Textbooks keep you fit

Kevin rebuilds Luna - with Lego

Kevin & Jim found out on Thursday that emptying our corner classroom of it's contents beat a session at the gym! We need the room back in service before the weekend, as we will be hosting First Certificate examinations...

Over seven years it's no surprise we have 'collected' a lot of stuff; we can tell you now it is quite heavy and needs several trips to the new Luna, where we unceremoniously dumped everything on the floor - place yet to get it's cosmetic redo.

Thanks Kevin for making this labour enjoyable. Playing with the Lego an extra bonus ;)

The New Faces - Team Twenty-teens

Amongst all the fuss we have been making about Yuki and Tana leaving, and 'Oh woe, how will the school ever survive etc?' we have overlooked the fact that we have two new and extremely good members of staff.

This has been easy to overlook because...they are both very good at what they do, and come to us with a lot of valuable experience.

It goes without saying that Yukari knows Jim quite well. It is a shame Jim is not the same person she married at work. All of Yukari's experience dealing with difficult customers, cultural differences, the unexpected, English language, and planning, as a tour guide with NTB will be needed to cope with the pressures at our language school. Jim has to understand there is a new sheriff in town!

Kevin has smoothly occupied Tana's classroom slippers with an untrumpeted, calm assurance that belies the massive change this has been for him, arriving after a year working in the rarefied atmospheres of Singapore's British Council...fitting in to a new flat, adjusting to the COLD, and a classroom full of boxes/school on the brink of relocating.

We are very lucky indeed to have two such competent and cheery professionals pick up the reins. We are destined for a very exciting new year, and an all new (well, apart from haggard Jim) team to drag us into the twenty-teens. Thank you Yukari & Kevin for accepting the challenge!

The penny drops

Well folks, the moment is finally upon us as we are no longer able to use our lovely large room. This morning I moved the last few bits & pieces out & cleaned up the balcony, before helping the builders rip up the carpet tiles. It looked very bleak - and sad - and empty, just as it did four years ago when Yuki and I decided we'd move in. The world turns and we have to get on with things!

Tana's cosy classroom

Squeezing all of our stuff into 50% of the space has proved to be a challenge, and I am afraid the next week or two we will have rather cluttered classrooms. I assure you this is temporary - we are moving through this month as our new premises get cleaned get & a lick of paint. Please bear with us?!

Jim's very full classroom

Our students and mums arrived and looked disorientated this afternoon; which proves that the letters we gave out didn't find their readers again. We are going to make a big effort in 2011 to get our message out to everyone electronically. Tana's room was even fuller than it looks today, as Kevin joined in with her classes - let's hope the students don't scare him away?! Jim's students needed a shoe-horn to get comfortable, but at least it was easy to keep warm.

In Jim's first class, Yusuke & Sho had a good giggle singing the "Are you Happy" song from English Time 1; check out the podcast - they were really good!

What of tomorrow? Well, it's our very very last day to have the Unique Yuki & Tremendous Tana on the team...going to be a bleary-eyed one I think.

At the end of November we welcome: Kevin Churchley...A letter of introduction.

I studied art at University. I did a lot of photography. There are a lot of artists I like but some of the best exhibitions I’ve seen are of work by Paul Gaugan, Henri Matisse, Howard Hodgkin and Herge’ (Tintin ). 
 

After University I decided to pursue a career in the emergency services. I became a swimming pool lifeguard, an ambulance man and then a fireman. All these careers were interesting and I met a lot of amazing people.

Kevin with OUP presentation helpers

In 1984 I saw a movie called Yellow Earth which made me interested in Asia and when I had the chance to teach in Japan in 1989 I took the opportunity and have been a language teacher ever since.

I have worked in language schools, big and small, public and private high schools and kindergartens, in 2006 I was a special needs teaching assistant in a UK primary school and I also write and present for the UK publisher Oxford University Press. One of my favourite series of books is the Oxford Reading Tree.

In 2005 I made a DVD published by OUP about teaching English to children in Japan.

From 1990-2004, I was an examiner for the United Nations Test of English Proficiency at their testing centers in Yokohama and Tokyo.  In 2009 I moved to Singapore and taught English to kindergarten, primary and high school students at the British Council and Hwa Chong International school.

I have traveled quite a lot in Asia and a little bit in Europe. I used to do a lot of sports especially swimming, squash and running but my main hobbies now are listening to music and reading. 

I also dj. My dj name is numonix and I play a kind of music called drum and bass. You can listen to this kind of music at www.humanelements.jp

Kevin Churchley.

Jim adds: Kevin will be presenting for Oxford University Press around the country in February and March next year, and will be adding a special date to the calendar in April - right here at Luna. Parents and teachers alike will want to see Kevin's very special classroom style and exciting ideas for involving young learners in their reading books. One of the major reasons we adopted OUP's The Story Tree series was because of the magic presentation I saw Kevin make years ago. I have known Kevin for several years, and I am delighted we have been able to tempt him back to his beloved Japan from Singapore. Please join me in welcoming him to our chilly town and to our warm school!

Another roadtrip

Last weekend was another busy one, as Tana's posting below also mentions.

King's Road English School in Tokyo was the venue for Cambridge ESOL KET & PET examinations on Saturday, and I need to thank Trevor for his professional approach to this important event for us. Hokuriku Gakuin University in Kanazawa also had KET & PET exams on the same day - their first Lower Main Suite session so an exciting, newsworthy event. Gavin & Sakiko were suitably nervous & well-prepared; candidates looked a bit nervous!

I drove over to help the school cope with their first time, but also to be one of the two oral examiners along with Maureen, who trained up earlier this month in Sapporo. Afterwards we were able to relax with a couple of staff, which was nice but frustrating - surrounded by inviting Scotch whisky and unable to partake - I hade to drive to Sendai that night!

OK, so I slept in the car near Niigata...Sunday I met a lot of interesting folks from Sendai itself, Miyagi, Yamagata and Aomori prefectures, plus my performing friends Kaj & Kevin, who you can see on the right here. Kevin is the best presenter I know, and you'll notice he is also a fan of the Reading/Story Tree which we use at Luna. One day we'll get him to come up here...I also met a Canadian lady who shares my surname, which is very unusual - especially in Japan. Maybe we're related?

I hope our KET & PET candidates all enjoyed their exams (?!) and that they are satisfied with their results when they come. Thanks to our OEs & invigilators, and hopefully next year we will have a few new venues around the country for more candiates to take the exams conveniently. Here's hoping - it won't be for lack of trying!

With extra bits!

I went to Tokyo last weekend, for a bookfair. Sounds dull? It does, doesn't it! Over the years, the Tokyo English Language bookfair has produced some of the most incredible urban myths (I'll post a collection one day!). However, the most important thing for me, with my school owner's "hat on", is that I re-establish links with authors and publishers and introduce my staff to authors, publishers & colleagues/peers.

Luna is a small school. No debate there. But you really should see the response our staff get when they give a Luna International business card to people at an event like this! It's like Moses at the Red Sea. Doors open, eyes widen, "ah, Jim. Just a moment, I'll get my boss." It's great! And it makes my teachers feel really important - and makes them feel good about joining my staff. A Luna International business card is like a Gold American Express card!

In the 18 years I have been teaching here, I have been attending conferences/workshops/meetings/training events/bookfairs all over the country. Luna International's teachers have been attending the same events since the school started, which means that our teachers are at the forefront of new developments in English teaching - they meet the authors and get to talk about "teaching stuff", they are asked to test new material for the next generation of books (as we have been in the past - we piloted material for English Time and Potato Pals for instance ...check out the links which are now extremely active. Click on one!)

Anyway, news soon about the bookfair, who we met, what we learned etc., as well as a few new links. Meantime, I just want to ask if you like the new 'functionality' I've been able to add to the blog. Do you like the new bits (widgits, technically)? I think I'll add a poll (questionnaire) next week.

Is there anything else we should think about adding? Incidentally, some students cannot post from work (firewall/security issues) - so please email me from your home email address so I can then invite you again. Remember, this is still a closed group.

For now, any bets on when we get visitor number 1,000?

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