The first HUPE Rijeka Branch meeting was held at Gradska knjižnica Rijeka, ogranak Trsat – American Corner in Rijeka on October 27th, 2018. Thirty-three members attended the meeting.
The agenda included:

1. Ana Galac: Something Old and Something New
2. Sanja Rašković: The magic of storytelling
3. AOB

The first workshop was held by Ana Galac, the teacher in Pučko otvoreno učilište Velika Gorica. The workshop gave some simple activities that keep students motivated to do boring everyday tasks by using balloons, toilet paper, photographs, and multi coulored hats. In the world of technology and QR codes, Youtube and other internet devices students sometimes prefer something old, which in their world becomes something new. Through these activities students feel more motivated to speak, revise vocabulary or grammar related topic, see things from different point of view and develop critical thinking.

Sanja Rašković, the teacher in Global Lingua School in Zaprešić, talked about storytelling as a method of EFL teaching. Stories create magic and boost imagination and therefore can be a very powerful and magical tool used in teaching! We tell stories every day. When we talk about our day, or tell a joke to somebody, or simply speak about something that happened to us. And we all like listening to the stories. Why not use them in the classroom then. Not just the readymade stories. Why not create stories with our students with the grammar and vocabulary they already know. It’s not difficult and it’s not time consuming but it can be really fun! In this workshop Sanja demonstrated some exercises and showed how easily you can create stories with your students. It was a practical workshop with many ideas that can be immediatelly taken and used in the classroom.
If you wish to join HUPE Rijeka, contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Nataša Žarkov
HUPE Rijeka

The fourth HUPE Zagorje meeting was held at Secondary school Bedekovčina on September 28th, 2018. 14 members attended the meeting

The agenda included two workshops. The first one was a workshop held by Lana Kralj from Oxford University Press entitled Teach and Learn Anywhere and Anytime: Do Better With e-Books. The workshop consisted of several activities with e-books and different applications used in the ESL classroom. The workshop was very interesting and interactive and the HUPE members had a lot of fun.

 The second workshop, held by Daniela Usmiani, a teacher and e-Twinning ambassador was entitled e-Twinning u nastavi engleskog jezika. The participants were given the chance to find out more about e-Twinning; the opportunities for teacher training and professional development, different projects and making contacts with teachers around Europe. Also, they created their own account and explored the platform possibilities. The participants have found the workshop both interesting and helpful.

HUPE Zagorje is thankful to the speakers for organising such great workshops and to all the participants for coming and creating a great atmosphere at the meeting!

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

Petra Končić
HUPE Zagorje Branch President

The fifth meeting of HUPE Split Branch was held at Osnovna škola don Lovre Katića in Solin on 8th June 2018.The first part of the meeting included dissemination of Erasmus + mobilities and project outcomes:

Miranda Barac (Obrtnička škola Split) gave a presentation of the Erasmus+ KA2 project “EUse your brain- challenge your talent for science”.
Five ambitious secondary schools from Recklinghausen (DE), Dordrecht (NL), Pamplona (ES), Copenhagen (DK) and Split (HR), which" have been involved in earlier European projects and exchanges, saw the need to challenge their pupils and took the opportunity to set up this project to address low achievement in basic skills, such as science and foreign languages through more effective teaching methods and promote entrepreneurship in education and entrepreneurship among young people at their schools and local community.
The most relevant topics were entrepreneurial learning, natural sciences and teaching and learning of foreign languages. The following five intellectual outputs were achieved: free online teaching and learning material (O1), a manual/inspirational book to promote entrepreneurship (O2), adaption of the individual school curricula (O3), a MINT/STEM exhibition (O4), a special collection of fun math exercises (O5). Other results included: several evaluation forms, certificates, improvement of MINT/STEM skills and foreign language skills of the participants, new partnership contracts, best practices of peer learning, outcomes of the foreign language / MINT-STEM tests, promotional material and increased awareness of E-safety.

Alenka Miljević (Osnovna škola braće Radića, Bračević) presented “COMMUNICATE-CONNECT-DEVELOP” Erasmus+ KA1 project. The project consisted of six activity mobilities including teacher trainings, job shadowing and teaching assignments. She shared her experience from Germany in Portugal where she attended teaching assignments in English lessons. She explained some of the methods and tools she learned from her colleagues in partner schools that she now applies in her teaching like Bus Stop method and Plickers.

Vanja Fazinić (Osnovna škola don Lovre Katića, Solin) presented the Erasmus + KA1 project titled “Innovative approaches to learning and teaching for the school of the future” aiming at creating an environment which stimulates creativity and independent learning, supporting at the same time student collaboration, effective access to the information through enhancement of digital literacy and expression through use of new technologies. She shared the knowledge she received in her training in Finland and Estonia, which included observation of teaching, studying and learning processes at some of the most successful primary and secondary schools in Helsinki and Tallinn.

Nina Dupor Marović (Osnovna škola don Lovre Katića, Solin) talked about her Erasmus+ training course “There’s an App for that! Exploring the best apps for teaching and student learning”. She presented some of the most practical educational apps for teaching. These apps are expanding the learning experience both inside and outside the classroom, making it more interactive, immersive, and engaging.
In the second part of the meeting Nina Dupor Marović ran a workshop “Create interactive lesson using EdPuzzle”. EdPuzzle is a free assessment-centred tool that allows teachers to create interactive online videos by embedding questions, audio notes, audio tracks or comments on a video. The participants learned how to select a video and customise it by editing, cropping or recording their own sound to fit a particular lesson.

Thank you all for coming and hope to see you at our next meeting in September!

If you are an English teacher and want to join HUPE Split, feel free to contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Vanja Fazinić
HUPE Split Branch President

The fourth HUPE Rijeka Branch meeting was held at Gradska knjižnica Rijeka, ogranak Trsat – American Corner in Rijeka on May 26th, 2018. Fourteen members attended the meeting. 

The agenda included:

1. Ana Inić: Translation in teaching
2. Vedrana Frlan: Writing tasks? Yes, please!
3. Nataša Žarkov: HUPE conference – news and update

The first workshop was held by Ana Inić, the teacher in Natural Sciences and Graphic Arts Secondary School. She talked about translation in teaching. The use of mother tongue in FL classroom was not welcome for years. However, in the past decade or two within the post communicative paradigm much attention has been given to translation. There are numerous studies which show that translation in language teaching can serve as a catalyst to language learning and students can benefit from it on a cognitive, pedagogical and functional level. The aim of this workshop was to present some key notions related to translation in language teaching and show practical examples which can be used in the classroom.

Vedrana Frlan, the teacher in Primary School Lokve, talked about writing tasks which can be a source of enjoyment, creativity and fun to students of all ages. This presentation examined some ways in which primary school students can derive more pleasure from their writing tasks. It offered many examples of successful and motivating classroom practice. It also encouraged the teachers at the meeting to have a go at a writing task of their choice and share their own most interesting ideas and tips regarding the topic.

Nataša Žarkov, HUPE Branch President, talked about 26^th HUPE Conference held in April in Poreč.

Thank you all for coming and hope to see you at our next meeting in September!

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

Nataša Žarkov
HUPE Rijeka