Farewell from Erika Bird

For those who read my introduction post nearly 8 weeks ago, you will notice that I was scheduled for a 4-week internship with ANSM through the MSVU Child & Youth Studies program. That great experience turned into an 8-week internship that has flown by. The Covid19 pandemic caused this to be a virtual placement but I do not feel I missed out on anything (except maybe staff meeting cakes) thanks to the welcoming and interactive nature of ANSM staff via Google Zoom.

During my time at ANSM, I participated in discussions on website design for the Teacher's Resource section of NovaMuse and the Learning Activity draft template design. I developed a collection of five Acadian Learning Activity resources based on NovaMuse artifacts, which tie directly into NS Curriculum learning outcomes. I have completed three Curriculum tie-in documents (P-6, 7-9, 10-12) that will serve as reference tools for museum members who wish to tie their activities into academic learning outcomes to connect with teachers, parents and children in the school community. I also created a "How-to" guide on lesson plan development that can be used in museum member training.

Overall, I have learned a great deal about the functions of Google software and most importantly how eager the museum community is to support and collaborate with educators, parents and teachers. I hope that my contributions to ANSM’s educational resource development projects will benefit the learning community and I plan on referring to NovaMuse.ca once I am teaching again. The networking I have done during my time at ANSM will benefit my future teachings and I hope to be able to collaborate with ANSM in the future on other projects.

Special thanks to Karin and Sandi for their guidance and support during this internship. Next, I must
focus on my own learning as a mother, while waiting impatiently to welcome baby number two any
day now.

All the best, 

Erika