September 16, 2010

Cand voi fi mare...

Ce este un turist? Si ce este un egoist? Si care este diferenta dintre ele?
Ce inseamna recycling?
De ce cu cat ma apropii mai mult de statuia lui Herkules, acesta creste in doar cateva minute?
Ce este un campus? Ce inseamna "uni"? Daca nu esti student, poti locui intr-un camin studentesc?
Cand voi fi mare, o sa fiu si eu student, dupa care voi fi pilot!

Cam asta s-a petrecut intrunul dintre weekendurile mele trecute si pe cuvantul meu ca a fost una dintre cele mai frumoase experiente din ultimul timp.
Verisorii mei, Lara (11) si René (8) din Nürnberg, m-au vizitat cu ceva timp in urma. A fost tare frumos sa petrec doua zile cu acesti doi copii minunati intr-o perioada in care dedicasem majoritatea timpului meu scrisului si muncilor casnice. Pe cat am fost de consumata de energie, pe atat ma incarcau cu energie extraordinarele discutii care le purtam.
Totul incepuse cu intrebarea "Tu ce lucrezi?", venita din partea finutzului meu de 8 ani. Stau eu putin pe ganduri si incerc sa-i explic cum explorez eu ce se intampla in universitati... (adaug) in scoli, ca sa aflu tarziu ca universitatea era inca un concept strain pentru el. La cat de neputincioasa ma simteam eu sa explic cercetare in invatamant superior, ma intreaba René indata: Dar tu esti administrator? (vezi "
Hausmeister")... da! Nu stiu de ce incepusem cu stangul.

Imi amintesc acum cum i-am explicat unei fetite de 2 ani si jumatate (e Hilda, care e atat de mare cat masterul meu) care venise cu mama ei la un workshop, ca noi doua ne jucam impreuna timp de 2 ore pentru ca mama ei are o prezentare ("Vortrag"), si ca noi nu o putem vedea de la locul unde ne jucam pentru ca perdele sunt inchise in sala de prezentare, ca altfel nu se vede proiectia de la videoproiector, ca ar fi prea mult lumina in sala. Hilda se uita lung la mine si spune -ok!

Dar venind inapoi la weekendul cu Lara si René! A fost si mai frumos parca, sa pregatesc clatite pentru micul dejun si orez cu lapte pentru cina, sa mergem la film 3D, sa mergem o zi intreaga la muzee si seara sa mai vrem, sa-l vizitam pe Herkules, sa facem multe poze, sa ne jucam multe joculete inteligente si sa invatatm despre cum sa ne jucam mai eficient.

Eu am invatat multe despre copii si despre mine si s-au confirmat din nou ipotezele lui Sugata Mitra:
  • If children have interest, then education happens.
  • Children will learn to do what they want to learn to do!
Pe tema asta recomand cu drag urmatorul TED talk:

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education


Sa cresteti mari!! ;)

Poze:
on Tamoets's Flickr Album

September 1, 2010

Despre cei mai tari 1%


Mi s-au intamplat multe lucruri minunate in ultimul timp dar am inteles ca toate se leaga, mai ales dupa ce i-am vazut pe Vlady si pe Paul la TV.
Nu pot sa descriu in cuvinte ce am simtit in timp ce ma uitam la emisiune, dar din cate imi amintesc, a fost mandrie, bucurie, entuziasm, pasiune si putina frustrare in acelasi timp. Sunt mandra de ei si ma bucur pentru ei si pentru ce valori se gasec in societatea romanesca. Am simtit pasiunea care se gaseste in spatele cuvintelor si pasiunea pentru ceea ce fac. Pe de alta parte eram putin frustrata, pentru ca baietii astia ridica standardele la un nivel foarte inalt, care mie imi dau impresia ca stau pe loc, dar si pentru ca am impresia ca sunt prea departe de intamplarile reale.
Ma identific cu 80% din ceea ce au spus ei, prin experientele avute, prin tariri si prin visele si planurile mele de viata.
Ceea ce am vazut si auzit ma indruma sa fac, printre altele, urmatoarea analiza:
Mediul asociativ studentesc din Romania este foarte valoros si mai bine dezvoltat decat in multe tari Europene. Studentii din ONGS-uri in Romania sunt mai proactivi, mai dornici sa invete, mai deschisi spre nou, mai responsabili si mai centrati pe viitor.
Tot mai des, competentele cerute la majoritatea locurilor de munca (sociale, de organizare, uneori chiar si profesionale etc.) nu se invata in universitate sau nu sunt cuprinse in educatia formala. Scrisesem intr-un post anterior - eu am invatat 90% din ceea ce stiu sa fac in organizatiile studentesti in care am activat. Si datorita acelor experiente am ajuns sa fac ceea ce imi place sa fac cel mai mult: educatie. Am prieteni pentru toata viata si am vise care imi dau energie si putere in fiecare zi.
S-a evitat putin discutia studentilor care pleaca din tara si cred ca e foarte bine ca Vlady s-a concentrat pe acei studenti care "isi dovedesc in fiecare zi ca se poate" (Doamne, cat mi-a placut asta!). Eu am avut emotii cand Eli a pus intrebarea respectiva si cred urmatorul lucru: studentii astia din ONGS-uri invata sa aiba scopuri foarte clare in viata, sunt responsabili pentru deciziile pe care le iau si sunt convinsi, indiferent daca pleca sau raman, de unde vor sa ajunga in viata (si aici nu ma refer la o destinatie geografica). Andi, Mariana, Cornelia, Stefania, voi ce credeti?
Va invit sa urmariti emisiunea Business Responsibility, iar de la minutul 12 pe Vlady si pe Paul de la CROS - Centrul de Resurse pentru Organizatii Studentesti:


Cat de frumos!

July 2, 2010

My Intercultural Experience

I'm every day more and more excited about my intercultural experiences in Kassel. A long journey ended yesterday, even though I'd say, it is just the beginning.
For the last 6 months, a team of 20 international students in Kassel, from 17 different countries, got together to learn (about) intercultural communication and competence. An amazing group of students, motivated, responsible, highly engaged, straight forward, with a rich intercultural background - each of them enriched our project remarkably! We took the innitiative, found a great trainer - the best I met so far in this area and the best I've met so far in any area in Germany - got some financial support from the university and here we go!
For me it was an amazing experience! We learned to understand intercultural communication by doing this, by getting out on the campus in small multicultural teams, interacting with people, discussing with them, analyzing, sharing, etc. etc. We connected their experiences with ours and put together a great documentary film. It is a short film prepared to explore the theme of cultural interaction between German and international students at the University of Kassel.

Enjoy:

Meet More, Mix More from Carmen Muresan on Vimeo.


Maybe this project ended, but to me, it just opened new doors, gave me new ideas and an area I am highly motivated to further explore.

Wish you all wonderful intercultural experiences and let's "meet more, mix more"!

March 4, 2010

New home!

From the series "New home, new people, new world" and "M-am mutat la casa noua", I proudly present my new virtual home - please give him / her / it an enormous applause:

http://www.tamoeta.eu

It has a long story behind.
It is my brother's gift for my birthday… a very nice one, and I am sooo happy about it! Thank you, big brother!
But still, I had to decide about the name and the domain. Well, the name was easy… what else than "tamoeta", but the domain gave me a lot of headache: should it be tamoeta.ro (what I firstly thought about), or tamoeta.de (what I didn't think about), but since I was / am / will hopefully be quite mobile, I think it should be more international… still tamoeta.eu sounds quite political, so I didn't like it at all at first and tried to find something else: .net, .org, .edu (this is it!!! Unfortunately I am not an educational institution… yet).
Then I made a poll, and 3 out of 3 votes were for tamoeta.eu… and here it is!!!

What is absolutely fantastic - I can have as many under pages subdomains as I like, for example:
http://blog.tamoeta.eu or
http://flickr.tamoeta.eu or
http://facebook.tamoeta.eu
and even http://farm.tamoeta.eu… well, I'll think about this :P

For now, visitors will be forwarded to this web page, my blog, but I am looking forward to move in to my new home very soon.

Say hi to tamoeta.eu and keep your eyes open for further news on this topic.

Be happy!

February 12, 2010

Thank You All!


I am thrilled to welcome you, readers, students, teachers, and friends, to read this post. I write this post on the occasion of the celebratory event for the handover of the DAAD price¹ 2009.

This blog post is for you! It is about you, about the remarkable impact you have in my life and the everyday inspiration you give me. It is for you, to thank you for everything we learned and reached together!
First and foremost I like to thank my family for their everyday support and patience, for having faith in me and teaching me to have faith in me, for being always with me even if we are more than 2000 km apart.

I like to thank also my teachers and mentors, those whom I can trust and know that they trust me. I feel very lucky to have the chance to know them, work with them and learn from them.

Prof. Barbara M. Kehm is the coordinator of the International Master Programme Higher Education. For me, she is more than a coordinator or one of my professors; she is the person that always offers me support when I need it, the person that encourages me every time I come up with some new idea. She is the mentor I wish all students could have.

Prof. Ulrich Teichler is one of the most inspirational people I've ever met; He is a well renowned researcher all over the world for his contribution to the development of Higher Education. For me, he is the person that gives me power and faith and a special kind of motivation for my studies, my work and my life.

I also like to thank Mr. Harald Schomburg, for opening doors for me, and for offering me the opportunity to work and learn in a national research project, already from the beginning of my studies here in Kassel. He is always showing me the right way and encourages me to carry on.

More than one year ago, I met Dr. Florian Feuser. He taught me so much about intercultural learning, about living in another culture, about Eastern European Individualism, about my 3rd identity and about myself. For me, he is a great motivator and a role model in many respects.

I like to mention my first mentor, Mrs. Simona Bernat, one of the most impressive teachers I've ever had, the person who encouraged me to carry on and follow my dreams. She is the teacher, I always wanted to become, and an inspirational role model.

I also like to thank my friends and colleagues, those people who make the sun shining in the darkest days of Kassel and those who enriched my life with many unforgettable memories.

My friends in Romania, Amelia, Andi, Sergiu, Angy, Oana, Vlady, Traian, Irina, Cris, and Violeta, are the people behind the curtains, that helped me finding my passion, help me developing myself and reaching my goals, they are those people who always help me see farther. We created our world, where everything was possible and we know that we can change education in Romania!

My dear "ASPR-isti", my friends in the Romanian Association of Psychology Students (ASPR) are the people with whom I had the best learning experiences during my undergraduate studies. Like previously written in a post, I've learned everything about interpersonal communication, students' projects, taking responsibility, voluntary work. We lived in a world where each of us was finding her or his mission in life. From that time on, I never left that world. Even if I am not an active member of any student association, I'm having the same motivation and the same thirst for learning, I use to apply and follow the same principles in all activities I am engaged in or involved.

I continue working voluntary because it is the most wonderful and useful experience that I ever had. So is it with e-MaHE, the e-Learning platform for MAHE students. e-MaHE is a project that takes some of my time here and inspires me very much; many thanks to Ernst and Bhina for the good collaboration, the mutual support and the great learning experiences.

The MAHE tutorship, is, as I said in a previous post, the activity I could continue for my entire life. I would like to thank Amanda, Queenie, and Jesus for the great work and mutual support, for making things possible, and for making the MAHE tutors team the one it is today! A special thank you goes also to Susanne Höckelmann, the administrator of our master's programme. She is the person we can always count on and keeps things moving, the person that shows us the right direction and a real professional in her field.

At the same time I'd like to thank the INCHER-team and the MAHE students, with whom I have the chance to share so many experiences, to learn a lot, to grow and to do all these with fun and joy. Especially, I would like to mention my friends Yemi, Cissy, Robert, Yasemin and Fadi, for the great conversations, and the mutual support and motivation, as well as my colleagues and superiors, Lutz Heidemann, Martin Guist, Kerstin Janson, Constanze Engel, Rene Kooij and Florian Löwenstein for their support and inspiration. Many thanks also to Christiane Rittgerott for always thinking one step forward, for being a great colleague and an inspirational person.

Last but not least "ein großes Dankeschön" goes to Mrs. Helga Boemans and Mrs. Marion Schomburg, for their faith and their support. I am looking forward to more fruitful co operations in the near future.

In the end, I'd like to thank the DAAD for offering this motivating price and the election committee for the work and time they invest in making a decision every year.

I hope I did not forget anybody, but if so, I would like to thank you all, also those mentioned above, for your support, encouragement, for your faith and your belief, for the wonderful friendships and the great experiences we share.

I'd like to share with you 2 quotes. The first one is the one my brother wrote me for my 20
th birthday and that has a strong guiding force in my life, and the second I've read last year during the UNESCO European Forum on Higher Education and I think it fits best here and now:
"You should constantly try to climb very high, if you want to see very far." (Constantin Brancusi - Romanian sculptor)
"If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants." (Isaac Newton)



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¹ The prize honors international students at German universities, with excellent study performance and remarkably social and intercultural engagement.