The online lesson plan pages were getting a little messy and long in the tooth. So I’ve updated, streamlined and added new intro videos with all the latest tips & tricks from the workshops for the first few lessons. What do you think? Would you like to see more of them done like this?
Do let me know in the comments and I’ll see what I can do!
The ones you have so far are:
- Lesson 1: Genki Disco Warm Up
- Lesson 2: Rock, Paper, Scissors
- Lesson 3: What’s your name?
- Lesson 4: How are you?
- Lesson 5: I’m a superhero! I can….
- Lesson 6: Left and right
- NEW Lesson 7: Pronouns, I am, you are
It’s a lot of work doing these so I’d love to get your feedback.
And I’d especially love it if you’ve done any of these themes in class and could write up your positive experiences in the comments for each one!
Be genki,
Richard
Earn More From Your Passion For Teaching English!
Haven’t dived into them yet, just clicked through, but it really looks clean and I’m excited to see the videos. (When I first the notice in the email, I thought you were redesigning the take-home worksheets…I tweaked them a little bit already when I had a Genki class last year).
Just watched the What’s Your Name video. Did you leave the “wait, cut this…” parts in on purpose (see even I make mistakes, try try again)? These videos are great. Great for training new teachers on how to do the lessons the Genki way (why not get direct awesome training right from the Genki master himself?)
Oooops, wrong version of the file uploaded there! 🙂
But yep, making mistakes is always part of it!
I watched a few this morning while waiting for Linda to get ready to go to school, and according to her and the students, I was much different in class. Full of energy…more Genki than usual (and for the first class in the morning…I’m not always even partially Genki).
These videos are inspiring.
Richard I wanted to write to you before, yeah ABSOLUTELY these new videos and version looks pretty GREAT!
I watched all of them!
Please continue with the level Brainy and so on : )
More than a super Genki teacher you are a SUPER GENKI MENTOR!
Let’s spread the genkinessto each corner of the world.. Dekiru to omoeba? ______________! : )
The intro. videos are a good addition, and the format is much cleaner, great work, only 100 to go!
After a while review “all” the language they’ve learned so far will become difficult, so it will be good to see what you recommend to review before introducing “today’s new theme”.
Thanks Kily!
And thanks Trevor, great to hear. Just wondering about the “difficult” thing. It’s just one phrase added per lesson. Where would the challenge be? (Or am I missing something)
Yep, just 100 to go, at 90 minutes each if I don’t eat or sleep I’ll be done in 7 days ….. 🙂
When you are well into the program, say lesson#50, I think it’s pretty difficult to review “all” the English they have done so far. All previous 49 themes? Phrases and vocab?
Do you really review “all”?
After a while I review some themes each week and try to link other themes to the current theme to recycle the language. For example when doing “How much” I’ll combine “How much” with “Do you have any pets” and do a “Pet shop” type game or role play.
Dear Richard,
A very BIG thank you for this. And for all the other stuff you have sent us recently…
It’s so neat and great to find everything in one place as it saves us so much time.
I hope you can find the time to finish this list….. :-))
Melinda
@Melinda: Thank you!
@Trevor: Got it! Yes when you get to 50 it is quite a handful. ( I was scared you were talking about it being “a lot” after just the first dozen or so! 🙂 )
So no need to do all the vocab, but yes you still do each phrase/questions/answers. 50 sounds like a lot, but you’ve been doing this for 49 lessons already so the beginning ones are so smooth they become totally unconscious (which is what we want). And it’s just one new phrase per lesson.
The key is to make sure it becomes a habit, but not a routine i.e. it doesn’t become boring.
So keep it fresh by changing the vocab used, sometimes ask the question, sometimes do a gesture to elicit the question, sometimes a flash card. Keep mixing up how you get each question out there and it works wonders e.g. http://genkienglish.net/teaching/how-to-review-10-lessons-in-5-minutes/
Sometimes you can even do review days like bring in a character and have all the themes relating to that. Or a Star Wars day or cartoon day where all the answers relate to a famous character.
Then the kids end up with all these questions that they can answer/ask totally fluently (and impressively quickly!) And if you then combine that with linking the themes like you’ve mentioned before then you end up with this really cool core of stuff, plus the ability to mix and match to make more English. Which is really powerful!
Cheers, makes sense. I guess I was already hitting a fair few targets with the lines game etc.. but I’ll up it this year and aim to hit all the language each week. There is nothing worse than the kids forgetting the really simple stuff.
We did try some experiments where we had the teachers do half one lesson and then half the next, but it became just easier to do everything every time.
A lot of homeroom teachers do this anyway, everyday they go in and say “What day is it today?” “What’s the date today?” and “What’s the weather like today?” but we just take it to a whole new level, and of course it’s a lot more fun and lively.
Although actually …….. you’ve just got me thinking. Would a review song for each level be an idea just as an extra way to jazz it all up???
Review songs, or more theme linking songs would be great, like the subjects on days song. More class games would be another option. eg after the pronouns theme you could have a game where a pronoun eg you plus a feeling eg happy or an action eg jump comes up and the students race to say “You are happy” or ” You can jump”. I know you can do these things with flashcards or gestures in class, but it’s not always easy.
Funny you should say that Trevor, that’s what I’ve just done with the I’m sorry game at the end of the Brainy level! 🙂
It’s AWESOME Richard. Videos catch much more attention than written words. With videos is much easier and engaging and the most IMPORTANT part is the energy, the good will and the GENKINESS you transmit in those videos.
Please continue making those videos Level 3-13 as long as you find some time to make them.