The first HUPE Karlovac Branch meeting

11 October 2017Branch reports

HUPE – Branch Karlovac ran its first meeting in the school year 2017/2018 on Saturday, 30 September 2017 at 10 30 a.m. in Industry and Trade Vocational School, Domobranska 2, Karlovac. The meeting was attended by ten teachers.

The presenter, doctor of science Ljiljana Pintarić Mlinar, an assistant professor working in two Departments at Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences in Zagreb - Department of Inclusive Education and Rehabilitation and Department of Visual Impairments had a short introductory talk on the topic and ran a 90 min workshop English language teacher in interaction with children with special educational needs.

Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences is the only higher education institution in the Republic of Croatia that creates and offers well established university-level programmes in speech-language pathology, educational rehabilitation and social pedagogy in addition to developing and advancing high-quality research as well as clinical best practices in these areas.

Ljiljana Pintarić Mlinar’s main interest has been for more than 20 years research of processes of bio-psycho-social rehabilitation of children with intellectual difficulties and functioning of their families, i.e. creation of individually tailored strategies necessary in encouraging the development of these children.

However, her recent interests are very much focused toward transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary insights in supporting children’s and youth development from social context: family, school and teachers, peers interactions as well as global perspective influence to values in curriculum planning, changes, etc...

The workshop introduced some latest research conclusions and trends in teaching students with special needs. As introduction to the workshop, teachers saw a short video on early language learning sensitive periods “Young children citizens of the world” and had a brief overview of legislative framework in Croatian Education System, a little bit of statistics related to children with special needs as well as clinical best practices in the areas of speech-language pathology, educational rehabilitation and social pedagogy.

In the main part of the workshop different issues such as cognitive preparation for work, creativity in presenting curriculum for children with special needs, relationship pupil with special needs/teacher, emotional feedback – likes and fears, children’s needs, examples of teaching strategies and rationale for improving learning outcomes were tackled.

The second issue on the agenda was the election of the Branch president. Dubravka Lapčić was elected the president in the new term.

Dubravka Lapčić,
HUPE-Branch Karlovac President

The first Zagreb Branch meeting

09 October 2017Branch reports

Our first meeting was held at Svijet jezika on Friday 22 September, 2017.

Our speaker was Marinko Uremović who works in Osnovna škola Blage Zadre in Vukovar.

The topic was The Complete Begginer's Guide to Interactive Student Notebooks. Since students notebooks are integral part of any language course, we were shown how to make them more exciting and useful. Interactive students notebook have added colours, better organisation, understanding and are personalised in a way that each and every student can spark and feel great about himself or herself.

After the inital talk, 40 teachers were divided into groups and asked to give some ideas on certain topics using interactive notebooks. Interesting ideas were shared and discussed.

The second topic of our meeting was elections for the Branch president. I am happy to be given an opportunity to run it for the next two years.

The meeting ended at 9 pm .

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

Lana Duka Zupanc
HUPE Zagreb

The first meeting of HUPE Rijeka Branch

02 October 2017Branch reports

The first meeting of HUPE Rijeka Branch in new school year was held on 23^th September 2017 at Gradska knjižnica Rijeka – Trsat. Our fabulous hosts - American Corner Rijeka offered their beautifully decorated space and all modern technology. Two workshops were held by HUPE Croatia board members Ana Galac and Dubravka Blažić and Anita Jokić gave a report from IATEFL Poland conference. About thirty members attend the Saturday morning meeting, had loads of laugh and hugs and went home with new ideas once more.

The teachers who were present unanimously voted Nataša Žarkov the branch president for the next two years, and we wish her a lot of success in presiding HUPE Rijeka.

Summaries of workshops:

Ana Galac: English in Town
When they come to our school, our students want to learn how to communicate. After they had finished their conversation classes it was time to test what they have learned so far. We went to Zagreb where the students had to pretend they were tourists.
How was the task set up? How did they feel after the trip? What are the pros and cons of organising such a trip? Find out in the presentation „English in Town“.

Dubravka Blažić: Mnemotechniques
Metaphors and associations are powerful instruments which help us memorize and make sense of certain concepts, words, structures and even pronunciation. We will mention intelligence, Triune Brain Theory, synaptic connections and linking ideas. Some metaphors and associations will be shared with the participants to help them make their teaching easier and happier.

Anita Jokić, prof.
HUPE Rijeka Branch President

The First HUPE Zagorje branch meeting

29 September 2017Branch reports

Since teachers of Krapinsko-zagorska county have shown the interest in having their own branch, our HUPE PR Gordana Bujanić Tretinjak organised a meeting on 13th September 2017.
We are thankful for the support of Vocational school Bedekovčina that hosted this event. The headteacher Vera Hrvoj welcomed HUPE and said she would gladly give the support to our meetings in the future.

HUPE President Sanja Božinović welcomed teachers who were able to join us and wished the branch a lot of success. There were 20 teachers present at this meeting (some 10 more appologised for not being able to attend - they had classes and their headteachers didn't want to let them attend the meeting - but they promised to be active members of the branch in the future.)
The teachers who were present unanimously voted Petra Končić the branch president, and we wish her a lot of success in presiding HUPE Zagorje.

There were two workshops held at the meeting; one by Ana Galac (teacher at Pučko otvoreno učilište Velika Gorica) and the other by Sanja Ivoš (head of primary school department at Školska knjiga).

Ana Galac presented her very successful and inspiring workshop called English in Town about taking students to town to use English in real life situations. Sanja Ivoš gave a very interesing talk Teaching Life Skills, on how the skills students need for life have been changing over the past few decades and what skills are considered the most important at the moment.

We wish HUPE Zagorje a lot of success in their work, many great workshops and talks and a lot of networking and sharing of great ideas and positive experience.

The third HUPE Varaždin Branch meeting

21 June 2017Branch reports

The third HUPE Varaždin Branch meeting was held on May 11, 2017 at Osnovna škola Orehovica (Školska ulica 2, Orehovica, Međimurje).

It was attended by 10 teachers (two teachers cancelled their arrival).

Our presenters were Irena Žiger and Anita Parlaj - Narančić from Škola stranih jezika Žiger. Both of them held great workshops.

Ms Irena Žiger held a workshop EPG – what can you do with it? She introduced us with EPG – the European Profiling Grid. It is a tool for assessing language teacher competencies.

Ms Anita Parlaj – Narančić decided to play with us so she had a workshop From the past to the future – learning is playing! She showed us many different techniques of learning through playing games with children.

It was another great day with many interesting ideas and nice people.

Thank you all for coming and hope to see you soon again!

Best regards,

Adela Tompoš
HUPE Varaždin Branch President