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To new beginnings...
choice of the best books, songs and films that came out last year. There will also be a few words on Chinese New Year and some weird festivals celebrated in January and, of course, a few treats for both, students and teachers, as well. Finally, what is January without New Year's resolutions? You'll find quite a few inside and ours is very simple: to be even better in 2014. The last two pages are devoted to one of the best professional experiences we’ve ever had - 1st State Conference for English Teachers in Pula. It is impossible to summarize all of it - you really should have been there.▪ I.P.
eTwinning is an Internet portal started by the European Commission in 2006 with the goal of promoting online European cooperation in education using foreign
languages and ICT tools.
The portal functions on three levels:
Portal, Desktop and Twinspace. The portal is a
rich resource bank with numerous examples
and incentives for cooperation. The Desktop
serves as a social network; you set up a profile,
search for prospective project parners, keep a
list of professional contacts. The Twinspace is a
work area, a place to publish your project
work, check the progress of the project and
collaborate with your parners. A feature that
differentiates eTwinning from anything else is
that it a safe online environment; all teachers'
identities are verified by their national agencies
and all pupils there have been invited by their
teachers.
TEACHERS’ CORNER
Education and Teacher Training Agency
organized a State Conference for English
Teachers entitled Development and
improvement of professional competences
of English Teachers, which lasted from
January 7 to 9, 2014 in Pula. The aim
and the guiding principle for the
organization of the Conference was to
enable the participants to expand their
knowledge and skills in teaching the
English language beyond the practical
and methodological competences they
already have.
Apart from the three plenary lectures -
TEFL in Croatia today: Something old,
something new, something borrowed,
something blue, Stres učitelja i nastavnika
and Kako čovjek uči?, participants were
given a choice among eight workshops
to pick four to attend. The topics were
diverse - Rad s učenicima s teškoćama u
učenju, Prezentacijske vještine, Stvaranje
uvjeta za poticanje i razvijanje kritičkog
mišljenja, Vještina slušanja govora, Njega
glasa i izgovora, Hrvatski jezik za svaki
dan, Listen to my body talk, Građanski
odgoj u nastavi engleskoga jezika - which
gave everyone a chance to find
something for themselves.
PLENARY LECTURES
Stres učitelja i nastavnika prof. dr.sc. Majda Rijavec
Kako čovjek uči? mr. Predrag Pale
TEFL in Croatia today: Something old, something new, something
borrowed, something blue prof. dr. sc. Jelena Mihaljević
Djigunović
I would like to take this opportunity
to share my gratitude for moral and
practical support in organizing this
three-day event to Irena Pavlović and
Maja Ivanović. Girls, you’re the best!▪
M.Š.
Martina Šturm, prof. Senior Advisor, Education and
Teacher Training Agency
I was so happy to have the opportunity to attend State Conference for English Teachers in Pula from 7 to 9 January
2014. Apart from attending three great plenary sessions,we had the chance to participate in 4 different workshops (among eight) and these are the ones I have chosen.
I couldn't have started better; the first one
was “Njega glasa i izgovora“ by dr. sc. Gabrijela Kišiček who showed us some
excellent exercises which can improve our voices and help us save the most precious
tool for our job. I enjoyed all the tasks and it was really funny when we had to repeat different tongue twisters.
Then I joined many others who chose
another workshop called “Stvaranje uvjeta za poticanje i razvijanje kritičkog
mišljenja“ held by Eni Surić Faber. This teacher's workshop was also very useful
because it refreshed our memory when it comes to critical thinking. I loved working in groups, discussing humanistic approach in education, comparing our school system
with what we read during the workshop.
The third workshop “Hrvatski jezik za svaki dan“ was something
completely different and according to the latest Croatian
ortography. After this workshop I know what (not) and how I have to write in Croatian – I'm greatful to
you, (should I put a comma here?!) Nikolina Huđber Mesar!
And the last workshop just beautifully brought it all to a
perfect end: Irena Pavlović and Maja Ivanović, both English teachers in secondary schools put
a lot of enthusiasm into their workshop “Listen to my body talk“.
Working in groups, acting and enjoying it all – we went through
accepted non verbal behaviours and those we should try to avoid.
Once again all my colleagues proved not only to be just teachers but actors,
singers, players, mimers and much more as well. I only hope we'll all meet
soon again. ▪ I.V.C.
There were three lectures and eight workshops organized for us to attend, but there was time for only four workshops, so we had to choose. I chose the following: Working with pupils with learning disabilities, Presentation skills, Voice as a nonverbal sign (voice care and vocal exercises) and Citizenship education in the teaching of English. Working with pupils who have learning disabilities was a
very interesting and motivating workshop. The lecturer, Jadranka Bjelica, reminded us of our impor-tance in the classroom and how great our influence on our students is. She talked a lot about class management and the right kind of communication – assertive one. She stressed the fact that we should look at our students with learning disabilities as challenges, not problems, and we were given a handout with motivating strategies when
working with children who have learning disabilities and another one with the symptoms of dyslexia and some general advice on how to work with them. Presentation skills was an impressive workshop held by Željka Kamenov. In a very dynamic and interesting way she taught us how to give successful presentations. She warned us of the five biggest mistakes people make in their presentations, like too much information, no clear message, a lecture which is too long… We heard about the qualities of a good presentation and got a handout with the tips how to be successful in our presentations.
Gabrijela Kišiček had a very useful workshop where she talked about voice as a nonverbal sign and showed us how to take care of our own voices. She convinced us we had to do it in order to: prevent vocal disorders, achieve better communication and better expression and because of aesthetics. She showed us we could do it by working on our awareness of voice, knowledge of voice production, good vocal techniques and vocal hygiene.
Then we all stood in a circle and tried some vocal exercises. We were also given handouts with those exercises so we could do them at home. The last workshop I attended was Citizenship education in the teach-ing of English held by Jasna Kraljić Cmrk. She talked about her school which is in the experi-mental programme introducing citizenship education into our school programmes. She also talked about how we, as teachers of English, can and should do it with our programmes and through our classes. We worked in groups and made a lesson plan with a topic related to citizenship education. This lecturer as well gave us a detailed handout with examples of how to integrate citizenship education into English classes and all the useful resources. ▪ V.D.P.