Dear Deb, You've given me quite a bit to think about. Since the museum
where I currently work is on the UIC campus, I have easy access (and it's
free!) to both the Education Dept. here and the Masters in the Teaching of
History program here. Since I know some of our professors here at UIC, it
certainly seems worthwhile to at least start talking to them and get a feel
for their responsiveness.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I truely appreciate your suggestions.
Peggy Glowacki

At 09:34 AM 1/28/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>At 10:10 AM 1/27/99 -0800, you wrote:
>>Hi, Does anyone have information about or opinions of the relative merits
>>of Distance Education programs in Museum Studies? I have worked in a small
>>museum for 9 years and am thinking of going back for a second MA (my first
>>was in American history) but cannot relocate. There are no Museum Studies
>>programs in the Chicago area
>
>I'm sure there is a university in the Chicago area that has a graduate
>general education program.  Granted it will be for classroom teachers but
>you can probably get out of the M.Ed. without student teaching if you
>explain to the dean that you are a museum person.  And even if you do have
>to student teach, it's good experience to be on "the other side of the
>desk" for a time.
>
>The educational theory will all be the same and the extra work in the
>classrooms is emensely beneficial because you will have to work with kids
>in a school classroom and deal with the limitations of the classroom as a
>museum educator.  This is critical information to know and understand when
>working in a museum ed program.  I've seen far too many good museum ed
>programs that are almost completely useless because the museum educators
>who prepared them did not understand what the needs and abilties of a
>classroom teacher are.  Most of it was due to the follow-up activities that
>were either over the teacher's heads in subject matter and thus they
>couldn't explain the lessons to their students, required materials and
>activities that were not available or feasible in a classroom or just took
>too long to do.  Nature lessons that need a field or patch of woods are no
>good in a city.         Art activties that require lots of clean-up and
set-up or
>special materials are impossible to do in a school with no extra rooms to
>use or art teacher to order special supplies.
>
>A traditional ed grad program will also help you understand how state
>curriculums work and what pressures teachers are to teach these
>curriculums.  Any outside info that teachers can use with minimal effort on
>their part are always greatly appreciated.  If you know what the teachers
>have to teach and how they have to teach it, you can look at your museum
>program and create curriculum that teachers can use.  A unit on modern art
>for 5th graders is useless to a teacher who has to teach Renaissance
>history.  A unit on how lifestyles and social attitudes are reflected
>through art in the Renaissance for 5th graders would be perfect.
>
>Lastly, a general ed program will give you experience and knoweldge of how
>to teach all subjects, not just the one your museum is about.  Curriculums
>these days are "multi-disciplinary", meaing that lessons generally don't
>focus on one subject but incorporate several subjects.  The book "Island of
>the Blue Dolphins" can be used not only for reading/language arts but for
>science math and history.  Learning how to incorporate more than one
>subject area in a lesson is a valuable skill because the more SOLs a
>teacher can cover in a lesson, the easier her job is.
>
>Good luck!
>
>Deb
>
>
>
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