Training & Preparing Your Staff for Young Visitors

This was a pretty good session, though not revolutionary and definitely not the nuts & bolts of the exhibit design. It was a panel session:

Anne - Denver "Family Learning Manager"
Jan - Omaha
Nicky - Minnesota "Education manager"
Cynthia - Dupage "Director of Exhibits & Programs"

The first comment I have is that everyone seems to have a different title. There really seems to be a lot of flexibility in the roles people have at museums. The people in this field are also a great bunch. Everyone is friendly, lots of energy, and they all like kids! It's great! Library conferences are great too - with a different vibe. I'll have to think more to be able to pinpoint (tired).

It was definitely an intense day (but FUN!) - back to back sessions with lots of information to process.

Jan - Omaha was up first - She trains both staff and volunteers. She covered the major topics that her trainings would cover:

Working with children- autism, ages & stages, creativity, visually impaired, gender
Internal - customer service, safety, emergency procedures
Presenters - local universities, hospitals & staff could present

Challenges- making it a requirement / finding time


Cynthia - Dupage
I really like their museum exhibits. They have the wonderful water table with bubbles to peer through. They also (Barb) have a light bright like exhibit called glow art.There founders Dorothy & Louise were long ago graduates of the Ericson Institute - they're professional childhood development folks!

Other fascinating fact - they have NO SIGNAGE in their museum (other than on their math exhibit to drum up business) - they say they're reviewing this now.

They spend about 45 minutes "setting" their museum. You can't call it cleaning up - it's setting and resetting - apparently insider lingo.

They also have 3 - "tot spot" areas for birth to 3 months in each of the different exhibit areas. I like that.

She also mentioned that she had taken part in "Kanja" (spelling?) training at the Denver museum, which was about "scaffolding adults" supporting adult training.

They faced the same trouble requirement / time available. They chose to break up the exhibit floor training into worksheets and time with mentors focusing on each exhibit and the levels of training with each one.

They also are trying to work with youtube and online games to encourage staff training.

Her bottom line was it takes months learn.

Nicky - Minnesota

They have 216 volunteers that they work with (1000 a year).They have 5 daily programs staff. They also have education staff who deal exclusively with groups & tours, as well as separate floor educators who focus on play and experience.

She spent a lot of time covering their mission statement, values, and goals - the value and importance of play. This is what the staff/ volunteers need to know.

Each presenter has said that there is a mandatory 2 hour basic ages / stages etc. staff training that must take place. With ongoing training to follow.

I liked their MAP acronym that they used during play with children: Make observations to child, Ask open ended questions, and Pose challenges.

Anne - Denver

Great as usual. She offered the whole room copies of any of her forms if we email.
She started with the importance of why employees need training (she should have gone first). Employees who are trained stay longer. They know what they are doing and understand the purpose. Most importantly - they feel important. All of this translates into a better visitor experience.

Basic 2 hour developmental milestone training.
Every month a Building Blocks breakfast - mandatory for all who need and others invited. Cover all kinds of topics (including theories from Montesorri etc.)

Interesting fact - there schedule is broken into half hour blocks. That means there staff must not only reset the entire second floor in half an hour, but must also engage with the visitors while doing this. Called a "drive by interaction". They have 9 fte education staff.

The session opened up to questions and answers. Every session has had a lot of questions & answers. I was held over 30 minutes in the exhibit building one.

Out of the questions and answers came some interesting tidbits

- The Mimey (spelling?) Museum requires all staff to wear silly hats all the time (my kind of place!)

- Names for floor staff: playologists, guest ambassador, play facilitator, discovery leader, gallery interpreters.

One museum is in a very bad way as all all the floor folks were specifically told they were janitors / security guards. Needless to say the new sheriff in town is changing this. The room suggested field trips to other "fun" and functioning children's museums (the hat suggestion came in)as well as the advice from another museum who surveyed all their floor folks to find out who wanted to do what.

I'll end on a positive note (we could do this in the library too) - one museum does a "morning huddle" where they share a positive story / interaction about the play on the floor the day before. Everyone is excited to bring a good story for the next museum.

And on that note - I've got to get to bed - almost 11!

P.S. It's raining outside and snow is supposed to be here tomorrow!