Something to consider: A great many schools are now going some version of high-tech. If they don't have computers directly in the classrooms, many of the students do, and the teachers (at least out here) encourage/assign their students to do additional research online. I've had several requests from my grandchildren in that regard.
Make the schools familiar with your website. Partner with them and your IT staff (as appropriate) to figure out if there are things you can include that ties to their curricula. In that way, a teacher might spark an interest in a child and motivate the children to "visit" the museum first online. A lot of enthusiasm, combined with a bunch of "ooh, I want to see THAT," may increase visitorship and therefore funding.
In addition, a teacher that can directly tie the school curricula to what's on the website may be better able to get the funding/time for a trip.
From: Diane Hutsell <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 7:46:32 AM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Question on working with teachers & schools
I've got a question on working with teachers and schools. We've had a pretty good relationship with our schools for the last 20 years or so. But, with how things have changed for teachers as far as what they can teach and how many trips they're allowed to take we are looking at retooling all of our education resources. What we want to do is get teachers together with key museum staff to show them currently what we offer and ask them specifically what they need and two, to find out how we can offer in-service programs. How do we get them here? What do you offer that has worked well and what has not? This is new to us, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
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