Training Workshops: Bosnia

Training Workshops

Konjic, Visoko and Ilijas

Bosnia and Herzegovina

May 12 - 15, 2008

WORKSHOP PURPOSE:
The purpose of the training seminars was to train instructors to help young people be adaptable lifetime learners as the world situation and the demands of the marketplace change. In the one-day workshops, various teaching methods were used to introduce educators to new teaching skills. Instruction emphasized the importance of helping children learn through various modalities: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, including active learning methods. The instruction will stress taking into account the individual differences and needs of students. Participants discussed in group study, ways to make schools into stimulating and caring centers of learning by transforming classroom and school climates and encourage teachers to develop nurturing relationships with their students. Seminar activities also provided information for handling children with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder. The workshops discuss how to identify these problems in children and techniques to help them become successful learners and confident students. All sessions focused on parent-teacher cooperation and how the family-school bond can be strengthened for the benefit of the student.

Dates

Activity

Remarks

May 11, 2008

(Sunday)

Day free in Sarajevo

May 12, 2008

(Monday)

Workshop in Konjic

Summary of May 2008 TWI Workshops

Bonnie Miller presented three full-day workshops to 250 educators in Konjic, Ilijaš, and Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The multiethnic groups of teachers were eager participants in the group work and role plays and displayed their sense of humor and volunteerism throughout the workshops. Power point presentations, video, discussion, demonstration, and hands-on exercises were used to bring information and skills to the teachers employing visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities.

Topics of these seminars concentrated on identifying students with Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder and the academic, social and emotional difficulties faced by these children both in and out of school. Bonnie discussed and demonstrated methods to help children in the classroom but stressed that many of these interactive techniques and ways to make learning interesting and relevant to the learner also work well with all kinds of students.

The seminars also included role plays to improve the quality and effectiveness of the mandatory quarterly teacher-parent conferences. At the end of each seminar, teachers discussed how they would use the methods in their classrooms and how they would share the three manuals and video and information gained from the workshop with their colleagues.