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For Your Consideration 12.3

Hearing Challenges According to Consumer Reports On Health, a publication of Consumers Union, almost every older person experiences some hearing loss. “Much of it is caused by a lifetime of exposure to loud noise. When communicating with an older person is difficult, the American Speech- Language-Hearing Association suggests reducing background …

An Annotated Bibliography

As a follow-up to docent training and on-the-job experience, many docents and staff have asked if The Docent Educator could provide a bibliography for further reading about teaching— its aims, processes, and procedures. Therefore, we have assembled the following, highly idiosyncratic, annotated bibliography for your convenience and use. As you …

For Your Consideration 10.2

An Experiential Exhibition offering Follow-Up The Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (LACMA) is presenting an exhibition of 11 original installations by California artists designed specifically to engage children and their families. Made in California: NOW is the inaugural exhibition of LACMALab, a new experimental research and development unit within …

For Your Consideration 10.1

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation house museums have developed school programming designed to spark young children’s interest in history. At Hay House, for instance, youngsters learn about the basic house structure from familiar fairy tales and games. Older children are involved in an elaborate program that illustrates family life …

For Your Consideration 9.4

Foods for Thought In addition to offering basic and advanced courses for adults in gardening, landscape design, floral design, botanical illustration, and plant studies, The New York Botanical Garden has a wide selection of food-related classes. The following have been among their offerings: Wild Foods of Spring examines forests, wetlands, …

For Your Consideration 7.2

Tips for Teaching Limited English Speakers The Decent Council of the Oakland Museum, in Oakland, California, produced a highly instructive text to assist docents who tour visitors with limited knowledge of the English language. Their manual, entitled Expanding Horizons: Art Museum Tour Techniques for Beginning and Intermediate English Speakers, offers …

For Your Consideration 5.4

Barcelona’s Museum of Contemporary Art A new $35 million Contemporary Art Museum opened this past autumn in Barcelona, Spain. The museum, designed by American architect Richard Meier, has received great praise for its beauty and collection. Complementing Barcelona’s fine Picasso Museum and a hilltop foundation containing a collection of Miro’s …

For Your Consideration 5.1

America Preserved The Library of Congress is offering an all-new, comprehensive checklist of the Historic American Buildings Survey and the Historic American Engineering Record collections. This illustrated publication is hardbound and available for $74 (including UPS shipping). To get further information, or to order, call (800) 255-3666, or TDD (202) …

For Your Consideration 4.4

Expect More Museum-School Partnerships The 1994 U.S. Congress made $100 million available for school and community partnerships, as part of its Goals 2000 legislation. Created to improve the quality of education as we move into the 21st century, the legislation encourages schools to take advantage of community resources and connect …

For Your Consideration 4.2

References about the Full Spectrum of American History While the English immigrants and their descendants require and deserve attention, for they possessed inordinate power to define American culture and make public policy, learning about a range of other cultures can fill out understandings and help to explain general patterns and …

Index of Issues

The Docent as Teacher Autumn 1991, Vol. 1, No. 1 (download pdf of entire issue) Subjectivity and Inquiry Teaching, Alan Gartenhaus Teachers have Great Expectations, Jackie Littleton Questioning Strategies: For Adults Only, Barbara Henry Blind People Can See Your Collections With a Little Help From You, Janice Majewski For Your Consideration It Works for Me: …

Supporters

Museum-Ed used a Kickstarter Campaign to create a searchable archive of The Docent Educator. This archive would not be possible without all of the generous support by the people below. Full Series Support: J. Marshall Adams Marianna Adams Christina Alderman Anonymous Autry National Center Education Department Birmingham Museum of Art Mary Ann …

For Your Consideration 4.1

Survival Skills for Student Discipline Though successful strategies for control of student discipline problems (and for maintaining order) will differ from one situation or student to the next, the following are some suggestions for influencing students toward appropriate behaviors. Communicate institutional rules for behavior, such as “objects should not be …

For Your Consideration 3.4

A New Resource for Volunteer Program Administration The American Council for the Arts in association with the American Association for Museum Volunteers has produced a comprehensive text on administering volunteer programs that should of assistance to anyone organizing or supervising volunteers. Volunteer Program Administration: A Handbook for Museums and Other …

For Your Consideration 2.3

Answering Tough Questions in Science George F. Smoot III, an astrophysicist at the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, recently made one of this century’s most important scientific discoveries. He and his research team uncovered the first evidence of the formation of primordial structures from the universe’s creation. Essentially, Smoot …

For Your Consideration 1.1

Thinking Strategies In their text “Teaching for Thinking: Theory, Strategies and Activities for the Classroom” (Teachers College, Columbia University Press, 1986), authors Raths, Wasserman, Jonas, and Rothstein warn that “we are graduating large numbers of students who are expert at memorizing and recalling factual information, but who lack the ability to …