#docent training

Today was my first day docent-ing for the zoo (the same zoo I grew up going to and it’s been MY zoo for twenty years now I know everything about that place)

I went out with a veteran docent whose been there for 12 years so she’s kind of the one in charge and we walked all over the zoo it was me her and two other new docents when we got back to the break room she pulled me aside and was like hey how long have you been coming here? And I was like well I grew up in this area and I’ve always been into zoos so about twenty years and she just nods her head and goes yeah I can tell and you obviously know your stuff about animals if I have any new docents struggling I’m going to send them out with you is that okay? And obviously I can’t say no but I asked her if she’d be okay with that cause new docents are supposed to go out with docents who have been around a few years and she just waved her hand and is like no you’re absolutely fine you’ll have no problem here

Then I walked around the zoo for three more hours and had the best day ever I am absolutely in love with being a docent I walked over 5 miles today and got to see every animal like 3 or 4 times it was so amazing and perfect

Here’s just some of the pictures I got today <3

We were walking around the grounds today and the other people in training kept asking the zoo keepers and veteraned docents questions about the animals - like really specific specialized questions and the keepers and docents didn’t know the answers to all of them and would kind of just brush off the questions they didn’t know and then whoever asked it would hold back a few steps and meet me at the back of the group and be like “ok idk if you heard that but the keepers said they don’t know the answer to my question but I’m pretty sure you will”

I literally almost cried they were right I did know all the answers to all the hyper specific questions they were asking but I’ve never had people actually acknowledge and appreciate my intelligence.

Everyone in my family is incredibly smart but in more academic and “impressive” fields and every time I would over preform in school and ask hyper specific questions the teachers thought I was wasting time and being a smart ass

Docent Training!

Whenever we open a new exhibit here at the Museum, we hold a special training session for JMM volunteers (and staff!) to help familiarize them with the exhibit and give them extra background details.

Here JMM executive director Marvin Pinkert speaks with some of our docents about the beginnings of Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage, which was developed by the National Archives Administration with the generous support of the US State Department.

#DiGiWriMo – November 29 – late entry

#HortonFreire could not have arrived at a better time. I needed the fresh infusion of Myles Horton (whom I had heard of, of course, the founder of the great Highlander Folk School) and Paulo Freire (was it #rhizo15 or #moocmooc that got me mainlining his stuff?) for my presentation at CUA’s Bridging the Spectrum coming up in February. Sleep descends. I’ll finish this in the morning. So I…

Every year here at the Bata Shoe Museum we spend 4 weeks training volunteers from the community to become docents. A docent is a person who acts as a guide, typically on a voluntary basis, in a museum, art gallery, or zoo. We had two groups filled with exciting new docents being trained this year, and we are happy to announce that they are all ready to head out and start giving the tours!

You can now look forward to regular interviews with these new docents, right here on our Tumblr!