Today was a bit of an experiment! Instead of a free one hour workshop at the bookstore, today was a 6 hour workshop charged at 10,000 yen per person. The idea being that people who are serious about improving their teaching techniques would attend, and I wouldn’t have to spend half the time doing the “English really isn’t that difficult” type skits! The prices balanced out as people then got 25% off the GE products, including the Superpack, Picture Card Packs and Student Packs. Which means if you bought one the workshop was free, and if you bought a few things you actually saved quite a bit of money!

And it looks like it worked, all the teachers were very serious and although a couple of them were at the beginning levels, they were as keen as anything. I did half the content with lots of Genki games and songs, and Mayuka Habbick did half about how it all fits in with child development and things like the Springboard readers ( have a look at the free teaching guides, there is so much valuable info there!)

Then in the evening it was another nomikai ( “drinking party” ) and I just had water, and felt great for it! So a really good day!