Katarina Hrtankova, YL Assistant Director of Studies of English at International House Bratislava language school, recently completed a job shadowing programme at International House Accademia Britannica Rome, Italy.

The aim of the job shadowing programme was to get inspiration for high quality teaching and methodological support for teachers, to learn about new educational methods and tools for improving educational processes and develop personal contacts and relationship with colleagues from the host school. 

The programme took place over four days. On these days, I met the Director of Studies, Head of Young Learners, teachers, and admin staff. Through a mixture of one-to-one meetings and shadowing of the Young Learner Coordinator, I learnt how their YL Department is set and run. I was familiarised with their types of courses, projects, materials, and methodology.  I presented our school projects and we tried to find common topics for next collaboration. We discussed how our students could collaborate in their learning process. 

I had a chance to have a tour of the city, which was amazing. 

Upon return to Bratislava, I have had meetings with the Director of Studies and Assistant Director of Studies in order to try and implement some of the ideas and practices that I observed in Italy.

V rámci programu Erasmus+ som sa krátko po Veľkej Noci ocitla vo fínskom mestečku Ylivieska, neďaleko polárneho kruhu, kde som mala možnosť na vlastné oči nahliadnuť do prostredia tunajších základných škôl.

Cieľom pobytu—počas štyroch podnetných dní strávených na troch rôznych školách—boli stretnutia a diskusie s miestnymi učiteľmi a pozorovanie ich učebných praktík, zásad a východísk, a to priamo v prostredí fínskych tried. Tak, ako sa od seba líšili jednotlivé školy—navštívili sme napríklad malú lesnú školu s päťdesiatimi žiakmi, ako úplne novú základnú školu v srdci mesta s rozlohou malého nákupného centra—aj triedy mali každá svoju unikátnu atmosféru, a tá bola do veľkej miery daná samotným učiteľom.

Fínsky vzdelávací systém je renomovaný po celom svete a dlhodobo dosahuje skvelé výsledky v meraniach PISA, ktoré sa zameriava na funkčnú gramotnosť žiakov. Zároveň je tu na povolanie učiteľa kladený veľký dôraz, a tak, ako sa učitelia môžu pýšiť rešpektom naprieč väčšinou spoločnosti, prinášajú oni rovnaký rešpekt do svojich tried, voči svojim žiakom. Základným princípom výuky je povinnosť zabezpečiť kvalitné vzdelanie pre všetkých, a to sa odráža v dennodenných praktikách (ako diferenciácia či formatívne hodnotenie) aj v samotnom systéme (investície do inklúzie, podpora na provinčnej úrovni, kvalita vzdelávania učiteľov a školského personálu atď.). 

Náhľad do vyučovania v tomto prostredí priniesol rôzne kuriozity. Deti v Ylivieske do škôl chodia väčšinou pešo alebo na bicykloch, ale v zime je rovnako bežné ponáhľať sa na prvú hodinu na lyžiach. Školské obedy sú už o pol jedenástej, deti si nesmú na desiatu nosiť sladkosti, každý piatok sa zoraďujú pred knižničným autobusom, prestávky často trávia v lese, a na jednej škole ich dokonca vyučuje pes (certifikovaný psí asistent).

Okrem oficiálneho pozrovania pri práci na školách sme mali aj pestrý poobedňajší program, kedy sme sa mohli prejsť po zamrznutom baltskom mori, vyskúšať si povestnú fínsku saunu, či vychutnať si kávu a korvapuusti (fínsku škoricovú rolku) v hlavnom meste, Helsinkách. S kolegyňou sa nám dokonca podarilo zažiť aj polárnu žiaru.

Pobyt vo Fínsku som si skutočne užila, spoznala som tu veľa skvelých a inšpiratívnych ľudí, a odišla s množstvom nápadov a tipov, ktoré sa pokúsim použiť na vyučovaní vo svojich vlastných triedach.

Bea Domeová

I teach English as a Second Language at International House Bratislava. This year I have taught CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) for the first time to primary students (art and science). So, when I was offered a chance to learn more about teaching this topic, I volunteered enthusiastically. Oh, and it was in Florence in Italy – one of my favourite cities, having been there several times before. There were ten students on the course, CLIL in Practice - Focus on Florence, with eight from North Macedonia, one from the Czech Republic and myself. The course was run in the English language; I was the only native speaker of English but the rest of class spoke English to varying degrees. The course was run by Europass Teacher Academy from 12 th to 16 th June 2023.  The main point that I took away from this course is that anything can be taught using CLIL utilising the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in a second language. We had classroom based activities each morning until lunchtime where we then visited a minor museum or historical building relevant to that days topic. The daily topics were:  

Monday – art (Buonarotti’s House museum)

Tuesday – music, news and cinema (Zeffirelli museum)

Wednesday – food and fashion (Salvatore Ferragamo museum)

Thursday – the Medici family (Medici Palazzo museum)

Friday – love (Dante’s house museum)

Various mediums were used to provide information on the daily topics, from videos (YouTube) to podcasts, magazines and newspapers – all realia. The course highlighted that I only teach ‘soft CLIL’ to primary students, e.g. vocabulary, as opposed to ‘hard CLIL’ which is more appropriate to older students, secondary and adults, through total immersion in a subject. This course will be valuable to me in the future if I wish to use this format, during a cultural week at one of the local schools, focusing on a city in the UK or a range of cultural topics from English literature and history.  

Stephen O’Connell.

V termíne 17.07.2023 až 21.07.2023 som sa zúčastnila vzdelávacieho programu v rámci medzinárodného projektu Erasmus finančne podporovaného Európskou úniou a konzorciom IH Bratislava. Miesto konania kurzu bolo hlavné mesto Českej republiky Praha.

Kurz mal 21 hodinovú dotáciu. V skupine nás bolo 10 účastníkov - 7 bolo z Portugalska, 1 z Rakúska. 1 z Grécka a ja zo Slovenska. Spoločný komunikačný jazyk bol angličtina.

Vzdelávací kurz bol organizovaný v ITC – International training center. Lektorka, ktorá nás celý týždeň vzdelávala sa volala Petra Vallin. Bola vysoko odborne zdatná, príjemná a veľmi inšpirujúca.

Prvý deň, po zoznámení sa, sme sa zaoberali teoretickými zručnosťami 21.storočia. Aké sú možnosti rozvíjať kritické a kreatívne myslenie. Rôzne úrovne ľudských kognitívnych schopností. Otvorené otázky naprieč celým učebným plánom. Príklady úloh s otvoreným koncom. IKT ako nástroj rozvoja kreativity

Popoludní nás sprevádzala sprievodkyňa Prahou a oboznamovala nás s historickými pamiatkami Prahy.

Ďalšie dni sme sa dozvedeli o ITC ako nástroji rozvoja kreativity a kritického myslenia, digitálneho rozprávania, metakognícia– učenie študentov učiť sa

Vyskúšali sme si rôzne druhy rozcvičiek napr. Stavanie veží, IKT aplikácie pre triedu, Zmiešané učenie

Naučili sme sa rôzne nové aplikácie a ich použitie v triede (napr. Goosechase …..)

Zaoberali sme sa aj otázkou hodnotenia žiakov, hodnotenie v dnešnej dobe,

Veľmi inšpirujúce bolo delenie na skupiny rôznymi spôsobmi

S novými inšpiratívnymi a podnetnými vedomosťami a zručnosťami sa veľmi rada podelím s mojimi kolegami a verím, že budú pre mňa ako pedagóga prínosné. Takisto sa teším, že všetky nové metodiky, hry a nové aplikácie využijem na hodinách s mojimi žiakmi.

Zuazana K.  

Europass+, Discover the 7Cs: Learning for Life (and Work) in the 21st Century.

As a young teacher I always felt that my mission is to prepare students for the real life. Therefore, when I got the opportunity to join the course that is all about challenges of working and living in the 21st century I decided to participate.

The course was focused on the so-called 7´c.  These aren´t knowledge but rather a set of skills such as critical thinking or creativity. It was aiming to explain what these skills precisely are, why they are in an increasing demand at the workplace as well as in modern society, and how to practice them on literally every single subject.

The teacher had a very practical and hands on approach which was very useful. Not only was she trying to explain the principles but also to slowly ingrain them into our brain muscle by incorporating many small and simple exercises prior and after presenting. Her advice was all doable. Instead of suggesting that we should try to change the whole curriculum she was promoting slow incorporation of small tweaks to the activities we already do. She was also stressing that the changes of learning paradigms can´t depend just on us as individual teachers, instead that it´s our responsibility to push for them by talking to our colleagues, employers, policymakers and even parents of our students. Personally, it was very encouraging for me to hear that that the hurdles I face in this area are universal to most teachers who are trying to innovate. “A learning and growing...” she said, “ultimately requires unpleasant feelings, as we only learn when facing new challenges.”

A very memorable activity for me was the one focused on practicing leadership, communication and collaboration. At the beginning each of us had to move around the class and find a partner that we didn´t work with before. Then we had to decide who is going to cover his/her eyes with a scarf. At this point we had no idea why, nor what is going to happen next. Then we were told that we have to reproduce an abstract painting by Joan Miró. But there was a catch – only the partner with the scarf could draw, the other one was supposed to lead him. This way I spent almost 20 min. by tuning to the needs of my partner in crime, carefully observing what she does and trying to give her followable instructions. This has thought me a valuable lesson – although useful, assertively presenting oneself isn´t the heart of leadership. It´s being responsible for others.

Another notable activity was when were assigned to build the tallest building using only paper cards. These ‘cards’ were technically random pieces of paper cut into shapes of our choice. The tricky part here was, that cards were only qualifiable for building, once we wrote something all members of our team shared in common on top. This way we were pushed into getting to know each other and coming up with a shared vision and strategy. It is a perfect example of how to teach soft skills in English classes without compromising language acquisition. This way students would practice creativity, collaboration and communication, meanwhile not even noticing that they´re using English.

However, the course had much more to offer than just methodology. First of all, the whole teaching process wouldn´t be possible without amazing classmates from all over the world who created very warm and welcoming atmosphere. I´ve had a privilege of sharing intense and often emotional moments with them as we were encouraged to openly speak about struggles, we face in our field. Second of all, Barcelona is an incredibly beautiful city and I still got plenty of time to see some of its greatest architectural and cultural heritage. To name few I´ve been to Sagrada Familia, mount Tibidabo, hospital Sant Pau and the Picasso Museum. And my personal favourite - I´ve got to taste a lot of Tapas!