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Welcome to Our Classroom Museum
By Keil Hileman
For a teacher whose credo is "Explore Your World, Empower Yourself and Those Around You, Excel in Everything You Do," creating a museum in his classroom made perfect sense
Allison poses with a recent addition to the classroom museum – her great great grandfather's 1907 wood burning stove.
Why should you start a collection of artifacts? For starters, your students will look forward to coming to your class each day. They'll never know what new items they'll see and learn about. This anticipation is invaluable as an instructional tool. All you have to do is have things they want to touch, explore and examine in your classroom.
What is an artifact? My definition for an artifact: any object used to teach a lesson. These can be purchased reproductions, student-created models, donated items, posters, videos or books. I've found that the best approach to teaching the social sciences is a visual and hands-on methodology. Once you've started a collection of teaching artifacts, the collection will grow through student-created projects and donations from outside sources. We live in an age of spectacular visual and physical experiences. Surrounding your students with artifacts that teach is the best way to motivate, educate and inspire.
Oftentimes, older generations will donate to the classroom museum because it's a way to connect kids to the past.
Obtaining artifacts. You can always buy artifacts from antique stores, garage sales, catalogs and anywhere else you see something that would support your curriculum or lesson objectives. You may want to seek financial support from local churches, businesses and your school PTO/PTA. Once the word spreads, people may also seek your museum out as a home for artifacts their family no longer values. Families will often sell or donate items when relatives pass away. Veterans have said that donating to our classroom museum is a way to connect younger generations to the past. Many WWII vets have donated amazing things to educate students about WWII, such as a Nazi banner with a swastika on it.
The best form of assessment. The area of student-created projects is by far the best form of assessment I've discovered. The students often create unique items that make great additions to the museum. I give extra credit on the project if it is something that's donated to the museum after creation. I also offer extra credit for items that are an extension or addition to an already existing project in the museum – e.g. adding a moat to an existing castle, outfitting an action figure in costume and adding to an existing battle scene, etc. This gives your students a sense of ownership in the classroom and museum. I enjoy it when students come back each year to see how the museum has changed and grown. If they've donated or created an artifact, they're always drawn to it first; the connection to what they've learned is still strong.
Advanced artifact activities. As the center of many creative instructional activities, the classroom museum allows me to connect with and reach all of my students. Students with exceptionalities and special needs can be "pulled" into any lesson with the use of museum artifacts. The museum also provides an infinite number of advanced activities that challenge my gifted and high-achieving students.
Touch Tables: Artifacts connected to the unit being taught are kept out on a table. Students are free to read about, touch and study them.
Open Discussion and Analysis: I present a museum artifact or piece of history and we guess what it might be, how it was used and why it's significant to the topic under discussion. It's a great way to launch an educational unit or test for knowledge at the end of the unit.
Project Examples and Guides: I use previous student projects and current artifacts as examples for future student projects.
Artifact Research: Students are asked to research various museum artifacts – a problem-solving activity.
Identification and Explanation-Assessments: I use artifacts in teaching the unit and incorporate them into various exams: oral and written projects.
Creative Writing Projects: Using unit vocabulary and museum artifacts, students create stories and plays.
Drama Props: Any play or drama can be a great way to utilize artifacts.
Cultural Examples: I use many artifacts and pictures to teach about different world cultures.
Memory Triggers (Keys): I use artifacts that "trigger" a memory and help students with the test.
Technology: Media items are housed within the museum to show video clips, PowerPoint presentations, websites, etc. We're also able to add any picture from the Internet or of student projects to unit PowerPoint shows and the museum web page, which allows artifacts and projects to be seen by students, parents and teachers all over our district and nation.
Annual Museum Night: Student volunteers dress in historical costumes and become Museum Ambassadors. They each have a section of the museum that they share. The Parent Teacher Organization provides refreshments, and guests sign a book to record their comments after seeing the museum. Every Museum Night does more to get the word out about our museum than anything I could ever imagine.
Explore, Empower, Excel. I've found that there's an overabundance of people who want to help and support this kind of teaching. The parents and grandparents of my students say the same things at Back to School Night; "I've never been in a classroom like this before" and "I wish I could come back and take your class." This teaching strategy will set your students on fire. That fire, if fanned correctly, will spread to parents, friends and families. Everyone will gladly support you in your artifact acquisition. There are really no limits to where you can find support for your classroom museum. Use your creativity to tie the artifacts to your lessons, objectives and concepts.
It is this learning, productivity and growth by my students, combined with the unending trust that my community and district have placed in me, that has made our classroom museum the innovative and unique learning environment that it is today and what it will become in the future. This is why I will do, try and create anything that will help each of my students to learn and grow every day.
Keil Heilman is a seasoned middle school teacher and was also the 2004 Kansas Teacher of the Year.
