Greetings, Fellow Wayfarers!
Welcome back and Happy New Year!
Some exciting things have been happening in the Living Museum and I'm excited to share them with you.
This past semester, I was fortunate enough to be chosen to participate in the Smithsonian's Teach-It-Forward Program, out of the National Museum of American History. The program is offered to area teachers based on resume and experience and introduces new and innovative ways to incorporate the resources of the Smithsonian Institution into an existing classroom lesson plan.
After 2 days of intensive training at multiple Smithsonian museums, each teacher was sent back to their schools to formulate a detailed lesson plan incorporating our new tools. Along the way we submitted the plans for feedback and collaboration with Smithsonian personnel. At the end of the process, we submitted a video recording of our class session!
I'm pleased and proud to present my lesson plans here! As a Special Education professional, I chose to focus my lesson on bullying. Learning about Great Empires is part of the 2nd Grade Social Studies curriculum. With this in mind, my 2nd grade class explored the ways that a local village government functions in the country of Mali. They learned about the differences in our two governments, the economic differences, and varying perceptions in social status. At the end of the lesson, I chose students to act as various members of the tribal council and then had them decide the answer to a basic social question.
In the following blog posts, I'll be talking more about the process I used to build this lesson, how I introduced it to the class and what their feedback was. I welcome your comments and questions and I'm excited to share this new Living Museum experience with you!
