Last week, doc. PhDr. Markéta Švamberk Šauerová, Ph.D. participated in the 12th annual Conference of Czech Schools in North America, which took place this year in Toronto, in cooperation with the Masaryk Memorial Institute, the University of Toronto and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Toronto. The lectures were held at the Munk School (part of the University of Toronto). Doc. Švamberk Šauerová gave an introductory lecture in the plenary session Mental Hygiene of Teachers, gave a lecture on Bilingual/Multilingual Education on the following days, and conducted two workshops on Mental Hygiene of Teachers and School Wellbeing as part of Students' Mental Health. Interest in the topics that Assoc. Švamberk Šauerová lectures in the Czech Republic was great among teachers working in America, the issue of stress and mental hygiene concerns teachers all over the world. There was a special interest in the lecture on bilingual education, among other things, because most of the teachers there also educate their own children in a multilingual environment. Radio and local television also filmed a short recording of the lectures.
Doc. Švamberk Šauerová also took charge of organizing a "ritual of farewell" among the teachers present, in connection with a tragic event (the car accident of one of the conference participants, Lucie Kaďousková, which was also reported by the media at home last week).
Other speakers at the conference included Christian Hilchey, Ph.D. (University of Texas at Austin), Magdalena Málková (Global Teacher Prize Czech Republic for 2022), and Pavel Oškrkaný - a teacher and teaching assistant at Oakville High School who is in his third year in Canada.
The conference was also attended by the Czech Ambassador to Ottawa Radek Rubeš, Consul General in Toronto Petr Buriánek, Special Commissioner for Compatriots Jiří Krátký and representatives of the Ministry of Education.
Doc. Švamberk Šauerová gained a number of interesting contacts for further cooperation of our university with both the university environment and specific schools across North America.
