First of all, do check the date of Monday’s post about the Space Station! Or the “Scratch N Sniff” Flashcards 🙂
(The Russia workshops and TED talk are all real though.)
Back to today…. here’s a video I did over the weekend for the new “I’m sorry!” song.
What do you think?
( I’m always amazed that kids just sing along to the songs, but teachers *always* do “repeat after me” – what’s with that? 🙂 )
The song will, hopefully, be on vol. 13 which I haven’t finished, so no you can’t buy it yet till I have finished. Nice comments, nice emails, chocolate etc. all help me work more quickly though. 🙂
And you can get the extra flashcards etc. over in the VIP beta test forum – would love to see you over there!
Be genki,
Richard
P.S. This workshop was in Nagoya, the next one is on July 27th – would love to see you there too!
Earn More From Your Passion For Teaching English!
HMMMM~I must sayI don’t know what to think about this. I find it weird that the “bumping together” happens at the same time (or in this timing even AFTER) they say I’m sorry.
For a DANCE it looks really cool, so I can imagine my small ones doing this as a dance performance. Though I must say it could be a bit faster in this case.
Maybe the timing (gaps) in between are too long, in fact.
Alos, I don’T like the idea of saying “I’m sorry” and then doing the same thing again to the same person. So, I’d rather do this song as kind of a mingle game where kids dance around and then shortly before the “I’m sorry” bump together with someone (if possible someone else each time)…
Well, let me try it. I think then I can get it more concrete,
A very good choice. Students rarely know the difference between these two expressions. Plus they’ll know how to react. I can’t wait for the volume to come out.
Great song! Useful, simple, everyday phrases… good stuff. Maybe you can use this one from the space station?
Thanks Ewa & Kobekid!
@Margit: Definitely try it out with different ideas and things, this is just what I came up with 10 years ago so I’m sure there must be other, probably even better, ways to do it!
This is a great lesson and very practical. It’s somewhat confusing saying “I’m sorry” at the same time as bumping into someone. Somehow the bumping needs to come first, then say “I’m sorry”.
Thanks Janet. I’ve actually been looking at this since I first started this song (10 years ago!) and seeing what people really do.
Although, of course, the action comes first and then the “I’m sorry,” when you look at it in real life they are practically instantaneous, just a few milliseconds apart. I used to do this with a big “boom” noise as the kids bumped, then did “I’m sorry” after. But .. it felt like the “I’m sorry” was orphaned, left as something extra without an action, rather than being part of the conversation piece.
In real life it seems that the action automatically, subconsciously triggers the phrase, which is just like we do with regular Genki English words i.e. if the kids forget the word, they do the gestures and it comes back to them. So having the “I’m sorry” along with the bumping gesture seemed the most natural way to do it!
Does that make sense?
That’s really fun!
I totally agree with you Richard…It’s an almost instantaneous reaction to say: “I’m sorry”. Obviously you need to explain to the kids what’s going on!
Nena
The children in my class thought this song and the dance was a hoot. Distinguishing the reality (as Margit mentions) from the dance is important, but a little role playing BEFORE you teach the song can clear that up in a jiffy.
I played the song on repeat in my car all the way to work the first morning I taught it. Awesome song!