6 May 2026
The second HUPE Slavonski Brod branch meeting in the school year 2025–2026 was held on Tuesday, 5 May 2026 at the Elementary School “Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić” in Slavonski Brod. The meeting lasted for three and a half hours and gathered HUPE members for an interactive and fun afternoon of professional development, collaboration, and exchange of ideas.
The agenda included:
- Alenka Taslak & Ivana Hrastović Mandarić: Small Words Big Meaning
- Tihomir Matković: European Day of Languages – When Creativity Meets Curiosity
- HUPE News
It is important to note that the originally planned second workshop was cancelled due to the speaker’s illness, and the talk European Day of Languages – When Creativity Meets Curiosity was delivered instead.
The first workshop, titled Small Words Big Meaning, was delivered by Alenka Taslak and Ivana Hrastović Mandarić. This informative and useful workshop presented practical, scaffolded strategies for teaching writing through the theme of kindness and friendly communication. The presenters demonstrated a structured writing sequence that included vocabulary development, tone awareness, guided email writing, peer feedback, and the use of figurative language. Special attention was given to the ethical use of AI tools as brainstorming support in the writing process. Overall, the workshop emphasized how clear scaffolding and emotionally engaging topics can enhance student motivation, creativity, and writing quality in the English classroom.
The second talk, titled European Day of Languages – When Creativity Meets Curiosity, was delivered by Tihomir Matković. The presenter showcased the activities that he and his colleagues in the school conducted with their students to celebrate the European Day of Languages in September 2025. Their project combined creative expression and research which lead to students developing their digital and linguistic skills through a series of fun projects such as the “building” of Multilingual Wall, researching extinct languages in Europe and translating common European proverbs in different European languages thus empowering their curiosity and highlighting the cultural and linguistic diversity of European countries.
Participants were also informed about the latest HUPE news, including upcoming professional development opportunities, results of the Multilingual Music Competition, upcoming HUPE Conference and its Call for Papers deadline. Members were encouraged to actively contribute to HUPEzine by submitting ESL teaching-related articles and to apply as speakers at future branch meetings in order to share examples of good practice and innovative teaching ideas.
HUPE Slavonski Brod is sincerely thankful to all the members who attended the meeting and contributed to a positive and collaborative working atmosphere. We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting.
Tihomir Matković
HUPE Slavonski Brod Branch President
