It has already become a tradition that every year at least three days of August are dedicated to the activities of the Merito Summer University in Suceava, a project which is now in its fourth edition in 2022.
The event, organized by the Suceava County School Inspectorate, in partnership with the Faculty of Education Sciences of the „Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava and the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuților, through the Media and Communication Sector, aims to connect the participating teachers with the values, mission and vision proposed by the Merito Project and the community of teachers who support it.
From August 25-27, 193 teachers from Iasi, Botoșani, Neamț, Bacău, Brașov, Teleorman and, of course, from Suceava, will gather at the General School no. 10 in the municipality to participate in multidimensional training sessions, thus discovering new methods of experiential and collaborative learning, meetings that are part of the institutional partnership „Growing the community of valuable teachers” with the Romanian Business Leaders Foundation.
The program, initiated by Daniela Ceredeev, Merito award-winning teacher and inspector for the discipline of religion in the Suceava County Inspectorate, is being held with the blessing of His Eminence Calinic, Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuților, this year, within the Merito Summer University, a book fair of the Archdiocese's Crimca Publishing House is also being organized, where 16 of the most recent publications are on display, volumes that bring teachers closer to the scriptural text, so that they in turn can share it in a contemporary language in schools, churches, and in the life of each one. Among the titles present are „Sources and Miraculous Icons”, „Parables - Gems of Jesus” Teaching„, ”St. John the Baptist - The Seal of the Two Testaments„, ”The Trilogy of the Word. Sermons on Sundays of the New Year„, ”Tanatology and Immortality„, books signed by His All Holiness Calinic, the volume ”The Mystagogical Dimension of the Holy Week of the Passion„ written by His Eminence the Most Reverend Father Damaschin Dornean, Bishop-Vicar, ”At the Gates of Time. Dialogues with great spiritual teachers„, interviews by the late journalist Mircea Motrici, and ”The mill of thoughts" by Prof. Daniela Ceredeev, a book of prose-poems inspired by readings from the Gospels.
According to the organizers, the three-day courses will discuss and analyze topics such as Alternative learning methods - mentoring, tutoring, coaching; How do we relate to the curriculum; Emotional and social resilience in crisis situations (post-pandemic/war); Memorandum for lifelong learning; Career management, personal development plan.
Along with the promoters of the project, the contributing teachers include Rodica Zimbru, Cristina Dudan, Nicoleta and Emil Munteanu, Tatiana Vîntur, Manuela David, as well as Prof. Otilia Clipa, Prof. Ștefan Mihalcea and Dumitrița and Sorin Tănase.
The workshop held by Mrs. Cristina Dudan, biology teacher at the „Radu Negru” National High School in Făgăraș, which also included a first aid course, was a real success among teachers, some of whom have already applied for such programs in their schools.
„At the invitation of Daniela Ceredeev I came here, at the Merito Summer University in Suceava, to give a first aid workshop on several modules, first aid in case of cardio-respiratory arrest and first aid in case of food choking. We had a theoretical part using the biomap, 3D human body, where teachers visualized the body organs involved in first aid and the practical part where teachers practiced on the mannequin. Of course, in addition to that, I also brought the automated external defibrillator that I have in the school where I come from and demonstrated to the teachers showing them that it is actually a very easy to use medical device and that they can indeed use it with confidence without fear, should the need arise. The teachers were enthusiastic, but the extremely fast feedback came just this morning, when the lady principal partner in organizing the summer university here at School 10 had already written an application for funding last night, and in the draft budget I saw that she had written defibrillator, manikin and resuscitation kits. I think I've achieved my goals and I hope that what I've done today will roll, like a snowball, and bring the right attitude for first aid and energy, in schools, for training both teachers and students, because we need to train students as well.”
Another special workshop, dedicated to art and especially poetry, was held by teachers Nicoleta and Emil Munteanu, founders and coordinators of the cultural project ALECART.
„We discuss poetry, contemporary poetry and the impact of poetry on students, teachers, people in general. We set out to bring poetry in a different way, to bring it out of oblivion, to bring it out of lethargy and to bring it among us. The teachers learn to familiarize themselves with poetry, they learn that poetry can be an image, it can be a feeling, a mood, maybe less metaphor, a figure of speech, music. Poetry is really an exercise in understanding yourself and what is going on around you. Starting with exercises that involve comparing some, let's call them canonical, poems with contemporary poems, the teachers who take part in this summer university discover that poetry is first and foremost a dialog and that their students need this authentic dialog, that not only through music do they get to talk to themselves, but poetry is also a way, perhaps just as cool, of dialoguing with themselves and with others.” - Emil Munteanu, teacher at Iasi National High School.
All summer university training sessions aim to develop complementary personal and professional skills: competences in applying flexible, innovative, effective teaching methods and techniques; competences in experiential learning methodology; competences in developing a short/long term personal development plan; competences in informing and prioritizing values in own terms promoted by a community that supports educational achievement.
„The 4th edition of the Merito Summer University is an event that I give myself as a gift, in the sense that I volunteer for training sessions that take place over 3 days. There are 6 hours of teacher training and collaborative and experiential learning workshops each day. In these training sessions, in fact, we want to prepare the beginning of the school year and reshape both the teachers' motivation for meaningful learning and learning for love in our schools, because isn't it true that soon, as I like to say, children will be back, as I like to say, in acasele in schools and we need to be prepared for that. (...) In the sections that we go through, we deal with the most diverse modules, there are contents that come from the area of emotional and cultural resilience in this post-pandemic period and in this so sad period of the war days that we are going through, then, a lot of collaborative and experiential learning workshops, because we strongly believe that what you learn by doing is more sustainable. (...) Among the trainers there are both Merito teachers from the Merito teachers” community, the Merito project being recognized as the one that supports the transformation of the teaching profession in Romania. We try to motivate, we try to inspire, I think we are succeeding, and the presence of such a large number of teachers on vacation days at successive training sessions is, I think, further proof." - Prof. Daniela Ceredeev.
The Merito Program, a project of the Romanian Business Leaders Foundation, is a program that recognizes excellence in education, through which teachers who have distinguished themselves in this field are awarded annually, but also in the field of continuous community involvement.
Irina Ursachi
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