Results and materials of the seminar for elementary and kindergarten teachers

RESULTS and materials of the seminar for teachers

primary and kindergarten schools

practical examples of working with NEWLY EMERGED methodical manuals for textbooks "Aha, Slovak!" and "The world around us in Slovak".

Dear elementary and kindergarten teachers, professional public, dear supporters of the iCan language school,

We would like to inform you that on November 2 and 3, 2023, our school held a successful two-day training seminar for teaching staff on methodological and didactic materials that are created as outputs of the Slovak for Foreign Children project - methodical manuals, guidelines and aids for the use of didactic materials for the inclusion of children in the educational process in the Slovak Republic.

We organized the seminar for our partners collaborating on the project, which are the foreign education centers Petit Slavik from Paris, eMeLeS from Dublin and Czech&Slovak Club from Birmingham and experts from NIVaM. Our effort was also to promote emerging methodological manuals and additional teaching material - pictorial (communication) cards to the general professional public. That is why we realized the seminar in a hybrid form. We made the entire training available to teachers and principals of primary and kindergarten schools who expressed interest in the seminar and participated in the seminar online. We were pleased that 20 kindergarten teachers signed up for the first day of training, and 18 elementary school teachers on the second day of training. There was interest from various schools within Slovakia.

About 30 participants personally attended the seminar every day. From abroad came 8 teachers from the educational center Petit Slavik, Paris, 7 teachers from the educational center from Birmingham and three teachers from the educational center from Dublin. Also present were three experts from the National Institute of Education and Youth, as well as our partners from Kindergarten and ZŠ Odborárska 2, Bratislava, who also know our textbooks and emerging handbooks well because, like our foreign partners, they tested and commented on them directly in the classroom during the creation process. .

The aim of the training was:

- inform about the progress of work on individual project outputs and agree on a timetable so that we can finish work on the methodological manuals for the textbook Aha, Slovak! and to complete the workbook The world around us in Slovak by the end of February 2024,

- to inform the general professional public that at the end of February 2024 methodological manuals will be available along with Slovak language textbooks for children of foreigners, which will guide teachers and give them instructions on how to work with individual exercises,

- to inform the general professional public about the additional didactic material being prepared and the wide possibilities of its use - picture cards. A methodological guide was also compiled for the cards, providing teachers with instructions on how to work with the cards and what range of possibilities the cards provide,

- to inform the pedagogical public that part of the methodical manual is also a part dedicated to practicing literary pronunciation and spelling, and that the exercises belonging to this chapter are also available as recordings,

- to inform teachers working in classes with children of foreigners that they also have a self-assessment test that the child can take after completing the Slovak language course and will be evaluated on how much he/she has mastered the subject matter necessary to achieve language level A1 of language proficiency according to SERR.

The lecturers were authors of textbooks and authors of methodological manuals for textbooks Mr. Uličná, p. Báčkai, Mr. Hirschnerová and Mr. Gregory. In his lecture, P. Karol Csiba from NIVaM presented several educational activities and didactic aids that can be used in acquiring the Slovak language while working with picture cards for preschool and school-aged children. He also addressed the topic of the educational standard as a second language, which was approved as an addition to the currently valid school education program.

In the discussion, we also responded to the questions that the online teachers wrote in the chat. They also expressed an interest in the presentations so that they could continue to draw from them. You will be able to find the presentations on our website www.slokia.sk. We are also planning to set up a space on the slokia.sk website to express your comments and observations that you have gained while working with our textbooks, picture cards and methodological manuals.

We are pleased that the feedback from the teachers present was only positive, according to the teachers, this two-day training was a great benefit for those present in their work with the textbooks Aha, Slovak! and The World around us in Slovak.

We ended the entire training in a pleasant atmosphere in a nearby restaurant at a working lunch.

Finally, we offer a few photos of the atmosphere during our training. We also attach the presentations that were given at the training.

Iveta Tunegová, iCan project coordinator