First of all, I want to thank everyone who has been reading and commenting on this blog over the last year or so! I am always amazed to see how many of you there are, thank you! For various reasons, I have decided to move this blog onto my Dream English website. The new address is (drum roll please!):

http://www.dreamenglish.com/blog

I think this will be easier for everyone to remember, and find when you are using different computers, etc. I will not delete this blog address, so if you have linked to it, no need to change anything, but all future posts will be at the new address.

Contest!

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers and parents around the world using Dream English songs and materials. I hear often from them, and I really appreciate it. Now is the time to take your experience with Dream English, and share it with others. So… Each month I will choose a random person to receive a Dream English Kids Songs Volume 1 or 2 Download Pack. All you have to do is make 2 or more comments each month on my blog, and you will be eligible. So do a good thing, share your knowledge with us and you might win!

Thank you all, and see you over at the new blog!

Yours,

Matt

It’s time for Easter lessons again! I just can’t believe how fast time goes by these days. Last year I put the Easter Bunny song on the Dream English site as a free download, and it was quite popular. The middle of the song corresponds to the MES English Easter flash cards (pictured here). So you can teach the song and the flash card vocabulary as a great introduction to Easter.

Fun Game

Last year  we did a really simple game with our students which I plan on doing again this year. We took small plastice Easter eggs and put a simple question in them. Then we hid the Easter eggs and had the children find them, a typical Easter egg hunt. The students then had to open the eggs, and answer the questions. If they answer correctly, they get a prize. Of course you have to make the questions age/level appropriate, and if they are young kids you will need to read the questions to them. So Happy Easter from Dream English!

It’s not everyday you get an email from the Education Bureau of The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China! At least not for me. So needless to say, I was pretty pleased when the Education Bureau kindly contacted me to ask for permission to refer their teachers to the Dream English Website.

I am happy to be recognized by an organization such as this, and hope their teachers find the materials useful. I am also happy to hear everyday from all of you around the world who keep emailing me to say thanks. The support you all give me and Dream English is inspiring me to work even harder. Thank you all!

Here are my top tips for teaching Kids English:

1. Smile and Have Fun! -body language is so important when teaching English to kids. Relax and smile- your whole body will relax and so will the kids

2. Be Enthusiastic- praise the kids and be excited with them on this learning adventure!

3. Be Adventurous- don’t be afraid to try new things. If you try something new and it doesn’t work, don’t worry! Kids are very forgiving. Get their attention back with a smile or a song.

4. Be Flexible- Be ready to adopt your lesson plan on the fly. Guide the class, keep control, but if the kids attention is not focused don’t be afraid to go in another direction.

5. Plan More Than You Need- you never know when you will need a few more things to teach in your class. Have extra songs, books, and activities ready to go!

6. Care About Your Students- develop a relationship with the kids. Become their friend. Enjoy their success together.

7. Be the Best Teacher You Can Be- even when I thought I was doing my best, a fellow teacher told me I could do better. At first I was a bit hurt, but then realized she was right! This led me to become a much better teacher. And I am still learning everyday!

8. Be A Student- always challenge yourself to learn new things. Remember what it is like to be a student. The frustrations and the joys!

9. Give, Give, Give- and you will receive.

10. Share Your Success with Others- teaching is a community experience. Sharing your ideas with other teachers will help you remember what worked for you. We can all learn from each other! You can start by sharing your ideas on the Dream English Forum!

Many amazing things have happened since starting Dream English. The emails keep coming in everyday from all over the world, and they are so inspiring. Thank you all! I recently received a very touching email, and Reema agreed to let me share it with you:

my name is reema, the day i downloaded your songs from dream english and ryhmes my son started talking.My son is diagnosed by speech and development delay (autism).he is 4yrs.he never tried to speak a single word.every day he listen to your songs.now he started to talk.yours song what’s your name, when it comes he say his name ethan.

I have actually received a few emails from parents of children with autism. I am always touched to hear the stories of the children singing the Dream English songs. Thank you Reema for sharing this wonderful news.

I have had a resurgence of energy for Dream English lately. I am busy at work on Kids Songs Volume 3! If you have checked out the Hello Song, or I Like Apples you may have noticed I am writing songs for younger kids. Kids Songs 3 will be aimed towards the preschool crowd. Get ready to dance kids : )

2 Word Warm Up Songs.

In the meantime I have put up some really easy little 2 word warm up songs. I think these are super cool for really young kids from 1-6 years old. They have passed the test of the one year old crowd for sure. Here is a list, there are 5 of them ready to download for free now on the Dream English site:

1. Happy/Sad
2. Hot/Cold
3. Go/Stop
4. Up/Down
5. Brush Your Teeth/Wash Your Face

So please click on the title above or here to go to the warm up page and give these a try. Let me know what you think!

The Ministry of Education in Japan (MEXT) is issuing a new textbook for Elementary age students. They have also gone ahead and listed the curriculum on their website. Most of it is in Japanese, but the expressions part is in English.

Using Dream English Materials with the Eigo Notebook

From what I understand the Eigo Note will not be compulsory, and it will be ok to use supplementary materials with the program. If you do teach in Japanese Elementary Schools, you may want to check with your director.  I started a new page on my website dedicated to the Eigo Note. I have a lot to add, but it turns out that I already have free materials and songs to match most of the 5th Grade Curriculum. Lucky for me : ) I haven’t had a chance to look at the 6th grade Curriculum, but I hope to do that in the next week and get materials up there as well. Please check out the Dream English Eigo Note page, and I hope you can find some useful material.

I get quite a few emails from teachers asking me how to go about planning their lessons. I have probably mentioned before, but there are so many variables in planning a lesson: how many students, how long is the lesson, how often, etc. You also have to factor in teaching style and preferences.

Dream English Lesson Plan Page

I have added a new page to the Dream English site called Lesson Plans (very original huh : ) I am starting to collect my basic outlines for lesson plans. These are adaptable, and hopefully give you an idea on how to plan your lessons. I also put up a printable lesson plan outline. This plan has a basic outline, and then you can fill in your ideas for that days lessons. I hope these are helpful and if you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. Check out the Lesson Plan page.

I recently received an email from Alison of the Australian Charity for Children of Vietnam (ACCV). She is doing great work and it states on her website that “Our goal is to build an organisation that can offer relief to the children of Vietnam and give them assistance in breaking the poverty cycle.”  She wrote to tell me that she will be using some of the Dream English songs in her English class for students her charity is helping. The goal of her classes is to teach English and IT to give the students future employment opportunities. She also mentioned that many of the students are blind. I am really happy to have even a small part in what ACCV is doing, and look forward to hearing more about the program as it progresses.

To me some of the best kind of work you can do is work that educates people, and empowers them to make a better future for themselves. Please take a minute and check out the ACCV website here, or the ACCV blog here.

In Japan they have these, well let’s just say, interesting sock/gloves. They are socks, but they have individual slots for each one of your toes. I haven’t seen these in the States, but maybe they have them now. I received a pair as a present about a year ago and finally tried them on. To me it felt a bit weird and uncomfortable, but I know some people love them.

So how does this relate to teaching English? The cool thing about most English teachers I know is that they are all willing to try something new in their classes. A new game, teaching concept, worksheet, or whatever. Too me this is really healthy. We learn things when we try something new. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not work. However, the constant pushing forward of ideas is exciting and keeps things fresh for the students and the teachers.

Today I learned that I don’t like sock gloves.  Tomorrow I am going to try out some new games and exercises and hopefully learn many more things that we can all share.