The second HUPE Zagorje meeting this school year was held at Bedekovčina Secondary School on 14^th February 2020. 

There were three workshops held as well as the introduction to the 28^th HUPE Annual International Conference. The first one was a workshop held by Melinda Tupek, a great fellow teacher and enthusiast who works in OŠ Sesvetska Sopnica.  Melinda’s workshop titled (Old fashioned) Games in the ESL Classroom was great fun and all of the tired teachers attending it had a good time trying out the numerous games she provided for us. In this workshop Melinda presented an array of fun and interesting games that could be applied to any classroom at any level of students’ knowledge throughout the curriculum, no matter the subject or lesson. As we were having fun doing the activities and playing the games, so will our students when we try some of these great ideas.

 The second workshop was held by Barbara Hanjilec, from ŠUDIGO Zabok, an inspiring colleague with tones of experience and great ideas as always. Barbara’s workshop A Wee Talk on Northern Ireland was focused on culture and how to bring it closer to our students in the classroom. As we probably all focus too much on Great Britain, London, The USA, New York or similar more prominent elements of culture in our teaching, this workshop was an eye-opener and a much-needed inspiration to do something different in our classrooms. 

The third workshop was held by our branch president Gordana Bujanić Tretinjak, aka myself. The workshop titledWHYs and HOWs of Making Short Videos in the Classroom IATEFL focused on putting students’ mobiles to good use – how to teach them to make video materials that could be used in the classroom or for any learning goal you wish. All the weary and tired colleagues cheerfully took out their phones, and following the instructions, had fun in making their (sometimes first) short videos. Students are motivated to do such activities since they activate their creativity, their knowledge of digital tools and gadgets but also it sparks their interest in English and boosts self-confidence.

The last part of our meeting was dedicated to HUPE Conference News. The colleagues were informed on all the news about the Conference ahead of us. We discussed ideas about the HUPE Zagorje part in the From Us to You social event in the conference and had some great ideas from our members – join us at the Conference and find out! 

The energy at the meeting was great as always, so much so that when the meeting was over (on this Valentine’s Day mind you!), people were still chatting and drinking coffee, reluctant to leave.

HUPE Zagorje is thankful to our members and the speakers for coming. HUPE Zagorje will continue to inspire and hopefully become a bigger branch in the future.

If you wish to join us, contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Gordana Bujanić Tretinjak
HUPE Zagorje Branch President

The second HUPE Rijeka Branch meeting was held at the Trsat Branch of the Rijeka City Library on 25 January 2020. The agenda included:

1. Dora Božanić Malić: Most definitely not a Valentine’s Day lesson
2. Anita Jokić: HUPE news and updates(AOB)
3. 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 28^th 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

The first HUPE Zagorje meeting this school year was held at Secondary school Bedekovčina on 15^th November 2019. 

There were three workshops held as well as the short introduction to what is new at HUPE. The first one was a workshop held by Anita Jokić, a great fellow teacher and the new HUPE president.  Anita’s workshop titled Story of a friendship: Tom Jones and Elvis Presley was very inspiring and all of the tired teachers attending it on this rainy Friday afternoon were gladly singing (maybe a bit out of tune), joyfully laughing and working together on the numerous tasks. This workshop presented very interesting and fun activities that could be applied to any other subject matter, but we all felt that the choice of singers and music was great and many said that they would try it out in their classrooms.

 The second workshop was held by Sanja Rašković, from Global Lingua, an inspiring enthusiast full of great ideas. Sanja’s workshop The Magic of Storytelling was filled with useful activities on using the magic of storytelling in the classroom that made the members laugh and participate all the way through. 

The third presentation was held by our own colleague from HUPE Zagorje branch and the new HUPE vice-president Petra Blajić. Petra’s presentation 28^th IATEFL POLAND Conference in Gdansk – dissemination was a very welcomed compilation of useful activities, tips and tricks from the workshops and talks she had attended there. She gave us a handful of readymade and easy-to-use things, some of which we already use or have used in our classrooms, but this was a great way of revising and making a useful compilation.

This was also a great introduction to our next topic News in HUPE. Anita and Petra briefly explained to the members all the benefits that membership in HUPE offers them – such as the open call for workshop proposals for HUPE representative at the upcoming IATEFL Slovenia Conference in March (all expenses covered), or the opportunity to present your work at one of the Branch meetings or Annual Conference and many more. 

The energy at the meeting was such that when the meeting was finally over, waaaay into the evening, people were still chatting and drinking coffee, reluctant to leave.

HUPE Zagorje is thankful to our members and the speakers for coming. HUPE Zagorje will continue to inspire and hopefully become a bigger branch in the future.

If you wish to join us, contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Gordana Bujanić Tretinjak
HUPE Zagorje Branch President

The first HUPE Rijeka Branch meeting was held at Gradska knjižnica Rijeka, ogranak Trsat – American Corner in Rijeka on September 21st, 2019. Sixteen members attended the meeting. 

The agenda included:

• HUPE Rijeka presidential election
• Anita Jokić: Power of Women
• Gracijela Orobabić: How to teach “Domain B”? No Biggie or OMG?
• AOB

 HUPE Rijeka Branch held elections for the new branch president. We proudly announce that the new HUPE Rijeka Branch President is our dear and active member Dario Abram.

The first workshop was held by Anita Jokić, from Prva riječka hrvatska gimnazija. The workshop focuses on role and position of women through history and focuses on six women who changed our perspective (Billy Jean, Princess Diana, Malala, Rosa Parks, etc.). Students take a look at six biographies (they do research and watch videos, materials provided). They learn about the changes the women made and why these women are important. Carefully selected songs are used to connect the historical events with modern times and position of women in modern world. Several short videos are shown to help understand the position on women through various periods, and how these 6 particular individuals helped women all over the world. Students play a quiz, do a bit of acting (interviews), do a group research using ‘old-school internet’– printed out articles on paper and hung around the room. Students have questions and need to find the answers in the articles. Based on the information they have gathered and using photos they are given – they create a newspaper cover celebrating various important life moments in lives of these women.

The second workshop was held by Gracijela Orobabić from primary school Gornja Vežica. "Teaching Domain B - No Biggie or OMG?" - “Domain B“  outcomes give learners an opportunity to learn not just the facts about the target English speaking country and its people, culture,values, custums and traditions but also better understand and accept and respect other people's cultural identity. Teachers can choose teaching materials that will encourage learner's development of social and life skills such as critical cultural awareness, adaptability and intermediation as well as accept cultural differences, become tolerant, be able to establish intercultural social contact and be ready for cooperation and compromise. Workshop on different types of teaching materials about Thanksgiving and exchange of ideas among teachers as well as discussion about the best ways to achieve “Domain B“ outcomes will help us become aware of the possibility to prepare lessons on hospitality, tolerance, caring, compassion, refrain from criticism and judgement and many others which are very important within intercultural relationships, with a goal to help young learners become active and positive citizens of the world.

If you wish to join HUPE Rijeka, contact Dario, your new president at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Nataša Žarkov
HUPE Rijeka