Collaborating with local museum projects:
Promoting educational history in your local area Submitted by Joan Zaretsky
L
ast year, Chapter Presidents started a discussion of
3. The creation of some posters and/or online videos with photos
potential local museums to visit with their members
and stories of some of your members’ experiences could be
as well as projects they may wish to initiate with their
displayed in the museum. In fact, these photos and stories
local museums. As retired teachers, we all know how our mental
could be collected and published as a book for other museums
health gets a boost when we feel empowered to create new
across Manitoba if you wanted to get really involved in this
ideas and to support the learning of others.
suggestion. Often, the stories that are written in obituaries
Below are a few ideas of projects which you may want to develop collaboratively with your local museum. You may find in discussions that they have some specific ideas or requests
tell of some very unique teaching experiences and it would be nice to share the stories recalled by our members while they are still alive.
which they would suggest once you open the doors to providing
4. As well as a written story of your historical experiences,
some support from your membership. Enjoy these suggestions
Chapter members may be encouraged to record virtual
and create your own new ideas to share with other Chapters at
interviews of retired teachers from the area talking about
future meetings!
their teaching experiences. These videos could be running
A good starting point may be to visit your local museum to understand what they currently have on site that supports the history of education in your area. You may select to buffer what they have with other materials your members may provide or restructure a display based on your members’ experiences and memories. You could discuss, and offer your support, in the development of any of the following ideas. 1. Create a travelling display of “Teaching Through the Ages” which could move to different museums in your district or larger area.
on a laptop, iPad or other virtual display monitor within the museum displays. Some of our Chapter members may enjoy taking on this project. You could expand this project to talking with your local television channels to develop a program using these interviews. Getting local media involved would generate interest in the museums and promote the history of the local Chapter teachers. Don’t forget radio interviews discussing your project and local newspaper interviews. Any media coverage, including social media, would be wonderful for the local museum and a source of pride for your members. 5. Depending on the size of your museum and the willingness of
2. You could create a “history of education in your area” using the
the museum staff to offer you more space, you could create
concept of a travelling suitcase. There was a suitcase contest
a whole new stable display which illustrates more current
developed by Heritage Canada in the past. The suitcases
artifacts from recent years such as the 1950s – current
travelled across the country and were then returned to their
times. Many museums have a one-room school setting with
home museums. They were not necessarily specific to
blackboards, older desks and older books but there have been
education but local events or unique contributions to history
many changes between then and now.
which local museums wished to highlight. If each Chapter developed an educational travelling suitcase, it would be a spectacular project. Talk with your museum about how this project was run in the past. These suitcases could be a focal point at an upcoming RTAM AGM if a number of Chapters decided to pursue this idea. 20 RTAM KIT / Fall 2023
6. To encourage newly retired Chapter members to get involved, you could elicit them to generate some classroom ideas/ activities at various grade levels which could be used by your local museums when there are school visits. These could be used by the tour guides during the museum visits or by the
