TEN TEACHER TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL MUSEUM VISIT

1. Talk with Museum Staff. Plan a focus for your tour. When booking your tour, let staff know about special needs. Find out what the Museum has to offer, and what they ask of you (i.e., chaperones). Ask where you should meet Museum Staff when you arrive at the Museum.

2. Share the map/parking information with your bus driver. Ask museum staff for a map to the Museum, and information about parking.

3. Prepare your students for their visit. Talk with them about their expectations. Make a list of things they would like to find out during their visit. Discuss unfamiliar words that relate to the museum visit. Explain museum manners. Encourage students to participate while at the Museum, to ask questions.

4. Ask for resources to help you prepare your students. Some museums have pre-tour packets, or staff that can visit your classroom prior to a museum visit.

5. Check out a book from the library that will give you hints on how to prepare students for a museum visit. Many contain activities to help sharpen students’ perceptual skills. (Several contain suggestions for post-visit activities). Check out a storybook that describes an imaginary museum visit. Here are some example of books you may find useful:

Where’s the ME in Museum; Teach the Mind, Touch the Spirit: A Guide to Focused Field Trips; Ella’s Trip to the Museum; The Field Mouse and the Dinosaur Named Sue; From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; Going to the Getty; How to Take Your Grandmother to the Museum; Let’s Go to the Art Museum; You Can’t Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum; The Field Trip Handbook; Tell Me A Picture.

6. Have children wear nametags (first-name only). This helps docents interact more effectively with students.

7. Find out what you can/can’t bring. Leave backpacks, book-bags, lunch-bags, food and drink on the bus. Ask what writing tools are allowed if your students will be writing in the museum. Most museums only allow pencils.

8. Plan for a restroom break before arriving at the Museum.

9. Arrive promptly. Bring the Museum’s phone number with you the day of your tour. Call if you are lost, bad weather has detained you, etc. This will help the museum adjust the tour accordingly, so you can stay on schedule.

10. Ask students to stay with their group. Stay with your students during their tour.

Sources:
Voris, Helen & Sedzielarz, Maija & Blackmon, Carolyn. Teach the Mind, Touch the Spirit: A Guide to Focused Field Trips. Chicago: Department of Education, Field Museum of Natural History, 1986.

Waterfall, Milde & Grusin, Sarah. Where’s the Me in Museum: Going to Museums with Children. Arlington: Vandamere Press, 1989.