December 2021 • Inicijativa

Projects

How to Implement the Callan Method in Your Teaching

There are some elements of the Callan method that can be incorporated into various teaching styles. Some of the most important elements are question-answer exercises, revision, and encouraging students to make mistakes.

Question-answer exercise

The teacher should prepare structured open questions to students, related to a topic (vocabulary) and grammar rule they are covering.

Then, the teacher calls out each student and asks the question. The student is expected to give the answer in full, using the learned vocabulary and grammar. If the student struggles, the teacher feeds them the answer, guiding them and supporting them in the learning.

BENEFITS of the activity:

Getting students to speak in the language they are learning, and being supported by the teacher, who, by correcting their mistakes, helps them learn the grammar, vocabulary, and correct pronunciation.
Giving each student equal speaking time in the classroom.
Boosting students’ confidence.

Revision is key

Each class should start with revision of work from the previous class, and each class should finish with a revision of that day’s work.

BENEFITS of the activity:

The more you repeat something, the easier it is to remember.
Students have more opportunity to learn. For example, if the first time they make a mistake in vocabulary, the second time in grammar, and the third time in pronunciation, by the fourth time they can perfect everything.

Making mistakes is encouraged

Mistakes are an essential part of learning, but fear of the unknown is engraved in us as human beings. In language learning, no matter how much we’ve studied or how well we know the grammar and vocabulary, we’re still scared to actually speak the language out loud.

With the Callan Method, the student is encouraged to make mistakes. In fact, it's their job to make mistakes, because teacher is there to guide them and to pick them up when they need help. They just need to build trust and let go of their fear of making mistakes.

BENEFITS of the activity:

Letting go of control in students.
Fighting the fear of making mistakes.
Students who make mistakes in the group create a stronger bond with peers and teachers.

Find out seven reasons why the Callan method is the best method for learning English online.

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Erasmus

ERASMUS+ 2022 Programme

Are you interested in enrolling high quality, inclusive education, and training abroad? Do you want to learn, travel, and get to know other cultures in EU member states?

If you are a member of an educational organization you have an opportunity to participate in learning mobility activities for adults in European member countries through the ERASMUS+ 2022 programme.

Every year, organizations across Europe submit thousands of projects to receive Erasmus+ funding. The European Commission has established a transparent evaluation process aimed at providing grants for the best projects in its new Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2022. You can find the guide here.

This Program Guide is a great tool for anyone who wants to know thoroughly what Erasmus+ is all about. It is mainly intended for those who want to be participating organizations or individual participants.

Key Points of the ERASMUS+ 2022 Programme

ERASMUS+ programme for the period 2021-2027 places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life.

The objectives of this program are to:

Promote equal opportunities and access, inclusion, and diversity, so that the participants with fewer opportunities can take part too.
Emphasize the importance of digital education for the digital transformation in education and training. Moreover, to encourage organizations to acquire digital skills and build their capacity to train and teach with the help of digital tools.
Build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes within participating organizations on climate change and support sustainable development within the European Union and beyond.
Support participation of the citizens in democratic life, common values, and civic engagement. Furrthermore, to help them overcome difficulties in actively engaging and participating in their communities as well as in the Union's political and social life.

If you are looking for a good training course provider and want to improve your English-speaking skills, look no further.

We offer courses in Croatia in Zagreb and Split for all levels of English, including Business English language course.

Detailed information on our training be found here.

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Projects

Creative and Critical Thinking in Learners

At the end of this past July, I had the opportunity to attend a teacher training course, “Creativity for the future: promoting Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving,” in Bologna.

In brief, it was not the setting, though Bologna is indisputably breathtaking, it was the people I interacted with that made the experience so spectacular.

The course I attended was offered by ELA and our trainer was the ever-insightful Sara. I had the privilege to attend this course with participants from Romania, Estonia, Slovenia, and Bulgaria.

Facilitating Creative and Critical Thinking in Learners

Our main objective for the week was “preparing to foster 21st century skills in our students.” We covered topics such as 21st century skills, creativity tools and techniques, critical thinking - role to foster, problem-solving activities, and ICT tools to stimulate creativity and critical thinking.

Through these topics, we understood our roles as educators in facilitating a variety of thought processes in our learners, even if our learners vary in age. It was interesting to brainstorm and see how we could adapt our activities to reach all ages and types of learners.

Teaching Activities

During the entire training course, we were given many opportunities to learn by doing. Basically, we were given a little theory at the beginning of a topic and then were given activities to complete. The emphasis was on actually trying out concepts for ourselves, either individually or in groups.

The approach taught me the importance of condensing the most necessary points of a subject and then allow learners to fully grasp the freshly taught material through a given activity.

The activities we were given to carry out included a variety of media. Some activities were done through online tools such as Kialo, Thinglink and mentimeter, but many were not.

I appreciated the fact that not all activities in our modern classrooms have to be done virtually and that it is quite effective to occasionally go back to basics and use some variation of pen and paper. We must, however, ensure that we present activities to our learners that will incite some form of creativity and critical thinking.

Importance of Creative and Critical Thinking

In addition to the activities, we were given time to reflect on our processes. With so much happening in such a short time, this silent activity at the end of our training days gave us a good reminder to stop and evaluate all the day’s activities.

Through these reflections, we all noticed that we were asked to tap into our own creativity and find suitable ways to bring out the creativity in our students.

Also, we were asked to think critically about events around us. As we all know, information of all sorts is available to us all in a few short clicks. For this reason, the allotted time for reflection was a good reminder to check our biases and to ensure we transfer this thinking process onto our learners.

Impression of the Learning Experience in Bologna

Overall, the experience in Bologna with ELA has forever changed me mainly because it gave me a better insight into how to effectively teach from all angles.

I was able to observe and better communicate with a variety of fellow teachers (and learners) and those skills have already been implemented in my day-to-day activities.

Whoever coined the term “think outside the box” was really onto something, it truly is incredible to see the outcomes of thinking (and doing) outside the box!

Maria Grgić Skendrović

Project partner:

ELA: Erasmus Training Courses

Find out more about the event here.

The project is funded by the European Union. Erasmus+ Enriching lives, opening minds.

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Projects

Innovative Teaching Methods Course in Bologna

Choosing this Erasmus+ experience somehow came hand in hand with the ongoing pandemic situation. Since we have moved to online platforms to conduct our lessons, I have also been wondering how to contribute to creating them. Thankfully our Erasmus+ school coordinator made it happen. She sent me to Bologna, Italy to take the Innovative Teaching Methods course to expand my horizons.

Innovative Teaching Methods

The course was held in August 2021. Fifteen of us, from many different countries, explored not only these great teaching methods, but also the cultural side of Bologna and Florence. And all thanks to our educator Giulia and the whole Erasmus Learning Academy team.

A week-long course covered various teaching methods; from non-formal education, project based learning, to using ICT tools in classrooms and finally outdoor education.

Project based learning was the first method we explored. It is a teaching approach in which students themselves explore real world problems and try to raise the awareness by showcasing the problems to other students. This is done as a group project. It involves immersing yourself completely into the situation, all while developing communication skills in teams.

ICT Tools, Non-Formal Education, and Outdoor Education

Next were the ICT tools, which were my favorite part of this course. After working online for a year now, this phase of learning came as a logical continuation. To make online learning easier and effective our educators at ELA showed us some great tools: Socrative, Quizlet, Mentimeter and EdPuzzle. These tools are ideal for creating amazing content for our students.

Then we moved on with non-formal approach to education. This method generally focuses on how to make in-person lessons more engaging using various activities, such as treasure hunts, creating collages and playing games.

As for outdoor education, we combined non-formal education concepts with outdoor activities held around the center of Bologna. This way we learned a lot about the city and its rich medieval cultural heritage. The app we used here was ActionBound. If you want to know more about a city/town you're visiting, this app is THE tool to do so ☺

Impressions of the Innovative Teaching Methods Course

Along with these methods and perfect organization, it is necessary to mention all those people without whom this whole experience of unity and learning wouldn't be possible. All fifteen of us exchanged practices, ideas, past experiences and plans how to use all these new insights in our own lessons back home. We also realized that one of the most important things to take home from this course is: we can do everything if we work together.

Tamara Marček

Project partners:
The Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes

ELA Teacher Trainings

The project is funded by the European Union. Erasmus+ : Enriching lives, opening minds.

Projects

Erasmus KA2: Our first hosting experience in the LTT activity – Creativity for Innovation

Reflecting on last week.

Last week our organisation hosted its first ever LTT activity within the KA2 project.

The project Creativity for Innovation is a strategic partnership project that aims to share creative methods within three sectors: creativity, adult education and language schools.

The aim of last week was to show you the Callan Method and complementary activities that we use to boost students' confidence in learning the English language, as the main objective of the project is to implement creative and innovative methods in the work of the organisations involved.

There was a lot we had to cover. Monday’s session started with a meet&greet and icebreaker activities where we all got to know each other better.

We were hosting staff from Storytelling Centre Amsterdam and Europass Teacher Academy from Florence, Italy, for the whole week.

The session started with the main methodology, getting to know the Callan Method and its principals. Participants could learn how the Callan Method of learning was akin to learning a native language in children, and furthermore, why repetition and talking is so important.

The Callan Method is a method that can shock you at first. Feeding the answers to the students and not letting you think is something most of us are not ready for when we enter the classroom for the first time. But the initial surprise was overcome when everyone got a little more familiar with it and used to it throughout the week.

To ease the initial shock of the Callan Method, which can sometimes feel intense, especially in the beginning, a different type of city tour was planned for the afternoon – a witch tour.

Witches have a long and very well documented history in Zagreb, thanks to Marija Jurić Zagorka, a writer and female journalist from the 19th century. Her books portray women accused of witchcraft in a positive light. If you ever visit Zagreb, you will see that the legend of witches is incorporated in a lot of the capital's stories.

On Tuesday, the participants of the project took part in 2 workshops: a Grammar Refresher, an exercise that always helps our students get their English juices flowing, and a Small Talk workshop, something that is aimed at higher stages and people who want to improve their business skills.

The aim of these activities was to show a wide range of materials that we offer to our students outside of the Callan Method.

We also partook in a roundtable discussion and talked about the principals of the Callan Method and other activities that could be implemented in the work of our partners’ organisations. The picture was still not clear on what to take from the Callan Method and how to implement it, so our job was to show the participants more depth to the method and all the possibilities it offers.

Proposed elements of the Callan Method to be incorporated into participants’ teaching styles were

QUESTION-ANSWER EXCERSISE

REVISION IS KEY

MAKING MISTAKES IS ENCOURAGED

Wednesday was reserved for our Book Club meeting. Prior to the LTT activity, at the first transnational meeting, we had agreed to incorporate Book Club as a part of the creative method of learning a language.

This adds another complementary activity to Callan. Here, students don’t have to follow the structure of the book, but can freely express their own ideas, feelings and reflect on the book in a more casual conversation, much like one that might have when they meet a friend. Book Club, needless to say, also improves their reading skills and understanding of the culture.

The book we were talking about was Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession and the session was moderated by our teacher Maria, and the topics we covered were family, isolation, friendship and mindfulness – all the main topics of the book.

On Wednesday we prepared a workshop on ICT tools in language learning and headed out to Sljeme. We took a short hike from Šestinski Lagvić to the newly restored Medvedgrad Castle. We had lunch at Sljeme, but had to leave some space for our evening activity – our Cook & Chat workshop.

The evening ended by watching the workshop at the school and eating all the lovely food we had prepared for the cultural night. There was traditional Italian Panettone and Italian sweet wine, some Croatian cheese and truffles with prosciutto, and wine again 😊

Friday was left for another session of the Callan Method and a demonstration of the exam. Here, some things finally clicked with the participants and they left hungry for more Callan demonstration, which we will incorporate in our future meetings.

To conclude the week, we had some evaluation and feedback where we heard that there is a lot more to explore in our school about the Callan Method, as well as our creative activities, and we are looking forward to hearing from our partners about what activities they want to implement in their own work.

Project partners:
The Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes
@StorytellingCentre
@europassteacheracademy

@OneDublinOneBook

🇪🇺 The project is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme.
Erasmus+ : Enriching lives, opening minds. ☺️
#erasmus+
#ErasmusPlus
#erasmuska2

Blog, Erasmus, Erasmus blogs, Uncategorized

Teacher Training English Course in Zagreb

Erasmus+ experience in Zagreb (A wonderful Erasmus+ experience in Zagreb)

Our Erasmus participants flew from Spain to Zagreb to attend our English Course. Congratulations to Carmen Lagares García, Lucia i Daniel Pérez Mora from CEIP Virgen del Carmen on finishing our General English Course for Teachers with the Callan Method!

With the Callan Method for English language learning, our trained teachers make participants speak from the moment they enter the classroom. Our dynamic and fast-paced method is taught by native speakers who ask participants questions designed for their language proficiency. The teachers then assist learners in their answers and correct any inconsistencies in pronunciation, grammar usage and sentence structure.

https://inicijativa.biz/en/erasmus-plus/general-english/

Educator Adam about his experience with this lovely group:

“I had the privilege of working with Lucia and Daniel.

We concentrated on revision, new work, question construction, and auxiliary verbs (both primary and modals).

Their engagement in the Callan Method's revision and new work was noteworthy. They were eager not just to comprehend, but also to get it right and apply it in their own way.

It was enjoyable to work through the process of forming questions. Their originality shone through. It was a wonderful way for me to see and grasp their thought process, and it allowed us the opportunity to get to know one other better.

They were excellent at auxiliary verbs and understood how they aided the main verb. Tense, mood, voice, and modality were all incorporated. The auxiliary verbs have, has, and had were used in a variety of contexts.

It was a pleasure to meet them, and I wish them the best of luck and hope to work with them again in the near future.”

Daniel has also written blog about his Erasmus+ experience, which you can read here:

Día 7: Thank you Croatia (ceipvirgendelcarmenerasmusplus.blogspot.com)

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Projects, Uncategorized

Soft skills and emotional intelligence for teachers and education staff

The training held on 31.10. - 6.11. 2021 in the lovely city of Bologna focused primarily on soft skills, that is, knowledge that we’d have difficulty acquiring through formal education, but which is key and prerequisite to successful work - especially when working with people.

The key words of the training were: cooperation and empathy, and through implementing those we covered the issues of assertive communication, teamwork and leadership, conflict management, emotional intelligence, nonverbal communication, and public speaking.

Through the subject of assertive communication, we covered different styles of communication, ranging from passive through aggressive to assertive where the emphasis was on how to successfully say no. We have clarified the issue of conflict by explaining types of conflicts, to the reasons why they occur and the use of conflicts as opportunities and styles of dealing with them.

Teamwork on the other hand was covered through various confidence building activities with the participants of the training and through the prism of good leadership - Goleman’s leadership styles and reflection on one’s own superiors. We connected the idea of nonverbal communication as a means of communication through which we receive 2/3 of all information and advice for successful decoding with public speaking - giving speeches and evaluating aspects of a successful speech; speech preparation, structuring, use of silence and audience, etc.

Each of these individual skills can be applied in multiple ways - from communicating with our students, where assertive communication, coping with conflict, and public speaking particularly stand out as important, not only when we teach but also when we communicate with one other.

I would particularly like to emphasize the importance of exercises that were based on teamwork and leadership – where we can act as leaders to our colleagues and students - who depend on our experiences and knowledge.

How to say no and a successful assertive attitude are skills that are of great importance not only to me personally, but also to our team where in addition to sharing various ideas with each other, we are in contact with students who sometimes don’t understand why something can’t go exactly the way they want it to. Exactly for these reasons – when someone else’s opinion is valued and respected but when we cannot please everyone, it is important to know how to set healthy boundaries and by using empathy and emotional intelligence to ensure both sides are satisfied with the outcome.

Public speaking is one of the key skills for all our teachers, unfortunately currently limited due to the epidemiological situation, but perhaps exactly why it was useful to freshen up my knowledge of how body language, voice, eye contact and gesturing help to establish a positive relationship and trust.

A unique opportunity to exchange ideas with people from all over Europe, including Estonia, the Czech Republic, England, Hungary, Turkey and Germany, going to Bologna was interesting not only in a professional way where I expanded my perception of the importance of emotional intelligence, empathy, teamwork and cooperation but also in a personal way because I got acquainted with the lively Italian culture and way of living that left its mark in my future thoughts on how to work and perform.

Natalija Benić

Project partners:
The Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes

ELA Teacher Trainings

The project is funded by the European Union. Erasmus+ : Enriching lives, opening minds.

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