On 15-16 October I met two friendly experienced primary school teachers from Poland within the “Joyful English” training course for teachers. One of them teaches Art and the other Maths, each of them brought their own experience and their personality emerged as the activities progressed. The two days passed quickly and nicely in their company.
What is “Joyful English”? It’s a different way of teaching and learning English, where language is learned through fun, movement, music, games, and emotional connection. Language learning isn’t just about doing grammar exercises. Singing, playing games, storytelling help learners memorise new words and actively use grammatical rules, promoting meaningful learning.
On the first afternoon, the training began with an icebreaker game called “name 3 things”. The teachers immediately got involved and participated with interest. On this day, we focused on studying the present tenses and exploring the theme of emotions. During the lesson, we also had the opportunity to get to know each other better, by practising the speaking ability on the theme of the day. The sea battle grammar game brought out their competitiveness and desire to have fun.
The second afternoon focused on the study of the past and future tenses and the theme of travel. We also talked about phrasal verbs and practised their use through games. The use of games with speaking cards helped the two teachers to open up more and improve their speaking skills, which was one of the goals they wanted to achieve.
On both days readings on the theme of the day were proposed. The one on happiness led to a deep reflection on what makes us happy and how we can build our happiness. The reading on the theme of travel explored different types of holidays, and the teachers had to choose what they liked best and talk about their reasons. The time spent together saw a mix of explanations of grammar rules and games activities to put rules into practice.
Little time was devoted to traditional teaching methods. The course mainly used playful teaching methods, brainstorming and debate, including the use of digital tools and various types of games. Throughout the course, the two teachers actively participated in all the proposed tasks. The result was a profitable and enjoyable involvement in their language learning.
These 2 days of training were particularly enriching for me. A special thank to our guests.
Author: Vania Mazzei, English teacher and for JUMP, JOYFUL ENGLISH trainer
