In the Morning...

Wanted to share an activity we enjoyed this afternoon at Luna, reading one of Patrick Jackson's excellent Potato Pals little readers "In the Morning" - all about routines, so why not bring out the inner child in us all?!

We enjoyed ourselves; hope you do too!

Thanks for the inspiration (end permission/encouragement!) Patrick.

Everybody Up author Patrick Jackson pops in!

Five yard scrum - Potato Pals' ball

You can imagine my shock to hear a lot of grunting & groaning coming out of Damian's classroom the other afternoon. What the hell is going on? Open the door to find him locked in hand-to-hand combat with @patjack67 and his son, recreating a scrum from the epic England v Ireland tussle last weekend at Twickenham!

The books he has written for Young Learners (which we use) are called "Everybody Up" (not "Scrum V" or #carrythemhome ). His readers series for very Young Learners, Potato Pals, are acclaimed worldwide - and were piloted by Jim at Luna pre-publishing (and reviewed in a local yakitori with OUP!)

We are accustomed to having  the great and the good of Planet EFL visiting us at Luna. Over the years we have welcomed a number of authors such as Barbara Hoskins-Sakamoto and Ritsuko Nakata (Let's Go, by OUP), Setsuko Toyama (English Time - also OUP)  to the school. This is the first time one has turned up on a school day and joined in with our students! A staggering privilege, especially as the next classes both Damian and Jim were going to teach use Patrick Jackson's books!

Luka meets Patrick Jackson in HER class!

Our YLs were delighted to practice their greetings, and to review their "Hello" song with him...no, he did not sit at the back and brood about how we were wrecking his books! Got stuck right in with some singing and dancing, and showed no sympathy when Jim's knee went, bouncing around to "Everybody Up"!

Here is Patrick's account of his trip up here 
https://www.facebook.com/patjack67/posts/10153844384625494?stream_ref=10

Listen - http://www.fotobabble.com/m/bElTVHM1VTYzcVU9

As you can see, we had a very jolly afternoon, and completely out of the blue (we would have baked a cake!) hosted a leading light of the EFL world in our dripping wet building. Made Damian & Jim feel 10 feet tall, and impressed the living daylights out of our mums (who have just paid for their shiny new books with Pat's name on the front)&

Thanks so much for the flying visit - I'm afraid the rain today has killed your snowman though. Hope your socks dried out on the train?

We really do like milk!

My little class on Friday announced they really did not like milk...and we had to re-write their song a little bit, much to the chagrin of author Patrick Jackson! My class today were very much in favour of cow juice, and were more than happy to sing as loudly as they could.

listen to ‘We really do like milk!’ on Audioboo

I tried to change the lyrics again later, but they refused to sing "I really really really like Jim". Rotters!

I really hate milk!

listen to ‘I really hate milk!’ on Audioboo

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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