This morning was another two schools and just like yesterday they went really well. The Head Teacher of the 2nd school was the lady who organised everything last time, and she is just great. She also made a request as she had the phonics CD but didn’t know how to use it. That’s cool, requests are always appreciated.

If you have regular lessons then the key is to just spend 5 minutes doing one phoneme ( one sound e.g. “b” ) per lesson. That’s just enough so it doesn’t get boring, but still means that over a couple of years you can still teach the major sounds, so that ( according to the theory ) the kids will then be able to read 80% of English words. The next 20% are tricky, but the first 80% is really easy, you just play and repeat the “mini lesson” and Genki Phonics song from the CD. The kids liked it, and it was good to introduce a bit of balance to the class. Sometimes with demo classes people expect me to just wow the kids with a totally over the top mega compilation of stuff. Which is cool for a one off “show”, but for a real demo class it’s better to do it like a real class, with ups and downs and a rhythm that your average teacher can copy. The numbers today ( 30 kids then 40 ) were also good to show off some games, so the teachers can see the kids doing it all themselves, with very little input from me. That’s always the “holy grail”, structuring the lesson so the teacher can pull back and let the kids speak themselves. And actually today’s kids were really good at doing that, they needed practically zero prompting to say phrases of their own.

I also did the Halloween song again today, and it’s nice being able to do it several times as I can push and pull things around and experiment to see what works ( and what doesn’t!). I’m still surprised that the kids manage to get the whole “look there’s a ….” part. I guess the key is stopping part way, and doing a mini game ( I did sticky fingers today) to practise without making it boring.

I wish I’d have had a little more time in the schools today as the teachers were really great as well, it’s always cool to work in a nice environment. But I had to head back to Fukuoka. It would be cool to spend everyday in schools, but seeing as I do them on a volunteer basis it wouldn’t make much financial sense!

So tonight I’m working on the current new project, and I also put the Halloween Song animation on the kids page!

And now I’m back in the land of mobile phone reception and the internet I checked the iTunes podcast chart and the Genki English Podcast has entered at number 59 !!! Yeah! Let’s see if it can make the Top 10!

Oh and I also got a call from Joel. Yesterday’s school were looking for good ideas on how to evaluate English classes, and Joel recommend the Amano school in Osaka. They are apparently doing some good stuff, and they have their curriculum online which also has some good ideas. Have a look!