The Tennessee State Museum (TSM) offers professional development opportunities for teachers throughout the year. This month, they are offering a very special workshop to help educators plan their field trips to the Museum. “Welcome to the Museum: An introduction to Tennessee State Museum field trips” will be presented on Saturday, January 25, 2025 from 9:00 am – 12:00 Noon CST.
Other workshops based around various Tennessee history topics will be hosted at TSM and partner locations across the state. As new professional development dates are scheduled, they will be added to the TSM website. Please check there for more information. Also, TSM educators are also available to lead individual sessions on a variety of topics at your school system’s professional development at no charge. To learn more about availability and topics, contact their K-12 Education Manager.
So, if you are interested in TSM for an upcoming field trip but have some questions, in this three-hour session, the museum’s education staff will take you through a standard field trip to the Museum, step-by-step. If you have never visited TSM, haven’t been there for a while, or are just looking to improve your field trip experience, you will find all the information you need to make the most of your visit. Plus, it is a great opportunity to experience the museum without having to keep up with all your students, too!
Throughout the morning they will be answering questions like these: What will your students see while visiting the museum? How will this tie into what you teach in your classroom? How do you schedule/plan a field trip? Where do your buses park? How should you organize your students? What is the difference between a scavenger hunt and guided programs? What guided programs are best for your students? What do you do about lunch? What happens if you need to make changes on the day of the visit? What other resources does the museum offer for teachers? And any others you can think of.
If you are interested in or have questions about field trips to the Tennessee State Museum, register online at: https://tnmuseum.org/professional-development . Look for: Introduction to TSM Field Trips 2024 – 2025.
Check out Virtual Tennessee History Course 2025 (for teachers and students). Coming in May 2025 is the TSM annual Virtual Tennessee History Course for students. Each Monday in May, their education staff will be broadcasting live from the Tennessee State Museum’s galleries as they explore the exhibits and artifacts that tell the story of Tennessee. This course is designed around the official state history course standards and will take them one by one as they move through the museum. Programs will start at 9:00, 10:00, 1:00, and 2:00 (CDT) each Monday.
Each program lasts 30 minutes with 15 minutes for Q and A afterwards. Each day will be dedicated to a specific period of Tennessee history. This is perfect for: Teachers and students who want an overview of Tennessee history; Teachers and students who want to see the exhibits of the Tennessee State Museum but can’t make the trip to Nashville; 5th grade classes that want to review the Tennessee history course standards; 4th grade classes that want a preview of what they will study next year; and Middle and high school classes who want a local perspective on American history.
Monday May 5, Tennessee Prior to Statehood, Standards 5.26-5.34; Monday May 12, Statehood and Early Tennessee, Standards 5.35-5.40; Monday May 19, Tennessee in the Civil War Era, Standards 5.41-5.46; and Wednesday May 21, Tennessee in the 20th Century, Standards 5.47-5.54.
