Video - Maximizing Museum Field Trips

Through the Teaching Palette, I discovered this video from the Art Institute of Chicago. The video was created as a resource to help teachers and students get the most out of a trip to an art museum. The animated video tells the story of high school students going to an art museum. In the video the teacher explains how to behave at an art museum (don't touch the paintings). The teacher and students also model critiquing art. The video is subtitled in English and Spanish.

You can watch the video below.



Applications for Education
Even if you're not able to take your students on a field trip to an art museum, this video still has value. The modeling of conversations about art could be used prior to having students look at art online or in books. 

Explore and Learn at The Met

I recently spent some time exploring the website of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and found that there are some great resources for teachers and students on it. The first place that teachers will want to check out is the Publications for Educators page. In the Publications for Educators you will find a series of PDFs to accompany online features about the art of Egypt, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Beyond the online features in the educators' section, there are some great activities that students can learn from on their own. Students might enjoy and learn from How Van Gogh Made His Mark. How Van Gogh Made His Mark is part biography, part art lesson, and part hands-on drawing activity. After reading about Van Gogh and seeing his art students can try their hands at creating their own Van Gogh-like drawings.

Students will also like Marduk, King of the Gods which is a narrated thirty slide presentation about ancient Mesopotamia.

Culture NOW - Museum Without Walls

Culture NOW is a New York City based organization that works to promote diversity through arts education and cultural tourism. One of Culture NOW's efforts toward that goal is the creation of a Google Map featuring museums and culturally significant sites across North America. The Museum Without Walls map features thousands of placemarks representing museums. Click on a placemark to learn a little about s museum, get a link to that museum, and in some cases listen to a podcast about that museum and its collections.

Applications for Education
Culture NOW's Museum Without Walls map could be a good resource for US teachers and students looking to learn more about the cultural sites near them and across the country. The podcasts provide offer insight into the purpose of the museums. The podcast series also includes audio tours to accompany a site visit to some of the places on the Culture NOW map.