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

 

The first HUPE Osijek Branch meeting in 2019/ 2020 took place on 12th October 2019 in American corner.

Our first speaker was Ivana Kirin and her topic was ŠzŽ FAQs - iskustva iz petoga razreda eksperimentalnog programa. This topic is very interesting and up to date because of the ongoing curricular reform. There are still a lot of questions that are not answered, and Ivana did a great job answering all our doubts. She led us through four topics, and they are: planning, tablets in class, projects and assessment.  Ivana talked about her experience in the classroom last year, as her school was one of the experimental schools in the curricular reform. Although all the topics were covered in detail there were still questions. At the end the conclusion was that a process like a curricular reform is extensive and it requires a lot of learning from teachers as well as students. 

 

Our second speaker was Marinko Uremović with interactive lecture The anatomy of a writing task. Marinko showed us how writing is as we all know the most challenging skill for students. It has same components as listening or reading skill. We need pre-writing part, while-writing part and post-writing part. Marinko also gave us an insight how important drafts are for the writing task and for students.  He really dissected a writing task making sure to show every aspect concerning the writing task. From how the teacher should prepare him/herself for the task to how the teacher should prepare the students for the writing task. It was a very useful lecture in which everyone could find something new to learn. 

At the end of the meeting, participants were informed about the news in HUPE and about the upcoming 28^th HUPE Conference that will be in Poreč in April 2020.

Kornelije Juranić
Osijek Branch President

The last HUPE Zagorje meeting before the summer break was held at Secondary school Bedekovčina on June 17th, 2019. 

There were two workshops. The first one was a workshop held by our dear member, and the new HUPE vice president, Petra Blajić.  Petra’s presentation was called Integrating Critical Thinking Skills in the EFL. The members tried different activities and discussed the meaning and importance of critical thinking in EFL teaching.

 The second workshop, held by Damira Mršić, on behalf of OUP, was called Insight Into Inquiry Based Learning. The participants had a lot of fun trying different creative activities which could be used in the classroom.

After the two workshops, HUPE Zagorje Branch held elections for the new branch president. We proudly announce that the new HUPE Zagorje Branch Presidentis Gordana Bujanić Tretinjak, our dear and active member, who you probably all know as HUPE PR. 

HUPE Zagorje is thankful to our members and the speakersfor coming. We congratulate Gordana and wish her a lot of productive and good branch meetings! 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.

Petra Končić
HUPE Zagorje Branch President