Emese Cîmpean uses eTwinning projects to bring out the true potential of her students and captures their attention in Romanian classes with fascinating things. Through his Erasmus projects, dozens of students and teachers from the college where he teaches have visited European countries.
Emese Cîmpean PHOTO projektmerito.ro
Emese Cîmpean, teacher of Romanian language and literature and deputy director of the National College “Petru Rareş” Beclean, was appointed director of Merito 2023 because she created a family from the school. Her desire, moreover, is to be known primarily as a teacher of Romanian language and literature and less as an assistant director.
He graduated from the Faculty of Letters of the Bebeș-Bolyai University in Cluj, has a master's degree in school counseling and psychopedagogical assistance, and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, within the “Education, Reflection, Development” doctoral school.
“I never wanted to be anything other than a teacher. In the 9th grade I knew that I would teach Romanian. Very strange because I was at the Hungarian section. I had a very good Romanian teacher and she then became a kind of mentor to me”, the teacher told “Adevărul” how she started on this path in which she has already ticked off 20 years at the department.
In 2008, Emese also joined the eTwinning platform, which allows teachers and students to collaborate on educational projects internationally. Through eTwinning he trained other teachers, learned new teaching methods and learned about interactive platforms and educational games.
He is also an eTwinning ambassador, and in 2017 he ran three training series for teachers from all over Europe who are also eTwinning ambassadors. For two years he moderates a working group in Europe on eTwinning. “It's a part that complements the work in class and connects you very strongly with others, not only from Romania, but also at the European level”, says Emese Cîmpean.
Atypical reading journals and visits to virtual museums
She infuses critical thinking methods into her classes, introduces the traits of textbook characters into a game, challenges students to read contemporary literature and keep reading journals, and takes them on virtual tours of museums across the Atlantic Ocean.
And the reading diaries are kept by the children in a more non-conformist manner, also at the teacher's suggestion. He writes down ideas, personal thoughts and quotes from the books he reads on half the page, and draws on the other half, for those who prefer to express themselves that way. Starting from these atypical journals, each student recommends a book to their peers and tries to convince them to read it.
The reading diaries of his students are atypical PHOTO projetekmerito.ro
“The important thing is that they read and talk about the things they like“, points out Emese. Unconventional class times.
“I make sure that the classes always start with a moment that captures their attention. I also let the children work in teams, even though this often requires a lot of preparation from the teacher. At the end there is that part of reflection, when you always have to close with some final thoughts, so you can link this to the next topic as well”, the teacher explains her teaching method.
Students who usually don't talk much in class, when they get a task in an eTwinning project, they finally find their place and feel valued.
“I have students whom I also discovered differently in the projects. In class you may not see them, but in a perhaps atypical activity you get to really know them”, Emese explained. He comes to class with personal development books and watches videos with the students about various personalities from around the world.
They also collaborate with schools in the Republic of Moldova, and when they read, for example, novels, they establish together a list of books that they will go through.
The story of online classes in the 6th grade
The National College “Petru Rareş” Beclean has been organizing a contest with the suggestive title “Reading Friends” for ten years, which is open to all schools in the country, and one of the initiators is Emese Câmpean.
In the final stage, the students come in front of the audience and persuade those present to read a book. The teacher and her students had already been working online for several years when the pandemic started, so it was easy for them to move their classes to the eTwinning platform. They organized video conferences there, and if the children got confused somewhere, the teacher gave them tutorials.
Emese wrote a book together with a colleague about the experience of online classes PHOTO projektmerito.ro
Later, he wrote a book together with several other teachers, in which he talked about his experiences in online classes with two 6th graders. He did not forget his colleagues from the “Petru Rareş” National College Beclean, nor those from the county. Among other things, he taught them how to use Google Classroom and Skype.
The Erasmus experience
Through Erasmus, he was able to take students from the school abroad. In the first four years, 35 students had the opportunity to go to Portugal, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Turkey and Spain. After the school received Erasmus accreditation, 21 students went on trips to Bulgaria and Turkey.
When they return, the children give a presentation in front of their peers in which they tell about their experience, what they learned from the places they visited, and what they didn't like. He credits both his faculty colleagues and students for this outstanding performance.
“If there are no people to lend a shoulder, you can't do anything. This is my great luck. We are a big school, with some very cool and very involved people”, says Emese Cîmpean with emotion, who wants that by 2027 all the teachers in the college will benefit from Erasmus training, and 194 students will go abroad.
In 2023, 29 children visited other countries, and this year another 21 students will go to Europe through Erasmus.
Teaching by connecting to real life
He teaches through a method known as job shadowing
connecting everything he teaches with the students' real lives. Her fascination with this way of teaching began in 2014, when a relative from the US called her to the school where she worked.
She was shocked to see how a crime scene in a movie can become a learning context. In biology they had to do experiments with larvae, a forensic scientist explained what his work entailed, and in English they were reading
“The hunger Games”. She was fascinated by how students worked together, how teachers collaborated on the same topic and brought this innovative way of teaching to the classroom.
Emese connects the information with the real life of its students PHOTO projektmerito.ro
“They worked on a project basis, they didn't have textbooks. Starting from the school curriculum, the teachers made their contents. They were working on real life stuff connected to the reality of their school. They had a lot of guests at the classes. Everything seemed special to me”, says Emese, who then brought all these things to class.
She doesn't want her students to remember her after graduation, but to really develop their skills. Her wish is that students can always justify their decisions, manage in life and overcome themselves.
“I want these kids to find inspiration in me or a peer, but find it,” concludes the teacher. For the merit of creating a symbiotic bond between students and teachers, but also for unconventional teaching methods, President Iohaniss awarded him the Merit for Education in the rank of knight.
