Training Teachers in Slovakia

Sometimes Purdue faculty and staff don’t go to the beach on spring break. Sometimes they go to Slovakia to train teachers how to use technology in the classroom. And that’s just what a group from the College of Education did last week.

Timothy Newby and Jennifer Richardson (both professors of learning design and technology), Evan Fox (graduate student in learning design and technology), Elizabeth Zorn (undergraduate student in elementary education) and Sara Holderbaum (undergraduate student in agricultural education), traveled nearly 5,000 miles to Martin, Slovakia.

The purpose of the trip was to work with the Lutheran Academy in Martin Slovakia (LAMS). The Academy is a K-12+ school where they teach in both Slovakian and English. Their founders want a closer relationship with Purdue in the hopes that would result in help training their teachers about different forms of technology as well as provide a study abroad experience for Purdue students. They are also interested in potential internships and student teaching opportunities for Purdue students.

The Purdue group explored the possibilities of these partnership opportunities through a variety of workshops and meetings. The Zorn and Holderbaum observed various classrooms and taught several classes. They worked with the LAMS teachers and helped to develop the lessons. Zorn assisted with LAMS teacher training. LAMS hosted a session for the Purdue group to talk to all students in the 11-13th grades (they have one extra advanced grade beyond our standard high school). The Purdue group discussed college prep, what it is like to be on a big campus, and details about the Purdue experience.

Their visit was covered by local news.

The hope is to have an even stronger relationship with this school in the future starting with a possible study abroad and a potential visit to Purdue by LAMS teachers in 2019.

The Purdue group also took the opportunity to see other potential sites to visit for the future study abroad programs. They explored Vienna, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; Krakow, Poland (with a 3.5 hour tour of Auschwitz); and Budapest, Hungary.