THRASS "15 MINS TIMES 2" COURSE,
GTG, SOUTH AFRICA, MAY 21, 2007

Comprehensive and informative. Now understand better what and how to teach THRASS to children of different ages. Also how to use time profitably.

A lot of consolidation. Once again, very uplifting. Been implementing it since January - already seeing the change in the way the children are more aware of phonemes and graphemes. Excellently presented.

Once again really enjoyed the course. It was good to refresh some of the stages and update my notes. Thanks again for taking the time to come to South Africa.

Well presented. I have a much better understanding of the scheme of work. Thank you for investing your time and expertise to improve the lives of our children. God bless you.

It is always inspiring listening to Alan speaking about THRASS as his passion is contagious. After our two day course we were very enthusiastic but at a bit of a loss as to where we should begin. This course has given us a platform from which to begin. As a reception year teacher it is encouraging that such little ones can learn so much so young. Today has also served as a good “refresher” course.

Great – I just love being exposed to your fantastic system and your enthusiasm. I’d love to come again!

An absolute joy to have attended this course. Please continue with the wonderful work. I’m waiting in anticipation for the Afrikaans version!

You have given us, as educators, tools with which to deal with the challenges in education in South Africa today. Thank you for sharing your time, enthusiasm and ideas with us.

Very helpful after the 2 day training. Our biggest problem (which you helped solve) was where to begin THRASS at different grade levels. The actual implementation in the various classrooms is the challenge.

Excellent and very helpful. After the course originally it was mind boggling. Now I understand a little more thoroughly.

Enjoyable! Like the Calendar Charts, in all the different languages, will be a very useful resource. Feel confident that I can implement THRASS in my class.

It clarified and revised a lot of what was discussed at the first two day course. I am now sure of the sequence to follow in teaching.

Good, am more clear on lots of aspects. Would like to see Calendar Chart also in Portugese!

Excellent! Encouraging and such a catharsis to change. Alan, you came at a time when we most needed it. Thank-you for reinforcing and reminding us of all the steps. Thank you for consolidating and bringing together the English language into a common-sense mind map.

Clarified a number of points. Excellent presentation.

A great follow through to the 2-day course – put things in greater frame. Good idea to have scheme to follow. Gives us scaffold to launch us off and try new things.

Great! Would love to get you out to our school! Good luck with your wonderful work.

Great to get some ideas on how to implement THRASS in my classroom of older children. Feel motivated to teach THRASS to the 12-13 year olds in my class.

A super day. I have a better understanding of implementing the ‘Second 15 minutes’ in the day and how to encourage the pupils to become more confident in themselves in making spelling choices.

Most enjoyable. Certainly helped to clarify some areas which were not totally clear before this course.

It was good to have a follow-up course. Would like to have a local printer to supply us.

It was comprehensive. Wish we didn’t have so many other subjects to teach. Would like a learner’s exercise book with activities they can do.

Some interesting ideas.

Most Interesting. Refreshed my memory no end.

Able to understand implementation. Excellent presentation.

Thank you – very interesting. I will definitely try the 15 Mins a day scheme of work. I do feel more positive after the course.

Alan always inspires and motivates. Good to recap and learn a few more tips and ideas to use in our classes. Looking forward to trying out the 15 Mins a Day lessons and seeing great progress in my children. Thank you for the new manual and all the hard work that went into it.

15 minutes a day – great to have a structured programme. Too many abbreviations.

I think that the 15 Minutes a Day scheme of work will be very useful. Can’t wait to buy and use the picture cards.

It was very helpful to do this ‘follow up’ course, as it cemented the ‘when and what to do’ for us. The challenge is how to get the programme structured and running smoothly between the grades! I’m now feeling more confident about using THRASS!

Great! A bit more time for questions and explanations eg ‘x’ in box, the ‘u’ in music and ‘eau’ in beautiful etc. All the more ‘tricky’ ones!)  Perhaps you could structure a lesson more e.g intro = do this  = do that………. A lot to take in at once! But glad I came again. It’s beginning to sink in!

Comprehensive refresher and extra info desperately needed. Looking forward to searching the web.

A super course – well done! Thank you for all your hard work and enthusiasm. I really enjoyed it and am ready to go and continue teaching THRASS.

Very worthwhile. As a whole foundation phase implementing THRASS, I feel more confident where I will pick up THRASS with next year’s group of children.  Being more familiar with THRASS, this was a very beneficial course, it extended upon what I know. I feel more confident in helping my weaker pupils.

Always interesting. Learn something new every time. Would love to be able to see more video clips or actual class demonstration. I felt that today’s course should have been more specific to the ’15 minutes a day’ with actual demonstrations, examples etc. Therefore working only from Unit 1 to Unit 12.

I once again enjoyed the course thoroughly. It was very informative and very well presented. Lots of wonderful new exciting ideas that I look forward to practice in my classroom.

Wonderfully enthusiastic. I’m very excited about implementing THRASS. I have already started – it just gives me other ideas and refreshes the ideas – Grade R. I am just anxious because we are trying to get our primary school involved so that they can follow through with our little ones. They are not very keen! We will keep trying!

It was valuable in that there was a lot of revision, which helped iron out any ‘grey’ areas from the 2 day course. I have been motivated to continue, as I realise we are on the right track. THRASS is exciting for me as a teacher and more importantly to my children in my class who are benefiting from THRASS.

Very exciting to see many of the new things like the Calendar Chart in different languages. I feel re-inspired and will be trying a lot of new ideas in the next few weeks in class. I think I really understand the value of the Phoneme Machine and the need to use it more in every classroom. (Head Office needs to work on the roll-out of Smart Boards in our schools!!)

Once again, I found the course very beneficial. My only problem is that being a first year teacher, the teachers who have been in the school longer are not interested/easily persuaded to change or even look at another option. Hopefully with time and the changes coming this will change. Thank you for showing us that there is hope in changing and overcoming many problems.

Informative, Interactive, Challenging. Still need to revise today’s course and review implementation to date to improve teaching! So much to do so little time! Great stuff!

Focus more on exactly what to teach and in what order especially focussing more on teaching THRASS for the first time in say grade 6. Less focus on the first course and maybe doing say foundation phase step-by-step and then senior phase step-by-step.

The 15 Minutes a Day course was very useful. It has been helpful in assisting an educator to implement it. It makes the big picture clear! As well as the smaller picture!

I was able to gather much more information and clarify as to how we can implement in our school for learners with special education needs. We will be implementing in the near future as we believe this is the way we will achieve literacy and learning of English at our school. Thanks, too, for the motivating effects of your passion, belief, energy as well as the years of growing the successful THRASS!

I think the first two sessions were a re-hash of the 2-day course. The 3^rd part after lunch could’ve been the whole day, going into more details with backing examples. It might be a good idea for a brainstorming session of ideas in the classroom, especially for your Grade 4-7 teachers.

Alan is a competent presenter, he is dynamic and obviously extremely passionate about what he does and the programme he has developed. As a teacher who did the 2-day course last year who then went back to school and tried to implement it as I understood it, I had many questions. Many of those questions were answered today, but many questions remained unanswered. Because Alan is so opinionated, asking questions is somewhat intimidating and so I return to the chalk face and try again.

[“I think this is unfair. After every one of the ten stage assessments I asked, ‘Are there any questions?’. I fielded questions throughout the day, including before the start, during the breaks, during the lunch and I was still answering questions an hour after the close of the course. The whole day was structured to answer questions - which also included my showing ‘trailers’ for four free videos (four recent demonstration lessons, each lasting no less than forty-five minutes, for you and your colleagues to view, review and discuss, and at your convenience - including, I hope, the empowering questioning techniques employed by the teacher) and I even managed to ‘answer’ most, if not all, of the potential questions about the new functionality in the 4.13 version of the free Phoneme Machine software (which runs alongside “15 mins times 2” and comes with instructions and a PowerPoint). I was somewhat hurt by your comment ‘so I return to the chalk face and try again’. Nevertheless, I will contact you via school to see if I can answer the questions that you feel were not asked by others or you were not able to ask yourself. ‘Opinionated’ - expressing very strong opinions about things - show me a pioneer that isn’t! However, I am disappointed by your view that I am not sympathetic to the various learning needs of the people I teach.]

Once again: Excellent! Logical and no nonsense response. Compact yet extremely holistic and valuable. Really empowering individuals of all ages to tap into the wonder of literacy.

Today has been absolutely brilliant. It has served to reinforce, remind, confirm, clear and stimulate! What more could I have asked for. Since having done your last course I have been truly inspired but also felt lost at times! Today has really made a difference. I can’t wait to get back to share all I have learnt with the children, parents and colleagues.

Wonderful to know how to implement this program into the school day. The ‘15 minutes a Day’ is fantastic. The course has helped me to answer any questions I have after my first course. Love the program using the scheme of work. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

I thought the course brought everything together in a practical way. It’s given me a good understanding of how to use it in my class. Still need to revise what I have learnt.

Great! Wish we could go back to the classroom right now! Thank you once again for stimulating our brains and for making us want to be better teachers.

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