Getting better every day

Thanks for the advice for my grand question of Teacher vs. Museum Educator.

I have had two most wonderful experiences, which I feel over the moon about!

First, I taught my first stop in an Education in Action tour. I had one moment where I froze and did not know what to say, but the rest of the stop went great. I had some really great conversations with the students and I felt like they walked away having learned something. The AC's gallery teachers have taught me that the focus is not on the historical information of the painting, but rather on the experience of the conversation about the painting. So, I took one minute of having the students slowly look at the painting and then I had some great conversations about leadership, dogs, the American Revolution, and clothing. We even talked about slavery, which was something I was nervous about, but the students were the ones who approached the topics and the conversation flowed seamlessly. I think the nerves made me doubt my skills but during the one minute of slow looking, it worked for me as a moment to get over my nerves. Next week I will be learning two stops! Still working with Marion Crossing the Peedee but now adding a Georgia O'keeffe!

The second experience was more about event management rather than educating. The AC hosted its first Girl Scout's event. I arrived an hour early and good thing I did! There was some miscommunication between my supervisor and the event staff, so the spaces were not set up as we had idealized. So, that hour was spent running around the museum in an attempt to organize everything before the arrival of the Girl Scouts. We, also, hosted some guests, Mark Dion, the guest artists, a Cherokee expert, and three botanists. (And then the camera crew that came with Mark Dion).

It was a chaotic but wonderful experience. The GS wrote poems about trees, which followed the introduction of Mark Dion, the expert, and the botanists. Following that, the girls went into the Member Lounge where they spoke to the botanists, drew pictures of plants that are native to Texas and also learned how to press flowers.
This was an important experience because I ran around behind the scenes with event management. I was not sure my event planning certification would ever come in handy in the museum setting, but it certainly did!

Why is the summer almost over already?? I am not ready for this experience to end!