Give a kid a device! Discovering colours in class.

 How can you make 'learning' colours a bit more fun? One set of words kids do not have a problem with, really, except maybe "false-friends" in some languages maybe...

Really wanted my charges to actually read the words from their class book (see the word, go back a page to the visual clue if necessary) and demonstrate they could worj their way through a list, in the correct order.

In pairs, swapping jobs as photographer & model, they were given iPhone/iPod . Camera app open, go find items of each colour in the classroom. Independence Day! Off they galloped!

Word of caution - these devices are expensive, so make sure you are doing this with a 'sensible' group. Suggest turning on 'airplane' mode so no in-app purchases get clicked, or your twitter feed/phone goes off! Maybe help with reducing camera shake?!

In pairs, swapping jobs as photographer & model, they were given iPhone/iPod . Camera app open, go find items of each colour in the classroom. Independence Day! Off they galloped!

Word of caution - these devices are expensive, so make sure you are doing this with a 'sensible' group. Suggest turning on 'airplane' mode so no in-app purchases get clicked, or your twitter feed/phone goes off! Maybe help with reducing camera shake?!

I wanted the children to then do the above post production, but they were not familiar enough with the iOS as well as the keyboard layout  AND the upper/lower case shift. It also took time - so this would work with mixed ages classes OR hooking one device up to a projector & doing it as a group.

The app I used = WordFoto, the link is here, which is really quick/slick & intuitive (for teachers anyway!). I only wanted one colour word per pic, but you can do this with a theme & add up to nine. You can change the hue/size & fonts to some extent. I think the end product of 10 minutes running around & 10 mins after class (me) = stunning & very personalised set of flashcards. We will print these & display around the room!

Have you used WordFoto?

Story Generator: Amazon Heist

Plot summary:

A daring eating contest set in the mysterious Sakae village, features a heated battle between sworn enemies - GoGo Gorilla & the infamous Bosozoku Baka. The winner goes home with pride in their heart & a belly full of food. The loser, a whole education in the hands of a girl's school.

Cast:
  The Hero: GoGo Gorilla = Keisuke Honda
    The Villain: Bosuzoku Boys = Nicholas Cage
      Supporting: random people at eating contest
        Narrator: Morgan Freeman

Reviews:
"Barrow has eliquate (sic) use of the English language to portray a story of love, loss & eating." Daily Mail - 5 stars

"A spectacular story full to the brim with tension." 
Phillip Pullman - 5 stars

Written & directed by Alex, with creative contributions from Matsumoto's Lost Boys!

Story Generator - Popeye with no spinach but an app

Popeye was selling iPhones in Zambia. Mitochondria, who has an enormous mouth, came to buy the iPhone. The iPhone that she bought was broken & had funny Zambian faces on it. She got angry and bit Popeye's hand. Popeye searched for spinach to fight Mitochondria, but he failed to find them. All he had was an iPhone with a useless spinach app, and a funny picture of local Zambians.

Popeye ran as fast as he could, all the way up Zambia's highest gloomy mountain, the Zonbian volcano. Popeye was so happy to run away from Mitochondria. While he was enjoying his victory, Zonbian volcano erupted. As a result, he died painfully with his burned iPhone.

Mitochondria was safe because her body was too small to be hit by the volcano things.

Cast:
  Popeye = Tomoro
    Mitochondria = Mum
      Narrator = oyajim
        other characters - Umpalumpa

Written & directed by: Takoro, with creative contributions from Tom, Kan & Alex!

Analogue Story Generator - a dice & a homestay visitor

This is a fun activity which worked very nicely in class with my returnee brothers and their English homestay guest in a one hour class last week.

I was expecting them to not be in the mood for a regular class, prepping for FCE, and also that our native-speaking guest would probably have a lot of raw language I could use more creatively...

Column 1: Superhero - think of silly name for the six rows, brainstorming eg people we know & admire, sports stars, anything silly...
Column 2: Villain - maybe a baddy we don't like from school or the news...
Column 3: Location - somewhere local, or a place we like or want to visit...
Column 4: An object - a favourite toy or super-power delivering tool...
Column 5: Main event - more dramatic/mundane the better...
Column 6: Ending - obvious? Challenged mine to come up with a sticky end, a twist, comic book, science fiction, sporty & surprising finishes.

Materials = piece of paper with 6 rows x 6 columns, and a dice. Pencils would be handy!

The brain storming actually took quite a while as I needed to filter suggestions a bit so we would end up with an interesting variety of outcomes (and publishable ones!).

Selection phase = students throw the dice in turn to choose a superhero from column one. Repeat for the other 5 columns: each student now has a very eclectic set of characters & bizarre storyline to concoct!

Embellishing = decide on a cast list for the main characters (Mum featured as did the teacher), a narrator, supporting cast, a title.

Homework - write a summary of the plot (rough draft). Aim = second draft with more detail, structure/organisation, Hollywood moment etc!

Immediate feedback = very entertaining interaction & entertaining suggestions - only told them the 'story' aim after we'd brainstormed all the 36 components (otherwise the'd have been filtering their own ideas - as it was they guessed they were going to make a story - but a horizontal one eg all #4s - and had tried to make things 'fit')

This activity would never work with my usual junior high school/high school crowd; it did work splendidly with noisy, energetic, imaginative, competitive teens. One-upmanship added a lot to the storyboard, and I for once was not 'the expert' - all I had to do was pass the dice around...and moderate the input!

Old MacDonald - ever been more fun?

A crowd pleasing app can give a teacher 'thinking time' to get the next activity cued up, or help you manage to stretch out a topic and refresh batteries. We were reviewing animals and there was a request for Old MacDonald (and I love the app developed by LoeschWare)...aim of the game is to choose farm animals and not wild ones - like tigers, sharks & camels, which if chosen are variously dispatched to many giggles.

Bon Bon 2013 slideshow

Another summer, and another Bon Bon Festival! Full photo album here

Our team gets younger every year, and we were missing a few noisy stalwarts this time out...and a bit hard for mums & dads to cut loose with toddlers in tow! We also had a new mototrised division - push chairs & prams at the rear.

As you can see from this slideshow, most people little & large went the distance - til 9pm and our finishing line at the top of Isemachi (as the crow flies we went about 75 metres!) and had loads of fun in the process. Lots of jumping & arm-waving, sometimes in time with the music even :) Everyone seemed to have a turn holding the banner up at the front & leading the sedate charge. Thank you everyone for joining us, and for sharing lots of smiles. Of course, a great evening like tonight needs planning & organising - thank you Yukari for going to the meetings, printing maps & t-shirt logos etc...you were super xxx



Thank you also to old friends & family who stopped us to say hello, especially:

• Nagano Prefectural Children's Hospital
• Sayaka, Mitsuna & Yumeka who danced in our very first Bon Bon
• Ayako & her friends, back from college
• Shibaura (where Jim taught back in 1990!)

We are looking forward to August 4th, 2014 already...

Very large grumble though about the obnoxious Yakuza presence, drunk students shouting obscenities "dancing" around our (and other) children, and a total lack of crowd. Seemed to me there were very few people actually watching this year. Have to blame the organisers for making the rules ever more boring and meaningless eg no hats, costumes, rattles, shakers, our large hands...at least there was provision at last for dumping rubbish.

What did everyone else think about the event?

Another Pirate wanted!

Sir Henry Morgan

Nickname is Barbadosed.

From Wales.

Lives in Caribbean.

Crimes are he attacked the Spanish cities in the Caribbean.

Usually wears a slash doublet and embroidered baldrics, cotton shirts with ruffs, breeches and leather boots.

The Spanish are looking for him.

He is 53 years old.

Researched & written by Tomoro

Professional Development - Nagoya

I was delighted to be asked to provide a KET & PET examiner training session by Mike Stockwell at Sugiyama University in Nagoya. It is really reassuring that some of the people I hold in the highest regard 'get it' i.e. appreciate just how useful the examiner training is to in-service teachers...let along the quality of the actual exams and usefulness to candidates.

On sweltering day, we worked around felafel kebabs for lunch and potent Mojitos afterwards!

KET & PET (CEFR A2 & B1 respectively) are abundantly appropriate for university language students in this country - far much more so than TOEIC, for example. The speaking parts of the tests, which we were training for today, are especially important. Exam-takers interact with each other with graded material to stimulate an exchange, and are not required to talk to a blank PC screen for 3 minutes. Examiners are professionally experienced, annually re-trained and well-paid - not minimum wage, uni students on piece-rates!

Thank you Rob, Tanja, Steve, Cheryl, Jon & Mike for your very hard work and thoroughly professional work ethic. An excellent day's work, and six of the best joining Luna's examiner corp.

The Secret Room - Green Story Tree #3

A hot summer's day, weary students at the end of a long week..."nothing new" to learn (cleverly arranged Jim-sensei?)

listen to ‘The Secret Room - Green Story Tree #3’ on Audioboo

Love Sock Puppet - the 30 second limit really makes us hurry up :)

Jumping Up!

A beginners guide to enjoying a very simple starters' song!

listen to ‘Jumping Up!’ on Audioboo

better in video, but we are early learners :)

From Yamagata - examiner training weekend

Our great northern venues in Yamagata & Fukushima have been co-operating with each other since adopting Cambridge exams, and last weekend the fine tradition continued. MY English Schools in Yamagata are very keen on Cambridge Young Learners, and it was a pleasure to deliver examiner training to their staff on Saturday.

The following day, we had a whole day of Professional Development, which included opportunities to practice & hone our interlocution skills with volunteer candidates. This puts examiners under 'real' exam pressures and is invaluable experience - helps me identify possible areas that need fine-tuning or showcase good habits. The volunteer candidates can enjoy two or three 'practice' goes for free, to help get them in the mood for the actual exams which will be taking place in November (details below). I'd like to thank Ryan's school & staff for their help in organising the weekend, and for all their hard work.



I actually enjoyed the long drive, as the nights' on the expressway coincided with live commentary on the cricket between England & Australia in London...meaningless for most people I know, but blissfully enjoyable for me, and made the 1,100km slip by relatively quickly - just like the Aussie innings!

YLE in Yamagata city: November 10th

Apply to MY English School rhagglund@myeigo.com or via Luna at luna.JP004@gmail.com

YLE in Aizuwakamatsu city: November 17th

Apply to Windmill English Centre windmill@akina.ne.jp or via Luna at luna.JP004@gmail.com

What is it?

listen to ‘What is it?’ on Audioboo

Postcard from Slot Canyons, Arizona, USA

Today, I visited "Antelope Canyon".

It's a very very beautiful place which nation (nature) have made for a long time.

Just now, I was back to Las Vegas. Here, there're many people & noisy music :(

By one day trip, I felt peaceful wind (at Canyon) & human's energy.

Tomorrow I'll go back to Japan. My vacation is not long, but good time.

Yumi

Grace Darling - difficult choices

I read Grace Darling in June, and here is my answer to After Reading #4.

If I have to choose four people, I would save…

A mother and her young child, because young child is not physically strong to spend long time in the ocean.
A doctor (older woman), because she is able to take care of the sick people after she goes to the lighthouse.
A nurse (young man), because I need someone to row my boat together. He would be able to row back to save other people.
A teacher (older woman), because older woman is not physically strong enough comparing to man or young woman.

I imagined it was very difficult to made the right decision in the limited time frame. But William and Grace were really brave and able to save as many people as they could.

I was really impressed by the Grace’s word, “Think of those poor people, alone on that rock. We live on a lighthouse – it’s our job!”. I am working at a company, but I want to think about what I can do for the people as a job.

Posted for Tomoko

My kid brother as a Super Hero!

As a diversion from the brain melting 37 degree heat we've enjoyed today, I asked Kanro to imagine himself as a Super Hero. Ever modest, he declined, but when asked to cast his kid brother in the role, things got a bit more interesting.

Here is a transcript of our interview.

Your brother is a Super Hero, I hear. What should the world call him?
You can call him Mouse Boy.

I hear he is pretty scary to look at. Is that true?
It is ture that he looks unusual and wierd but not scary in my opinion.

Does he leave fur around the house?
Yes he does. The house always get dirty with it.

How does he get on with your labrador?
They get on well with each other. They sleep on the same sofa every night and play together in our garden.

Tell us about his alias, please.
It is Alex Cabbage, and he works in the local seven eleven as a convenience store clerk and he even wears the uniform.

He wasn't wearing that uniform when we saw him on CCTV last week rescueing those climbers in the Alps...
He quickly changed into his costume and saved them. The costme consists of green mask and a blue ring which gives him powers.

Powers? Like what?
He gets the power to dig holes underground and become really tiny.  

And then what does he do? 
He will go to the place where someone needs help like he was shot from a catapult.

Very interesting! I hear he doesn't live in Japan? 
No, he lives in Turkey, because he likes to swim in the Black Sea. However, he will come to help even in Japan, beacause of the time difference and he loves udon.


Do you ever get jealous of his fame, good looks and success with the girls?
It is a little difficult to answer that question, though I sometimes feel blue.
 










 

Railway set as a class analysis tool?

Rainy season is about done in Japan now (so any rain we do get from now will be unexpected!) and the real heat of the summer is set to swamp us with an oppressive, humid blanket.

We had a foretaste of that at the end of last week, when our new little class dripped into Luna excited but clearly on their last legs. We are about over the "hugging mummy's leg" stage, but not quite past the "let's run around the room picking everything up" stage which also comes with the "I am going to pretend to be a rabbit for the next 45 minutes" personality!

With my own son added to the mix (once in a class he will not do anything like make daddy a proud teacher) I decided to make a pre-emptive strike and make a mess of my own classroom (and lesson plan). We have a lovely wooden train set, underused, and today it got a full work-out. The boys grabbed all the engines, of course, while the girls stood there wondering why! They shared the nice wooden characters instead, and started arranging them neatly. Now, play carried on and was self-propelled; for once they wanted me to referee disputes and to fix things. Although they asked me to do stuff in L1, I would make sure we had at least a snippet of English while I checked what they wanted and got a "please" or a "thank you" extracted. The bolder children started to insist on the same courtesies, and soon enough some "here you are" & "you're welcomes" too (which they 'remembered' from the background music we had playing quietly).

Something I was really interested to see happened after about 15 minutes; the boys had had enough ploughing around the track and wanted to re-build it. Which, to be honest, was a bit of a eureka moment! They were really saying "OK, we've got the mechanics sorted, now we want to see if we can make it work for ourselves". Replace 'grammar' for 'mechanics' and you'll see the analogy. That they tried to put the ends together or track upside down, corners going the wrong way, had bridges going nowhere, and not enough track to join the ends together = making mistakes, experimenting, making false starts, trying out ideas and arriving at dead ends...they realised this for themselves, and set about problem solving (or walking away & doing something different for a bit then coming back with fresh eyes) individually at first (even less track because somebody hogged all the corners!) and then as a team. These little engineers were doing this for the first time in any language, so I can't expect them to instantly do the same in English classes...but I can try to re-create the kind of tasks with more of a language focus down the line, and give them the glue they need to get their personal tracks organised.

I found myself needing to apologise to mums afterwards that we "didn't do much English" - but on reflection I am glad we did something completely different and that the children showed me their natural dynamic, teams & leadership skills. I can use all of that! Mums? Well, the kids came back without any tears or calls for mummy during the class (first time none of them had had to sit in & reassure anyone), the class went really quietly and yet they were humming the "clean up" song at the end...so they were more than happy.

Now to follow that up with a 'proper' lesson and not a "it's too hot" cop out!

Blackbeard - wanted poster

Wanted Dead or Alive

Reward of  500 gold doubloons for the capture of the Pirate "Blackbeard" 

Real name: Edward Teach , or Tatch, or Thatch
Age: 38
From: Bristol, England
Lives in: the Caribbean on his ship the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Crimes: capturing more than 40 shipsstealing lots of treasure, blockading Charleston , marrying 14 wives.

Appearance: a tall, frightening man with a long, black beard, usually wears lots of pistols in his belt and puts smoking fireworks in his beard.

Contact: Governor Spotswood of Virginia or Tomoro of Matsumoto

Report - things to do in my hometown: Suwa, Nagano prefecture

Suwa lake firework Festival (Photo credit: Kurosawa Michiyo)

1. Festivals in Suwa

Summer Season: The majority of festivals are held in the summer. You can enjoy fireworks around Suwa Lake in August, every evening at 8pm. In additiona, many "Bon Odori" and "Ofune" festivals related with Suwa Lake are held.
Winter Season: Suwa Lake is frozen in January and February. The frozen lake blessing is broadcast on the news as "God`s walking on the Lake".

2. Onsens everywhere

There are onsens (public baths) which tend to be a bit cheaper than the majority of the high range hotels.

3. Suwa Lake

There are many options if you want to go fishing, boating and walking. While enjoying the outdoors, you can nearly always feel a nice, peaceful wind.

English: Lake Suwa, Suwa, Nagano prefecture, Japan  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

4. Eating out sight-seeing

Most traditional food restaurants are open near Suwa Lake. Generally speaking, some traditional food is cooked with very unique materials, such as bee larva etc. For your experience, we recommend trying to eat them. If you want to see a beautiful sight, why not visit "Kirigamine kogen". It takes one hour by car from Suwa station.

Posted by Yumi

A funny thing happened...original story

A funny thing happened during a lesson at school. We were in a history class in the fourth period and that day it was the last class because school finished at one o’clock in the afternoon.

The dopey kid sitting in front of me was snoring. He seemed to be absolutely exhausted and had fallen asleep on his desk. When the bell rang at the end of the class, he was still sleeping deeply. Our teacher, who was totally furious, hid the boy’s shoes on top of the blackboard. 

We didn’t want to wake him up, so we all left the classroom on tip toes and left him with his dreams.  Next morning, he had to apologize to us and he was extremely embarrassed. The funniest thing was that he couldn’t find his shoes. We all wondered what his mother had said to him when he got home that night!

By Takuro

Postcard from...St. Moritz, Switzerland

Dear Jim, NHK guys.

I'm in St. Moritz in Swizland. I came here by Bernina railway, one of the World Heritage, from Tirano in Italy.

The cool red trains goes into the Swiss Alps. The view from the wide windows is fabulous!!

I enjoyed the journey with glaciers, wild flowers, clean lakes...It is like another world.

Finally, I arrived this amazing resort. Swiss is nice and warm. After visiting a art museum. I am going to stay a hotel located by Lake Como.

Posted for Teruki

Run for the hills! YLE training in Yamagata

 You might think driving to Yamagata on a Friday night after classes is a bit of a fool's errand, but that exactly what I was doing this time last week. Although it's a long way (a tank of gas or 550km) it is very straightforward...Nagano, Niigata, Aizu, aim for Sendai & turn left. The cricket had just started (perfect time difference to England) & my iPhone could pick up the live radio commentary all the way. Bliss!

I found a quiet place to sleep in the car, and had a day of YLE examiner training to look forward to nice & early Saturday morning, at MY English school, owned by my friend Ryan Hagglund.

I really enjoy training teachers who teach children, because they generally do not try to over-complaicate things, and are dealing with YLE classes on a daily basis. Seeing the child-friendly nature of the exams for real is usually met with very positive comments and the realisation that the format of the materials is very familiar to their way of teaching...and does not require any massive re-invention of the wheel to help their students be successful in them. What is the point of teaching to a test, after all?



After a full day Saturday, we all went out for a pint or two, as well as a frog. Not too much the worse for wear (well, me anyway!) we practiced on Sunday with volunteer candidates for both the YLE exams and the adults. Such practice is really useful for the trainee examiners, as it piles on the pressure being a lot more realistic than practicing with each other.

Tired, satisfied, I pointed the car east, then south, then west, and south again listening to more cricket, delighted that England were winning and that we have half a dozen re-certified examiners in the Tohoku region. Well done team!

Of drilling and music in YLE classroom

I was thinking about drilling last week, and not just because I've got a hole in one of my teeth...and I put  the idea into my 'blog about this soon' folder. This folder is just next to 'go home & eat dinner' in my head, and I think I must have been hungry that evening.

I just came across Martin Sketchley's timely post on his really good blog http://www.eltexperiences.com ARGH!!! on drilling which reminded me I had something to say! Martin's post is here by the way, and I especially agree on using music to do the hard work. A couple of the other ideas are new to me, but as our landlord complains about noisy kids (yes, he's a real gas) the full-volume one will have to wait a while. Find Martin on twitter as @ELTExperiences

Devon Thaggard of Super Simple Songs fame is an exponent of using music all the time - warmers up, coolers down (if that is a proper phrase I don't know!), scene shifting & transitioning, background & subliminal input...all of which I like but I find myself up & down like a yo-yo doing that, and so do this once in a while. But I do like to use his songs a lot - check out some of our Audioboos here.

Songs obviously have rhythm, and I enjoy the challenge this brings to my learners as they are in (L1) habit of giving each consonant the same weight, and not elliding (joining words together). Enunciating nicely yes (I hope - they are copying me after all!) but not getting whole chunks out quickly enough or with too much "oomph" (my favourite technical phrase in EFL since my CELTA course!).

The other day I was introducing my YLs to the this/that concept...by way of a song in English Time 1 (OUP). The children already knew the vocab, so simple matter of sticking the flashcards out of arm's reach (around the room, spread out a bit). Having never hear the song before, I just asked them to listen and touch or point at the approriate card. Windmills! Second time was more co-ordinated, and they wanted to join in (fine - not me forcing them too, and they wanted to know what the other words were...OK, I gave them!). They wanted to try again and do better...it's working!

The lyrics for the songs are in the back of the classbooks, which I really like - and they are also indented to identify different 'parts' in back & forth or question/answer chants.
This is a flower
       That's a bird
This is a flower
       That's a tree......
This makes it really easy to assign parts to students individually or in pairs/little groups, reading their 'bit' and hearing the other bit (a slow read through, focusing on actually reading - remembering? - the words). And then press play for a full speed go with all the words in, emphasising the this/that distinction as a 'battle'. Replay quickly with roles switched, and the little troopers will be singing all the way back to home :)

Here is a very impromptu audio grab of our efforts - remember, this was the 1st time they'd come across the song!


Check out all our Fotobabbles at http://www.fotobabble.com/media/list?username=LunaJim

Drilling is not a dirty word in my EFL classroom...it is just nicely disguised as 'fun'!

#ELTchat - teachers working outside the box/professional development

As my last class was cancelled at the last minute this evening - ongoing business meeting (again - what can be so important at 8pm?) I was able to join in a 'conversation' that I have missed for several weeks.

How can you have a 'conversation' on twitter? Sounds barmy, doesn't it? Well, frankly, yes, it does. But, if you use a regular schedule and use a consistent hastag (#), then you can achieve/join a forum to discuss pre-decided topics. You can lurk, ie just watch, without joining in/sharing...but if you are 'brave' and dip your toe in, you get an awful lot more out of the discussion.

So this evening I realised I was listening to the cricket (not accidentally - England are playing South Africa at The Oval!) and that I could participate in the #ELTchat "chat", that happens (for me) every Weds night. I usually can't, and although there is a summary written up aferwards, I feel I have missed a chance to get involved - you don't write to people after a party you didn't go to, do you? Reading about it later is not the same as chucking your hat on the ring! So, with my Tweetdeck still working (opinion about Tweetdeck being scuttled later) I joined in.

The thing about twitter is (at least with peers) that you are not 'at' nor obliged even to respond. Contrast that with, for example email. A very good definition I read lately of email is that it is a 'to do list drawn up by other people'. And I hate that. If I send an email, I am going to end up with xyz number of extra things to do that I do not want to do - at the very least acknowledge/write a reply. I don't know about you, but I need time to think about stuff like that - be in the right mood, have the time to find attachments, craft the thing in such a way that I don't end up with yet another inbox stressor to deal with...

A twitter discussion = a topic I have decided is relevant to me...or a discussion about a topic by a bunch of people who I think are relevant ( I don't know who they are in advance, but they will be using the same #hashtag to identify the topic/discussion) is very empowering. They shatter geographical boundaries, overcome local insularity, and flatten playing fields.

Twitter chats also happen at the speed you can type; usually any 'chat' will be over in an hour. I find I need a second device necessary (my iPhone to respond) while following on a primary device PC using Tweetdeck (I wanted to use Monitter) to keep an eye on the ongoing feed. Otherwise, my response speed (unconfident) can mean I have missed 5 minutes of 'chat' and have become irrelevant/late. Sometimes people reply to you directly, in mid-flow....great! You have been heard, your answer is valuable, your public - peers - await!

So, while I did not have dinner tonight with my dad - in Japan for a week (or my kids, as usual) - or actually have dinner at all (school owner syndrome?) I instead found myself having a very impromptu & high speed chat about teachers & managers. Given that you can only tweet 140 characters in one go, you have to be very concise. Given that you also only have one hour - and multiple participants with a time line moving on quickly - you also do not have time to 'consider'. And I love that. You really do get 'gut' reactions - not rants or ambushes. Imagine a phone conversation with your phone card running out - and you want to say something. I have yet to engage in a chat with 'my' people that has not been an enormously positive experience.

Caveat. I am engaged with a professional group - not a social one. I am an adult, and I do not take bait or react to bullying. That itself is something you have to be old enough/smart enough to recognise. I do not give a shit if somebody I cannot identify says something negative. I do not identify specific examples or people. I take a few sessions to take the temperature of the group - see how well it is moderated - and to check who the bigger fish are. Are they my actual peers (do they have public profiles? Do they have many followers? Do they 'rant'?), is the discussion fair, will it be useful for me?

Tonight I was engaged with a "tight" group of people. I have taken the time to check out my industry, build a list of teachers around the world I think have valid/valuable opinions, follow #ff links and read blogs. I have noticed which contributors are fair, respond to others, share extras eg links, respond by naming @person who said something, welcome newbies etc. And to get involved, I have replied to the @person and used the #hashtag and from there I am in the middle of a conversation...mine...I am being retweeted, favourited, replied to and asked follow up questions. That's OK - I am 'on my topic'. If the conversation has moved on (and it will!) re-join. Maybe you did not read the topic carefully enough or your first message 'missed'. Keep trying (and leave space for  retweets - only use 120 characters) & remember to include the #hashtag!



Tonight, I was in a very high speed conversation with teachers/managers working in Dubai, Greece, Australia, the UK, South Korea, Finland & Croatia. There was no 'you are the expert' or 'you are stupid', 'I have a PhD' or 'Who are you?'. Instead, I was asked to explain (my 'shorthand' not the same as everyone elses) or to give examples or to expand. Some people retweeted my tweets, others were 'favorited'....and others got no response at all! Relax - none of us can be the eternal font of all wisdom!

I learned a lot of useful things from my "one hour of free-time" tonight. I also came across a stack of people on twitter I would like to get to know/follow/pay attention to. I also started to realise who some of the 'big hitters' are. I started a conversation with somebody I never had any chance of talking to otherwise...

And that is the beauty of twitter. I don't get teachers who don't get twitter. I really don't! The next last most useful resource for EFL teachers was The Guardian Weekly...back in the steam age!

Old Flames!

I try to avoid going to the office as much as I can on Sundays...I spend enough working Sundays away from home with exams & JALT.

But, I would drop everything for Ayako if asked - and she asked. As she came up the stairs with her big sister - last taught by Anna-sensei - we found her YLE Starters certificate on the wall. 2004??? Blimey! I need to get a new speil for my YLE training courses, as I often cite Ayako in them. She is profoundly deaf, yet trampled the listening & speaking parts of that test (you'll have to delve into this blog's archives for more). She is one of my heroes.

Already at uni, Aya-chan wants to study English again - overseas. I could help her easily if the British government had not started this ridiculous visa restriction that any potential English language learners have to already have at least KET. OK, so I am also one of the few school owners who knows what that is...and I also know that Cambridge English Language Assessment (formerly the artist known as ESOL) will enable her to take the test alongside fully-hearing candidates.

I am very excited that 'little' Ayako is going to bite off another massive chunk off "Can Do", and tackle a totally foreign country. Once again, this brave chick is doing a Captain Kirk, and boldly going...so inspiring!

Let's read

With a thunderstorm in the air & humidity very heavy, my super learners were not really looking like a team ready to learn. Sweaty, sleepy & headachey, we broke out one of my favourite boardgames for YLEs, "Chip Oh"

Very simply a matching game, written words on cards to pictures on the board, with the aim to connect 4 of your markers in a line. I like to play this game with 'open' hands, to stretch out the game/encourage reading each others' cards and building a strategy...Always milk your resources!

Teaming up works a treat too, takes a lot of the pressure off BUT increases the competitiveness, as learners can work off their partners' strengths etc. Lazy Jim-sensei refused to help anyone this time, as all words were within 'reach' of our reading abilities, and some realised they actually could do an awful lot better than they thought. Empowering game, unexpected winner ( Me!...but Shunta did all the work!), and relaxed kids. Win Win