Smoke Signals

Hi, I’m David Bowles, and these days I’m thinking about smoke signals.

Smoke signals may make you think about the Rockies instead of the Himalayas, but bear with me here. I’m a visual thinker. I work as Assistant Manager of School Programs to design great museum experiences for K-12 students and their teachers. This time of year is a rare time to slow down (for a moment) and think strategically. The pace is about to pick up after a quiet August, and the new school year right around the corner. I’m in the midst of reaching out to teachers and school administrators across the tri-state area, and I find myself thinking about how we communicate with each other.

Teaching at a local NYC School

Every school has a spark – people who really makes things happen. These people are sometimes the parent coordinators, sometimes the teachers, sometimes a secretaries in the main office. There is almost always more than one. These are the people who know how to connect cultural institutions like museums to school curricula. You just never know who they’ll turn out to be. How can I make contact? What line of communication will help us share ideas in an authentic, efficient, and clear way? Sometimes I feel like we are in a wilderness sending smoke signals to each other.

But then of course, this is an urban jungle, so we’ve got modern tools at our disposal! Here are a few (but certainly not all) great ways that cultural organizations and schools can communicate.

1. The New York City Department of Education has an enormous wealth of resources online: http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/arts/cultop.html

2. Alumni networks are great conduits of information. I studied Museum Education at Bank Street College of Education, and their alumni blog and listserv are great tools for reaching alumni in schools across the city: http://bankstreetcollege.wordpress.com/

3. Education Conferences: My colleagues and I participate in teaching conferences like the Celebration of Teaching and Learning throughout the year. What a great way to meet new teachers! http://thirteencelebration.org/.

Conferences are a great place to make connections

4. Educator Open Houses: The museum hosts two open houses for educators each year. Our last open house, on Wednesday, October 6, featured representatives from an array of cultural organizations of interest to teachers, and offered teachers a chance to relax, catch a tour, explore opportunities for student learning at the museum, and get their hands on great educational materials. Our next Educator Open House will be in February 2011, so stay tuned.

5. Personal Contacts: As I meet teachers throughout the year, I stay in touch and keep them posted on exciting events at the museum that may interest them. Many of them do the same with me! This kind of correspondence creates avenues for communication that strengthen over time.

6. Pounding the pavement. It’s not glamorous, but sometimes a great conversation starts by just showing up in schools and striking up a conversation.

What are some ways that you send out smoke signals?

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