One of the best podcasts out there is by a guy called Zig Ziglar (oh yes!).  Here’s one of his episodes, it’s about leadership, but contains some very useful stuff.  It’s 12 minutes so listen to it all, part way through it may seem like he goes off topic, but you’ll see he brings it all back round at the end!

(Hit play above or right click here to download)

What your students expect

A couple of things he says:

* The work would have been fine, but his mother held him to a higher standard.

* He knew she would show him exactly what to do.

* He knew he would be inspected afterwards … “you got to inspect to get what you expect”

* He wasn’t a bad boy, he just did a bad thing.  Don’t blame the person, blame the thing.

Anyway zig explains it a whole lot better himself!

What your students want?

Then in the boss – employee section, what the boss (teacher) thought the employee (student) wanted, wasn’t what they wanted at all!

Humans being humans, the three things he says that employees say they want is exactly the same as what students say they want from us.

What do you think?  Does this help?

You can find the book on Amazon: The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World’s Poorest People Are Educating Themselves

Everyone from Bono to the United Nations is looking for a miracle to bring schooling within reach of the poorest children on Earth. James Tooley may have found one. While researching private schools in India for the World Bank, and worried he was doing little to help the poor, Tooley wandered into the slums of Hyderabad’s Old City. Shocked to find it overflowing with small, parent-funded schools filled with energized students, he set out to discover if the small, parent-funded schools could help achieve universal education. So began the adventure told in Tooley’s new book, The Beautiful Tree – the story of his journey from the largest shanty town in Africa to the mountains of Gansu, China, and of the children, parents, teachers, and entrepreneurs who taught him that the poor are not waiting for educational handouts. They are building their own schools and educating themselves.

1. Give each kid one of the mini cards (e.g. here or here)
2. Everyone remembers their card, then hides it!
3. You ask the kids how long it will take to do the game, and then time them!
4. “Ready, steady, go!”
5. Everyone runs round the classroom saying “Who can….” plus what is on their card e.g. “Who can swim?”
6. The idea is to meet up with someone else who has the same card!
7. When you find your partner you sit down together.
8. See how long it takes for everyone to be sat down!
9. Give the cards to different people.
10. Repeat from step 3.
11. If anyone shows their card before they have found their partner, they are out!

This is a great genki game as everyone is shouting out “Who can…?” at the top of their voices and you really have to listen for your word, which is a really important skill! It sort of ends up looking like the New York stock exchange!

Try it and see, it’s lots of fun!

So the latest Genki English thing is of course the advanced Hip Hop songs. It’s just the same but this time you listen to the song and hit the right English button. Can you get full marks?

And from today there’s also, by popular request, a download version of the software. It’s on at $18.99 which is the same price as the Playstation Rock Band, but of course this time your students are learning to love their English class! Plus you also get the mp3s of the songs and some very funky workbooks.

More details here or buy now.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you’ve recently bought the pack, write down a comment on the blog and I’ll send you a complimentary upgrade!

And here’s the people that invited me, be sure to check them out because New Zealand looks amazing – I can’t wait to go there in February! ニュージーランド留学

Now that Halloween is out of the way, it’s time for some new Christmas materials. First off we have some super cute Baby Monkey pictures to go with the “What colour is Christmas song?”

What do you think?