Arjana Blazic
When I first ‘met’ Arjana about two years ago, I was just starting to grapple with with the concept of web 2.0 tools, and trying to figure out their relevance to education, but Arjana, well, by then she was already an old hand with them. I hadn’t, and still haven’t, met many non-native English teachers brave enough to have their own high-profile blog, so, for me, Arjana, especially when I read about her wikis and whatnots winning award after award, just shone like a candle in the dark.
It is, therefore, with immense pleasure, that I am able to share my conversation with her here with the rest of you. Apart from welcoming us to her home in Zagreb, Croatia, she speaks about her award-winning projects, her passion and her vision for the future.
Bio
Arjana Blazic is a high school English and German teacher from Zagreb, Croatia. She is an avid user of web 2.0 technologies and a lifelong learner with a strong passion for travel. One of her major goals is to teach her students how to effectively use technology for learning. She has organized and participated in many international projects and school exchanges. She is the author of the award-winning wiki Greetings from the world, which connects teachers and students across five continents. She is especially proud of the website Moja matura, which she co-runs, and which enables secondary students from all over Croatia to access free interactive exam preparation materials for their standardized school-leaving exams. Traveloteacher is her blog about travelling and teaching, and on her Croatian blog, The Fellowship of Twitter, she writes about web 2.0 tools. Her Twitter handle is @abfromz.
Posted on 2 July 2011, in Uncategorized and tagged Arjana Blazic. Bookmark the permalink. 21 Comments.
iasku 
Congratulations Arjana! It is great to know that Croatia has wonderful educators like you!
The Croats are lucky to have people like Arjana, aren’t they?
Dear Jasna
thank you so much! There are so many great educators around here, it’s just that they are not so much on twitter:-)))
all the best
arjana
Hi, Arjana & Chiew,
Really enjoyed listening to this interview and delighted to find Moja matura. What an excellent site this is!
Arjana, any chance of you & your husband attending TESOL France? Would be great to meet up with you again!
Julie
Thanks Julie, I’m glad you’re enjoying the interviews 🙂
Dear Julie,
thank you so much for your kind words!
I submitted a speaker proposal for TESOL France – we’ll see if it gets approved! But it would be fantastic to see you again:-)
all the best
arjana
Hi Arjana and Chiew!
Dear Chiew,
You have picked one of my absolute favourites – I love Arjana’s work, her passiona nd she is an absolutely wonderful person!
Dear Arjana,
Thank so much for sharing things about yourself and your teaching – as you know, I love all the projects you are involved in and your love for education shines through everything you do. It was great again to see you and hear your voice – I wanted to reach through the screen and give you a big hug!
Many thanks,
Vicky
Hi Vicky!
Of course, I agree with you about Arjana. I’m sure her enthusiasm must have a profound effect on people who work with her. If I get to see her, I’ll give her a hug on your behalf! 😉
And, we’ll have to ‘do’ you soon, too! 😉
Dear Vicky,
you’re so sweet! I would so much like to hug you too! And I really hope we’ll be able to do it soon!
And thank you for believing in me:-)
all the best
arjana
Dear Chiew,
thank you so much for inviting me to this interview.
I’ve just arrived in Cork after a long day of changing flights and all these lovely comments have certainly made my day:-)
all the best
arjana
It’s very comforting to feel loved, isn’t it? 🙂 🙂 I’ll try to make it to Krk, but no promises.
Hi Chiew
Thanks for interviewing Arjana – a great choice!
Dear Arjana
It’s lovely to hear your voice and to find out more about your life. I really admire your work and dedication and I would love to meet you one day 🙂
But then, all my choices are great, aren’t they? 😉 Thanks for coming, Jan!
Dear Janet,
thank you so much for your kind words. I’m especially grateful to you because you’re part of my precious PLN and I have learned so much from you over the past two years. I really hope we have a chance to meet f2f soon.
all the best
arjana
phew! just got time to watch the interviw and have a look at Arjana’s projects
First of all I have to thank Chiew for all these enlightening and inspiring for other teachers interviews! They are a great motive for the rest of us Chiew! meeting and knowing better people who really try hard to do sth totally different in the ELT field.
Arjana!!!! congratulations on the job you make at school, it takes a lot of passion and dedication to teach and do such projects. So lucky your students and your family too!! We have to bear in mind that when we’re involved in our jobs so much , we need the support of our families. As time goes by, I realise that great teachers exist everywhere! and in your case, great educators!! Greetings form Greece!
Nora Touparlaki
Thank you for your comment, Nora. Teaching is sometimes a lonely job. One of the reasons for this blog was to bring these great educators a step closer to other teachers, for them to know a little more about them, what motivates them, what advice they have for others, their visions for the future, etc. And if they manage to inspire others to follow in their footsteps with these interviews, my efforts to bring them here have been rewarded, and I’m sure the interviewees will feel rewarded, too! 🙂
Dear Nora,
thank you so much for being so kind to me! As you say, it takes a lot of passion and dedication to do such projects, but I think that I’ve had this wonderful opportunity to learn from the best educators in the world who inspire and motivate us.Then it’s somehow easy to pluck up the courage and do things differently.
all the best
arjana
Hi, Arjana & Chiew,
Really enjoyed listening to this interview. Congratulations!
Greetings form Zagreb!
Sonja
Hello Sonja,
Thanks for the comment – good to see some Croatians in here – where are the rest?
Hi Sonja and thanks for dropping by:-))
Chiew, may I introduce you to Sonja, my dear friend and co-founder of Moja matura! Sonja is the best webmaster I know and it’s because of her that our website is a lively place for all senior students in Croatia. I’m very privileged to work with Sonja.
arjana
Pleased to meet you, Sonja! Congratulations for the success of Moja! Croatia should be thankful for teachers like the both of you!