Twenty five years ago, her mother, who was an English teacher and a natural-born educator, founded the Foreign Languages School Butković. It was one of the first private schools for foreign languages in Croatia. Vlatka had the best possible mentor and actively participated in the school’s work and development since its beginning. She worked as an English teacher for 20 years and as the school’s principal for 18 years. She is also a curriculum designer, trainer and mentor to their new teachers.
Having recognized the need for personalizing education, she developed highly adoptable elements of teaching that can be used and adapted in any classroom. Once put together, those elements formed the Butković method that has been recognized in public schools for the past 15 years.

Teaching means learning and changing, so the Butković method has grown and keeps changing with new generations. It encourages our learners to be creative, free spirited communicators who find (even demand) relevance in the material they are taught.

In 2015, she founded the Centre of Innovative Education with the goal to provide a platform for Croatian teachers and educators to exchange knowledge, teaching resources and ideas. In addition, educators attend practical workshops, which are greatly needed in her country. Vlatka holds workshops for public school teachers with the aim of introducing personalizing learning and adaptive team work; implementing effective solutions in every-day classrooms.

In 2016 the Centre is publishing a series of interactive textbooks for ESL learners, FAIL FORWARD IN READING 1-4 and FAIL FORWARD IN GRAMMAR 1-4, authored by Butković and her colleague and dear friend, Anita Poljak.

Vlatka also sing jazz and blues, knits and designs web-sites in her free time. She would love to write, illustrate and publish a book of stories inspired by her kids, but she’s a bit busy lately.