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I thoroughly enjoyed your course. I feel like I’ve improved my own English,
because I really struggled at school. It has been a great insight into teaching
English. I had a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to actually trying to teach
THRASS. It has opened up my mind and thoughts and given me a more positive
approach to teaching literacy.
Very well presented. Very interesting and informative. A huge eye-opener. It all
makes a lot more sense and I agree that a letter does not just make one sound
but may make many different ones. Thanks for all the resources and the brilliant
course.
Really helped me with problems that I have had with phonics since childhood. It
has made me more confident in myself and more confident, in terms of having to
teach phonics. I wish I had been taught this way! It would have sorted out so
many problems that I experienced through my life.
This course was great. I can’t wait to teach children phonics in this way. If I
had been taught phonics in this way I would be better at reading and spelling. I
feel that teaching phonics in this way would or will awaken an excitement within
children in relation to phonics and spelling and will improve reading. I feel
that THRASS teaches lateral teaching where the children have control over what
they learn in a guided situation. I learned a great deal about teaching as a
whole as well as about myself as a teacher. The course was very well presented.
Alan really made the course interesting. We need more people like you, Alan, to
make a difference. I do, however, feel that you have left a little of you with
all of us.
This program is very intresting and easy to use. It has changed the way I look
at phonics and would teach phonics. I found out a lot about why children
struggle so much with spelling. As a person that was never taught how to read as
a child I could clearly see what they did wrong and why I struggled so much. I
feel with this program that it would be impossible to put children in the same
situation as I was in. I will work hard to get this program into the school I
work in. Keep it up, this program is great!
I was stunned at the amount of work and research that has gone into this
programme. What an eye-opener! I really hope that going into secondary teaching,
I will be able to make use of some of these strategies, especially with second
language learners. I would love to be kept up-to-date with developments. The
programme provides a brilliant basis to work from. Educators have a framework to
constantly refer to. Well done! You cleared up a lot of my own misconceptions.
I can’t believe I was taught so wrong when I grew up! I will use this with my
older learners but would have to start in a different place to that of the
foundation phase. Fantastic! I hope where I am teaching next year has started
this with the learners. We need it!
Nice course, but could have rather been split up during lecture time. The second
day got a bit repetitive. Very nice resources. I’m just concerned about going
into a school that hasn’t implemented this system. Great for foundation phase,
but Intersen students would have to be careful not to step on any toes when
trying to implement the system!
I really enjoyed the THRASS workshop. It opened my eyes on the way I thought
about vowels, consonants and the way to pronounce words. I think that THRASS is
going to change the way in which teaching and learning has been done. I will
also like to encourage Alan Davies to continue teaching THRASS and empower
teachers and parents. Thank you for your time. God bless you in your work.
I think that this is a wonderful course, and has really opened new and more
doors to learning and teaching English. I definitely will use this when I teach
one day and hope schools will allow teachers to teach this way in schools. Alan
is a fantastic spokesperson and I really enjoyed the course.
Great. I would definitely use this method when I teach. I thought Alan was a
fantastic speaker who managed to keep my attention at all times. I was so
impressed with this course.
An excellent course. I believe it will change the learning for children! I also
believe this will help many children with learning problems. I do hope that it
becomes implemented into South Africa schools!
Interesting. Mind opening. Many people in our country cannot read or write and
this is due to many different languages being present in our country.
Very good, especially the fact that in South Africa there are many people that
cannot read and write. English is not their first language.
This was an eye-opener. Wow!
This is an absolutely fantastic course. This way of teaching needs to become
world-wide like yesterday. Thank you for this fantastic opportunity.
I had a “why didn’t I think of that?! It’s so simple!” experience. I think that
THRASS has simplified a concept that I was fearful in having to teach. I feel
that this is something that I can use and it will be effective. I would like to
have a follow-up session once I have had an opportunity to teach it. It is an
intensive two days but if lengthened to make it ‘easier’, it wouldn’t have the
same effect.
The course was well presented, fun, enjoyable and very worthwhile. The material
I think is very useful especially when we start teaching. Thank you. Keep up the
SMART work!
It was good to learn such a different way of teaching reading and spelling and
writing. It was excellent and I am sure this will make a big difference to the
children’s lives and make it easier for them to learn to spell and read. It is a
pity that everything is squashed into two days.
An excellent course. Education around the world has been mis-informing everyone
for years. As a future educator I’m sad to say that education has failed and
still is failing where it is supposed to succeed. THRASS presents such a logical
way to teach literacy – it’s a wonder that all teachers of English are not using
it already.
I really enjoyed the course. Teaching spelling now makes a lot more sense. It is
so much easier. I know an older person who does not know how to read, but I now
know how to teach her. Thankyou.
As an intersen student, I battled to understand a lot of the information, but at
least I can understand where people go wrong technically. This was very useful
in terms of learning about the English language, the composition of the
language, pronunciation, sounds and how people can make basic mistakes with
language. English is probably the most difficult language in the world and I can
see why.
The course was amazing. It was an extremely beneficial two days. It was
excellently presented. I have no criticisms of the course, I thought it was
brilliant. This is a system that we, as educators will be using for many years
to come. Thank you very much for giving up your time to all of us.
An amazing course. I will be using this as often as possible. Alan Davies was a
wonderful lecturer and kept me entertained and interested throughout the two
days. Thank you so much.
The course was an eye-opener to all the different phonemes that letters can
make. This course was very well presented and easy to follow and understand. I
know now how to teach children to spell, read and write. Thank you for a
wonderful course.
A very interesting course! There were some new concepts that I didn’t know. I am
a senior phase teacher and this is going to help with learners who are
struggling in spelling, reading and writing.
As an intersen student, I found some of the concepts difficult to grasp, but as
the course was well presented it did not take long to gain my attention. I found
this very interesting and worthwhile.
I really enjoyed the course. I thought it was very useful. I will be using this
as often as possible. Alan Davies was a wonderful lecturer and kept me
interested. Thank you very much.
This course has effectively given a broad understanding of the program THRASS.
We have been shown how easily accessible and user-friendly it is to use. These
two days have been jam-packed with information covering aspects of THRASS. This
course has left me enthusiastic to try it with learners.
From Kwena Basin, I saw the difficulties the children had with phonics, spelling
and reading, and the trouble I had with explaining it to them. After being
introduced to a brief introduction on THRASS, I already started to understand
the concepts we were “lied” to about when at school. After doing this two day
course, I have learnt an enormous amount about how to teach children the right
way and not just subject them to “a vowel is a, e, i, o, u (which is rubbish).
This course has enlightened and encouraged me to teach children how to read and
spell!
There’s a lot to take in over two days. Suggestions:- perhaps small groups can
be used, which will provide opportunities to do more hands-on activities. When I
do an active activity or teach others, my understanding for a concept increases.
I found the course very exciting and inspiring. I hope I will be able to
practice it in my classroom one day. I think if we had had more time it would
have been better as it was a lot to take in at once. I loved the course and
especially enjoyed the interactive part of it. Keep it up. I hope THRASS takes
over the whole world. I admire Alan for risking following his fantastic idea!
As a student teacher at Kwena Basin, having done this course has cleared up a
lot of the issues/misunderstandings I had with THRASS, not having done the
course before. THRASS is a very well thought out program that will not only
improve my teaching but the learning in English. The course was interesting,
packed with information without making me feel confused. A great course all in
all.
This course has been excellent! It has given us a whole new outlook on teaching
and a very positive one at that. I am looking forward to using this method on
teaching practice and in the future. Thank you for a great course. Your approach
on this, to us was great and lots of fun!
Wow! What a fantastic course! I thoroughly enjoyed the two days. Learnt so much,
it’s unbelievable.
This was a truly enlightening and eye-opening course. It’s really sad that
children have been kept in the dark for so many years (not to mention teachers
and adults!). The content was brilliantly explained and very exciting, with
Alan’s expressive movements and gestures! I can’t wait to apply what I have
learnt.
Very beneficial. And I can’t wait to try it out in my own class some day. I wish
I was taught THRASS from the beginning. Alan Davies was very clear in his
presentations and it was a pleasure to attend.
Very interesting and informative. All the teaching aids are super and will be
very helpful for us student teachers. The course was also great because there
was lots of interaction and examples. Alan Davies was humorous throughout the
course which made the course fun and kept me interested.
This was a fantastic course! I have learned so much. My views and ways of
teaching language will definitely change. I hope the schools in South Africa all
use this THRASS approach.
It was a wonderful course. I really enjoyed it! I have learnt so much. THRASS
has changed my views and thoughts on phonics and how to teach it!
This was a very interesting two days as I learnt so much. I’m leaving knowing
things that I never knew. I will definitely implement THRASS in my classroom
once I start teaching as I know that great things will come of using THRASS!
I have learnt a great deal from this course. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A new way
of teaching that actually works is something this country desperately needs. My
only worry is how I can implement this into my classroom if the school is doing
something else. Otherwise, I have loved it.
Extremely useful. Everything finally makes sense! The course was really great!
I thought this was a wow course! I feel it would, however, take me a long time
to use this as I was so “brain-washed” by previous English work! In schools it
could be very beneficial . However, lots of the schools don’t use the type of
script and don’t use the other charts. I would however definitely try to use it
and change perspectives and it is a big eye-opener. I could have done with it,
my spelling is terrible.
THRASS is very interesting and excellent for future teachers. In my opinion
THRASS should be implemented in every class. It was wonderful and worthwhile.
The presenter explained it perfectly and made it seem very easy. Thank you for
this wonderful course.
THRASS is an excellent way of teaching children at school. I believe many
children can overcome literacy problems through THRASS. I would not mind
implementing THRASS in my class. The lecture was extremely informative and a lot
of my doubts have been confirmed.
Wonderful. Sound track is very stimulating and fun. THRASS is superb because it
develops many skills.
Engjoyable. A valuable learning experience which I will use. I found the new way
of learning and teaching phonics easier as I found it difficult to teach phonics
in the old manner as I could not understand where teachers were coming from with
their explanations Thanks for valuable information.
I found the course to be worthwhile and a wonderful learning experience.
Thankyou.
I had a good time. I will try these with my learners and with my kids. To me it
was a fruitful course and I hope it will bring change in schools.
I did not know, why I was a bad speller in primary school. Now I know my teacher
cheated on me. I feel like claiming back my school fees.
What a good course! I wish to teach this and see how well learners do. To me it
was phenomenal, the way the course deals with handwriting, reading and spelling
skills, it all made sense because some of the sounds (spellings) are used in the
same way as in my language. Letters have many “jobs”.
Very interesting, with sensible ways to approach literacy. I found it easy to
understand and useful.
Very interesting and well organised. I have learnt a lot and it is a very clever
way of teaching. THRASS is very interesting and fun. I can’t wait to use it in
my classroom one day! Thank you for your time.
Very interactive. Simple way of learning how to read/spell. Charts and programs
easy to follow. Enjoy the variety of materials you can use.
A really good reading/spelling course. I learnt a lot from the course. Hopefully
will be able to implement it in the school in which I will one day teach.
Wow. Thank you for your enthusiasm and wonderful way of keeping us involved! I
have learnt much during this course and I have been exposed to new concepts that
I will use in my classroom. This course has been very informative and has given
me much to work with in the future. Thankyou.
I thought that the course was excellent. I learnt a lot throughout the course. I
found all the aids that were used extremely useful and if I had them I would
definitely use them. I found the course very interesting and a lot of fun. My
attention was held throughout the course.
Enjoyalbe. Alan has shown us some great skills in teaching young children
handwriting, reading and spelling skills. I believe that prospective teachers
will have a great contribution to our country.
This is going to benefit me in my career, as I feel that this approach is very
straight forward and easy for children to understand and use. I feel that Alan
is a wonderful lecturer and I’m glad that someone is able to make reading,
spelling, handwriting skills and language awareness such a useful tool. A
wonderful course. I have gained a lot and I will hopefully be able to implement
it in my future schools.
Interesting. It is a total new approach on phonics. Alan was a brilliant
lecturer who kept the audience involved and interested all the time. I enjoyed
the spelling tactics as this will help me with learners I teach for extra
lessons. It is a great approach to start off with from Foundation Phase and
carry it through until High School. Overall I was impressed, especially with the
charts we walked away with.
I was introduced to THRASS briefly in the Kwena Basin and found it so worthwhile
to get the ‘whole picture’ of THRASS and what it entails. Alan kept us
interested due to his interaction with us. It was incredible and has made me
feel confident and excited to teach phonics in the schools. Thanks Alan!
What an incredible course. It was particularly interesting and helpful to me
because of my involvement in the Kwena Basin. Attempting to use and implement
THRASS in Kwena was a wonderful experience. I just wish that now, having done
the THRASS course, I could go back to Kwena and implement all the new
possibilities and ideas that I learnt in the course. I will never use Letterland
again!
A wonderful experience, it made so much sense! I am fascinated by the amount of
work, passion and expertise that has gone into developing this programme. Alan,
the way you present your course is so exciting. You kept us all entertained. It
was great fun! Thanks so much for inviting us to attend this course. I will try
to adapt it, to use with my Deaf students. I will also let you know how it goes.
I enjoyed the course thoroughly. It was eye-opening. Some aspects are applicable
in Deaf Education. I find the games that are associated to sounds fascinating.
Teachers in deaf schools should get together and discuss these issues and make
certain adaptations. It is a worthwhile experience. Thanks for involving us deaf
teachers. Looking forward to seeing the videos to see how others use this
‘THRASS’.
Brilliant course and excellent ideas. Thank you for your input and teaching
aids. My hope is that I will be able to influence and change children’s lives
using THRASS. I want to learn more and will definitely be doing the e-mail
course. THRASS gives a fresh and amazing new look at phonics and teaching
handwriting, reading and spelling skills. I admire and commend you for being
brave and putting up with so much since the start of your idea. You are an
inspiration and excellent model to us all.
Very interesting. I have learnt so much and will definitely use this model to
teach phonics in my class.
I really enjoyed it. It has cleared up a lot of questions on how to teach
reading, writing and spelling skills. I feel more confident now and will
definitely teach phonics this way.
The course made a lot of sense, helped me understand why children spell the way
they do. THRASS can be a lot of fun and produced tons of vocabulary. I
definitely will use THRASS in my classroom.
The THRASS course as a whole was very useful in terms of literacy teaching. It
was worth attending. It will help me to feel more confident in teaching English
as I will be a first year teacher next year. All in all, the course is brilliant
and very informing. THRASS should be implemented in all our schools.
I found the course informative and stimulating. I have learned so much from it.
I wish courses like this will be provided every year if possible for those
students who did English as a second language. I am glad I did the course. No
regrets. I will recommend it to others. Thankyou.
Very beneficial and helpful. I feel it should be made compulsory for all
intersen students. I learnt a lot.
The course went quickly. It was enjoyable, very interactive and the multimedia
tools enhanced understanding. The humour used was very effective and the
teaching aids we received will be very helpful to us.
Wow! I am impressed! If I had done this course before going to Kwena Basin, I
think it would have been nice to show the children picture location etc. It’s
very interesting. It’s very stimulating. It keeps one on alert and forces
learners to listen attentively. As a future educator I feel that my learners
will benefit and become better spellers in the future.
I enjoyed being part of this programme. Thought it really gave me another point
of view in teaching children handwriting, reading and spelling skills. I think
this will improve the difficulties that children are faced with when it comes to
reading, spelling and handwriting. It is a definite “thumbs up”.
The course was very beneficial in that I have learned a lot of new methods and
easy ways to teach children. And as I was taught the old way, if this method was
introduced long time ago, I don’t think I will be having problems with English
as a second or third language. I wish this course can be always reinforced in
every school so that children from South Africa can improve. Thank you very
much!
Having taught THRASS before the actual course at Kwena, I saw so many
possibilities and opportunities for development and growth for the learners and
me. It grabs children’s and teachers’ interest and it is fun and has a lot of
learning value catering for all types of learning. Thank you for opening our
eyes.
I really found the course very interesting especially the part whereby I’ve been
asking myself questions like; why do we have silent ‘t’ or the difference
between ‘ch’ in Chris, Charlie, Charmaine etc. So now I have a clear direction
on how to pass on the knowledge and skills that I have gained during the THRASS
course. My perception towards phonics or should I say phonemes and graphemes; I
am proud to say I am blessed to be introduced to someone like you, who cares for
us. Thankyou.
An essential tool to implement fantastic literacy teaching. I found it
interesting to know that not only will I be helping children but I have
personally grown throughout my experience with THRASS in the Kwena Basin and
this course. A revolutionary programme that will change reading and spelling
forever.
Really enjoyable. It will really improve they way I will teach, as well as my
own spelling. I do feel that it is a lot in two days. I would love to go and
teach it and come back and clarify what I had learnt.
This course was very interesting and I’ve gained a lot from it. I hope that
learners will benefit and develop their sounds ability and the phonemes they
were deprived of. I hope and wish to be one of the assets in contributing to
teach THRASS in the classroom. I really enjoy the rest of the course and I also
wish that every other qualified teacher can be taught THRASS.
It is a good course in the teaching of English language, but I thought it would
be a problem when taught to learners who speak different cultural languages
because pronunciation can be poor only after a period of time that learners get
to grasp the sounds. Besides that, course was well presented. Mr. Davies knew
exactly what he was talking about. Well done!
I really enjoyed the course. I wish we had had the course before we went to
Kwena Basin because of all the ideas we could have used. However, I think the
articulation part might be difficult because of accents. Otherwise, I’ve learnt
plenty especially being a second language speaker of English.
I was using THRASS (after I saw a teacher modelling it) in a Primary school and
I didn’t know it was THRASS. I thought it was a brilliant way of teaching
children to spell and pronounce the words. After this course I now have a
detailed understanding how it works. Even though there is repetition, it is
certainly not mundane or monotonous. I like the fact that it is interactive, the
learners are involved through and through. Alan Davies presented the programme
very well.
THRASS will definitely come in handy when I start teaching in schools where
Afrikaans is predominantly spoken. Lovely presentation. Thanks.
The course was well planned and I learned so much from it. The way the
facilitator made us all participate was great. Though I still don’t see much
significance in practising some spelling words and graphemes in an intermediate
and senior phase. Hope much will be emphasised next time on how we can implement
what we were taught in Grade 4-9 learners. Well done. I really enjoyed the
course.
Logical. I have always had issues with teaching phonics because I never agreed
with the way it was taught. I often used to have arguments with teachers on
teaching practice because without realising it I wanted to teach phonemes. The
course was very well presented and explained and I feel confident in trying to
take what I have learnt and implement it in the classroom.
The course was very interesting because I had a problem with pronouncing the
words but now I can say that my problem is now solved. The chart, book or the
THRASS material is amazing support material that one can use in the classroom.
THRASS will change a lot of the learners spelling and sound improvements, not
only in schools but also in their everyday life. I really had a wonderful two
day experience with the THRASS course. I will use and teach what I have learnt.
Informative and enjoyable. I really hope that I will be able to use THRASS in
the future.
The course was amazing. It has shown me many things that I thought were right,
to be in fact wrong. I learnt that just because it’s a little difficult and may
take time to teach that it is worth teaching phonics in the end because it’s not
worth half teaching the correct system and ignoring the other half because it’s
difficult – there’s no point. You need to teach wholeheartedly. I have had
difficulties in spelling and having finally found out why. I have been inspired
and eager to change the ways in schools. I am eager to be informed in future.
Thank you for changing my outlook on phonics.
This is a fundamental course. I am in the Intersen phase, and I would have liked
to see how I could apply this more into my teaching. Congratulations on all the
hard work and your outstanding work and presentation. The second day got a bit
much. Thank you.
I thought the course was absolutely phenomenal. It makes previous phonics
programs look so silly. For the first time I am actually excited about teaching
phonics. It is really eye-opening and has even helped me understand phonics and
sounds better. Now when you sound out a word it actually sounds like the word,
not like when you rely on one letter, one sound approaches. Great course!
Thoroughly enjoyable. The course is of much interest and I feel that if this
programme is implemented in South African schools, it would impact the lives of
children greatly and would place children in South Africa or Africa on an equal
footing with the rest of the world. A concern I have is whether or not all the
schools would be able to afford the program and it would be disappointing if
THRASS never takes off the ground. Mr. Davies, you are an inspiration to me who
would like to make a difference to the lives of the children that I teach. THANK
YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME AS AN EDUCATOR!
I thought Alan was fantastic, he knows how to keep a crowd interested. He was
funny and entertaining. He explained it so that we all understood. I really
enjoyed learning about THRASS.
I really enjoyed this course. I have a better understanding of phonemes and
graphemes. When I was in school, we never learnt phonics the way THRASS teaches
us. Alan Davies was very humorous, I think that is why we enjoyed the course,
and therefore making us have a better understanding.
Brilliant course, made perfect sense. Makes a person think why teachers have
been teaching the way they have for so long. Makes the teaching of handwriting,
reading and spelling seem so simple. Kwena Basin:- Amazing grounding for course.
The use of technology was also amazing. Would be nice if the use of technology
could be implemented in schools. A lifelong and essential tool for teaching.
I am so grateful I was given the opportunity to do your course. THRASS is
absolutely brilliant, and I can’t wait to implement it in my classroom one day.
Thank you so much!
I really enjoyed Alan’s teaching, especially his sense of humour. I believe this
course is helpful for student teachers – it is empowering us. Personally, I was
not confident enough to teach phonics in teaching experience but now everything
has changed. I am now confident to conquer the world!
I found this course to be mind-blowing and I say this because I really battled
with phonics and reading in grade one and I am so happy that I will be able to
teach my grade ones the correct reading and phonics. Thankyou for being so
friendly and helpful and thank you for bringing these incredible ideas to South
Africa. I’m really grateful for being able to take part in this course.
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