Continuous education of teachers at Benjamin preschool

Continuous education for us teachers is very important.

This year we had the opportunity to share our knowledge with each other and practically consult each other’s ideas on the basis of long-term practice and experience. When teachers who teach every day organize a workshop it has a whole other complex sense of reality. Especially when the workshop is done by teacher enthusiasts who see that teaching children makes sense and they know how things can be done.

On Tuesday, August 27th, we had a workshop about using technologies in preschool that can make the communication with parents and each other easier and more cohesive. We went over using various Google Suite for EDU functions for everyday work. We care about workplace productivity, so better and easier communication is essential.

On Saturday, May 11th, at Benjamin Senec we had a workshop about inclusive education. Inclusive education is an innovative approach in education, which highlights the right of quality education for every child. It is defined as a flexible process in order to create an environment in which the diverse educational needs of each individual can be met without exception. By supporting students with specific needs and through their full participation in education, an inclusive approach is likely to increase the success of students with specific needs and prevent their distance from education. Mr. Viktor Krížo, who is a teacher and a special pedagogue at the Primary School at Dubová Street in Bratislava with focus on children personality development led a very valuable discussion about sharing experiences and tips.

He told us about individual mentoring of teachers, where an experienced mentor accompanies the teacher how to make teaching more effective, creative and overall better. He talked about the importance of time management, creating rules that we can defend and at the end of the lesson how to make a reflection with children.

We talked about how very important it is not to take children just by their performance but how to also focus on what is best for them by listening to them. It is very important that children can tell us their experience and emotions, both positive and negative ones. As a result, we will have responsible and free children at home.

Other methodological and educational events in April and May 2019 were led by our colleague Olga Syrová in Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and Hungary.

With great pleasure, Olinka handed over to the teachers the experience of the educational program of Benjamin, which focuses on multicultural education, Slovak traditions and folklore.

"Slovaks living in Serbia are calling themselves “Dolnozemskí Slováci”, so at least Mihajlo Pupina, the headmistress of the Kovačica school, presented them to the school where the teachers met in the first half of May, for further education with the topic "Applying the Research-Oriented Educational Process to Preschool Children" as well as the theme "Play and Toy in Kindergarten." On Saturday, colleagues turned into researchers and experienced learning experiments that they can do with their children in preschool age. It was a pleasure to pass on your experience. The teachers were interested in new knowledge, they enjoyed the acquired competencies and talked about their work with love in nice sounding Slovak language. After completing my work duties, I and my colleagues, who educated primary and secondary school teachers, were interested in getting to know Kovačica and visiting the In situ Gallery there. " - Oľga Syrová

A week later, in the Center for further education of compatriots at Comenius University in Bratislava, the teachers from Békéscsaba in Hungary and the surrounding area used toys in kindergarten games. Toys were presented by Olinka with great enthusiasm. Teachers were interested in working with the robotic "Blue-Bot Bee" and "Talking Clips." Most of all, all the teachers enjoyed the practical advice that Olinka gained during her lifelong practice and the creative accompaniment of her children in the Kindergarten.

The last of this educational series has been extended in Uzhgorod, Ukraine, in a local primary school with Slovak and Ukrainian language, which is the only school of its kind in Ukraine. All teachers were from Uzhgorod with the same educational theme as in Serbia. The working atmosphere, positivism and enthusiasm of the teachers were equally spontaneous. The sharing of experience is our integral part, even at the workplace, which has helped us go the right direction. In return we got inspired by their local tradition of unlocking wells, which we incorporated in our monthly educational plan at Benjamin since it is a very interesting tradition. :)