Practicing innovation
How can we make ancient history relevant to our students today and their learning in the future? How can museums be an agent for innovation while supporting the learning goals of a K-12 school audience? Finding relevance and building …
The Future of Education Road Trip Begins!
Hi, Nicole here! We are excited to begin this new year with a new project at CFM. My colleague, Sage Morgan-Hubbard (Ford W. Bell Fellow in Museums and P-12 Education) and I are preparing to start the first leg of the Future of Education …
We Want You!: The Targeted Recruitment of Youth
The world is rapidly growing, becoming more interconnected and increasingly diverse. Diversity means many things, from gender equality, to racial and socioeconomic equity. Many cultural institutions have out-of-school-time classes, …
We must decolonize our museums!
“Museums can be very painful sites for Native peoples, as they are intimately tied to the colonization process,” writes Ho-Chunk scholar Amy Lonetree. Reading this passage for the first time in 2012 stopped me in my tracks and forced me …
Flexible pathways to graduation in Vermont energize museum-school partnerships
I gave a shout-out to Vermont museums last September, asking them “wassup” with new legislation in their state giving students the right to personal learning plans. Nina Ridhibhinyo wrote back offering to share how she and her colleagues …
10 Easy Ways Museums Can Be More LGBTQ-friendly
Have you ever been bothered by something, found co-workers who were bothered by the same thing, put your heads together, and made change happen? That’s pretty much how in 2010 we got Chicago Children’s Museum’s LGBTQ Inclusion initiative …
What’s the secret ingredient in the Tsongas Industrial History Center’s success?
Officially opened 25 years ago as a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Graduate School of Education and Lowell National Historical Park, the Tsongas Industrial History Center provides hands-on, interdisciplinary …
Kindergarden Readiness in the PreK Classroom
Peek into an early childhood classroom and you’ll most likely be greeted by a hum of energy and activity. Block structures being built, art being made, worlds being created with dress up and props. In case you would be tempted to say “But …
The power of storytime
Storytime is a mainstay of early childhood programming in museums. It’s versatile, good for lots of different ages, can be relatively low prep and encourages literacy. Wins all around! However, educators have to be careful that they don’t …
My Primary School is at the Museum – Squaring the Circle
Just one year ago I felt I was still dreaming about the idea of running a proof of concept project to examine whether or not it could be a good idea to co-locate primary schools, or even nurseries, with neighborhood museums. Collections …
