THRASS TWO-DAY CERTIFICATE,
GTG, SOUTH AFRICA, NOV 13-14, 2006

A superb introduction to the world of THRASS! I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction between Alan and his audience. It was abundantly clear that teachers were entranced by all that Alan had to offer. I’m sure that all will commit to the programme with great enthusiasm, thanks to Alan’s expertise.

An incredible amount to absorb in two days! The presentation was lively – I envy your energy! I really think this is such a logical approach to teaching phonics and addresses quite a few of the doubts I have had with the “traditional” methods that we have been applying. I am looking forward to using THRASS with my Grade 0 class next year.

Absolutely wonderful! Can’t wait for implementation. Would love to train further. Many, many thanks!

A whole new world has opened up for me. I can’t wait to start THRASSING! Thank you so much for this fantastic and interesting course. Thanks for taking the time to make each one of us feel so special.

This course was excellent. Well presented and very informative. The whole programme makes sense and I can see the value of it for the children we will be teaching. The map will stick in the children’s minds and this will help their spelling, reading and phonics. I look forward to implementing this programme next year. I worked at a remedial school years ago. If the pupils had been taught with THRASS then they would not have had the spelling and reading problems we saw.

Thoroughly enjoyed your course. I found it extremely interesting and most certainly valuable. It is a pity that it was only over two days, a little longer would have been helpful (slower).

A super course! I am very motivated to start doing this with my children. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!

A fantastic course! I wish we could have a few more days of training! I am excited and inspired to implement this at our school. Thank you for not only entertaining us but motivating us to become BETTER teachers!

Alan, I came to your course not sure that it will be for me. How wrong could I have been! Your enthusiasm for THRASS makes us want to get into the class and do our own “rap” and dancing. I will let you know how I get on with your programme. Thank you.

Good, but very overwhelming. Need more guidance about practically where to start from each grade when implementing in e.g. Gr. 3. Two days is a bit short and I do not yet feel confident. Excellent presenter, Alan! It makes sense as I go along. I hope the “rough areas” will smoothen out!

I thought the course was outstanding. The course material is attractive and user-friendly. The amount of work put into the scheme of work is mind boggling. I would have preferred an extra day where we could have done practical work in groups as well as extra practise with the vowel rap.

Very good, a lot to take in. Wonderful presentation. I will do my best with all the information!

Alan is dynamic and unbelievably energetic. He is extremely passionate about his course and as the developer exceptionally knowledgeable. Not many course presenters would be able to hold teachers’ attention for so long. It is very difficult to know where to pitch a course and perhaps he assumed a certain level of prior knowledge that wasn’t necessarily there. I am, however, excited about trying to put many of the methods into practice and will never teach that there are five vowels and the various single letter sounds ever again!

I found this course to be very interesting and informative. It was very well presented. The material was very easy to follow and use. It has made a huge difference to the way I have viewed phonic teaching in the past. The system is logical and has meaning in a broader context. It is wonderful to find a system that teaches as a whole and not in segments. I have enjoyed the past two days.

Wow, what a dynamic presenter. You gave us so much knowledge in such a short time and managed to keep us all enthralled. I am looking so forward to implementing THRASS into my classroom. I now have answers to the ‘silly’ words that we always left unexplained.

A brilliant presenter! Alan made me constantly think and question. He imparted a great deal of knowledge and yet made it manageable. Alan was so passionate about THRASS, I can’t wait to implement it in my class room. It is such a logical approach to reading, spelling and handwriting.

U’re grate! (Oops wrong box). The most marvellous motivator It has been invigorating and u r an inspiration. You have encouraged me to take this on!

Excellent presentation. Fantastic and enthusiastic speaker. Very well put across – motivating. Handwriting – an excellent idea to move away from cursive. Spelling – will certainly improve throughout the school. Worthwhile experience. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thoroughly enjoyed his enthusiasm. He kept us stimulated. It was really great receiving formal training to teach handwriting, reading and spelling. I will enjoy using the THRASS programme and believe I will benefit from the programme just as much as my pupils. Thank you for a wonderful experience.

What an amazing course. I now know why I could/can not spell. You have added a new dimension to my teaching. Thank you so much. I am completely amazed by your energy, excitement and dedication and the obvious passion you have. Keep it up. We need more people like you. You gave me a new inspiration.

Really brilliant and entertaining. The concept is outstanding and very exciting. My brain is full! Still lots to learn through experience, trial and error. Excellent! Thanks a mil!

Thank you for a fantastic course! Very interesting and informative. Loved the lively presentation, delivered with enthusiasm and passion. Course materials and Teachers Guides etc. are excellent – very user-friendly. A lot has been learnt and feel excited and challenged. Thank you Alan.

Excellent – thank you. For the first time in my life “spelling” actually makes sense! You are truly an inspiring speaker! Lovely meeting you.

Very enlightening way of teaching spelling. I wish my children had been exposed to this system. I will be showing them and teaching them this method. I am very excited about starting this – may be my spelling will improve too! You have been a very entertaining presenter and made the course come alive.

Very valuable. Dynamic speaker. Would love to have him teach my children! Have learnt about Phonemes and placement of Articulators in my course BUT never directly associated with spelling and reading. That was fantastic.

Very good. Interactive without singling people but too short! Appreciated all the modelling.

Thoroughly enjoyable, mind boggling, exciting, interesting! Fun, lively two days! Well presented, kept us awake and alert and focussed all the time. Look forward to implementing this programme but am daunted by all the information!

A most outstanding, well presented and informative course. It showed me how to organise the language map! Thank you for sharing this wonderful system with us all. I am most excited about teaching this in my classroom and at home with my children.

Very dynamic trainer. Was thrilled there was still sound of letters covered. Still just a little confused as to what our first list of spelling words would be for a spelling test. Look forward to going through all the material. Fantastic to have “Granny’s Garden” and love the idea of teaching things as they arise and not being limited to grade!

Stimulating, exciting and logical. Your presentation was so exhilarating and exciting and this THRASS opening up for me a whole new aspect to class music lessons. Songs and stories are beginning to make themselves felt and I’m very thankful to have been part of these past few days.

Brilliant! A lot of valuable information, but would be great if stretched a bit over a few more days! Presentation was energetic and enthusiastic and made me feel that exact way about teaching phonics etc. Something new and fresh, that has got everybody in my team excited about teaching next year, which is very unlikely for this time of the year! Thanks Alan!

I have never learnt any rules before – I am a natural speller – I now have learnt “A LOT”. I hate English (sorry to say) but good news – the competitive spirit it creates fires one up – it’s fun and inspiring. English is no longer boring. Many thanks.

Extremely enjoyable. A lot to take in, in such a short period of time, but well worth it. The course definitely answered a lot of questions as to why children spell the way they do and gives a far better alternative to teaching. Thank you. It was fantastic.

I really enjoyed your course. You reminded me of the “Duracell Bunny”! Your approach makes excellent sense in teaching phonics. As many of my colleagues mentioned, it would have been so great if we had it when we were at school. It’s going to take time to get used to it! Hope we do it well – and with the same kind of passion as you.

Enthusiastically presented. As a Speech/Language Therapist, I value the “map” you have provided. I have been teaching these graphemes in therapy but now have a formalised way of “cracking the code” – a way of presenting the spelling choices of English!

My second time doing the course with you and I probably learnt even more! I can’t wait to put it into practice at our school next year – look forward to the teachers’ creativity and wonderful ideas. We will definitely be visiting our associated schools often! Thank you for your inspiration.

I am completely and utterly excited about the entire THRASS programme. The outstanding presentation has captured my energy and I cannot wait to get started. This “allows” me to do legally exactly what I used to do illegally – tell the children and teach them ‘as it is’ – wonderful! I am delighted.

Concise, energetic and entertaining presentation. Good use of audio visual. It’s a lot of information to take in over two days and participants can be left feeling insecure about implementation.

Great presentation. Very informative. Challenging. Good visual aids. I injoi tue cors. Ci u latr.

Very informative. A challenging approach!

Too short; jam packed. Needed more time. Wish that all my colleagues had attended to witness this awesome programme. Taught my own child how to teach the sounds to her own children. Great excitement. She wanted to know why she had to wait this long in order to be able to spell correctly. Well done, you’ve achieved what they couldn’t. As a partially hearing person who battles/struggles to hear the sounds in words, the Phoneme Machine will be a wonderful teaching aid. I just need to learn those International Phonetic Alphabet symbols!

Excellent! Fast-moving to keep ones attention. It all makes so much sense and I am excited to try it!

A very motivating course. I really enjoyed the presentation. It was interesting and kept us on our toes. I am going to enjoy implementing THRASS in my classroom. I hope that I will have the same amount of energy that Alan has.

Excellent! Gave a sound grounding on which to build. I learnt a great deal from Alan over the two days.

Entertaining, fun – it makes so much sense. Thankyou!

Dynamic, fun, educational, practical suggestions. Great therapy/classroom tips. Fun! Entertaining!

I thoroughly enjoyed this course. It was informative and well presented. The visual aids/person were a great help when absorbing all the information. I am pleased that there is a website! I am looking forward to implementing the THRASS programme – a little nervous but excited.

Inspirational! Looking forward to getting started. A little overwhelming but I am sure all will become clearer with practical implementation. A dynamic presenter! Thank you!

I enjoyed the course thoroughly. Alan is a vibrant, energetic presenter. Everything was carefully thought of and well presented.

Thank you for a most informative, innovative and exciting new way of looking at the teaching of reading and phonics. The presentation of the course work was excellent, with Alan Davies able to keep me interested in what he was saying and very excited about starting with THRASS in my classroom. A most worthwhile two days!

THRASS makes so much sense! I can’t wait to implement it. I know it will be a challenge at first, but feel very motivated to begin. The course was thoroughly enjoyable and a “breath of fresh air” at the end of the year!

Very exciting. Makes so much sense. Wonderful, enthusiastic presentation – thank you. Wish we could have spent longer as it was a lot to take in. Really enjoyed it and looking forward to starting.

I see the benefits! Good presentation. Would have liked another two days!

Fun, exciting and dynamic. Excellent presentation which integrated theory and practical application. A lot to absorb but makes sense. Excellent resources. Fantastic!

Outstanding – speaker, presentation – this was my second course and I was just as motivated and enthusiastic. ‘Real’ – just as the course content! Should be over a week, but not logistically and financially possible. After nearly 30 years of teaching, can’t wait to get THRASS into my classroom. Thank you so much, Alan!

It was inspirational. Would have liked to have heard more! A great programme with a wonderful presenter. Go Alan, go!

Brilliant, fantastic. Inspiring.

Wonderful, lots to think about!

Interesting and refreshing. Gives names and labels to much of what I have been doing for years. “Thank-you!”. It was enjoyable and well-presented so hold your head up high!

The course was thoroughly intuitive and enjoyable. Many interesting and enjoyable activities for children to do and for us teachers to teach, making lessons enjoyable and effective. I think working with SMART boards and using THRASS will be very beneficial, and even without – providing visual stimulation for the pupils. Initially, the course was overwhelming but will be very effective.

I was completely blown away by your amazing enthusiasm and energy. I am so excited to begin THRASS with my Grade 0 class. Watching you teaching in Africa is such a motivation to do even “better”. Thankyou Alan for an amazing two days!

Really enjoyable and feel very enthusiastic and excited to start using and implementing it. I can already think of kids who would have benefited from it had they done it earlier (especially my own two). I am very pleased that our organisation has had the insight to buy into it and feel privileged to have been on the course. I do think we could have benefited from a longer course especially to learn the more sequential implementation of it in each Grade. Thanks for an entertaining and informative two days!

Value your entrenched teaching methods. Hope to be able to put them in place in my classroom. Very interesting review of the truth.

“He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left” (Chinese proverb). How true for me – little did I know of the THRASS journey I would embark upon. I have had the honour and privilege of attending your course before, and I have kept expecting to find a “loophole” here or there – I have found none! You are a consummate performer, presenter and an inspiration to all who cross your path.

Thank you for this enlightening, practical and sensible approach to teaching reading and phonics. It wasn’t as complicated as anticipated! Alan was a dynamic course presenter who is motivated and inspiring and kept us interested to the end! Looking forward to implementing THRASS next year.

A lovely course. I’m motivated and excited to get going with THRASS. I can see the huge value in the system. Personally I can recognise that this will take practise while I get my mind around all the jargon and also while I try to “UNlearn” the way I've taught the individual sounds letters make! Alan is a dynamic man. Wow – so much energy in one person is inspiring to see! I enjoyed myself immensely.

An excellent presentation. Thorough, good explanations in response to questions. Interactive. Lovely ideas for implementation in classroom. Wonderful demonstration. Succeeded in changing mindsets.

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