Inside the CHS is moving!

In 2006 Barbara started the Manuscript blog on WordPress, talking about all the collections and her experiences working at CHS. She has kept it going mostly on her own, until the rest of the staff volunteered to help out, turning the manuscript blog in to Inside the CHS. Our staff has done an amazing job blogging daily about their passions and experiences working the the museum field. After over a year of growth on WordPress the blog is ready to come home to CHS.org.

However, we have even bigger news! We are not going to simply add Inside the CHS to the current site, we built a whole new CHS.org.  We are all working hard to get the site ready for launch in the next couple of weeks, so you might see a little down time here on Inside the CHS. To get ready, all our writers are taking a little summer time break. They are recharging their blogging batteries and to taking some time to learn how to use the new CHS.org

This blog will still be here, but all new posts, as well as our archive, will be moving to the new CHS.org. So enjoy some of the older posts, discover a new author, or send us some idea for new posts.

See you soon on the new CHS.org

Summer Time= Recharging Teachers

I usually talk about my past teaching experiences in the blog posts; so I thought I would switch it up and talk a little about the work here in the museum. Since I will doing a good deal of editing and writing for our new website this month, I decide to just to a quick top five list.

Switching Gears for the Summer

Summer is here, which means less teaching for the education staff. We still have summer programs, but we are not as busy in July and August. The lighter teaching schedule gives me a little down time to breathe, work on the website, and reflect on my teaching this year. 

Being a Teacher- Part Two

Teaching in a museum setting is such a different experience than teaching in a school. As a museum educator I have a chance to work off of lesson plans,with no homework or tests, to grade. The students are there to have fun and most of the time they are excited to be out of the class room, even if they don’t always show it. So even on a bad museum day, it does not hold a candle to my first week of teaching.

Being a Teacher- Part One

I have been working on a post about moving from the classroom to a museum setting, and my biggest issue has been how do you start, and how long of a post do I want to create? Without the past I can’t really compare the present, so I guess I will start at the beginning, with my first day teaching.

Keeping Track of History

In the next few weeks I will be teaching a great deal of programs about immigration. The museum and outreach program focus on the stories of the people who have left their homes looking for a better, or different, life here in Connecticut. Being the son of an immigrant, the program has special meaning for me, and it has made me think about my own story. 

Playing the Teaching Game

I teach by day and work with toys by night. If that opening did not give you a hint, yes I am a comic book fan. I’m always trying to figure out a way to bring that out in my teaching, whether is setting up my desk at work with fun action figures, or trying to work video games into a lesson plan, my most effective work usually has a part of me in it.

The More They Change……

Toys have been around for as long as parents needed a way to distract and entertain their kids. From the bone toys of the Native Americans, to the wooden toys of the Colonists, to the action figures of today; their meanings have not changed, just the complexity, maybe.

Comparing Times

If you could not tell teaching students and talking about the concept of time, as it relates to history, has always been interesting to me. I think it all comes from watching Back to the Future when I was five years old, the concept found a spot in my head and never left. So when it comes to teaching kids about the past I have always tried to find a way to make it simple, addressing the details about objects, and working off even the smallest thing.

Teaching Time

Museums bring up images of Indiana Jones and Warehouse 13; but museums are rarely that exciting. They tend to be places where you can look at really old stuff. So, how do you get kids excited about looking at a pot that is over 400 years old?