 |
|
|
|
|
Getting to know the MOTAL
The Vision | The Book | Timeline | Features | The Team
The Vision
The dream is to create the nation’s first interactive museum about teaching and learning.
Our country’s early leaders, with wonderful foresight, were dedicated to education for all people, but no museum yet exists that is devoted to telling the fascinating stories, asking the puzzling questions, or honoring the wonderful human beings who served as innovators and educators.No current museum invites the public to become better at learning, better at remembering, better at understanding and better at teaching, policymaking, parenting, and working together. Nevertheless, such a museum IS possible!
It will be a grand, world-class museum with highly interactive exhibits and activities that will educate and fascinate participants of all ages.
The Book
Greta Nagel is writing a book with the working title, When Will We Ever Learn?: The Story of the Great New Museum of Teaching and Learning. It is a book intended for the general public that uses detailed descriptions of interactive exhibits in a huge, wonderful museum as a way to help readers understand many education-related concepts.
Timeline
Here is a proposed timeline for the dream to come true:
- Book manuscript will be ready for publication by June 2008.
- Board selection and funding crusade by June 2008.
- The design process will be in full swing by September 2008.
- Final plans revealed June 2009.
- Celebrate the Ground Breaking in 2010!
Features
- Entry tickets will be special “hall passes” that use bar code technology to gain access to activities and keep personalized records of the day’s pursuits for each participant.
- Visitors’ orientation to the Museum will occur in specially equipped yellow buses that greet visitors in the grand entry hall. Folks will bounce along in a simulated ride to school and watch personalized induction films on their individual screens in the seatbacks.
- Next, you can visit the Hall About YOU with booths to interact with multimedia activities and identify your own learning styles. Additionally, visitors will create personal profiles of their multiple intelligences, assisted by feedback from taking an electronic survey.
- In the great Rotunda of the Brain, museum goers will learn how the brain works and what happens when it doesn’t seem to work. They will walk through an amazing two-story Talking Brain, watch videos that explain the functions of various parts of the brain, and examine colorful photos from PET (positron emission topography) scans that portray, for example, the interesting differences between the brains of boys and the brains of girls when they read. They will find out why dolphins and pigs are said to be so smart, interact with a calculating genius as he solves intricate math problems, and acquire insights in order to learn and remember more of what they learn.
- Participants will also have walk-in opportunities to visit different types of schools, including attending class in an authentic one-room schoolhouse complete with an experienced teacher. They will also view, and try out, the latest technology in the Classroom of the Future and use the wonderful inventions that allow students with disabilities to write, hear, see, and engage in a wide variety of educational activities.
- Special events and exhibits will change monthly, and significant movies about topics related to education will attract a variety of audiences. In addition, each month one very special week will feature the “Class Behind the Glass” in a special fishbowl classroom. Teachers selected for their outstanding capabilities will have the honor of bringing their students to have a “typical” week at school in order for their teacher to demonstrate the realities of excellent classroom instruction.
The Team
The idea and impetus for the MOTAL is due to the vision and effort of Greta K. Nagel, Ph.D. Dr. Nagel is the author of the Tao of Teaching, and a professor at Cal State University Long Beach Department of Teacher Education. Her career in the classroom spans nearly three decades.
Joining Dr. Nagel is a grassroots assemblage of teachers, parents, colleagues and friends who are committed and excited about her vision for the world's first museum dedicated to teaching and learning.