TalentShare
Teachers are a multi-talented group, with experiences and interests far beyond the subjects they teach in their classrooms. Unfortunately, these experiences and interests are rarely recognized or utilized. Administrators must concentrate on the program as it is already implemented or as they are directed by the pressures from state legislators, local leaders and the mandates of federally funded programs. There is little time or space within the curriculum to allow for expression of supplementary teacher interests or talents, or even to become aware of their existence.
This has been an issue for me since early in my teaching career. More than once I have found myself talking with a teacher who has been a part of the faculty in my school district for a number of years; to discover that this person has an interest or knowledge in an area that would be beneficial to my classes. We just never had the opportunity to share our experiences before. It is a tragedy that such a diverse wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm would languish rather than reaching the ears and minds of those may need that very knowledge and enthusiasm.
Dr. John Haschack, director of graduate programs at the Stark County branch of Ashland University, recently made the statement that one of the big problems in public education is lack of sharing. A school district may have a very successful program in a certain area, while a neighboring district may be doing poorly in the same area, yet the successful district fails to share their program ideas and solutions with the district in need. Whether it is a successful program or the experiences and knowledge of a particular teacher in an area outside of their field of licensure, it is still a failure to share. The result is a loss to the students.
The Massillon Museum Web Expansion Project will make an attempt to provide a vehicle that will make sharing easier for the classroom teacher. By clicking on the “Teacher Talent Share” menu, a classroom teacher in one district, conducting a series of lessons in a particular area, may find a person listed who has had a lifetime interest in that same area and is willing to share their interest with that teacher and their students. For example; an art teacher who is trying to introduce to her students the architecture of the Ancient Egyptians, may find listed on the museum’s website, a math teacher in another district who is an amateur Egyptologist, who has made many trips to the pyramids and who is willing to share his first-hand experiences with the art teacher’s students.
By providing this service, The Massillon Museum will make its website more responsive to the needs of education, and will ensure the success of the website at the same time. The Web Expansion Project must remain flexible in its purpose in order to be able to adjust to the changing needs of education. The “Teacher Talent Share” is a creative example of that important flexibility.
THE MASSILLON MUSEUM
121 Lincoln Way East
Massillon, Ohio 44646
(330) 833-4061
www.massillomuseum.org
