The Second HUPE Rijeka Branch Meeting Report
The second HUPE Rijeka Branch meeting was held at the Trsat Branch of the Rijeka City Library on 25 January 2020. The agenda included:
- Dora Božanić Malić: Most definitely not a Valentine’s Day lesson
- Anita Jokić: HUPE news and updates(AOB)
- Davor Pleše: Fun activities with pictures
The first workshop, titled Most definitely not a Valentine’s Day lesson, was held by Dora Božanić Malić. In a one-hour workshop, Dora offered various activities designed around the idea of introducing storytelling and spoken-word poetry to our classes. Building a lesson or two on a simple list of assorted nouns and verbs, for example, allows our students to be creative in speaking and writing, which is of utmost importance in language teaching. The ready-made materials and activities are adaptable to various levels but are mostly focused on higher levels of primary school and up. It should also be noted that Dora’s inspiring workshop was based on a pair of lesson plans already acknowledged by the Ministry of Science and Education in 2019.
HUPE President Anita Jokić talked about the news and updates regarding the 28th Annual International HUPE Conference and all the benefits that HUPE membership offers. She touched upon the proposed conference programme as well as each branch presenting its work and/or its members’ talents in April. All the members were kindly invited to contribute to HUPE with their suggestions and encouraged to deliver new sessions, either talks or workshops.
At the very end of the meeting, Davor Pleše ran a workshop called Fun activities with pictures. It was a great example of how adapting resources easily found online can yield stunning results. The aim of the workshop was to show that grammar and vocabulary do not need to be explicitly taught in everyday classes. Starting and ending lessons with pictures can oftentimes prove to be invaluable in eliciting descriptive speech, therefore making way for our students to further develop their public speaking skills. The variety of activities that are to be used with students of different age and level of proficiency kept the pace up throughout the workshop.
HUPE Rijeka expresses gratitude to the participants for making the meeting a pensive, involving, cohesive, and enjoyable experience. It is always lovely to see new ideas and presenters warmly welcomed and deservingly commended.
If you wish to join us, contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Dario Abram
HUPE Rijeka Branch President
