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Very informative, inspiring and educational.
Excellent course for all educators.
Very enthusiastic and creative presentation. Really enjoyed every moment. Would
like to change future of South Africa’s kids with this.
Wonderful to have a system, which puts into place what sub-consciously, I have
been teaching for years. It was as if you gave names and reasons for everything
I was already teaching and of course all the correct terminology. I can see
children with remedial problems being helped quickly – fast tracked.
This course was an excellent source of practical information to help with the
frustration I’ve experienced with reading /spelling/writing problems the
children have that I see in therapy. As a speech therapist we have a lot of
theoretical knowledge in literacy and I knew phonics was not the way to go for
teaching/helping struggling children, especially in English. This was exactly
what I needed to help me go forward in therapy. It answered all the questions I
had.
An absolutely delightful course. Alan Davies is a vibrant, enthusiastic tutor. I
enjoyed the course and will use it. Thanks very much to NAPTOSA.
I was somewhat sceptical before attending THRASS. Two days later I am feeling
enthusiastic and excited to introduce it to my Grade R learners and parents.
Thank you for the entertaining lecture, and all the hard work that went into
helping make an almost illiterate country more easily literate.
A very worthwhile, practical course well presented. It will be of great value in
the classroom and for every child exposed to it.
Well presented. Dynamic. Interactive. Thought provoking. Keen but nervous to
implement. I see the value and agree with your approach and wish it were
something we had learnt at School/Teachers College. However, there is a lot of
information and will need to process this information in order to use it
effectively. Thank you for your input – you have us hooked!
Excellent. So informative. Really excited to implement THRASS into Grade 3 at
our school. Alan you are very entertaining and kept us motivated and interested.
Thank you for a fantastic course! I can see you are extremely passionate about
THRASS and I can see why!
An excellent presenter. A useful programme that I have decided to use in our
remedial school for a period of time. Then I would evaluate and decide if the
whole phase would use it or not. Thank you for a lively course.
A well presented and exciting course.
The course was interesting and I learnt a lot.
Wonderful that you kept us all so interested. Thank you for all you have done
for educational progress throughout the world. Great!
Thank you for an effective and super strategy/ies for teaching handwriting,
reading and spelling. You are a wonderful and motivating presenter. You have
made a great deal of sense in my mind with regards to the various phonemes etc.
Thank you! An enjoyable course!
I am really inspired to go back and teach “phonics” properly. A great course.
Really enjoyed the course. Benefited considerably. Feel keen to start with my
own pre-school child. See great relevance in helping older children with reading
and spelling problems.
It was a wonderful course. I have learnt so much and I cannot wait to use it in
my classroom.
Excellent course.
The course was excellent and the best presentation I’ve ever been to. Everything
was explained superbly. I’m motivated to do the THRASS program in my class and
determined to help and teach it to the rest of the teachers at my school.
Very informative. Very challenged by the vast amount of material available to
make this phonic program easy to implement and use. Your enthusiasm and product
presentation made the course enjoyable. Thank you for your time and willingness
to make THRASS so accessible.
Wonderful – it opened up huge possibilities for teaching our children. I would
have loved to have more time to work through all of the new ideas that have been
presented. Alan is inspirational. I would be very keen to go on refresher
courses and workshops as so much is presented over two days that there are many
wonderful ideas and methods of using the chart that I am sure to forget.
Thank you for an absolutely fantastic, worthwhile course. My colleagues (Gr.
R-2) had all attended and raved about it. You’ll be pleased to know that our
school is implementing this and we are waiting for our budget to be approved
before starting. We (Grade 3’s) can’t wait to get started.
Very inspiring, which makes a lot of sense. Learnt a lot and looking forward to
implementing it. Just feel it was information overload (a lot to take in). Maybe
spread over more days? Enjoyed it very much.
Absolutely brilliant! The practical exercises were ‘insightful’. Would love
every teacher in school to attend the THRASS course. Thanks for inspiring us.
Very exciting and motivating. I can’t wait to try out everything!
The course was very enriching! I enjoyed every moment of it! I can’t wait to
start with THRASS in my therapy sessions. I work with children with learning
difficulties ADHD, ADD, second language learners. And … children with severe
auditory processing problems. I know that this approach will work with each and
every child. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.
Excellent material, well presented. Humorous. Thank you for the material.
Challenging.
The course was an eye-opener. Very inspiring, a lot of information. I’m
definitely going to introduce my Grade R’s to THRASS.
Thoroughly enjoyed course – lots of new information. Very inspiring speaker kept
us well motivated. New ideas for us to attempt to use in our classroom.
Well done! I can see the light. Happy for our learners. Keep up the good work.
Understand phonics for the first time in my life.
Alan, very enthusiastic and vivacious. Very encouraging course. All the best.
THRASS, THRASS, THRASS is fun. Singing letters everyone. Sun, dress, horse,
city, ice, don’t do it once, do it twice! Yay!
A fascinating course. As a teacher and a parent I am very excited about going
forward with this.
Thank you for an inspirational two days! I look forward to seeing the results of
THRASS at our school.
Alan, well done! Enjoyed all of it! You are a legend. Good luck.
Very informative course – learnt a lot. Thank you – excellent course. Looking
forward to working with it.
Very enthusiastically presented and managed to enthuse the “audience”. I came in
with a very small idea of what it entailed and have left a believer! There was a
lot of information but I feel that the time frame of two days was appropriate.
Excellent presentation! Vibrant, passionate and hugely inspirational. Brilliant.
At last – a course that makes sense! I think the pace of input was very fast BUT
I would have preferred more time and more “Stage Specific” training. To ensure
that the recipients of your THRASS certificates deliver the product as you
intend – the training MUST be longer than two days. A million thanks! Bravo!
Thanks for a very informative course – can’t wait to get started. It definitely
makes one think and reflect on how we have been teaching phonics.
Thank you for a great time! For a non-speller you have given me insight into how
spelling should be learnt. I can’t wait to start working with it in my
classroom. I know I will be looking at spelling with new ideas and eyes from
today. Would love to have a follow-up meeting after implementation. Course was
very enriching. Will definitely make a difference in my class as far as reading
and spelling goes in my class. Will make a difference in the interest the
learners will have in reading “AS FUN”.
Thank you for a dynamic, informative and entertaining presentation. The most
valuable aspect for me was to finally understand what is taught in the
Foundation Phase literacy classes, enabling me to implement new methods with a
clear picture in my head. It’s also lovely to see that THRASS makes teaching
simple, as it doesn’t need to be complicated.
I really enjoyed the course and learned an enormous amount about how children
learn to read – I generally teach children of 14+. I think this is an incredibly
valuable system for helping children to become fully literate. Thank you for
this wonderful gift.
Thank you! Very lively and significant.
Very stimulating. Please remember : Setswana Children : Southern Region : N-W
Educ. Department. Would love training for our teachers. Would love to have
Centres established in our area!
Wow! My head spins. Thank you for your enthusiasm and energy. I was excited
about coming and I am leaving and I can’t wait to try it out. Thank you for
everything you’ve put into this. We are benefitting from all your efforts.
Very good. I have enjoyed the course.
Very informative and interesting. Mr. Davies is an excellent lecturer. Thank you
very much for introducing us to THRASS.
Excellent course. Very informative. Mr. Davies is a very good lecturer who
encourages interaction. Enjoyed the course very much.
Excellent.
Interesting. Thank you. Would like to know about teaching Afr. Spelling.
Er! Thanks. Being Afrikaans it looks like I’ll have to study English before I
can teach.
Outstanding. Learnt a great deal from this course. So beneficial and so glad I
attended. So well presented. I can’t wait to use this in my Gr.6 English class.
Thank you for changing my set views on reading, handwriting and spelling. Would
love to do a follow-up.
The course was very interesting and fruitful. I enjoyed it tremendously and
gained a lot. Hopefully I will start implementing THRASS in my class. Just wish
THRASS came earlier so I could have started implementing it in January.
I have learnt a great deal! This is the second course I have done and I now feel
all the “puzzle pieces” fit together. Thanks for the great experience. We should
be starting NEXT TERM.
Thoroughly enjoyed. Well presented. Very intense. Would love to have a longer
insight with live demonstrations.
As a beginner, I would have preferred a more structured approach, i.e. one step
at a time. I learnt a lot and am very keen to start in my class. I feel that I
would have to look on the THRASS website for guidance. I must say, my
articulation and sound awareness is poor, so I will learn with my learners.
Was a good course, thank you Alan. Well done! 20 years of research has paid off.
A fantastic concept.
Thoroughly worthwhile course having been thrown into teaching THRASS teaching by
starting at the school recently, who have started implementing THRASS already.
Information was clear and to the point. We were very encouraged by this course
and it will be implemented at our school.
A valuable insight into the world of phonics. I trust that it would contribute
to setting our children free.
Thank you for an inspiring course. It was absolutely mind-blowing. Your
enthusiasm is infectious. Thank you for taking time to come out here. It really
is appreciated. So much to take in at once – love to attend further advanced
course.
Thoroughly enjoyable. Any reservations I may have had have been eradicated. I
feel motivated and can’t wait to get into the classroom to start my and their
(children) journey using THRASS. I love the music/rap and the whole involvement
of the learner. Alan is an outstanding speaker. He is extremely knowledgeable,
entertaining and (thank heavens) able to speak at our level. Perhaps he could be
a little more approachable when teachers ask questions, as we are very sensitive
beings.
I enjoyed the course. I first encountered THRASS at the London Language Show in
1999. I’m thrilled that it is now becoming more widely recognised in South
Africa. I’m hoping that THRASS will help to get South Africa out of the quagmire
of illiteracy it is in. There is a lot of information to digest and I have a
“tingle” when I think of the difference it can make to our school. I would
really like it (if it’s at all possible or feasible) if there could be an
extension course specifically for high schools (Grades 8-12). We battle with a
large percentage that can barely read or write, but who are at an age where
certain teaching techniques may not be entirely successful – not because of the
techniques but because of the attitude of the pupils. However, having written
that we’ll keep you posted about how we go at implementing it at our High
School! Thank you for the course and the materials.
I’ve learnt more on this course, had more clarity and confirmation on a number
of language skills which I couldn’t explain to the learners.
Outstanding. I cannot wait to implement it in my classroom. Thank you for all
the years of very hard work. You are very generous to share your knowledge and
hard work with the rest of the world.
Thank you for a good two-day overview of how to implement the process in a
practical manner, It will be exceptionally useful for me to back up/support the
teachers in the school where I work, especially the students who lag behind in
the classroom. In my own private practice as an Ed. Psychologist it will be
amazing to help children (and their parents) who struggle with spelling, reading
and writing, especially after I have assessed and picked up difficulties. As a
high school trained ex. teacher, I feel competent to help in these areas for the
first time ever, and can also help parents to help their children.
I have enjoyed the course very much. The learners will definitely benefit from
THRASS.
Excellent. Well presented.
Thank you for a thought provoking course. I wish my headmistress and Head of
Department were here. Thank you for an enthusiastic presentation. I am going to
work towards getting all our language teachers Gr. R-7 on board of the THRASS
boat.
It made me change the way I think about phonics. Can’t wait to tell all my
colleagues about this. Thank you for the enthusiastic way the course was
presented. Think I will start implementing some of the strategies on Monday.
Good luck for the future and thank you for the change you are bringing about in
Africa, a continent most people try to ignore.
Excellent! Thank you very much.
Challenging. A lot of information to assimilate especially considering that it
is new. Would enjoy a follow-up once we have used some of the resources. Look
forward to using this system especially with learners with difficulty and
illiterate rural adults.
Inspiring! The material, the logic of THRASS and your passion motivated me!
Thank you. It was excellent and an eye-opener.
Excellent. Thank you!
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not an oncoming train –
It’s Captain THRASS! Thank you very much for showing us a ‘logical’ way to teach
reading and spelling skills for lifelong application. Letterland has left the
building!
We were at first very daunted and felt guilty for teaching letter sounds. During
the course I finally got to see that with THRASS my teaching philosophy could
improve for the betterment of all learners. With practice and implementation
learners will be able to improve on handwriting, reading and spelling skills. I
must now try and motivate the educators and board members to purchase this
fantastic package to improve the literacy programme at my school. I do so
apologise for not staying for the full course and promise to watch the DVD!
I am thrilled to have done the THRASS course. I found it so informative. I would
have preferred to have had an extra day to absorb all this information. It was
inspiring and I can’t wait to go and use it in the classroom. I did find Alan
Davies to be a little abrasive at times when people asked questions, but on the
whole he was very eager and brought across the information beautifully.
Alan, I feel totally liberated! I have recently returned to teaching after being
in business for 17 years. Up to now (since Jan) I have sobbed in frustration at
how to tackle literacy teaching within a “new” (to me) OBE system. With the
archaic (sp) Letterland as my only reference, I now have the tools to start my
literacy teaching from scratch with loads of fantastic ideas and a brilliant
programme to teach handwriting, reading and spelling skills! You are simply a
genius with a passion you should bottle and sell as a registered Trademark, call
it “The Alanphone”!
Well planned, very informative, well presented and explained.
Thank you Alan! I had completed the THRASS training course two years ago with
Laola, as well as the 15 Minutes x 2 and visited numerous schools in the area,
and I must say that now, I finally have a handle on THRASS! It was a pleasure to
listen to you and to work through the system with you. Thank you for the
wonderful system and for taking the time here.
I enjoyed the new approach to phonics. I really loved your passion towards it;
however, I felt you felt people were attacking you even though it was just a
simple question that needed clarification and not a judgement. I think the only
way to fully understand a new concept is to question and you should appreciate
their interest and not put them off by being abrupt or cut that person short.
Thnx! I enjoyed it. [“The only problem was that you had your hand up within the
first five minutes of almost every new stage, when you did not know anything
about the skills, stages or processes of the THRASS progamme (when this was,
actually, the purpose of the course) - and you did this from the start of Day
One! By all means ask questions but try to ask them at the right time.” Alan]
Thankyou so much for two fantastic days of learning. Alan’s presentation was
excellent in terms of content, enthusiasm, energy and humour.
Thoroughly enjoyable. The presentation used a wide variety of aids to keep our
attention and explain concepts fully. I am so grateful to have a system that
explains the “exceptions/irregularities” that have plagued the ‘remedial’
language clients I have worked with. Thankyou and I am excited to apply it. I
also appreciate you taking the time to answer all my questions. I have got so
much from the course.
Very informative and interesting course. Learnt a great deal. The course has
cleared up many questions about teaching, reading and spelling.
Watching your enthusiasm made me realise/reminded me why I chose to be a
teacher. Watching you made me wish I were a student in your class. You are
great!
I found the course to be extremely interesting. I felt like a sponge absorbing
all Alan had to offer. I am very keen to implement THRASS at my school.
Thank you for a fantastic course. I have learnt so much and can’t wait to
implement it in my classroom.
Great course. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Interesting. Lots of ideas to be used.
Excellent presentation, educational, humorous. Very good. I enjoyed it very
much. Thank you Alan – a pleasure meeting you.
Excellent – thoroughly enjoyable. Currently being used in our school – amazing
progress in spelling.
The course was excellent! I’m looking forward to using THRASS. Big thank you!
The course was very interesting and enjoyable. I’ve learned a lot of things
within two days.
A very vibrant and informative course. It was interesting with great ideas, some
good methods and lovely aids.
An interesting course and very informative. It gave me a lot of food for
thought. Well presented
I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to teaching THRASS.
Thankyou! Excited to try it with my Grade 7 learners. I really appreciated the
fact that you presented the course personally.
Fantastic! Thank you – what an inspiration.
It was the informative workshop and we gained a lot about English Reading and
Spelling. The presentation was outstanding and clear. The Workshop material was
readily available all the time. Venue and food was up to standard.
The course was informative, pity the information was too much. Next time do it
over four days. Thanx!
Enjoyable. Learned a lot from a very energetic Tutor.
It was enjoyable and informative.
Very well organised. Gained a lot of information to be able to empower learners.
Outstanding presentation. Very user-friendly.
N Boiie leersome ervoring. Elke oomblik geniet! Thank you!
Fantastic! It made so much sense!
Brilliant!
Excellent!
Really enjoyed the presentation. It has taken off so much pressure about various
sounds and spellings, e.g. my –dge –light when trying to teach an Afrikaans
child English. Even the mystery of the silent 'e’ has now been revealed. Well
done. Thank you on behalf of my grandchildren who will not have the same
problems as their Moms!
Excellent! A possible thought would be a more hands-on approach to practical
usage of THRASS in the classroom. An excellent course.
Excellent presentation. Really enjoyed the course. Hoping to implement it as
soon as possible.
Brilliant. Entertaining and very informative. Our school is implementing THRASS
from 2007 and we are all enjoying it – teachers and learners alike. It is so
sensible. It makes sense to teach spelling/reading this way.
Thoroughly enjoyed – makes such sense!”
Most enjoyable. Would like a follow-up course. Have lots to learn! Think I could
have better spelling skills if you were my teacher (and laughed a lot more).
Insightful, interesting, very well presented, logical, thought-provoking. I
can’t wait to implement with my Grade 8’s and throughout the school.
Explains why many pupils spell as they do. Need to read manual to re-enforce
concepts.
Outstanding!
Good fun! Great!
Thank you for the interesting and interactive training course. You were a great
facilitator. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am proud to join the THRASS converted.
Missed the course my colleagues went on as I was on leave – been trying to teach
THRASS in the dark. Course put everything in perspective and I feel a lot more
confidant now. Very good presenter and entertaining, understandable etc.
My initial teacher training had no phonics training. Alan made these concepts
clear and understandable. Looking forward to furthering my understanding of
THRASS. I feel more confident about having discussion with fellow staff.
Alan, you are a dynamic and interesting presenter. I enjoyed your passion
towards your learning area. I believe that any method/product is only as good as
the Teacher. Some of my ideas “pre-conceived” notions were challenged. I am not
fully convinced about all aspects, but I am encouraged to question my methods. I
have gained knowledge and insight. Definitely a learning experience and some
thing to think about.
Excellent presentation. Good.
This is an excellent course. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Mr. Davies maintained his
energy levels and our interest for both days. I would have liked some focus on
high schools in particular – for example, from afternoon tea onwards each day.
Thank you Alan for sharing THRASS with us. I have been teaching in the
Foundation Phase (often Remedial classes. I have taught many children to read.
With THRASS the children are going to learn a lot faster, younger and with
greater ease. Here’s hoping that the follow-up at school goes well.
I thoroughly enjoyed the course. I have waited a long time to come on it. A lot
of questions have been answered and I feel well equipped to deal with spelling,
reading and writing situations with my learners. In fact in ALL learning areas.
I do feel that a lot of practise is needed. However, I do feel that if used
correctly, it will be a great success. I admire your enthusiasm and passion.
Thank you for your persistence and hard work.
Thank you for an informative course. It really makes a lot of sense and we are
excited to implement it. Never a dull moment with Alan.
The course was fruitful and interesting. I wish it were for the whole week, and
wish that it can reach every teacher in South Africa.
Beyond all expectations. Cannot believe that one person can keep over 150 people
entertained for two whole days. Alan you are brilliant. Thank you so much and
hope to see you for a refresher course.
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