Museum Educator Job

The Columbia County Historical Society, located in Kinderhook, NY seeks an energetic and experienced Museum Teacher to serve as a vital member of the education team. The Museum Teacher works under the direction of the Museum Educator, and alongside a second Museum Teacher. It is a one year, grant funded position. The Museum Teacher will work on a variety of aspects of the Society’s public programs, including those for adults, families, schools, and children. Candidates must demonstrate the ability to foster and maintain good working relationships with colleagues from other institutions in the county and beyond, as well as develop new constituencies and engender broader interest in the Society, its buildings, its collections, and the history of the county. A BA in history, education, public history, museums studies, or related field is required; MA preferred. Experience working in museum education, teaching, and public speaking experience are preferred. The selected candidate must be able to work independently and as a member of a team and to interact with the public in a positive, confident, and enthusiastic manner. To apply, send a cover letter and resume by e-mail (educator@cchsny.org) or mail (Columbia County Historical Society, PO Box 311 , Kinderhook , NY 12106 ).

School Program Feedback

What lessons did we learn?

• Dress and perception
• Be prepared
• Be familiar with content
• Stations getting cluttered and keeping them clean
• Rely on lesson plan

General feedback

• Good mix of programs
• Kids enjoyed activities and engaged
• Good introduction and organization
• Like the public program better (more flexibility and different people)
• Liked the structure of the school program
• Every learned something- even if positive or negative
• Lesson plan was helpful

Final Presentation Schedule

Reminders about final:
Business casual attire
Please practice your presentation (like you are presenting this to your colleagues or the board, director, etc.)
Visuals are god- PowerPoint, mock ups are encouraged

Final presentation schedule below:
Starting at on 5/18:
(10 minutes for each, including Q&A time)
Stephanie Cadwell
Martina Camarda
Arianna Galluzzo
Kelly Holman
Sydney Jenkins

5/20:
Katherine Miller
Rebecca Redman
Rachel Schwartzman
Molly Sloan
Danielle Smith
Margaret Webb
Rebecca Welton

Discussion Questions for Getting Down to Business: Funding Museum Education for the Future

Johnson, et al. Chapter 11 “Financing Museum Education Programs”
1) What is "Internal Funding"
2) What should the Museum Educator do during the planning and budget process?
3) Please list and briefly describe the different aspects of "External Funding" (Grants, individual support, sponsorship and corporate funding, and donations and volunteers)

Falk and Sheppard Chapter 2 “Creating a New Business Model”
1. What are some components of the business model? Should a business model be static or dynamic? What do you think is the most important aspect of a business model?
2. What are the four questions a business should ask itself? How are all of these important to the success of a museum?
3. How has the business of running a museum changed? Do you think that this is for the better or worse of the museum? Explain.

Class Discussion Questions May 4th

Arianna Galluzzo
May 3rd, 2010
Three Questions for my presentation (5/4/10) on engaging the community to come into museums/keeping them engaged:

1.) Whether or not you read the chapters for today, we’ve talked a lot over the course of the semester about how to keep visitors and the community engaged. What do you think is the best way to bring people into the museum and keep them there? Share personal experiences if you can think of any museums that got you to stay for an extended period of time.

2.) When you go into a museum what kind of experience(s) do you usually feel/want and why?
Black mentioned 4 possible experiences:
Object experience—seeing the real thing that is rare and valuable
Cognitive experience—gaining understanding, enrichment and knowledge
Introspective experience—reflecting on the meaning, time, place of the object, reflecting memories or feeling connected to the object spiritually
Social experience—spending time with family and friends, watching family (and yourself) learn new things in the process of a museum visit

3.) In Black Chapter 10 one of the quotes said—“Museums have to change or die”—how do you feel about this statement? Do museums have an obligation to keep up with “the times”, technology, to evaluate themselves as an institution and the interest of people in the community? Is the pressure to be “hip and relevant” outweighing a connection with the community/museum goers? Any happy medium here?

Tenement Museum

Be sure to visit the Tenement Museum's website and check out the programs Sarah mentioned:

Education Information

Baseball Hall of Fame: School Program Follow Up

Just following up on today's presentation from Anna Wade. Below are some resources she shared with us:


Basball HOF curriculum modules
Baseball HOF revamped economic curriculum
Museum Education presentation