A new blog for language teachers

The idea for this blog has been simmering for a couple of years… And now the time has come to get the ball rolling!

This blog is a work-in-progress (isn’t everything? 🙂) and here is the overview of what you can expect in the coming months:

  1. researching

    Actionable insights from up-to-date research

    To inspire your daily teaching with contemporary findings

  2. Ideas and customizable materials for the classroom

    To try out new activities or well-known ones with a fresh twist
  3. book lover

    Outline of fundamental methodological principles

    For you to revisit when you need a shot of confidence

  4. Posts on teacher well-being, burnout, and motivation

    To help bring peace of mind and clear the fuss you might be experiencing from time to time

Why Loud Frog & Wild Bee?

The name is inspired by my two amazing daughters, who are often quite loud and charmingly wild.

They are also very different learners – one taking huge visible leaps in acquiring knowledge and developing skills; the other buzzing around, seemingly not focused on anything specific, and then surprising us with what she can do.

Picture of Irena Meštrović Štajduhar

Hi, I'm Irena

Mom. Former perfectionist. Growth mindset enthusiast. Educator at heart. Researcher energized by learning.

After 12 years as a language educator and a researcher of learner experiences, I changed course and am currently working as a customer insights researcher. I also moved from Croatia to the Netherlands (just a few months before the pandemic started), so everything is still new… and I get to be a language learner again!

During my teaching years, I worked with young learners, English majors, and pre-service teachers. I also developed and taught a very hands-on graduate-level course on language assessment. Topics dear to my heart are related to language learning psychology (individual differences, emotions in language learning, willingness to communicate) and language assessment.

Though I’m enjoying my new career, I still love developing classroom materials and I care a lot about improving educational experiences. This is why I decided to launch this blog (after thinking about it for several years) and I hope to inspire language teachers by offering food for thought as well as useful materials for the classroom.