Local Gems in Statewide Treasure Chest

At the Bridging Museums and Schools workshop today, participants had the opportunity to reflect on how they were using the Fifth Maine Regiment building in the same way as Civil War veterans decades before, as a place to cozy up to a hot cup of coffee and take shelter from the coastal chill while they shared experiences. Karen MacDonald of King Middle School offered an inspiring glimpse into how the expeditionary learning approach can involve museums. I heard several participants comment that they took to heart her distinction between “the field trip” and the “field work” approach to student visitation at museums. This year, MacDonald used Robert Shetterly’s “Americans Who Tell the Truth” exhibit for King’s Windor 6 Lead On Expedition. “Museums,” MacDonald said, “are models for our culminating projects…they also are a source for our research, an inspiration, and a site for teachers to experience their own professional development.” If you missed her presentation, you can still catch their Site Seminar, Leadership Summit, or Celebration of Learning next week.

Carolin Collins of the Maine Historical Society’s educational program presented next, sharing her experience with the well-received Local History/Local Schools partnership program; she also demonstrated how the Maine Memory Network could serve as an invaluable resource, and creative outlet, for teachers and their students. Collins reported that more than two hundred museums and historical societies statewide have contributed, collectively, over 15,000 primary sources to this online database! Among its many resources, Maine Memory Network offers Finding Katahdin: An Online Exploration of Maine History, including more than 50 Maine Studies lesson plans and hundreds of primary source documents tied to the acclaimed Maine Studies text book Finding Katahdin (University of Maine Press, 2002). Collins completed the herculean task of re-aligning Finding Katahdin with the "new" 2007 Maine Learning Results.

Lastly, I facilitated some role-playing, encouraging the elementary and middle school teachers, as well as museum staff and volunteers to step into the shoes of students and try some inquiry-based exercises involving primary historical sources. One exercise took an analytical approach to historic photographs and ephemera to learn the distinction between “evidence” and “interpretation”; the other exercise adapted the National Writing Project’s “writers marathon” into a museum-based or classroom-based writing exercise that puts heritage resources "to work" as sources of inspiration. This was also my opportunity to advocate for the National History Day program in Maine and for fostering inquiry-based learning environments.

There is such creativity among us on how to bridge the space between museums and schools that we need to continue the dialogue and share these local gems in our statewide treasure chest.