FunSongs Seminars in Latgale, Latvia

Teacher training seminar in Daugavpils 2nd December 2008

Latgale is Latvia's poorest region but it is famous in this part of Europe for the quality of its schools and education. In the south of the country bordering Belarus, Lithuania and Russia, Latgale also hosts the Baltic country's second-largest city Daugavpils. Last 2nd December Charles Goodger accepted an invitation from Daugavpils Local Education Authority to hold a seminar for primary school teachers of English entitled "Exploiting the relationship between Music and Language." None of the teachers had ever heard of The FunSongs Approach prior to Charles visit. However the keen interest teachers showed in the FunSongs Licence and CDs after the event means many local children will soon be singing and acting out FunSongs in this area!

Singing about Robin Hood in Kraslava


Teachers in Kraslava singing and miming "Robin Hood's Band"

The next day Charles Goodger held another seminar at a large school in the nearby town of Kraslava. Teachers who attended the event were also keen to make use of the "I Love Christmas" package available on the FunSongs site.

Charles was told that Kraslava is well worth a visit in the summer as there are some stunningly beautiful lakes nearby.

Charles expresses his thanks to Rita Kursita of Latvia Ministry of Education, Ilona Ustinova of Daugavpils Education Authority and Jelena Klimova of Kraslava Viduskola for organizing these events.

FunSongs Shows for Latvia Puppet Theatre

Latvia Puppet Theatre, Riga

Last Monday 24th November Charles Goodger met with the administrative staff of the National Latvia Puppet Theatre in Riga to map out plans for FunSongs Show productions - starting early 2009. The idea is that school children from all over the Baltic Republic will come to meet the bilingual puppets Britty and Latty and learn FunSongs action songs in the theatre's small 60-seat experimental venue. There are also plans for an English-Russian version.


Jumava Bookstores FunSongs CD deal

The FunSongs CD "Action Song for Learning English" ISBN 0954396316 is now officially on sale in Latvian Bookshops! Yesterday Charles Goodger reached a deal with Juris Visockis, head of the Jumava Publishing and retailing group. The CD has been selling steadily since it came out some years ago. Just last week FunSongs received repeat orders from the Cambridge International Bookshop, Feltrinelli International and the specialist "Il Libro" bookstore in Milan, Italy. The CD can be ordered on line too. A new FunSongs CD is planned for 2009.

FunSongs Lithuania Launch!

Best for the world - a new song about our future!

Charles Goodger at Late Conference, Riga, 23 August

FunSongs is proud to announce the latest addition to its catalogue of language-learning action songs: Best for the World.
Suitable for older children the song focuses on the themes of sustainable and unsustainable natural resources, overpopulation, technology and ecology.
Provocative and thought-provoking, Best for the World asks a key question using the first and second person singular and the first person plural of the verb:

Are you doing your best for the world?
Are we doing our best for the world?
Am I doing my best for the world?

From the perspective of vocabulary it can be used to teach and reinforce the names of staple crops and other nouns related to the song's themes. The song also features a direct reference to The Millennium Song in its final seconds.

At the Late Conference where he gave the plenary keynote speech, Charles was invited to talk at other upcoming teacher events in the Baltics in Riga and Vilnius.

Teacher Development Workshops in Riga

Charles Goodger at  FunSongs workshop in Riga

During the  first two weeks of June 75 Latvian teachers of English participated in a series of teacher development workshops at the Kunieru Teacher Training Centre in Riga, Latvia.

Charles Goodger was invited by the Local Education Authority to run a series of sessions:

• Communicative Teaching
• Music and mime, rhythm and rhyme - The FunSongs Approach
• CLIL: writing and teaching an action song module 

The encounters provided an interesting insight into how English is taught in Latvian primary schools and gave teachers the opportunity to try out some new approaches based on FunSongs action songs. "It was a great experience - I met some really interesting people," says Charles. "The level of enthusiasm was high and despite one or two exceptions language competence was good, better than the average among Italian teachers of English." 

Charles hopes to repeat this cycle of workshops in other Latvian and Baltic cities soon.

Further photos can be viewed on Facebook.

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Latvian interest in FunSongs action songs

Jeff Canada in action song teaching mode,
FunSongs English Weeks, Zola Predosa

Last Monday 2 June Charles Goodger started a series of teacher development workshops for 75 Latvian Primary School English teachers in Riga. Organized by the Riga Sports and Educational Institute participants were divided into three groups of 25 teachers; each group will spend a total of 9 hours with Charles.

"It's a really worthwhile experience," he says. "These close-up encounters are helping me get a much more focused feel for how English is taught in this country, the system, the level and expectancies of the teachers and so on. Many of them started teaching English when Latvia was still part of the Soviet Union and almost half are Russian speakers. On a more personal level I am happy with the enthusiasm shown for the action songs and the interest from teachers in how a FunSongs learning-language action song can work as the basis of a CLIL-based teaching module."

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First FunSongs Show in Latvia!

On Saturday 24th May, Vija Bluzmen, Emelie Loeb and Valentina D'Errico presented the FunSongs "Water-Udens" Show to a group of children and parents at the International School of Riga. The event took place in the school's gymnasium. We minimized the effects of bad acoustics with the use of radio-microphones. All in all the event was a success considering many of kids were tired after a day of outside activities. The girls did a great job under difficult circumstances. I was also very grateful to Vizma Bluzmen of the National Puppet Theatre for translating the script into Latvian and acting Latty.

Visit to a Latvian school

Thanks to the Riga Education Authority on Friday 9th May I was invited to visit the Ziemelvalstu Gimnazija school just outside Riga. It was a most interesting encounter. I had the pleasure of meeting three Latvian English teachers. They were very welcoming and I observed   two English lessons. The standard of teaching was good with a strong level of interaction between teacher and child. I look forward to meeting the teachers again at the FunSongs workshops in Riga next month.

Best for the World



I have finally found time to work on a new language-learning action song entitled Best for the World. The song has a strong melody line and mentions several of the world's staple crops such as wheat and rice. As well as a language tool, the song has a cross-curricular dimension. It highlights the difficulties of a growing population, fuel and diminishing natural resources.
I intend to get it recorded, choreographed and available on the site for classroom use soon.

Getting ready for our presentation show

On Thursday 22 May Valentina D'Errico and Emelie Loeb arrive from Italy to present a FunSongs Show at the International School of Riga. FunSongs is glad to be able to count on the help of Vija Bluzmen, the artistic director of the National Latvian Puppet Theatre. Vija will provide the voice of the new Latvian-speaking puppet Latty, Britty's baltic sidekick!

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International moves

Detail of FunSongs Show promo flyer for Spain

Now that Andrew Tyree is settled in Madrid he is again working to promote FunSongs in the Spanish capital. One way of spreading interest is to stage a presentation show and invite people who could book it in the future. With this aim in mind, last Friday I got on the phone from Riga and called up Jonathan Pitt who teaches at Madrid's British Council School. The three of us first met in May 2007 when Andrew and I first went over to Madrid in May 2007. Jonathan Pitt remembered FunSongs well and expressed interest in the scheme; my hope is he will be able to organize an event at the school for Andrew. Watch this space for developments - and do contact Andrew if you are in Spain. His details are on the FunSongs Spain website.



The International School of Riga, Latvia

Samuel Goodger now almost 8 has attended this school since moving to Riga from Italy in January. He likes it and is learning. The ISR uses the IB Primary Years programme increasingly used throughout the world. This emphasizes life-long learning, education of the whole person and a global, 21st century approach.
Through contacts with the school I have organized a special FunSongs presentation show schedules for Parents' Say on 24th May. FunSongs has already purchased Emelie and Valentina's ticketsand they will be coming over to Riga to do the show - act out the puppets and showcase some action songs - probably Water is Everything and 65 Million Years Ago.
The aim, as well as offering the school an entertaining and educational free event, is of course, to kick-start FunSongs in Riga and Latvia. Vija Bluzma, artistic director of the National Latvian Puppet Theatre will attend and has agreed to lend us a puppet theatre for the show. It is my hope that other educational luminaries from Latvia's somewhat dysfunctional (so I've heard) state school system will come too!

FunSongs workshops for Riga teachers

Teacher training session with Charles Goodger

Since coming back to Riga from a trip to Bologna to meet with CAIL, there have been several developments in my plan to promote FunSongs in the Baltic.
First last Friday I agreed with Signe Neimane and Guntaris Helmanis of Riga Education Council to hold a series of teacher training session for Latvian primary school teachers of English . These sessions will conists of three 9-hour modules for 75 teachers and will take place at the teacher training centre in Kaniero iela in June. There I can familiarize teachers with the FunSongs Approach which they will be able to start using in class from the start of the new 2007-2008 school year.

Last week I had a meeting with some teachers at the International School of Riga (attended by my seven-year-old son Sammy). They have decided to start using FunSongs packages in their classes in the next few weeks starting with "The Ladybird Song" package.
On Tuesday I will finally meet Iveta Vītola the Longman agent to discuss the Latvian education system and possible areas of collaboration.
I'm also looking forward to meeting Silvija Andernovics current president of Late Latvia's professional association of English teachers. She has just retruned from an interational Tesol conference in New York.

Contacts and sponsorship in Riga

You can't get anywhere without contacts and one task I've set myself is to meet and talk to the right people here to get a better idea of how things work school-wise. One person I haven't actually met yet but hope to soon is Iveta Vītola, the Longman-Pearson agent. I did met her assistant Liga at the Baltic Book Fair on February 29th together with Tatiana Ginzburg who represents another big English language publisher Express Publishing. In competition for what looks like quite a complex market both women seemed interested in FunSongs but were quick to point out they only sell or promote their own houses' publications.

I tried to get them interesed in a sponsorship deal - their publishers buy a packet of FunSongs shows as a prize or for textbook adoptions but for the time being nothing. On the phone yesterday Iveta asked me for proof FunSongs has worked this way in the past with Longman in Italy and so I'm going to ask Elisa Casarini, the Longman rep in Bologna who has helped us with our sponsored shows over the last few months, to contact her - and we'll take it from there!

Yesterday I met up again with Igors Gruars from Riga City Council at an event organized by the Italian Embassy. I hope he will introduce me to the right people at the Education Department.

I'm also waiting to find out exactly what kind of administrative tasks need to be completed for FunSongs to be able to supply the Gramata un Raps bookshop chain with its CD.

Learning English in Latvia

Latvia is a small country of large contrasts

While Charles Goodger struggles to learn Latvian, a fascinating language with direct connections to ancient sanskrit, he is also keenly interested in how Latvian children learn English - and how the school system here is organized. Part of his time here in Riga is spent researching and from time to time reports of his findings will be posted on the FunSongs Blog.

He hopes people who appreciate FunSongs and have an interest in English-language learning, in teaching and culture in general, may find some of the reports interesting.

FunSongs Latvia launch

Riga, Latvia's ancient capital and cultural centre

Following growing interest in the FunSongs Approach from schools and teachers in a number of EU countries and his wife's appointment to Latvia University as an Italian language teacher, Charles Goodger relocated to Riga at the start of February. He hopes to work on and promote his language-learning action songs and shows in Latvia and the surrounding states. You can contact him on +371 25995781 or by email.