Take any problem in the World and it's invariably caused (or made worse)
by a lack of education. Too many kids hate school because it's too boring.
The aim of Genki Learning is to have all subjects in all countries taught
in a fun, engaging and effective way. There are already a few million kids
benefiting from this, and even a whole country where the government has
put it in all their schools. But there's still a long way to go!
While I'm on the road you'll hear about my travels & workshops, and
when I'm doing studio work I'll keep you up to date with ideas, updates
to the site and some of my favourite teaching resources. So if you want
to find out what's it's like behind the scenes or how & why I do what
I do or even if you're just nosey or a bit bored, have a read.
I'll update the diary as often as I can, so keep coming back. And of course
whilst I'm away, the office staff are always ready to send off your CD orders just as soon as you send them in!
May 15th 2008 - Kid Control: Big Sheep, Little Cows
I was at a farm today. Not just any old farm, but one of the funky new
ones with well trained guides: The Big Sheep & Little Cow Farm.
"Be quiet!" is a shout of many an adult unused to dealing with
kids, but the farmers today were masters of kid control, using the time
tested methods of suspense, intrigue and a just a dash of misdirection...
For example, part way through the tour the farmer said "I'm going
to put the next animal out on the floor in front of you. Now be careful,
make sure you all sit down and raise your feet just a little off the ground.
Why? Because "Flash" just loves to climb up trouser legs!".
Of course everyone sits down and raises their legs.
Then there is a pause, just the right dramatic length, before Flash is
brought out. And, of course, Flash .... is a tortoise! "It'll take
him a little while to get to you, so keep your legs in the air" joked
the farmer, but he had the full attention of the kids, who were quite relieved
and happy to see a tortoise!
Before that was the biscuit jar. We had the story of the homemade biscuits
(food is always a good attention grabber), and in the jar there were Jammy
Dodgers, Oreos and Custard Creams. The farmer passed the biscuit jar around
the group. The first person peered inside, ready to choose a delicious
treat, but jumped back in shock! Then a smile. But they didn't take the
biscuit. "Ooo, what's happening here?" thought everyone else
as they patiently waited their turn. And when the jar arrived, just imagine
what was inside.....
Well I'm not going to tell you here, you'll have to visit for yourself!
: )
So how can you use a little suspense, an inkling of intrigue or a little
fun misdirection to get the attention of your students today?
(You see, you're just dying to know what's in the biscuit jar - you'll
have to wait till tomorrow to find out!)
May 10th 2008 - University of Newcastle
Yesterday I popped into the University of Newcastle for a chat about the upcoming Genki English trip to India.
It does seem like a very exciting, very different and very interesting
project to be involved with. Not least of which is because of the just-on-the-right-side-of-crazy
people who are running things!
I'm sure I'll be writing more on this in the coming months as it is having
a big effect on how I look at my volunteer based public school projects
across Asia, and is also a great chance to learn new ways to help teachers
in different situations.
May 9th 2008 - Amazing! Super! Incredible! Fantastic!
As you know, confidence is something I'm very big on. Here's the English version of my "Kodomo Eigo" article this month.
"Good" is a good word. When you hear it you feel good. You think to yourself "that was good". It's not bad. It's good. But it could be better...
For example the movie might be called "Spiderman", but the comic book is called "The Amazing Spiderman". Superman isn't just a hero, he's a super hero. The Incredibles aren't just good, they are incredible. And last year the Silver Surfer didn't just fight any four astronauts, he fought "The Fantastic Four". And because your students have you as their teacher, I'm sure they're not just good. I bet they are excellent. Or brilliant. So let them know. Instead of just writing "good!" on their homework, let them know that they, just like you, are really…
Normal English: Good! -> Genki English: Amazing! Super! Incredible and Fantastic!
May 8th 2008 - Weather & Countries Card Game
In yesterday's newsletter I introduced the new Genki English "One Left" Card Games. Just like the famous game Uno, they are based on the traditional Crazy
Eights game and work great in mid to high level classes.
Here's another one for you today, for teaching weather and countries. Simply teach the two lessons as usual then use the card game in the next
class to show the kids how to link sentences together.
I wasn't too sure which way to write the sentence on these cards e.g. "In
Canada, it's sunny" or "It's sunny in Canada", but went
for the former as it seems to be more popular in textbooks. But if enough
of you want it the other way I could do another version, just let me know!
I've also got a couple of other versions coming soon, and as usual any
requests are much appreciated!
Enjoy!
May 6th 2008 - Playstation 3 or Xbox 360?
With Grand Theft Auto IV coming out last week lots of people are thinking
about buying a Playstation 3 (PS3) or Xbox. I'd definitely say "Buy
the PS3!". It is more money than the Xbox, but it has built in WiFi
and a web browser. That means that not only are mutliplayer games free,
you can also watch YouTube videos on it and you can play all the free online
games that are around, including all the Genki English Online Games and picture books. Genki English on your Playstation, that's something the Xbox can't manage!
However the Xbox does have one advantage, it's the perfect illustration for the letter "X" when you are teaching the alphabet.
(P.S. full disclosure, I bought an Xbox on Friday and now wish I had bought
the PS3!)
May 2nd 2008 - Free trip to Japan or UK
The British Council have set up a new competition for Japanese schools
doing exchanges with schools in the UK. The prize? A trip to the school
you are doing the exchange with! Looks very interesting, details on the
British Council site. Or have a look through some GE projects you could do.
April 30th 2008 - Why is Sweden so good at English?
There's no doubt that speakers of English in Sweden are much, much more
advanced than in many other countries. The question is why?
The answer most people give is TV. It does seem that unlike the FIGS countries
(France, Italy, Germany and Spain) and larger Asian countries that there
is less localisation of programmes and also, admittedly just from a quick
glance, less banal quiz show type programmes. From the brief time I flicked
on the TV, all I saw were subtitled English programmes and movies. And
of course if you are a kid you are simply going to learn the English rather
then read the subtitles.
This is similar to the reasoning behind "extensive reading" in
Asian countries, just give the kids lots and lots of input. Although from
my experience TV seems much more effective.
Travel and study abroad are also often mentioned. Especially as Swedes tend to mix more easily and tend not to cling together to fellow nationals as many other peoples do.
Plus there are things like the similarity of the alphabet and common words
in both languages. But this is also the case for the FIGS countries where
the level of English is generally much lower.
I also think there are a couple of other things in play.
One is how even the advanced speakers in Sweden are always learning. We all know that fear of making mistakes is a big problem with many adult learners. But here people would just guess a word then ask if it was right. It usually was of course, but they weren't afraid to just try and risk getting it wrong. Every time they do make a mistake they do learn a new word. Even the most fluent speakers were doing this all the time.
Plus of course there's also the fact that just about everything is advanced in Sweden. Design, social thinking, parenting, everything points to it being one of the most advanced societies on Earth so speaking English is maybe just a small part of that!
One of the main things I feel is the self fulfilling prophesy that as so
many people do speak English, everyone just sees it as something normal.
Before Roger Bannister ran the 4 minute mile everyone thought it was impossible, immediately afterwards it seemed everyone was doing it. The same applies here, the kids learn English because it's just something you do. Whereas in many other countries, especially Asia, non-English speaking experts fill the screens with tales of how impossible English is to learn. Here one Grandfather told me "yeah, kids just listen a lot then one day start speaking".
President Kennedy got America to the moon not because they knew how to do it, but because they didn't know it couldn't be done.
So that was my first visit to Sweden. Well, unless you count the time I
was invited by a Swedish Princess to the Swedish island on the Switzerland/German
border. But that's a different story...
For most of today I was actually held up in my hotel trying to catch up on my emails, they don't half build up after a week.
Now I'm just about to catch my $10 flight to Liverpool, which I guess sounds
just as cool as Stockholm and don't you just love the prices of Europe's
cheap air tickets. Then I'm heading off to see my Mum and hopefully getting
my vaccinations and visa for India's workshops next month!
April 26th 2008 - Day in Stockholm
This week I took my day off looking around Stockholm. It is a very, very
nice European capital city. I also chose the right time of the year, it
was warm but not hot and just right for a walk around town.
I'm staying in the Rica Hotel which has the most amazing location, right
next to the fresh fruit and vegetable market. Unlike many European markets
it looked like it was out of a picture book, everything was impeccably
displayed and smelt amazing.
Then a walk down the long, pedestrianised main shopping street (it's a
great place if you need to do some shopping). And into the old town of
Gamla Stan. This is the picturesque heart of the city, and is really, really
nice.
I arrived just in time to see the Swedish Changing of the Guard, which
was cool and also had a look round the shops in all the cobbled back streets.
Mind you at one point I turned a corner and was in China! There were hundreds
and hundreds of Chinese students waving massive Chinese flags to promote
the Olympics right outside the parliament building. The Swedish ceremonial
soldiers did look a little out-of-place and quite "quaint" compared
with the dynamism of the Chinese swarm of people.
Then a little more looking around the harbours and things. Admittedly any city looks nice in the sunshine, but I really like Stockholm. Southern Europe could also learn a thing or two about how to keep a city clean, it looks like everyone was taking a pride in the city.
If you like photography the old town is very photogenic.
Ryanair and other low cost airlines run flights here and I would imagine
it would look amazing at Christmas time!
April 25th 2008 - Long Days up North
I don't think I've ever had such a long day for a while. Luckily a good
night's sleep set me up for ....
6:30 AM Business Network International Breakfast
Business brain on and a posh breakfast, Great to see everyone so positive
and helpful, and they quickly learnt how to use the word "Genki".
I even had someone ask me for a workshop!
9:00 AM First Demo Lesson of the Day
3 and 4 year olds, usually a tough age group to teach. But Good Morning, Left & Right and Do you like..? ( including the game) went perfectly.
Amazing.
10:00 AM Second Demo Class 9 and 10 year olds.
Again another age group that can go either way, good or bad, especially
in Europe where cheekiness reaches heights unheard of in Asia. But no worries,
these were a perfect class, asking tons of questions, being very impressed
with my photos of Japan, Hong Kong etc. and they did brilliantly on the
What's your name? and I can do it songs. As this is Sweden, by the time the kids get to this age half the
class are fluent and half the class are very good. So rather than the English,
the main aim was the same as in native English speaking countries, namely
confidence (including eye contact) and the Genki English rules of "I
can do it!" and "Try again!
10:45 AM Third Demo Class 7 & 8 year olds
Always the easiest age to teach and apart from a couple of rowdy-ish boys
they were perfect as well, with How old are you? + mingle, Under the Sea + Nemo Game (which isn't pronounced the same in Swedish, but the kids picked up on it eventually!)
11:45 AM Recruitment at the local university
We set up a stall at the local university to try and recruit students to
be trained as teachers for the programme. Plus we managed to grab a sandwich
to eat.
And we probably should have left it there. But we didn't and....
2:30 PM Fourth Demo Class - total disaster!
You wouldn't believe it would you, after 3 perfect lessons. These were
5 and 6 year olds who are usually really easy classes, but they also brought
in the 4 and 5 year olds from this morning. Things started OK-ish with
Good Morning. Then I figured I'd try something a little more advanced with the new
"I like animals" song. And they just didn't get it! In the song
the teacher says "I like kangaroos" and the kids reply "kangaroos?".
But they were so stuck in "repeat after me" mode that that's
all they did! This morning they were fine, but not here. And this was the
most important class with parents, a video camera and other teachers there....
So we cut that song short and moved on to something super, super easy i.e.
How are you? and the How are you? Monster game. And that didn't work that will either - which is a first.
So it just goes to show that what I wrote yesterday is so true, some lessons
just never go to plan. The 3 classes this morning were honestly perfect,
I could have videod them as model classes. But hey, you win some you lose
some.
So...
3:30 PM Checking Emails
5:00 PM A BBQ in the Sweden Forest
This was pretty cool. Swedish people may pay a lot of taxes but they do
live very, very well. April in the snow covered mountains with the forest
behind and the frozen river in front might seem like December, but with
a fire burning away and very nice people to talk to it was really, really
nice.
9:00 PM Flight to Stockholm
Amazingly efficient. The Arlanda Express to Stockholm is probably the best
airport shuttle I've been on and the hotel checking was as smooth as good
be.
12:30 AM Writing the blog
12: 45 AM I'm off to bed. Good night.
April 24th 2008 - Genki in Lapland
Yes, I just found out today that the town I'm in is Swedish Lapland. Which does sound very cool. Apparently they have more snowmobiles than
cars up here, as well as ice roads across the sea and the famous Ice Hotel nearby.
I'm up here because Northern Languages are introducing after school clubs based on Genki English. This evening
we had a taster session for parents, and a few teachers. After a little
warming up even the usually serious (as I'm told!) Swedish parents were
singing the Genki Disco Warm Up, How are you? and the Thank You song and playing the How are you? Monster game and were happily smiling away. I couldn't explain as much as I usually
do for parents workshops, but they seemed to get what it was all about.
The rest of the day had been going through the GE curriculum with Melinda,
the owner of Northern Languages. With all the materials spread out across
the site it can be difficult to figure out exactly how to make a full programme
out of Genki English and Melinda was having this problem.
Probably the easiest thing to do in that situation is to download the Lesson Plans Book and follow the order and suggested games that are in there. Once you've
done each lesson a couple of times you can also have a look at each theme's page to get some more ideas that may work better (or worse!) in different situations.
The Online Video Workshop is also a must.
Flexibility is a big part of things, for however well we plan, lessons
involving kids hardly ever turn out like we imagined. (And I find this
out tomorrow!)
April 23rd 2008 - Rome to the Arctic (nearly!)
After catching the opera last night (it was good to see Tosca in Rome),
it was up early and on the flights to northern Sweden.
And I must say I am very impressed! It may be because I've just spent the
last month in wonderful but graffiti ridden Italy, but Sweden is just so
clean, fresh, friendly and efficient. I always thought the best new airports
were in Asia, but Arlanda got my bags out really quick, got the new ones
checked in super fast and they even have award winning food.
Then it was the trip up north. I don't think I've ever been this north
before (see the map!) I've been assured it's not quite in the arctic circle,
but looking out from the plane the sea was frozen! But even up here everything
is clean, very nicely designed and everyone is very, very friendly.
Tomorrow should be good.
April 21st 2008 - Summer Tours
I'm a little busy organising my Summer Tour at the moment. If you'd like
a workshop at your school this year, then now's the time to get in touch. And look out for my write up of my first workshops in Sweden later this
week!
April 18th 2008 - Cute Kitten English
I was helping a friend set up a new website the other day "かわいい仔猫" (cute kitten), where she puts up a picture of a super cute kitten
everyday. Now I don't really see the attraction of cute kittens at all,
but to see some people's almost hysterical reaction I just knew it was
something you could use for teaching English!
What I was thinking you could do would be to show the kids the かわいい仔猫 site and get them to come up with their own original English captions.
The fact that it isn't in English is probably even better for students
in other countries as they just have to go by the pictures. I have a feeling
it could be a very popular lesson!
Oh and if you do happen to like kittens then please leave a comment over
on my friend's site, I'm sure she'd appreciate it!
April 15th 2008 - Free Phonics Worksheets
If you're teaching the alphabet to first year junior high or elementary
school kids, here are some new free phonics worksheets for you.
I've lost count of how many people have emailed me saying there is a mistake
on the "odd-one-out" phonics worksheets because "volleyball" is on the "b" worksheet. Of course,
that's the odd-one-out!
But to save my inbox from overflowing I've re-done all the worksheets as
straight forward stroke order, writing practice and example words only
sheets. They also now cover the whole alphabet, upper and lower case, and
use a font style which most textbooks use for writing practice.
The example words are nearly all taken from the Genki English curriculum so if your junior high students have done Genki English in elementary school it's a great way to show the junior high teacher just how much the kids know i.e. watch out for "oh no, this is much too difficult" remarks from JTEs, just as the kids finish all the words!
If you do find any mistakes in these worksheets then please do let me know as this time they will be real mistakes! : )
They don't feature any kids, but just show you the actions, gestures etc.
for when you teach the song. Video being a lot easier to understand than
simply photographs!
The videos for the rest of the songs on CDs 1 to 4 are on the Teaching Guide Videos CDROM. These new ones are simply ones where I've remixed the song or just come
up with an easier way to teach them! All the videos are in English &
Japanese, which is good to show a class teacher for those of you in Japan.
And there's also a new Mr Octopus video in Japanese only.
Plus I've also put up new A4 flashcards for the "Bigger, please" song to match the minicards.
April 2008 - Pompei & Vesuvius
I haven't had a day off for a while, plus my net connection was down for
a couple of days so I had time to visit Pompei & Vesuvius this week.
Both are really good. You can walk right up to the volcano cone in Vesuvius
and Pompei is just huge. Mind you I much prefer Ercolano just down the
road. It isn't as big, but the buildings are much more complete, rather
than just ruins, and you really feel you are wondering up and down a Roman
town. More importantly I'd actually like to live there! : ) There are certainly
lots of great things to see around Napoli.
It's back to work from today, but just to keep you up to date on my schedule,
this coming week I'm in Rome then next week I have workshops in Sweden. At the beginning of June hopefully I'll be having several workshops
in India, before heading for the Japan Summer Tour from June 14th.
Now I think I need to write a blog entry on carbon emission off-setting!
April 9th 2008 - Subjects & Days
Although it might seem like I was a quite harsh on the "Eigo Notebook" the other day (and I've been told that the latest version is quite
different from the one they published on Friday), there are actually some
really good ideas in there.
One of them is to combine Days of the Week with School Subjects into a great exchange lesson. I've written many times that Days of the Week is not the most useful English for younger kids, but in this case for
5th or 6th graders it probably fits quite well. The idea is that they use
the two themes to compare school timetables with kids in different countries.
I'm not sure exactly how they plan to do this in the "Eigo Notebook", but here's a lesson you could do straight away:
1. Teach Days of the Week with School Subjects (this may take a couple of lessons).
2. Put the kids into 5 groups.
3. They prepare and read out "On Monday we have maths, then English
then..."
4. The next group do Tuesday.
5. Then take photos, or even better video, of those lessons in action.
6. Edit up the recorded speech with the images and make a video file to
put on YouTube. (Easy to do with a Mac or modern PC, or ask the computer
teacher as the kids can maybe do it themselves in ICT class!)
7. Head over to epals.com and find a like minded teacher in another country. (The hit rate is usually
1 in 10 i.e. you write off to 10 teachers and you'll probably find one
who can do the exchange)
8. Get them to make a similar video for their school.
9. Show this video to your class and discuss.
10. Rinse and repeat with another class in another country.
These types of lesson work wonders with the kids, they were always my students'
favourite lessons. Some of the technical stuff and issues I have written
up on my Projects page.
And be sure to let me know how you get on!
April 8th 2008 - First Lessons
If you're just starting a new term, new class or even school year, here
are a couple of articles I wrote last year that may help with some ideas:
If you have to do a self introduction type lesson then the best idea I've
come across is the True or False Intro Game.
1. Tell the kids your name is David/Victoria Beckham.
2. Altogether the kids vote true or false.
3. Tell them your name is something else, they vote again.
4. Finally tell them your real name and they vote again.
5. Do the same thing with hobbies ( I have a black belt in Judo etc.),
favourite foods, where you are from ( Mars?) etc. etc.
It's especially good for lower level groups as long as you do have at least
one thing to introduce that is a little out of the ordinary!
April 7th 2008 - Eigo Note in English
The Ministry of Education (MEXT) only has information in Japanese about
their new curriculum and "English notebook". So I figured I'd
better translate it into English for ALTs who can't read Japanese: MEXT "English Notebook" curriculum in English
Overall it's not as bad as many of us feared and at first glance it looks
quite similar to Genki English.
But reading through and translating all this my biggest feeling was disappointment.
I spend a lot of time choosing the target language I use in classes, making
sure it all fits and builds up as well as being what the kids want to say
and real correct English. Here it just seems they've clumped together a
bunch of Japanese phrases and said "Here, translate this into English".
A real shame.
They seem to spend a lot of time on each topic, and I guess that is to
help first time teachers who probably aren't up to speed yet. Plus reading
through the content makes you think of 1st or 2nd grade classes instead
of 5th and 6th!
But theses details are still in the "provisional" stage so may
well change. I'll get my hands on the book when I'm back in Japan in May
when I have a ministry sponsored workshop. I'll let you know a little more
then.
As I said this curriculum isn't in force yet, so please feel free to try
out my curriculum and experiment with your own ideas. Elementary school education is so
important for the future of our students, I'm sure we can all do better!
Any feedback or extra information you have, please add it in the comments
section of the English notebook page!
April 5th 2008 - New MEXT Curriculum
Just a quick word to let you know that the Japanese Ministry of Education
(MEXT) has just released on their website preliminary details of the new
5th & 6th grade compulsory English curriculum. http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/gaikokugo/index.htm
The site is in Japanese but also includes worksheets, flashcards etc. to
go with the new "textbook" (which they are calling a "no-to"
or "notebook") that will distributed when English does eventually
become compulsory. Over the weekend I'll get to work on translations and
reviewing what they have created.
Here are the topics covered (my translations from the Japanese) along with
MEXT's own list of "phrases used" in each one:
5th Grade
Phrases used
1. How the world says "hello"
What's your name?
My name is
Nice to meet you.
2. Gestures
How are you?
I'm happy.
3. Playing with numbers
How many?
4. Self intros
Do you like apples?
5. World's clothing
I don't like blue.
6. Gairaigo (katakana English)
What do you want?
Melon, please.
7. Big Quiz
What's this? It's a pencil
8. Make a timetable
I study Japanese.
9. Make a lunch menu
What would you like?
I'd like fruits. (doesn't this sound a bit strange?)
6th Grade
Phrases used
1. Playing with the alphabet.
A -Z
2. Different letters
a - z
3. Make a calendar
When is your birthday?
My birthday is March 3rd.
4. Things we can do
Can you swim?
Yes, I can
5. Street directions
Where is the flower shop?
Go straight.
Turn left etc.
6. Countries I'd like to visit
I want to go to Italy.
Let's go. (I wouldn't bother, it's a bit cold here at the moment!)
7. My day
What time do you get up?
At 7:00
I go to bed at 9:00
8. Make our own drama
Please help me.
What's the matter?
9. Future dreams
What do you want to be?
I want to be a cook?
Aside from the few funny phrases, at first glance it doesn't look as bad
as many of us feared.
Please excuse any mistakes on my part, it's 11PM where I am (in Italy as
it happens) and wanted to get this out to you ASAP. Full marks to Yumiko for sending me the link so quickly. Check back here next week for more.
April 5th 2008 - Japanese Weather
Today it's the turn of the GenkiJapan.net site to get an update, this time
with the Weather in Japanese song / video. I haven't checked the stats yet, but with 1000 people subscribed to the
YouTube channel I imagine quite a few people have already seen it.
The nice thing that's happening at the moment is seeing more and more teachers
who have learnt Korean or German or Japanese using the genki games, then using the Genki English versions with their students as they know first hand how they work.
If you haven't tried the other genki languages yet, then have a go, it's
a very nice eye opener to actually learn through the computer games as
opposed to simply teaching with them!
P.S. Three new card games just added to the "Beta Test" section
of the members' forum. Enjoy!
April 4th 2008 - Chants vs. Songs
If any of you saw Carolyn Graham's recent tour of Asia you'll know she
really rocks. She was the first person to popularise "Jazz Chants"
where you take a record and chant your class' target English over the top.
If you get the music to fit the words (and not the other way round) it
works great for learning English rhythm, works with all age groups and
any English you could think of.
The only problem with chants is that, almost by definition, they don't
have a melody. That's where you're losing out on something. For example
if you think of the latest hip hop song on the radio, is it the rap in
the verse you remember or the melody-like hook in the chorus?
With the latest Kylie or Madonna song, it's not the rhythm, it's the melody
that sticks in your head and hence the lyrics get stuck in there as well.
That's why ESL songs are so much better than chants, because the kids retain
the English for a lot longer, usually to the next lesson and beyond. That's
the best thing I like about them!
So why use chants at all? It's simply because they are easier to write!
It's easy to make a chant out of any grammar point, you can do it yourself
in 5 minutes, but it's a lot more difficult to come up with a memorable
melody. Hence why there aren't as many out there. I'm just as guilty as
anyone as most of my Japanese songs are actually chants, just because they are easier to do! I'd love to make
them into songs, but it takes so much more time and resources. Luckily
the success of Genki English means for the English materials I can actually
take the time to make them into songs, which then benefits the students.
Original?
The other point is that for the melodies to stick they have to be original
melodies. I've lost count of the amount of ESL songs that say 'sing to
the tune of "Frere Jacques" or "London Bridge"'. These
songs are easier to teach as the kids know the melody, but the problem
is that as soon as you have two or more songs with the same melody you
lose the link between the tune and the words, your mind gets confused and
you don't remember them. They might make the lesson a touch more fun, but
they're missing the most important point and you're still stuck with kids
forgetting all their English in the next lesson.
That's why with the Genki English songs I always try and make sure each one has it's own unique melody to get
stuck in your head along with the words. It does mean there are less songs
than they could be ( I think we'd be up to CD vol. 53 if I only did chants!),
but it's also the reason they work so well.
It's something to keep in mind when choosing the tools for your next lesson.
But what do you think? Do you prefer chants to songs? Or mixture of both?
Or something totally different?
April 3rd 2008 - Whose is it?
I had a request the other week for activities to teach "Whose ...
is this?". I've never found anything that just clicked with this theme,
until I came across the simplest of simple ideas on the net the other day:
http://www.sendaiedu.com/stopthiefpossessives
It's a really simple idea...
1. Go round the class and collect something from each student (a pen or
ruler etc.)
2. Put them in a bag (a magician's bag would be cool).
3. Pull out something and ask "Whose is this?"
4. Get the kids to shout out "It's mine!" or "It's Hiro's."
The best thing about this game is that it's one where you can use the game
to actually teach the language, not just practice it. For example if the
kids don't know "It's mine" they probably won't say it. So ...
1. Hold the object near and say "It's mine!"
2. Go round the class showing it off. 3. Hopefully the kids will say "No", so you just keep repeating "Yes, it's mine!".
4. Hopefully, if you've chosen something that belongs to a genki kid, they'll
say "It's mine".
5. If they don't, just choose someone else's until you get the reaction
you need.
If it's a really genki kid you can do a "It's mine!", "No,
it's mine!", "No, it's mine!" comedy style sketch.
The key here is patience and lots of repetitions of the words. Once you
hear the first "It's mine." you can practice together as a class.
Then you can introduce "not" and "It's not mine". From the next object most of the
kids have to say "It's not mine", whilst the owner says "It's
mine".
The next step is introduce and have them say "It's not mine. It's
hers/his." whilst pointing to the owner.
This pretty much takes up a whole lesson but the kids will have learnt
it well and using the real objects keeps it fun (sometimes too fun, you
might need a few calming down techniques in some classes!) For smaller
classes you might need to collect more than one thing at the beginning.
In case you do have time left at the end...
1. Put the kids in groups.
2. Give each group a bag
3. Let them do the same thing in the groups e.g. one person pulls out something
and says "Whose is this?", the others say "It's not mine,
it's .....'s". Very simple.
Have a try in class and let me know how it works for you.
April 1st 2008 - Celebrities Sing Genki English
As you know we like a little glitz and glamour here at Genki English. So
today I'm very proud to present the latest Genki English CD - "Celebrities Sing Genki English Greatest Hits".
It's taken months of swanning around the world, hob nobbing with the stars
and signing up the biggest names to record their favourite Genki English
tracks. Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, they're all huge fans you know.
Full details of the all the songs and celebs are on the Greatest Hits CD page. I'm sure your students are going to love it!
But don't forget this is a special limited edition CD so get your order
in today!
The live widget I used is from weather.com and it's called "Weather on your website". If you don't have
your own site and want to choose different countries, ask the computer
teacher, they might be able to knock up a page for you on the school's
website.
The game itself is really good:
1. Teach the weather song and the "Where are you from?" song.
2. Give the kids a map with the countries.
3. They guess the weather and temperature in each place.
4. Print out the live weather reports just before the lesson
5. See who got the closest.
It's a nice way to combine two themes and it's really great seeing it click
in the students' heads when they realise that Summer and Winter really
are reversed in the hemispheres!
Have a try of the game in class and oh, don't forget the online games for learning the weather and countries.
There are also some countries ideas on the members forum: here and here and the song with new countries here (part way down the page.)
Take any problem in the World and it's invariably caused (or made worse)
by a lack of education. Too many kids hate school because it's too boring.
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I was at a farm today. Not just any old farm, but one of the funky new
ones with well trained guides: 
Yesterday I popped into the University of Newcastle for a chat about the upcoming Genki English trip to India. 
There's no doubt that speakers of English in Sweden are much, much more
advanced than in many other countries. The question is why?
After catching the opera last night (it was good to see Tosca in Rome),
it was up early and on the flights to northern Sweden.
I've just put a couple of new "Teaching Guide Videos" on the site. One for 
Although it might seem like I was a quite harsh on the "
First lesson of the year, if you speak the lingo
1. Go round the class and collect something from each student (a pen or
ruler etc.)
The best thing about this game is that it's one where you can use the game
to actually teach the language, not just practice it. For example if the
kids don't know "It's mine" they probably won't say it. So ...
3. Hopefully the kids will say "No", so you just keep repeating "Yes, it's mine!". 
