4 Days | 17 Students | 10 Workshops | 7 Trainers
Between August 28-31, 2022, the first edition of the Museum of Me Educational Boot Camp took place in Bucharest, Romania. The event was organized by the VELUX and REF Romania Foundations, in partnership with the InfinitEdu Association and Casa Retro.
The educational boot camp was attended by 17 young Roma, students at various pedagogical high schools from the counties of Alba, Arad, Caransebeș, Brașov, Călărași, Prahova, Suceava, Bacău, Piatra Neamț, Ialomița, Giurgiu.
The students are beneficiaries of the Pedagogy Scholarship Program, financed by the Velux and REF Foundations, the camp being one of the activities included in this project. Moreover, the educational boot camp offered the former beneficiaries of the same program the opportunity to interact with the current participants, through the following interactive workshops they held during the event:
- Corina Kovacs | Personal Imprint Workshop – Knowledge and Mutual Knowledge Activities;
- Rebeca Gheorghe | Visible Learning Workshop – Methods and Techniques for Training Literacy Skills in the Primary Level;
- Sorina Mihai | Visible Learning Workshop – Methods and Techniques for Training STEAM skills.
Rebeca Gheorghe 
Sorina Mihai (right) 
Corina Kovacs (right)
“As a former beneficiary of the Pedagogy Scholarship Program, the summer camps organized by the VELUX and REF Foundations had a profound role in my professional and personal development. I benefited from fantastic opportunities: interesting and captivating workshops, I made friends with young people from different corners of the country, I benefited from learning tools that made my educational experience easier. However, at the Museum of Me Educational Boot Camp I participated, for the first time, as a mentor and I must say that I liked this new side a lot. It helped that before the camp, for several weeks, I had training sessions with Mrs. Daniela Stoicescu, who has an extraordinary ability to make you understand easily, and to whom I am thankful” – Rebeca Gheorghe, alumna Pedagogy Scholarship Program.
Among the trainers of this first edition were the also:
- Dedicated pedagogue and education expert Vasile Brașovanu, who spoked to the youngsters about the Teacher’s Reflective Journal;
- Bianca Ceică from InfinitEdu Association introduced them to the Role of a Teacher in the Life of Students;
- Nicolae Tătăranu from Casa Retro offered to the future teachers the possibility to learn about Visible Learning – Methods and Techniques for Training Practical Skills. Also, Casa Retro offered to each camp participant a special gift, which contained educational tools and toys designed to help young students to teach as creatively as possible, learning through play being essential to the process.
“It was a marathon of activities with educational content, whose main purpose was self-knowledge as well as the inventory of character traits, skills and personal values. At the end of each of the ten learning contexts students reflected and answered the question: What did I learn about myself during this activity? The collection of personal insights delivered at the end of the camp showed that its goal has been achieved. The students are mentally prepared for the new school year that is just starting in which they will continue their journey of self-discovery, with dedicated mentors to help them when needed!” – Daniela Stoicescu, educational expert #REF and president of the InfinitEdu Association.
Luiza Medeleanu, REF specialist in intercultural and inclusive education, taught the students about the importance of intercultural communication and the value of the Other. Through practical exercises in the open air, Luiza helped the young people to understand how they should relate to students belonging to different cultures.
The School of Values Association invited the students to a Financial Education Workshop that was held at the Promenada Mall, in Bucharest. After the workshop, the pupils had the opportunity to get to know the Capital as well and took a walk through Bucharest together with the trainers and the organizers.
“The boot camp days were very intense, as we had planned from the beginning. We wanted to offer as complex a perspective as possible, with a dynamic approach, sprinkled with pleasant and creative notes. Having reached the end, we enjoyed the feedback, but also opened a sheet with the lessons we learned ourselves. In the following period, we will see who will stay with us in the educational coaching sessions. And, if things will settle in directions we have planned, we will start drawing a new boot camp and new internship programs” – Cristina Grigore, the coordinator of the Pedagogy Scholarship Program.
The final feedback shows that the future teachers understood that:
- it is important to know both themselves and their students before starting the journey of learning together, and that they need to know specific methods by which they can do this;
- stories have a great power in education and that there are educational methods and techniques through which their message can be explored in depth;
- they have or have not yet developed skills for the STEAM area;
- alongside the family, they have an important role in the development of the children;
- it is good to look inward, to reflect on one’s own professional actions and to be able to say: Forgive me, I love you, I’m sorry, Thank you.
- playing and learning through games cannot be absent from kindergarten/school;
- you cannot develop the creativity of children/students, unless you care about this aspect and know the right methods to achieve this;
- intercultural and inclusive education should be part of every class;
- financial education is important for the daily life of each and every one of us;
- reflection and metacognition can potentiate learning and that they need to learn how to do so.
Many thanks to our partners, the InfinitEdu Association and Casa Retro!
