Another highlight from this week was a visit we made to the Windermere Valley Museum! At first glance, I wasn’t sure that this quaint little pioneer museum would have much to offer… the buildings are all restored from when pioneers first settled in the valley, and have been re-located to one location.
The main building housed a lot of pioneer artifacts, as well as local First Nations artifacts.
It was really fascinating to view all of the artifacts, but it was also interesting because I noticed how my outlook/perspective on experiences has changed since completing my practicum and coming towards of the BEd program. While viewing all of these artifacts, different lessons, activities, and experiential experiences were coming to mind – ways that I could engage students in learning!
Then, continuing through the museum – the possibilities for lessons and experiences kept coming!
One of my favourite aspects was the old school house from Brisco (1906). It was very small and clearly extremely different to today’s school/classroom sizes! It was nice to see the style of desks, they even had an example of what a teacher would wear on a typical day. Such a great resource to have, and an opportunity for students today to have experiential/role-play scenarios from “pioneer days”.
An element of the school house that I was particularly drawn to, was the display of natural materials – the use of authentic and natural materials is something that I was quite passionate about in my daily practice, so it was really interesting and great to see that it was once something that used to be part of the education system. I think that there is no better way to give perspective and meaning to students, than to use authentic materials/examples, I think that too often people are drawn to commercial products because they’re ‘easy’… not for their educational and inspirational value to students.
Overall, this visit/experience to the Windermere Valley Museum was more that I had expected! It was a lovely place to visit, and the connections I made to my own teaching, as well as the realizations I made in regards to how I view things around me with an “educational” eye was really exciting!