Students enjoyed being at the Museum. For many, they have never been in any museum. They were awestruck. The Newcomers exhibit really struck a chord with my students. They could see themselves in the stories there. It gave them the courage they needed to tell their families immigration stories. We were also impressed with how they made connections to our district-wide book study of the book, Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora.

The Fossils Discovery Kit is a great resource to get students thinking about fossils and about what types of creatures used to live in Michigan. It engages the students in investigation and wonderment. My students enjoyed completing the fossil observation sheets and reading through the specimen info sheets. They were really interested to see and touch fossils of things they had heard of, like Mastodons and Megalodons.

Our Museum visit was amazing! The students loved it and learned so much--content connections and life skills. We began a world civilizations unit with a trip to the museum; it was not an ordinary trip to the museum. This time we did a guided program - Explore: West Michigan Habitats- to find out how to create an exhibit and what went into the planning and design. My students came back with so many notes and ideas. In the classroom, they often referred back to what they learned at the Museum. We spent a week designing our exhibits. At this point the museum experts came to us and listened to the students' plans. This was so valuable. The students took the feedback on their exhibits and continued to redesign. We finished with a museum display at school that students, parents and museum staff enjoyed. Each year, I teach the civilization of Middle America; this was the first time that it truly came to life!

I have had the best first weeks at school that I have had in my teaching career, and I have to give credit to the museum training you hosted over the summer. I have had so much more enthusiasm and been able to create some awesome lessons and activities using what I learned from the training. Thank you so much for offering that to educators and for all the work you and your team put into it. I have been recommending it to so much of my staff, I gained so much from attending.

Engaging with the GRPM has allowed me to take the concepts of museum learning, place based learning, learning through objects, and inquiry and apply those in the classroom year round. I love learning how other teachers are using the museum to teach, and I appreciate that the museum not only shares resources they’ve made, but also resources made by teachers in the community.