For hundreds of years museums have conserved artifacts of artistic, cultural, scientific, and/or historic importance. I have often wondered if museums themselves are becoming a part of the history they’ve worked so hard to preserve for so many years. Having completed week two of my CFE practicum, I’ve come to realize that as long as there are a dedicated group of individuals like the Royal BC Museum staff working together to promote learning, museums will always be an integral part of our society. They are after all, a portal into learning about our past, a snapshot of our present, and a key to our future.
SPOILER ALERT-It’s called the Internet, dude. It’s true that some may ask why we should even bother going to a museum when the information nowadays is just a click away. Facts about our history, new discoveries made in science, and images of artistic/historical artifacts-it wouldn’t be too difficult to find all of this online. Our need for technology continues to increase on a daily basis. For example back when I was in high school having a cell phone was rare but now when I went back as a student teacher during my practicum experience I realized that more than half of the students in all my classes had them! Now while using technology isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s important we understand that there’s so much more to life than what technology can ever offer us. I’m now reminded of a quote by the great Audrey Hepburn:
Museums allow for critical thinking which leads us to communicating with one another which then leads to self-reflection and learning. The Internet in all its glory does not give you that sense of awe and excitement you get when viewing a full sized Ice Age Mammoth for the first time, or the chance to communicate with a group of friends or even strangers on a topic of historical or scientific importance that might lead to something relevant and important in your life. This is what teaching and learning is all about-the chance to experience something you can take away with you for a long time. For example, I don’t remember much of what I read online a week ago but I remember what I learned in my classes from two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, etc. This is because I was exposed to various teaching methods and learning strategies that helped me learn those various concepts.
This past week was filled with meetings, a fascinating lecture by Professor Jack Lohman (CEO of the Royal BC Museum) on the relevance of museums, lesson planning, and helping run the Museum’s Kids Club program (the theme was bird migration). Now speaking of the Kids Club program let me take this moment to go a little off track to say that doing activities in a museum before it opens is very cool. This is because if you need to, like we did this morning for an activity (involving projectors), you can have security turn off all the lights-which is pretty awesome. Night at the Museum! The kids themselves were in the Elementary level and their level of enthusiasm and excitement to learn on an early Sunday morning at the museum not only helps prove the fact that learning is everywhere and it’s a great interactive process but also on a more personal note reminds me of why I want to become an educator.
Last week I briefly mentioned that this CFE experience has had me reflect on what I consider one of the most important aspects of teaching, that is, learning doesn’t just occur in the walls of a classroom. As a visitor it’s easy to miss sight of this fact but as a staff member I have been exposed to many of the behind the scenes work that goes into promoting learning and development. It’s amazing how often I hear words like learning, development, inquiry, and teaching when I’m working at the museum. What’s most refreshing is that these words aren’t thrown around aimlessly. The museum has a clear purpose and they continue to act on that purpose. It doesn’t matter who you are and which department you work in-if you have an idea not only will it be heard but it will be put into action. I’ve noticed that communication between the different departments (Audio, video, Learning, Archives, Finance, Collections Care, etc.) is taken very seriously. For example, I work in the Learning department and every day I witness these interactions-through emails, phone calls or face to face. I had actually begun thinking about the importance of communication between teachers (not just same subject area) during my practicum and how there needs to be a lot more of it. If teachers can work together, connect what they’re teaching in some way to other classes the students attend, this can greatly benefit the students learning. If students can connect what they are learning in science to something in history for example they’ll not only be able to learn and develop those concepts a lot easier (partially due to being exposed to more review) but also they’ll be more interested and invested in their learning.
To me it really all comes down to this simple fact. That is, if we don’t learn about our past-how will we ever better ourselves, our society and the environment for the future? The same can be said for teaching. If we don’t reflect on and learn from our past experiences (both positive and negative) how can we ever expect to become the educator that the next generation of students need us to be? We need to embrace communication and share our ideas and experiences with one another-not for ourselves but for our students.
Going to go off track again for a bit-I have HUGE arachnophobia and today I went to the Victoria Bug Zoo where I not only was in the same room as a bunch of other spiders but I held a tarantula! I have a picture below to prove it since admittedly my fear is so big that no one would ever believe this without proof. Nevertheless I was in constant state of fear the whole time I held it but the fact that I did hold it amazes me beyond belief. Quite frankly I’m shuttering thinking about it now. What was I thinking? Well that’s one more thing to check off that very long bucket list.
