Today’s 2 Fukuoka schools were also cool, but in a different kind of way to yesterday. In the morning I had a 3 hour workshop and it was like yesterday morning, a great bunch of teachers who have to teach on their own without an ALT and wanted help. As they actually have to teach themselves they were really keen and really got into things. Great! They were actually so good I ran over time!

Then a very hurried lunch and off to this afternoon’s school. This is actually a pilot school so it wasn’t so much the curriculum or lesson plans they needed, but just the general advice and of course the war speech was especially requested. And oh my goodness!!!! The teachers were just fantastic! I have never seen a bunch of more genki teachers in my life!!! Usually I have to spend at least half an hour getting everyone genki, but there was no need here. 4 of the guys were like professional TV talento, they were just crazy! Seriously I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t have their own TV show soon. And because of that everyone was totally into a “dekiru, dekiru, dekiru” mood. Great!

Afterwards I had a quick chat with the teacher about the curriculum and they have some great ideas, including a cool theme about bugs. This is one theme that Japanese kids ask for all the time, but I always found it tricky to get a balance between words people would know in English and what the kids actually want to say. Plus of course the fact that “insect” isn’t a word you can use for all bugs, and the pronunciation of the word “bug” varies so much from country to country! The words they chose were butterfly, caterpillar, dragonfly, beetle, stag beetle, mantis, cicada, cricket and grasshopper. I think with a bit of trimming here and there this could be a great theme for CD 5 – the kids will go mad over it, especially the first graders!

Then a very quick shower and a three hour shinkansen to Osaka! I’m glad my Mum sent me some music magazines yesterday, because apart from doing the diary I’m far too tired to do any work! ( Except when I got to my hotel and I was IMing about an event in August – until 1 AM!)