my first TEDx talk, both in preparing it and in recovering afterwards!  See the things I learnt from TEDx and hopefully the video will be available soon.

We also had Another Dozen Brand New Games from Mido!, Pay for Genki English Teacher’s Set in Installments,  and How to be Creative – 3 Ninja Tips Plus more games in Mido’s Book of Games Vol. 2 + Ninja Discipline Tips

It seemed a little early at the time but we also had New Christmas Spot the Difference Quizzes & Monster list of Christmas Ideas.

Questions wise we had The 3 Types of Demo Lessons (+ Red Square Video!) , 2014 Homework Calendars – Make Homework into a Game! (more to come on that too)  The No.1 reason to start your own school. (It’s not what you think.)  and another app – iPad Genki Phonics Soundboard!

 

December – How many Days till Christmas?

I was back in the UK with studio time and as Christmas always gets the ideas going,  I ploughed through and brought you a full  How many days till Christmas? song which I decided to give away on Youtube as an early xmas present!  We also had Leon’s AGO Phonics Card Game ( + Christmas ones too!), a new game with Speed Wrapper!  and I asked The Four Types of English Lessons – Which are you?

Blimey, that was a lot!

So, what’s on the cards for 2014?

We already have a few events set up with a tour of Europe planned in May.  I also have a few new music projects that will hopefully come out later in the year.

At the moment I’m in New Zealand, basically recovering after all the hard work last year, I did far too much!

But give me a few days and I’m sure I’ll be back on here bringing you all sorts of crazy new Genki ideas.

Plus there is the online version of my TEDx talk to look forward to.

Thanks again to all of you for making 2013 such a surprise and such a wonderful year!!  Here’s to 2014!

Be genki,

Richard