Event Reps: Sign Up for A Spring Training
Choose from 6 dates
Thank you, Event Reps, for completing both the Security Awareness Training (ISAT) and the "Event Rep Essential Knowledge Quiz."
The quiz was a precursor to our Spring Trainings, where you will receive a 2017 edition of the revised volunteer handbook.
Please select one of these two hour sessions and sign up in EVANS. This refresher training is mandatory to maintain your active volunteer status. It's been 3 years since our last refresher, so there are new procedures and information to cover with each of you. All sessions will be here at Ripley.
Please choose ONE of these dates and request it in EVANS:
#1: Friday, April 21: 9:30 am - 11:30 am, includes continental breakfast
#2: Wednesday, April 26: 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm, includes dessert and beverages
#3: Saturday, May 6 (NOT May 13): 9:30 am - 11:30 am, with optional potluck lunch afterwards
#4: Monday, May 22: 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm, includes dessert and beverages
#5: Saturday, June 3: 9:30 am - 11:30 am, with an optional potluck lunch afterwards
#6: Tuesday, June 6: 2 pm - 4 pm, with light refreshments
Concessions Reps!
Be sure to watch this video announcement about our new way of scheduling your shifts. We are standardizing the process so you will volunteer a consistent day and time every month. Send Jenna an email with your decision on which day of the week (T, W, Th.) and week of the month (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th) you will volunteer each month going forward.
We think you will agree that this will cut down on the number of emails you get asking to select your monthly shift. It will standardize the schedule, so you can know which night you will be here at Ripley on a routine basis, much like our office volunteers who work a regular, repeating schedule.
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Welcome Aboard, First Class of 2017 Studio Art Reps!
All these artistically inclined folks participated in our January orientation and training (plus others listed below), and are helping instructors and students in our amazing studio arts courses. If you see them in action, please say hello and welcome them.
Andrew Sinclair Babi Gupta Cathy Ma
Connie Knowlton Katryna Carter Lindsay Malecha
Melanie Bulavinetz Nikki Washington Peggy Karshishian
Susan Nikseresht Stephanie Donohoe Ruth Herman
Valentina Deng Yue Liang Janet Hewitt
Elizabeth Narrington Jennifer Fischer
We still need additional Studio Art Rep volunteers, and some of these ones listed here are a result of another volunteer’s referral. Word of mouth is a valuable recruiting trick of the trade! So, stop by Jenna’s office to take a new studio arts recruitment brochure to share around – you can post the brochure at information racks in community centers, in your apartment building bulletin board, or senior centers you know, or other such places. Let’s cast a wide net and find new volunteers who, like you, will love being part of the Smithsonian Associates family!
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Cool New Resource! Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access
by Guest Blogger Kiren Jahangeer
The Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (SCLDA), focuses on making the Smithsonian more accessible to teachers and their students across the globe. SCLDA created the Smithsonian Learning Lab in order to inspire the discovery and creative use of its vast collection of digital materials. Over a million images, texts, and recordings exist for users to learn from as the next generation of tools that shape the future of education. Every six seconds, a new object is digitized at the Smithsonian, so each time visitors return to the Learning Lab they can discover something new!
The Learning Lab was created after conducting extensive research on how educators use online resources for professional development and instruction. Educational researchers and experts have been developing methods for teaching that go beyond familiarity with facts and memorization. This practice is often described as “meaningful learning" or “deeper learning,” as it “enables critical thinking, flexible problem-solving, and transfer of skills and use of knowledge in new situations.” [1]
The idea is this: The more engagement with activities that promote higher-level cognitive processes, the greater likelihood that students will take part in learning that is deep and meaningful and involves the transfer of knowledge, which is a foundational pillar of the Smithsonian's mission.
The Learning Lab is comprised of resources (individual digital assets) and collections (a curated group of resources in the platform, created by Smithsonian staff, or even Learning Lab users.) This interactive website is accessible from desktops, laptops, and tablet devices. We at the Smithsonian Associates encourage you to spread the word about this new resource to all your friends, especially those in the education profession. Start exploring this fantastic website at https://learninglab.si.edu/.
Work Cited:
[1] Darling-Hammond, L. (2008). Introduction: Teaching and learning for understanding. In
- Darling-Hammond, B. Barron, P. D. Pearson, A. H. Schoenfeld, E. K. Stage, T. D. Zimmerman, G. N. Cervetti, & J. L. Tilson, Powerful learning: What we know about teaching for understanding (pp. 1-9). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
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Where Am I?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Our “Where Am I?” series will be featured regularly in the Volunteers blog. We plan on running up to three mystery items in each blog entry, to give you maximum opportunity to show how well you know every inch of the Smithsonian. As many details about the location of the featured item that you can provide, the better. We will write about the people who get the most details correct in the following edition. So, let your competitive juices begin to stir--the hunt is officially on.
Who Is This Man and What Is He Staring At?
By Guest Blogger, Janet Hewitt
While probably not immediately recognizable to many, this distinguished fellow might be considered the patron saint of Valentine’s Day (at least for the secular set). But if we told you who he was, we’d give away his location.
Can you tell us where in the vast Smithsonian Institution complex we would find this handsome bronze likeness? We are not only looking for the name of the building, but the floor and the gallery name where he resides--and a few of the nearby treasures behind glass.
Hint Number 1: He was born at the end of the 19th century and made a major iconic donation to the Smithsonian in the 1950s.
Hint Number 2: The lighting overhead is almost reverential. The contents of the room monitored by his gaze are truly awe-inspiring. But then again, this is the Smithsonian where everything is pretty magical.
Hint Number 3: Marilyn Monroe directed a line to him in one of her movies.
So tell us in the comment section at the bottom of this blog post, who is this chap and where is this bust located? What museum and what gallery? We welcome the detectives among you to start scouting it out.
Happy Valentine’s Day to all you amateur sleuths!
Shouldn’t Someone Be Wearing This to the Oscars?
By Guest Blogger, Janet Hewitt
With the Academy Awards ceremony coming up on February 26, someone might want to borrow back this stunning necklace to round out her outfit. But it’s not currently available, since it was donated in 2015. And surely, the Oscar-winner who so generously presented it to the Smithsonian wouldn’t want to leave an empty exhibit case where it now resides. (That seems a bit tacky, doesn’t it?)
Luckily, the well-known actress who made the gift of this 18 –karat gold necklace with 177 total karats of Brazilian citrines, isn’t up for an Oscar this year. So the temptation to briefly borrow it back might not be as acute, anyway. But she has been nominated twice before and actually took home the handsome statue for Best Supporting Actress in the nineties.
Would the Smithsonian even allow donors to borrow back their bling for the right cause? And would a gig at the Oscars qualify as a worthy-enough cause? Unfortunately, we can’t answer either of those questions. (It’s completely above our pay grade.)
But if you want to visit this piece of would-be Hollywood glamour you can hunt it down where it lives at the moment. It’s under the big lights and in good company-- we’ll just leave it at that.
So tell us in the comment section at the bottom of this blog post, where you think this glamorous jewel is (which museum, floor and exhibit hall), what’s it called, who the donor was and anything else you know about it. And after you watch the Oscar ceremony on TV, let us know whose outfit would have gone perfectly with this stunning necklace. Enjoy.
