Would Mike Jagger have received “Any satisfaction” as a teacher? Apparently he confessed on a Radio 4 interview (whilst performing at Glastonbury this summer) that he would have liked to have been a teacher. His Dad was a headmaster and until he hit fame with his music career, he was mulling over whether to enter into the teaching profession.
Do you think he would have been a creative and dynamic teacher, as per his singing?
One person who definitely “gives and gets satisfaction” from his students is Richard GRAHAM. Richard Graham CEO and founder of GenkiEnglish.com. Richard Graham is the leading authority on teaching in a fun, exciting and “genki” way.
He has provided training sponsored by Ministries of Education, universities, boards of education and schools throughout the world as well as appearing on TV and in numerous press articles.
His materials are now used in over 100 countries by millions of teachers and students both in the developed and developing worlds.
I’ve been using his material and classroom ideas in some special workshops and in particular, love many of his game suggestions. As with any good idea, one can also build up and and improve or enhance. As it is Halloween, I wanted to share one of his fun party games that I also played in a special classroom activity.
The idea is to help children (especially shy kids) to practice speaking English aloud (for those learning English as a second language) but can also be used to practice grammar or even rehearse lines from a poem or for a play.
Get your group of children to stand in a circle. Take a large ball of wool and wind it around the finger of one child. That child kick starts the activity by asking a question, or recites the first line of a poem etc. They then throw the ball of wool to the child opposite. That child then repeats the same by pulling the wool line tight and winding it around their finger. The second child can then reply and ask another question or recite the second line of the poem etc and then throws the ball of wool diagonally to a third child. This continues until all the children in the circle has a piece of wool tied around their finger!
The net result is that you create a lovely spider’s web. You can surprise the children by throwing in a large spider and asking questions about a spider (for younger children); sing songs that include spiders or simply launch into a halloween song(s).
As you wind up the wool, from each child’s finger at the end of the game, you can use the time to revise the phrases or questions once again.
A fun activity to start or close a lesson.
Make Reading Fun! 