This post is re-blogged from The Teacher In The Museum, which “is written to help museum educators better understand how to design learning experiences for the 21st Century student.” The author of the post is Steve Gillis, President & Chief Learning Officer at Net Learning Solutions Inc. and a Social Studies teacher who “helps to bringContinue reading “Field Trips to Museums Are Great But…”
Author Archives: Rebecca Shulman
Fieldtrips and the Small Historic Site
This is the second guest post in the Schools and Museum series on Museum Questions. It is from Elisabeth Nevins, a museum education consultant located in New England. Elisabeth’s firm, Seed Education Consulting, develops educational programming and content for museums and historic sites, and, in her own words, “is driven by the possibilities of exploringContinue reading “Fieldtrips and the Small Historic Site”
Museum Educators’ Unrealized Potential
This post, by Gretchen Jennings, is reblogged from Museum Commons. Thanks to Gretchen for allowing me to share this. The museum blogosphere in the past few weeks has been filled with postings related to the work of museum educators and the role of museums as educational institutions. Rebecca Herz has posted a number of articles andContinue reading “Museum Educators’ Unrealized Potential”
Schools and Museums: Interview with Brian Smith
Brian Smith blogs for Scholastic; you can read his posts here. Brian also teaches in the education department at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina. He serves as Vice President of the North Carolina branch of the International Dyslexia Association, treasurer for the Catawba Valley Chapter of the Autism Society of North Carolina, and serves asContinue reading “Schools and Museums: Interview with Brian Smith”
Schools and Museums: Interview with Ben Garcia
Ben Garcia is Acting Deputy Director at The San Diego Museum of Man. In 2012 Ben published the article “What We Do Best: Making the Case for the Museum Learning in its Own Right,” which proposed that museums should be true to their collections rather than aligning with the school curriculum. This article provoked aContinue reading “Schools and Museums: Interview with Ben Garcia”
Field Trips that Teach Thinking Skills
A number of people have reached out to me to share ways in which they, too, are exploring new approaches to school visits to museums. Some of them have generously agreed to write guest posts to share their ideas. The first of these guest posts is from Claire Bown, a freelance museum educator based inContinue reading “Field Trips that Teach Thinking Skills”
Schools and Museums: Interview with David Bowles
My second interview in the Schools and Museums series is with David Bowles, currently Assistant Museum Educator for School Programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Although the Met is much larger and has many more visitors than most other museums, I think David’s ideas are both smart and broadly useful. Before working at the Met, DavidContinue reading “Schools and Museums: Interview with David Bowles”
Schools and Museums: Interview with Meghan Everette
I recently interviewed Meghan Everette, a 1st grade teacher at Daphne Elementary School in Baldwin County, Alabama, in order to gather her thoughts on school visits to museums. This is the first in a series of interviews that I will be sharing as part of my series rethinking the field trip. Why should schools visit museums?Continue reading “Schools and Museums: Interview with Meghan Everette”
Schools and Museums: What if we tried a whole new approach?
There is a great deal written about the myriad problems with the K-12 educational model in the United States. The system is outdated, constructed to suit a society of factory workers and farmers. The system (many argue) needs to be rethought from the ground up: What should children be learning and why? What scheduling, teacherContinue reading “Schools and Museums: What if we tried a whole new approach?”
What is engagement, and when is it meaningful?
In a recent post, I noted that museums seem to be shifting from education to engagement. I must admit that “engagement” has always seemed to me to be an ambiguous term, representing a reluctance to ask visitors to involve themselves with challenging content, and opening up the museum to any experience necessary to keep peopleContinue reading “What is engagement, and when is it meaningful?”
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