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

The Death of Karen Silkwood

After reading 2.

It was dark when Karen left the factory. She was driving carefully along the road to the hotel and then she saw the lights of another car behind her. Karen was very frightened so she drove faster.The car came right up behind Karen and began to hit the back of her car again and again. Her car left the road and turned over on its side. Karen hit her head and died.

A man got out of the other car and opened the door of Karen’s car. He took the brown envelop from Karen’s bag and then he drove away. 

Posted for Chinasa 

Chocolate - after reading confession

I read "Chocolate" and I did after reading#1 (crosswo

I love chocolate and I eat almost every day. But I've never think about the history of chocolate. I am surprised that Maya people used chocolate 1500 years ago.

Posted for Miyuki

The Love of a King - after reading

I read “ The Love of a King” and chose After reading #3.
Do you agree or disagree with these sentences?

1.    Edward was right to marry Wallis. Love is the most important thing in the world.

->It’s quite difficult question for me to decide, although I agree this sentence. A lot of people said that Money is important and I understand Money is necessary to live. The women can marry with rich man without Love, she just wants his money to live rich life or buy everything she wants. I cannot do that, I want to spend my time with person I loves.

2.  Wallis married Edward because he was rich and famous.

    -> I disagree with this sentence. She loved Edward not as a King. I think she knows that rich and famous are not important for her because she experienced married life with two men.

3.  The British Royal Family were very unkind to Edward.

-> I disagree because they have long story, if they accepted to Edward to marry Wallis, it damage the dignity of British Royal Family. I think Japan has also such a problem that the emperor should be a man etc.. People think about to do in the future.

4. Photographers should leave royal families alone. They need a private life just like other people.

 -> I agree with this sentence. Excess chase royal families like paparazzi lead to tragedy that Princess of Diana was died.  I think they need the private time as a person.

I’ve never known Edward story. Before reading this book, I watched “ The King’s speech” which is Edward’s brother Gorge story. He could not speak in front of people, so he practiced to be able to make a speech grandly. In the film, Edward is depicted a playboy and he doesn’t care country. It’s important for him to be with Wallis. After watching, I thought Edward is not good man, but I read this book my thinking was changed. I’m impressed that he abdicated and he married divorced women Wallis. During I was reading story, I could feel Edward spend good life with much Love for his after age. And I think if I would be faced to decide money or love, which I choose. I wish I could choose love like Edward.

ABC dominoes

listen to ‘ABC dominoes’ on Audioboo

All kinds of weather

listen to ‘All kinds of weather’ on Audioboo

ET1 abc on Tuesday

listen to ‘ET1 abc on Tuesday’ on Audioboo

A Conference from a different perspective - photographer

The weekend of May 18-9 I was asked to be the official photographer for JALT PANSIG Conference 2013, held at Nanzan University in Nagoya.

I was very excited to have been asked, and thank David Kluge for the leap of faith. I should also thank all the presenters etc who tried to ignore me scuttling in & out of rooms. I tried my hardest to be unobtrusive & uninvasive. I sincerely hope I managed that, and that the shots I did achieve captured the lovely feel of the Conference - very friendly, co-operative and calmly professional. My regret is that I did not spend any time in any presentations for long enough, but I did get a taste of a lot more than usual, and got to meet a lot of inspiring educators.

A lot of people worked very hard to put the Conference together, and a testament to their hard work was that you couldn't see any obvious signs of panic!

This slideshow highlights the people I portraited during the first day:



After a long day for presenters and audience alike, there was a short walk to a local Italian restaurant, which tried valiantly to refresh an hungry & thirsty crowd. It was a very confined space with everyone diving for the plates & topping off each others' drinks. Like everyone else, I was starving and keen to talk to friends - such as Theron Muller - and less worried about the actual photography.



This slideshow features some of the people I could catch on the second day:



Every Conference needs a volunteer team on the day to do all the running around, finding cables, carrying umbrellas & telling presenters when to stop...the "Green shirts" at PANSIG were very cheerful as well as efficiently organised. One of the perks of my job this weekend was to take their 'official' photos.



I have the feeling I took far too many pictures, but my encouragement to anyone doing this kind of assignment is keep looking & keep shooting. A theme will emerge although you probably will not realise until you get home and start looking through your raw shots. While shooting you have to keep checking thumbnails & adjusting your settings - try not to be too ambtious with zoom indoors (so be nosy & get closer - "ignore me" works wonders!). I prefer to avoid using my flash in intimate groups, so think about natural light from windows (awfully hard if presenters draw curtains & turn the lights off to show a slideshow...come back later near the end if you can). Lean on stuff as much as possible to get steady (I should have taken my monopod). Clutches of people in conversations in corridors are as much the conference experience as listening to presentations, and often the speaker will be more relaxed chatting with interested audience members when they have finished presenting & not in the flustered setting up stage. Don't be shy about asking co-presenters to pose for you as a team, and get Plenaries & other VIPs to give you a few seconds for a banker (try stepping outside for some greenery background & warmer lighting). Most importantly, keep track of where you have been! Your metadata will give you times shots taken, but you will not remember which rooms you were in/which presentation was which - certainly not after 2 days in 3 floors of rooms with 26 different Special Interest Groups! My solution was to scribble a timeline on my conference schedule & circle any speakers in it as I went. Another solution would be to snapshoot the door number before you go in. And talk to people; they will have no idea who you are or why you are aiming a camera at them all the time - especially outside the presentation rooms - so say hello & chat early. They will relax & ignore you (photographically!) as the event progresses allowing you to 'pry' and get better candids.

I loved this opportunity to get my tired 10D out of its bag. You can find the whole weekend of PANSIG right here http://www.flickr.com/photos/saint_george/sets/72157633731993876/  If anyone wants a picture without the copyright notice, please drop me a quick email with the jpeg number & I will happily oblige. Likewise, if you are in a photo and would rather not be, let me know & I will take it down.

Important last note - make sure the organisers have included a 'photo release' clause in the registration process.

The Death of Karen Silkwood - After Reading

After Reading #1:
8 (The policeman) ‘’I’m afraid we have some bad news about your girlfriend, sir.”
4 (Drew) “What’s happened to her?”
9 (The policeman) “She’s had an accident, in her car.”
1 (Drew) “What kind of an accident? Where is she?”
12 (The policeman) “We took her to the hospital. But I’m afraid it was too late.”
7 (Drew) “You mean that she’s dead? What happened?”
3 (The policeman) “We found her car lying on its side below the road, next to the bridge wall.”
2 (Drew) “But she was a good driver. Was something wrong with the car?”
6 (The policeman) “No, nothing. She was tired. She probably fell asleep while she was driving. It happens very easily.”
11 (Drew) “But she was coming to meet me. She had some important papers with her.”
5 (The policeman) “We didn’t find any papers, sir.”
10 (Drew) “I’m going to look for them myself.”

After Reading #2:
It was dark when Karen left the factory. She was driving carefully along the road to the hotel and she saw the lights of another car behind her. Karen was very frightened so she drove faster. The car came right up behind Karen and began to hit the back of her car again and again. Her car left the road and turned over on its side. Karen hit her head and died. A man got out of the other car and opened the door of Karen’s car. He took the brown envelope from Karen’s bag, and then he drove away.

After Reading #3:
I prefer the Activity 2. I wanted to know who killed Karen. She was very brave and did the right thing for the people working at factory. She was too young to die, and I think Drew wanted to know what happened to her. In Japan, the nuclear power system has been the hot topic since the big earthquake in March 2011. I myself cannot judge what is the best way to create the power for the people and the future, but the safe and/or health is always the most important for living life.

Our recent training sessions - slideshow

Think you will enjoy this slideshow review of the training Luna has conducted over the last three months, in Tokyo & Nagoya. 



Think you have what it takes to become a Cambridge English speaking examiner? Get in touch.

Jim's training courses

Jim's training courses, a set on Flickr.

Since the end of February I have run several examiner training sessions in Tokyo, as well as examiner certification/professional development workshops there and in Nagoya. This is hard work for all concerned, as you can probably see?

Thought it would help students to see that they are not the only ones having to study, do homework, have to worry about getting their answers 'wrong' etc!

We are always very grateful for our examiners' time - these examining commitments do occupy whole weekends. We also thoroughly enjoy the professional challenge of continuing to make these workshops effective, relevant and interesting...teachers are not easy people to teach!

As you can see, we have been lucky to practice with some volunteers as well. This makes the examiners realise how important and difficult the actual examining taks can be, and the candidates can get over their stage fright & have a free practice go. Thank you Trevor at King's Road for your continuing loyal support, help, & encouragement!

Thank you everyone who has attended these workshops lately, and all the travelling you have had to do as well. We are looking forward to having you examine soon - some will be in action as soon as June 8th, when FCE/First will be happening in both Tokyo & Nagoya.

The next training session will be taking place on July 20th in Yamagata city, for Young Learners; certification next day (also in Yamagata) for YLE as well as KET & PET.

There will be a training sessions at Sugiyama University in Nagoya for KET & PET on July 27 or 28. Details soon.

Jim will be presenting to Hamamatsu JALT, about the Cambridge English examinations, on May 12th. Racking up the miles!

Via Flickr:
Jim is one of very few Cambridge English examiner trainers in Japan. A chance to meet the people he works with when he isn't at Luna at the weekends!

1st ABC try

listen to ‘1st ABC try’ on Audioboo

The "Can you...?" song

Balloon Safari!

Last Saturday afternoon was workshop day with our younger young learners, and the theme was "Treasure Hunt in the Park". Unfortunately, the weather was not great last week so the plan got tweeked a bit (couldn't leave clues in the rain!)

Secondary problem was that two of our less controllable young boys were coming, and we were going to be walking along the road. Inspired idea, even though I say so myself, was tying them together to make it a more co-operative, three-legged walk. The result was hilarious...trying to go in different directions, not listening to each other, both trying to be the leader, falling over etc but NOT going anywhere quickly or off course! Couldn't stop laughing!

I had chalked a course along the side of the roads, to lead us to a nearby park, with a balloon icon & arrows to the next clue. The chalk will wash away. I had tied some balloons around the park, with their names written on them, atop the slide, climbing frame, etc with a small bag of smarties (OK, M & Ms) as a prize. Oddly, the balloons more cherished! No longer three-legged, the boys got brave & climbed to rescue their names!

We played catch in the park, and wore ourselves out, before marching back, locked in step, to count our balloon markers. Counting in context - they pointed back along their course visualising the marker locations - and together. Memorable giggle for me; I thoroughly recommend taking YLs to the park - if safe & you have permission - to get some fresh air and different dynamic. And try tying the miscreants together?

Oh - anami party! The slideshow edition

Once again we were lucky with the weather - glorious sunshine if a tad windy!

Our usual spot was just about "free" when Jim turned up at 11am. A frantic 1 hour set up and the St. George flag raised at noon = BBQ started! Parking hassle is a nuisance, and the wooden tops patrolling as killjoys no help...but everyone found us sooner or later, and a massive turn out.

Thank you everyone for all your delicious contributions to the BBQ - and all the other food & drink you brought. Big thank yous to Sho for looking after all the younger children - BIG job today! - Michael & Susumu for grill detail. Especially lovely to see so many babies this year - some very large ladies last year ;)

We are always so happy to be able to introduce different families from our community at events like this, and this year was a bumper edition. Brilliant to see so many old friends as well - Yuki-chan especially. Please enjoy the slideshow, as we enjoyed today!

Planting children - Luna's indoor garden party!

 Last year we had a lot of fun watching the tomatoes we planted with the pre-school children grow. And grow. AND grow! I kept having to move them, until I couldn't move them any lower and they still reached the ceiling! Bit disappointed at how few tomatoes we could enjoy - maybe too much energy spent growing tall?!

We have gone for a bit more variety (and mystery) this year. I have blatantly stolen this idea from Mayuka Habbick, and a presentation she made for Shinshu JALT last year. I pretended to be a silly teacher (?) and that I had lost the packets of the seeds. Children drew a picture of each different kind of seed, then drew a picture of what they thought it would become. Some really cool ideas, which I hope reality will not be a disappointment!

This was a lot of tactile fun, and gave children time to look carefully at the various seeds, taking in the shape, colour, texture, size.

More tactile, and messy, was the planting stage! Inevitably going to get soil etc spread around, so make sure you use a tarp or old newspapers to cover the table/carpet? (We are not blessed with a garden, but we do have a lot of nice warm windows)

We put in some stones at the bottom, them some nice 'snacks' (nutrients) for the plants to send roots down to. A bit of earth, then nestled our seeds around carefully and labelled the pot 1/2/3/4/5 as per our sketches. Then we put them to bed (covered them up with more soil) and finally added the magic ingredient - water. Oh, and a bit of hippy "grow, grow" chanting!

Now the anxious wait for something to happen!