“The presentations let me expand my knowledge and rethink the components of my talent support work integrated in some kind of a system, a framework. I found the lectures on the identification of and talent support to multiply extraordinary children the most useful…
At the workshops, I got acquainted with work going on at Ljubljana University, and I was glad to see that I could adapt several of the many novelties to my college work. I am thinking of creative cooking that we’ll try with the children during the Arany János Dormatory weekends. It was most interesting to see technological novelties that we’ll hopefully be able to test also at the college (e.g. 3D printer).
…it was most useful that the workshops provided us an image of talent nurturing practice in various countries, and we had an opportunity to discuss our experience... Thanks to the Ljubljana training, our college established contacts with two institutions and we expect long-term cooperation with them. One institution is Hamburg-based Nelson Mandela Schule; we’ll try to cooperate with them primarily in the field of talent support to disadvantaged children, the other is Anton Ukmar Primary School in Koper, we would like to exchange experience concerning environmental protection and to familiarise with the projects, best practices there. We have invited the representatives of both institutions to our college to get acquainted and do some professional work together and, later on, we would also welcome student groups from both institutions.
… it was nice to see that talent support is given a priority role also in other countries of Europe, and they apply the same holistic approach as our institution.” (Teacher Tímea Pap, Kodály Zoltán Kollégium, Pécs)
“…I expected the EGIFT training to confirm that our school was on the right track in the field of talent support, and I wanted to learn about new guidelines and, if possible, establish contacts with educational institutions of other nations. Most participants of the further training course were primary school teachers, and church schools were only represented by myself and a colleague, so my last wish was not fulfilled. …
I found most surprising the workshop where we were introduced to a training kitchen and had to make a dish that would figure on the menu of one of our national kitchens based on the given basic ingredients in 40 minutes. The wish to fulfil the task at hand as best we could soon overcame our surprise. … I have a new class from September, and I have assessed already during freshers’ week that a significant part of my pupils, boys included, loved to bake and cook. Thinking further based on this information and supplementing it with some elements I saw in cooking contests on TV, I will announce a multi-round cooking competition to my class that will rely on their creativity and previous experience. Also, I make no secret of my intention to strengthen the class community, so children will have to work in groups. I hope that the program will bring to the foreground also students whose study results are not so strong, and it will turn out who in the class are suitable for leader, manager, organiser roles.” (Dorottya Farsang, Deputy School Director, Baár-Madas Reformed High School, Budapest)
“…The lectures made us think, they relayed known and also new pieces of information. The workshops demonstrated how far we can go with students who are talented in a discipline and also motivated.
…I had many conversations with colleagues I got acquainted with there on how they treated their students. Of the workshops, I could really identify with the drama session and the literature lesson, with music and in particular rap music being an emphatic element in the latter.” (Éva Győrfi, teacher, Reformed Primary School, Berettyóújfalú)
“…For me, the most interesting aspect of the course was that talent support and various learning and other difficulties were continuously spoken about in parallel, since the groups concerned often overlap. It was instructive to compare the experience of participants from other countries with the Hungarian practice and the practice of my own school. …
… I found particularly interesting and progressive the presentation of Dr. Gregor Torkar on the natural science projects, and although I am in humanities myself, I found the report of Bostjan Kuzman on the camps organised for mathematics talents most exciting. As practicing teacher, I am most enthralled by the practical ideas, the best practices I can “steal”; nevertheless, I listened to the theoretical lectures of Dr. Mojca Jurisevic with great interest and I also found the recommended technical literature useful.
I liked the diversity and optional nature of the workshops. I would like to underline the workshop of Mojca Cepic showing a project on testing severely disadvantaged children in a very practice-oriented and down-to-earth way. I think this presentation impressed me most during the whole training course.” …
…it is important for me that I feel we at Lauder School are not in arrears in the field of talent support, we have many forward-pointing initiatives – the training course confirmed that we are on the right track. I managed to establish contacts with nice Hungarian and foreign colleagues, hopefully, we’ll proceed to technical cooperation.” (Kinga Máhr, Lauder Javne School, Budapest)
