Goodbye, Milica! We wish you all the best in the USA.
Milica Kovacević Stević joined the Belgrade office of Pearson Longman in 2003. Very soon she became an indispensable member of our team. Whenever a problem of any sort occurred, the most natural thing for the rest of us would be to turn to Milica. She held a variety of positions; she was a secretary, a sales representative, an authority on legal matters, an accountant, a marketing expert, a web site editor, an author of additional teaching materials, a designer, an artist… Now when we think of it, it seems impossible to remember all the different jobs that Milica did for us. In other words, she was our ‘top-of-the-range’ girl Friday. To work without her was unthinkable.
When in 2006 Milica married Aleksandar Stević, a scholar teaching literature at the Faculty of Philology and a wonderful person, we were very happy for her. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for the young couple, Aleksandar won a scholarship to Yale, so Milica officially left us on the last day of August in order to join her husband in the USA.
We’ve got a new person that we are sure will do her best to replace Milica. It is Natasha Kovačević, a very competent and enthusiastic young woman. We all like her and wish her a good start although we know it is not going to be easy for her.
As for Milica, we hope those Americans will soon see what a precious asset she is in any field of work.
Milica, we wish you a very happy life, success in whatever you do in the USA and lots of love.
September 2007
We held a seminar for teachers of English in primary and secondary schools – Pearson Longman users. The topic was “New Look at Fundamental Issues in ELT” and this time we had a new lecturer and teacher trainer, Mr Rob Dean.
The seminar took two days in Niš and Novi Sad each, and one day in Belgrade. The venues for the seminar were “Regionalni centar za edukovanje zaposlenih u nastavi” in Niš, the grammar school “Svetozar Marković” in Novi Sad and “Centralni dom vojske” in Belgrade.
The seminar consisted of two sessions, each taking one hour and a half. The first session was devoted to vocabulary and the second one to grammar. Everybody was pleased because Rob talked little about theory. He gave a lot of practical examples. Teachers got useful ideas and teaching tips that they could immediately try out in their classroom.
Before the seminar sessions, our team informed the participants about the Great Teachers project that we started almost a year ago. They watched video clips with teachers talking about their views on teaching and with Danijela Duvnjak, the winner of our competition, who attended the Amazing Minds Conference in Cambridge, UK, last summer
The teachers had a chance to chat to each other over snacks and soft drinks during a short break between the sessions. At the end of the seminar, each participant was given an agenda and a biro, both designed exclusively for our users by Milica and Natasha.
We do hope that everybody had a great time and learnt something new at this seminar.
October 2007
A Cup of Tea at the Book Fair
The International Belgrade Book Fair will be held from 22nd to 27th October. Please visit us in Hall XIV and have a cup of tea with us. For more information about our stall at the Book Fair call Nataša Kovačević, tel. 011/ 301-8838 and 063/370-148
Great Teachers
This school year we are running the second Great Teachers Competition. Get ready to take part in it because the prizes are great:
The winner gets a trip to UK!
5 runners-up get the fee for the Belgrade ELTA Conference 2008 paid.
We’ll give you a hint as to the first task. Think about the classroom games that your students love to play, but not those found in coursebooks. Do you have an interesting game that you yourself invented or learned about from another teacher? Or maybe you’ve heard about it at a seminar or a conference? Be prepared to write about it.
Local ELT Seminars
This month we are starting a tour of Serbia with an ELT seminar devoted to two topics that we hope you’ll find both interesting and useful. Our teacher trainer, Dragana Filipović, will talk about:
- The four skills in our coursebooks – any issues raised?
- Agony Aunt, please help me. I don’t know how to deal with discipline problems…
If you use Pearson Longman coursebooks in a primary or a secondary school, expect an invitation from our representative.
Hope to see you next time!