Glenbow Museum Resources

Information for Teachers

An ideal program of study is based on an "all encompassing" idea that will connect your week on site to a larger plan. The program of study will include many other experiences that take place prior to and following the week on site (i.e. in-class projects and other activities).

Making the Most of the Museum School
Bibliography
Links

Teacher's Checklist

• Consider possible ideas for your long term plans
  
• What will be your major focus and how will this fit with the Program of Studies?
• How do you think a week at the Open Minds site can fit in with this?
• What kind of research do you need to do about the Open Minds Site?
• Attend the welcoming and orientation session
• Send the ChevronTexaco Open Minds information, the health form and the release form home
• Gather the necessary health information
• Through the year, interweave the teaching of needed skills with the teaching of your long term plans
• How will you teach observation skills?
• How will you develop journal writing skills?
• How will you incorporate drama?
• How will you develop creative writing skills?
• Consider making use of measuring tapes/trundle wheels
• How will you develop sketch-style drawing skills?
• What other research will the students need to do to help them with their week at the Open Minds site?
• Continue to develop long-term plans
• Select parents and other volunteers
• Buy observation/journal notebooks
• Prepare notebooks for leaders and parent volunteers
• Confirm your bus one week prior to your visit
• Check out the information and ideas on the Internet
• Have your school prepare the $600 or $350 cheque
• Discuss with volunteers what their roles and responsibilities will be
• Please review your site's rules and expectations with your students
• If you have any questions, give us a call.

Please note: Teachers should ensure all students come prepared for school and should bring all necessary supplies for the week

What your students will need:

Student List (all things of value should be labeled)

• Pencils, pencil sharpener and eraser
• Crayons or felts
• Hard cover journal/observation books - A must have!
• Plastic water bottle
• Appropriate clothing
• Camera (optional)
• Garbage-free nutritious lunch
• Snack (each student can bring a snack or parents can send a snack for the whole class)
  
  

Making the most of the Glenbow Museum School

The Importance of Learning from Objects!

• Interpreting objects aids our understanding of the world
• Specific knowledge is not necessary to learn from objects
• Objects offer the opportunity for cross-curricular studies
• Object-based learning provides a greater appreciation of the role of 'things' in our lives
• Understanding objects creates links between today's pupils and other societies throughout the world past and present
• Objects can motivate
• Objects create a concrete hands-on and minds-on experience that illuminates abstract thought
• Objects provide creative and emotional stimulus. Experiences which are linked to emotions can remain much longer in the mind than word-gained facts and ideas.
  

Objects: What can we learn from them? Why object-based learning?

Learners must be equipped with "the basics," but basic literacy and math skills are not enough. To function in a world where the amount of information doubles in months and people will change jobs many times during their working years, students need a broader set of skills and this can be partially achieved by building on the ability of the student to interpret, decipher and encode the information they receive. To succeed in the workplace and in our changing society, people must develop higher level skills, including creativity, problem-solving, the ability to communicate in different ways, self-discipline, tolerance and critical thinking.

Learning, as defined by many theorists, focuses only on learning cognitive information. This is unfortunate! We know that most people learn best when learning is facilitated, when they are not taught directly and we know a person learns well only those things perceived to be conducive to the maintenance or enhancement of self. By using objects in learning we are able to access the student's prior, lack of, and associative knowledge. As well, objects can be connected to concepts we teach in social/cultural history for instance and to one's emotions. Object-based learning is a hands-on way to hone your skills of observation and perception; enhance your creative and problem solving ability; and to build on and apply different ways of communicating.

Perception

Object-based observation provides us with the opportunity to use other senses as well as learn from others. Each person sees any one object from a different perspective. Their perspective can be unique to their culture, to their social interactions, or to their particular way of framing an experience. As students are encouraged to share what they know, sense, feel, about an object the information that comes to the surface further enhances how other see that object. This kind of socially mediated learning aids a student in expanding their knowledge within their social/cultural context.

If meaningful learning is to take place it needs to be linked to existing concepts and principles in the learner's structure. By using every day objects complex concepts can be taught in a way that there is a direct link to the student's own life and environment. Objects can be used to spark discussion about a broad topic such as global pollution or they can be used to focus attention on a specific idea such as trade. When we explore objects physically we remember information about them better than if we merely read facts about them. Concepts are difficult to retain however, if one can remember the object/s associated with a concept he/she can potentially recall the concept.

How Developed are our Visual & Analytical skills? (Not so good!)

We tend to look at objects very quickly, a few seconds at most. We tend to see no value in quiet contemplation and we give no time for it. We seldom ask questions about the objects we own or come to know why they look the way they do. We simply accept them. Ask a simple question: Why do we make tables which are not made out of wood look like wood? By seeking the answers to such questions we can better understand for example, the role of designers in our society; the importance of familiar materials being use to construct things we depend on, etc.

Learning is strongly influenced by physical settings; social interactions; personal beliefs, knowledge and attitudes. How we interpret the world can be a clear indication of what we know, what influences us, who we interact with. Using objects in the classroom as points of departure for discussions can assist the teacher in coming to understand his/her students. What a student say about an object presents who they are. For example, we make judgments about people by observing their appearance hair, shoes, and clothing. Or conversely, people tell us what they want us to think about them by what they wear and how they wear it. If a teenager dyes his hair green what do you think of him? If a 50 year old man dyes his hair green what do you think of him? Does your perspective change? Why? What message do you think these green haired people are trying to send? Is what we think mediated by personal prejudice, social/cultural beliefs and values, tolerance or personal differences?

Through the objects people own and use we are able to observe how they are the same as or different from ourselves. By exploring the objects of other people - either close to you or foreign to you - you can come to know something of how they live without having written information, without speaking. These explorations can include the urban poor, babies, early settlers, classmates, prehistoric people, etc. Have your students bring special objects from home. These objects can illustrate how we are the same and also build tolerance for the ways we are different.

Objects can be presented as fact or as fiction

Objects are a reflection of the people who use them. They can be interpreted and understood from a cultural, social, historical perspective or they can be personalized by viewing them through the stories they inspire. In sharing facts about objects leave room for personal reflections and interpretations. It is not always essential to present only what we believe to be true. What is created and invented about an object can be as valuable to knowing that object as facts are. Objects, like history, are multifaceted and how they are interpreted depends on the perspective of the presenter.

Bibliography

Links

www.glenbow.org
Glenbow Museum site
If you and your students use Glenbow's website for research purposes please remember that many of the works will not be on exhibit during your week at the museum.

www.writinghome.ab.ca
Exploring literacy in museums. Students can add their own stories.

www.yahooligans.com/tg/basil.htm
For the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (book) by E. L. Konigsberg

www.civilization.ca
www.imagescanada.ca

Back to Top