The first HUPE Osijek branch meeting in school year 2023-2024

The first HUPE Osijek branch meeting in school year 2023-2024 was held on 25 November 2023 at the Faculty of Education in Osijek. 24 English enthusiasts and HUPE members decided to spend their Saturday morning attending a 3-hour mini conference rerun with their hardworking colleagues repeating their successful workshops from the 31st HUPE conference.

The agenda included:
1) 31st HUPE Conference report
2) Mirta Kos Kolobarić: Are you a copycat or a busy bee?
3) Ana Katruša: Supporting Gifted Learners: Strategies, Tips & Ideas
4) Ksenija Benčina: It makes you look old!
5) HUPE news

At the beginning of the meeting the HUPE Osijek branch president informed the participants about the 31st Annual International HUPE Conference, which took place in Valamar, Poreč from 20 to 22 October 2023. She reported on the conference venue, partners and sponsors, programme, plenary speakers, workshops, social events, raffle, as well as on the overall positive feedback the HUPE Organizing Committee has received.

The first workshop, titled Are you a copycat or a busy bee?, was held by Mirta Kos Kolobarić from the Secondary School of Economics from Slavonski Brod. In an hour-long workshop, Mirta presented an engaging way of introducing ‘animal’ idioms to describe people's personalities through learning stations and various tasks and activities. She also shared ready-to-use materials for the learning stations on the topic of body idioms.

After the coffee break and catching up with colleagues, the second workshop, titled Supporting Gifted Learners: Strategies, Tips & Ideas, was held by Ana Katruša from Primary School kralja Tomislav in Našice. Ana talked about different types of gifted students and how to meet their unique needs, especially in the early years. She also presented, and the participants took part in, differentiated activities and games, as well as critical thinking strategies teaches can use with their gifted students.

The third talk titled It makes you look old! was held by Ksenija Benčina from the Faculty of Education in Osijek. Ksenija gave insight into the grammatical an lexical changes in the English language occurring in the last few decades highlighting the need to keep pace with these changes in order to effectively teach English.

After the workshops, participants were informed about the news in HUPE including the highlights from the AGM, as well as the upcoming events such as the 4th national short story writing competition HUPE in Storyland taking place from 1 December 2023 to 15 January 2024, HUPE Day planned for 20 April 2024 with international speakers, and workshops and talks for all levels, as well as the 32nd Annual International HUPE Conference that is taking place in Valamar Poreč from 15 to 17 November 2024. After HUPE’s very successful teacher training courses in London and Edinburgh, the participant were informed about the plans to organize the courses in Dublin or Malta in August 2024. All members were also invited to send their ELT articles and examples of good practices to our HUPE editor Ivana Kasunić via this email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be published in one of our future editions of HUPEzine or HUPE Newsletter.

At the end of the meeting, the branch president organized a short Kahoot quiz to test the members’ knowledge about the 31st HUPE Conference in order to give away four conference goody bags filled with useful teaching resources and materials.

HUPE Osijek is thankful to the speakers and all the members who were able to attend and make the meeting a productive and enjoyable experience. Hopefully, we will see you at our future meetings in 2024.

If you are a teacher of English and would like to join HUPE Osijek, feel free to contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you!

Adrijana Roždijevac
HUPE Osijek Branch President

HUPE in Storyland writing competition

Dear HUPE members,

the time has come to announce the start of our fourth HUPE in Storyland writing competition. The competition starts on 1 December 2023 and finishes on 15 January 2024. The winners will be announced on 8 March 2024.

How to apply?

Go to the HUPE web page (https://hupe.hr/index.php/competition-1/competition-temlates) and download the template form. Once downloaded, fill in the required details. After completing the form, generate a password. This password must be used as the title in uploading the document and it has to be incorporated in the document itself.

All stories must be completely anonimous. No school, mentors or students names should be revealed before the date of the announcement, 8 March 2024.

After announcing the winners, you will be asked to resend your students’ short stories to prove your identity. Check the HUPE web page for the published ranking list, complete with passes, to ensure your students' rankings are accurate.

There are three categories in the competition, make sure you select the category you are applying for.

1st HUPE Osijek branch meeting invitation

Dear colleagues,

I would like to invite you to our first HUPE Osijek Branch meeting in the school year 2023-2024, which will take place on Saturday, November 25, 2023 at 9 am at the Faculty of Education in Osijek (Fakultet za odgojne i obrazovne znanosti, Ulica cara Hadrijana 10, Osijek) in Room 21.

Agenda:

1) 31st HUPE Conference report

2) Mirta Kos Kolobarić: Are you a copycat or a busy bee?

3) Ana Katruša: Supporting Gifted Learners: Strategies, Tips & Ideas

4)Ksenija Benčina & Mirna Kurtović: It makes you look old!

5) HUPE news

For those of you who were not able to join us at the 31st HUPE conference in Poreč two weekends ago, and those who did not have time to attend all the workshops at the conference, we have prepared a mini conference rerun with the interesting and practical workshops prepared by our hard-working colleagues.

If you would like to attend the meeting, please, register by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.by Thursday, November 23, 2023 at 8 pm the latest as the number of attendees is limited. Thank you.

I’m looking forward to seeing you.

Kind regards,

Adrijana Roždijevac
HUPE Osijek Branch President

1st meeting 2024 final

Anne Wiseman: The future of English: implications for teachers

HUPE PROUDLY PRESENTS
PLENARY SPEAKER
31st Annual International HUPE Conference
20 – 22 October 2023
Valamar, Poreč

Anne Wiseman: The future of English: implications for teachers

Biography:

Dr Anne Wiseman has worked in the field of English and education for over 20 years and is currently Regional English Lead for the British Council in EU Europe. Her areas of focus are measuring the impact of English projects and developing language education projects to support teachers working in a multilingual context. Anne has vast experience of teaching, teacher training and managing education projects in countries across the world, including Egypt, China, the Middle East, Italy, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Peru, Lebanon, and most recently Sudan and Ethiopia. She has published various books and articles on the topics of inclusive education and teaching in multilingual classrooms. Anne has an MA in Applied Linguistics and a Doctorate in Education which focuses on evaluating the long-term impact of education interventions.

Abstract:

We are living through a period where the pace of change seems relentless. This changing world has implications for the use and the teaching of the English language. Change creates opportunities. Opportunities to reflect, to be in the moment and also to think about the future. We will briefly reflect on where we think we are very generally in the area of English language teaching now. Then, importantly, we will suggest implications for English language teachers to think about as we move forward into a world where the education space and the stakeholders have changed. To frame our presentation, we will discuss the findings of the Future of English programme initiated by the British Council in 2020. The Future of English (FoE) is a multi-phase research project with the aim of identifying key trends that will define the role of English as a global language in the coming decade, and the issues and opportunities for countries around the world in achieving their goals for the use of English in their contexts. This is not the first time work has been done on trying to foresee the future direction of the English language and its role in teaching and learning. Existing studies (Graddol, 1997 and 2006) have been reviewed and findings from these reviews form the basis of the Future of English project. Teachers and learners have been at the forefront of discussion and debate as education systems have attempted to navigate new learning environments to ensure the continued provision of high-quality, effective teaching and learning. This presentation will discuss findings from the project which illuminate the role of the English teacher in a world that has recently seen dramatic change and disruption. Together, we can create an environment that nurtures our growth, leading to enriched language learning experiences for our students and ourselves.

anne wiseman