Think outside the proverb!

 This May, I encouraged my pupils from Classes 1, 4, 5, and 7 to explore proverbs in a creative way as part of a creative contest organised by Express Publishing.

Classes 1 & 4 chose endings and illustrated their proverbs. Some clever results included: The early bird catches the ... Lena, Balša, Nikola, Mila, Sara: coffee, Neda, Tijana: glasses, Tisa: prize, Andrija, Milijana, Relja: crown, A leopard never changes its ... Lorena, Iva, Dejana: crown, and Slow and steady wins the ... Lenka, Marko: crown, Dimitrije, Jovan: prize, Katina: coffee, Vukašin: parking spot.

Classes 5 & 7 worked in groups to write short stories based on proverbs. 

There was once a girl working in a restaurant at noon. She was looking out the window and saw a restaurant that looked better to her. Her manager saw her and said, 'The grass is always greener...'. She thought about these words and focused on her work. Soon, she got promoted to an assistant manager. She was very happy and proud of herself.

Nina, Jovana and Mila, V2

Ellen loves picnics. One summer day, she and her friend Kira go to the beach. They play volleyball and eat pizza. Suddenly, it starts to rain. The girls pack up and go home. On the way, they pass a beautiful garden. 'I wish we'd stayed there,' says Kira. Ellen smiles and says, 'The grass is always greener on the other side.'

Emilija, Tara, Ena and Nina, V2

Later, they individually came up with unique endings to famous sayings (The grass is always greener ... Nina: without the trash / Nađa: when you look at it with love, understanding and clarity / Nadežda: until you find out it's covered in paint / Mateja: when you look with rainbow eyes, When one door closes, ... Jovana: second luck opens / Kalina: see if the fridge is open, A rolling stone ... Nikolina: just wants a Wi-Fi and snack, Where there's a will, there's ... Aljoša: will do) and illustrated them.

I'm thrilled that Andrija Dukić from IV3 is among the 10 winners of the contest and will have his drawing turned into stickers.

Poetry Contest

 This spring, I've challenged my Class 5 pupils to write a poem and express their creativity. Three girls accepted the challenge, but only two completed their poems during our lesson, so I sent both to the poetry contest organised by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj Primary School in Novi Kneževac.

I'm thrilled that Hristina's poem won first prize in the contest! She's received some amazing prizes, and we're all proud of her.

Exemplar Lesson Plan

I am happy that the lesson plan about the weather I carried out last year with my Class 4 pupils has been commended in the international competition organised by Eduka Publishing Company.

The promotion of the Collection of all winning and commended lesson plans was organized on 24 October at the Book Fair in Belgrade.

Dream After-School Club

 My Class 4 and Class 6 pupils have taken part in this year's OUP Project Competition, together with more than 1,300 pupils from 34  countries. They've watched a short film first, then shared ideas about different after-school clubs they would like to go to, and finally designed their posters in Canva.

by Teja, Mila, Nađa and Anđela

by Nina, Vukan, Nina and Tatjana

by Nikola, Luka, Aljoša and Vukašin

Celebrating Easter

 This spring, I've challenged my Class 4 pupils to write a short chant about Easter and illustrate it. Then, I read the chants to their peers from other classes, without revealing the authors' names, and asked them to vote for the best ones in their opinion. I've sent the best 4 to the international contest organised by Marijampolė Petro Armina Progymnasium, Lithuania, and the authors (Hristina, Kalina, Sara and Teja) received their certificates.

Exemplar Lesson Plan

I'm happy to say that the lesson plan about the places in a town I carried out last year with my Class 5 pupils has been recognised as an excellent innovative example among numerous lesson plans (500+) and won the second prize in the international competition organised by Eduka Publishing Company.

All the winning and commended lesson plans were collected, published online and promoted on 26 October at the Book Fair in Belgrade.

Wellbeing Superhero

 Two groups of my Class 5 boys have joined over 1,000 pupils from 25 countries in this year's OUP International Project Competition and designed their wellbeing superheroes.

Vukašin & Filip

Ognjen, Luka & Vukašin

Our Future, Our School!

 This spring, my Class 7 pupils have taken part in the Express Publishing Contest which challenged them to imagine, describe and draw the school in 2050. 

The organisers congratulated them on their original and creative ideas.

Hippo Memories

 My Class 5 and Class 7 pupils who have taken part in Hippo Olympiads before have showed interest in sharing their experience with the others in this year's Hippo Essay Contest. 

When I went to the HIPPO competition the first time I was so nervous. I was competing with the other kids, and thought that they were so much better than me.
I didn't go to the semi-finals. I was so mad at myself that I didn't study at all. I thought that I was the best at the competition but it turned out I wasn't.

Mihailo Demeter, V1

My favourite day was when I first went to Hippo competition two years ago.
At first I was really, really nervous and I was shaking. When I got inside the classroom I was stunned by how beautiful it was.
The tests were very easy but when it was time for listening, the speakers scared me so much because they were a bit too loud.
At the time I always wanted to show how much I loved English. I still love English and when I grow up I will go to the USA and become the biggest actress, and show my classmates who were laughing at me when I was in the first grade. I don't mean to be rude or to rub it in their faces, I just want to show them that anything is possible if you want it hard enough.

Ivana Popov, V1

When I first went to the Hippo Olympiad I was really nervous. I thought that I would be in last place and that I would not get to the next round.
The school competitions are easy but the town not really but I love to participate because it is fun.
My first Hippo experience was when my school hosted the town competition. It was nice. The Hippo competition for my grade was in the Math classroom.
I always love to participate in Hippo competitions. I like how the test can be reused for training other kids to go to the Hippo competition and how we just need to fill in the circles to mark the right answer on a different piece of paper.

Nikola Tomić, V2

When I competed in the HIPPO competition for the first time, I was nervous, but I practiced like crazy and at the end it was all worth it!
I have participated three times, and I got to the semi-finals twice. Unfortunately, I never made it to the finals, and I was sad about it, but on the other hand I was excited every time that I got to another level.
My first HIPPO competition was in 2019. I was nervous and scared, but after the results came, I was so thrilled and no one was happier than me.

Lara Avramov, VII2

When I first signed up for the Hippo competition four years ago, I was very happy because it was one of the competitions I really wanted to go to. Then, I was getting ready so much for it. However, when I arrived at the venue, I was very nervous and worried because it was my first time competing. I was wondering how everything would look like?
So far, I have competed in the Hippo competition three times. I was always satisfied with my results because I am sure that I will need English in the future.

Ana Vojvodić, VII2

My Disney Friends

My Class 2 pupils have recently taken part in Pearson's contest. Inspired by our talk about emotions, they drew their favourite Disney characters in different situations, and the most creative ones received their prizes - Toy Story readers. 

But, that's not all - the organisers have decided to send us Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck hand puppets, together with song, festival and story packs! You can imagine my pupils' excitement when I told them Mickey and Donald are here to stay!

And, what better way to enjoy the books than to read them with friends, and puppets, of course!

Magic is in the Hands of a Teacher

My Class 4 students and I did a lot of activities online during the lockdown period, so I decided to share some of them with other teachers by applying to the national contest Best Examples of Long-distance Lessons.

Classroom On Click shows one of our first lessons on Edmodo, while Europe on Click presents some of our project activities on Edmodo and eTwinning.

I'm happy to say that our project activities were recognised as good examples of long-distance lessons among more than 700 others.

A Letter from Myself in 2030

My Class 8 student took part in the Goi Peace Foundation international essay contest this summer. She wrote a letter from herself in 2030 hoping that it'll be shared with the children and youth from other countries.

Time Machine to the Scene

Dear me,
I hope you're doing well. You should be finishing eighth grade and preparing for finals. Don’t worry! You're a successful artist and a writer today! That is, we are!
I'm you, writing from the future. It's the very 2030 right now, 15th of July, and you're doing great.
My friend's made a time-machine!
He's explained the way it works. However, you won’t major in engineering to understand it completely. I've got the point, though. It has something to do with atoms.
He's even paid a whole team to work on it. They've spent more than three years on that project! They're in the process of getting a patent on it, and will get a load of money if they succeed.
He's chosen me to be the first person to test it, outside the team that worked on it.
I've been told that I could send anything into the past or future, but that it would be smarter to choose the first option. They've also warned me there's a possibility I’d get stuck in an infinite loop, so I couldn’t risk it.
Why have I chosen to send you this letter right now? I think you know very well. We like decade numbers, and I haven’t lived to be over 100 years old yet.
The 20s were very interesting, to say the least.
In case you're wondering, the pandemic of the virus COVID-19 didn’t end in 2020. It came back in 2021, when it was finally stopped. Unfortunately, a lot of people passed away due to that virus, as you've probably guessed, but the medics, nurses and doctors, worked on the vaccine, so the situation decreased.
You wouldn’t believe it, but Corona helped us, too. An amazing medical discovery was made – medicine for viruses! It's a pill that kills them almost immediately as it enters the blood vessels. The pill was invented in 2023 by a woman named Eveline Midway. Its ’nickname’ is A-Vis, short for Anti-Viruses. I also made my contribution when I designed the box for one brand of those pills in 2025.
I started doing commissions and was a free-lance artist then. It's the same year I finished high school and passed the entrance exams for the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.
When I finished studies last year, I got a job as an animator in a company that makes and designs video games.
I've also dedicated myself to writing. I've published only one book so far called ’The Underworld’. It was the idea you started writing down on paper a few months ago, right? The book isn’t popular right now, but it's started attracting an audience as I translated it from Serbian to English.
I have to warn you, the future will be one big rollercoaster for you. The things won’t be too bad for you in particular, but to the whole society and the world state.
There are still protests going on all over the world, about taking down capitalism, because it harms poor people and only benefits the rich. I've participated in the protests myself, just twice though. Some of them get rough, and I prefer avoiding violence at all costs. However, I support the movement.
This might sound a bit cheesy, but I want to deliver a message to you, too. Of course I wouldn’t be writing all this just for the sake of it, but to tell you – keep doing what you’re doing. Be productive, and it will get rewarded! You might feel that something you're doing won’t get you anywhere, but you're wrong. Nothing is worthless and someone will always notice your traits. Always highlight them, and don’t be ashamed of your flaws.
If life isn’t all well now, it will be. When you shoot an arrow, you always pull it backward first before it goes flying forward. Life is full of surprises!
Take care,
Aleksandra, your future self

Digital Lesson 2019

This autumn, I have taken part in the contest Digital Lesson organised by The Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Serbia and am happy to say that my lesson What's the weather like? was published in the online Collection of the Lessons in December.

Over 250 lessons have taken part in the contest, but only those which fulfilled the criteria of the contest are published in the Collection.

The Ancient Statue

My Class 7 students, 5 girls, have taken part in this year's OUP International Project Explore Competition The Ancient Statue. They watched the story of the Ancient Statue, thought about the way to finish it, created a comic and got their certificates.

Digital Lesson 2018

This autumn, I have taken part in the contest Digital Lesson organised by The Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Serbia and am happy to say that my lesson Stories Behind Traditions was published in the online Collection of the Lessons in December.

Over 370 lessons have taken part in the contest, but only those which fulfilled the criteria of the contest are published in the Collection.

Ideas Central

As part of its 30th birthday celebration, Express Publishing has asked the teachers from around the world to share their favourite activities, the best of which would be selected for their new book. 

I'm happy and proud to say that my activity will be featured in the resource book Ideas Central.

It should be noted that the money raised from the sale will be donated to the Make-A-Wish® Foundation.

Eco bon ton

This October my Class 3/4 students and I took up a challenge and created a poster with eco rules.

Fun characters

The moment I found out about Cambridge's competition calling learners aged 6-12 to create a character, draw their house and write what they like or don't like, I decided to print the templates and share them with my imaginative and artistic younger students.

Anja II2

Jovana II2

Lara II2

Leona II2

Luka II2

Mila II4

Milana II2

Vanja II4

Winning designs will be turned into illustrations by real artists and the authors will use them in the stories.

Story Competition

Two of my older students have taken part in the Cambridge Story Competition. They wrote and illustrated their stories hoping that they will be published online or in a book and shared with the children around the world.

Aleksandra Bajić VI1

Aleksandra

Nemanja Vujin VI4

Nemanja