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Day 5- Benchmarks

It has been remarkable that at almost every point throughout my placement, the Learning and Engagement Team have been ready and expecting another Lockdown. When I was optimistic at the beginning of the year that we were on an upward trajectory, Ross was carefully considerate of the fact that Covid cases were still rising, that at any moment we may be sent into tighter restrictions and even more Lockdowns. At this point in March we had been in two Lockdowns. The culture and heritage sector were affected at every point in the Covid Pandemic. Never did the Learning and Engagement Team at Durham University waver in their optimism. By the meeting on the 1st March I had done most of my placement online and it had been in various ways, disappointing. Not achieving tangibly what I had hoped; growing in confidence in communicating with children and the team, planning and handling artifacts for community outreach events, even being at such events. Of course the disappointment for the team whose work had changed so much was even greater. Yet they were positive and supportive of one another consistently. On this particular placement day one team member was unwell, and in the morning planning meeting, she was treated with such kindness and patience. 

This was the day that Ross assigned me the task of Twitter Benchmarking. He asked me, in a meeting with himself and Kirsten who is in charge of publicity for the Museum, to do some research on similar teams around the country and inquire what they do well and so how the Learning and Engagement Team might improve in their use of social media. Social media, especially in a year such as this where word of mouth and physical communication was near impossible, hold great significance. The meeting involved advice as to the kind of museums to research, namely Preston Park Museum, Beamish and then University teams like Birmingham and Manchester. This seemed initially to be a daunting prospect because I didn’t know much about such organizations but the calm and cheer of the team reassured me. The rest of my placement day involved beginning such research and casting the findings into a table. I learnt a lot on this day which I hadn’t expected to discover during my placement. This has been perhaps the most exciting thing about my placement experience. Just as I was attracted to such a placement because of the curiosity of the pupils who would receive heritage focussed lessons, I ended up being involved in the curiosity. The Learning and Engagement Team are thoroughly convincing in the emphasis they place on the importance of asking questions, attempting challenges and smiling along the way. These things suit me well. I enjoyed realizing these things on this day. 

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Day 4 - Lockdown eases

At the end of the month long Winter Lockdown I was able to visit the Museum one more time. There was a definite sense of an energized buzz as I re-entered and met up again with John and Jo who were preparing for a lesson for year 4s about Ancient Egyptians. It was a source specific lesson. The eight small artifacts were laid on a cloth covering a school desk, the two camera set up and computer logged in. Since the Diwali lesson the team had become well practiced with the technology required to present fluid lessons designed for online learning. Even as one pupil was in isolation at their home, asking questions separately, undoubtedly feeling left out of their peer’s excitement, John and Jo were able to engage him particularly. 

The Museum’s mummy is of great, special interest. Naturally. It is the artifact that apparently the children are always buzzing to see, to get as close as possible to- before they bump the protective glass casing. And John anticipated this excitement which could easily have been dampened or numbed over the ether. But his personal enthusiasm kept the pupils gripped until the end of the lesson when he would give them a special, up close tour of the mummy’s cast, bandages and bones. He explained all there was to know in a story teller’s trance, exciting the children. At this point the children were so invested in learning of Ancient Egypt, thanks to a smooth lesson which satisfied so many curiosities, the mummy really was the cherry on the cake. It was wonderful to listen to their gasps, to watch them lean toward their interactive whiteboard, determined to be close. 

This was a particularly special lesson to be a part of because as the children applauded like Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, jumped up and down with glee and responded so curiously to John’s questions, I was reminded why I chose this placement. The enthusiasm of a class of young children, learning beyond their curriculum, thinking deeply and honestly is delightfully infectious. I am convinced that the high level of emotional reward from such lessons is the reason that each of the Learning and Engagement Team do what they do. They do it with such charisma and energy that the children love it. The teachers are grateful. For an hour we all forget we are in a pandemic, legally restricted from seeing one another as we look back into history to learn about the strange and the surreal. 

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Day 3 at the Oriental Museum

Day Three was the second day of my placement which was entirely online, as the Museum had to be totally closed to the public. Sitting at my desk in my University bedroom I shifted focus from the breakfast activity downstairs to my planning meeting with Charlotte Spink, Learning Assistant of the Learning and Engagement Team. Having met now once in person and in a few meetings online, the meeting was casual and amiable. I had quickly learnt that the team and all the employees of the Culture and Heritage Work at Durham University were a friendly bunch, wiling to help one another out and offer extra enthusiasm whenever it began to wane. 

Charlotte and I discussed the work that she was doing, how her role had changed since she started a few years ago, and how this year had seen perhaps the largest change. She acknowledged this change seriously but with pleasure. She had gained lots of experience in working with lots of people groups, diverse in age, faith, background, language. It made her a fascinating woman to chat to. She was sensitive especially to the work the Learning and Engagement Team had been doing with elderly people in the North East community, particularly those with Dementia. She usually runs a scheme called ‘Creative Age’ which is focussed on mindfulness for elderly people who cannot live an ordinary, active life for so many reasons but through such an opportunity, are able to reminisce and so engage their minds to keep them active. Together we considered how great the impact of Covid had been on this demographic who were now closed off from those they love, and even wider society. This was bound to have a serious impact on their mental health, which their care homes, and Charlotte in her outreach, had been attempting to improve. 

On this day, initial discussions looking forward to Lunar New Year in February were taking place. The team and I decided that because of my experience in Social Media and website organizing, with a blog ‘More Precious’ I could help primarily with this. At this point it was brainstorming rather than strict scheduling but it helped me to maintain excitement looking forward to this coming into fruition. Now enthused by the care with which Charlotte especially approached her work, it was on my mind to research Dementia care, community outreach and encouraged me to spend my spare time doing so. 

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Day 2 at the Oriental Museum- WFH

This last year has been in which Working From Home is no longer that which freelance workers do, or those who long for greater flexibility with their work life. It has been a necessary change that anybody has had to adapt to in order to continue their work. The Oriental Museum has been no different, as the second Lockdown was introduced and the team had to work from home. And so I experienced what it was like to have meetings online, to do more imagining than really seeing. 

This day did involve primarily meetings and then planning the tasks I had been assigned. It was a Monday and the team did not act like it. From the first minute, they were undeniably, unfalteringly cheerful. Although as I initially entered the Microsoft Teams call I felt nervous, the apprehension of not knowing really what to expect, the team were so friendly that this soon faded. I felt welcome and invited to be involved in each part of the discussion- about trivial points of interest and more serious notes on the agenda. 

The meeting was fast paced and well timed on Ross’ behalf. I had to write notes for reference to research later. Names and places that I wasn’t familiar with to be looked into. 

This second day involved my considering, on Ross’ instruction, how I could be involved with the Diwali festival celebrations. At this point it was on the brink of Diwali and Charlotte was in control of most of the activities and events. More than the first day, I was part of the team’s cooperation and thinking. The placement was becoming more thought-based which suited me well as I was encouraged to be curious, and alongside the team, excited about opportunities the Museum would have even as the time was strange and uncertain. 

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Day 1 at the Oriental Museum

The first day at the Oriental Museum gripped me and helped me to look forward to the rest of the Placement eagerly. Having left, I couldn’t wait until I went back to the Museum. Meeting Jo, Ross and John filled me with enthusiasm as theirs was so infectious. The day began with a meeting with Ross wherein he showed me around the Oriental Museum, leaving me to do my own snooping. I had free reign over the Galleries which at this point were closed to the public due to Covid restrictions. I particularly enjoyed the China section because of its range of artifacts, beautiful in their ornament and fine details. 

The second part of the day involved watching a lesson about Diwali for a local year 4 class. It was an online lesson in which Ross was live- streamed using Microsoft Teams, the Learning and Engagement Team’s preferred mode because of its usual reliability. Jo, Ross and John had been preparing for the lesson in the morning which they had to be flexible about. The location had changed at the last minute, because the booked space clashed with Charlotte’s Diwali filming in the main part of the museum. The team made the classroom look surprisingly beautiful, draping orange and red material over the old wooden  walls and windows, with printed pictures and ‘Diwali’ bunting. The smaller room felt intimate and as Ross was teaching all attention was on him, especially when two minutes before the lesson was due to begin, the computer crashed and the charger proceeded to fail. With all eyes on him, Ross maintained calm and confidence. The whole team smiled consistently, but it was stressful. The lesson was in the waiting room for the online lesson. It was impressive how quickly John in particular rushed into action and found the necessary components to avoid any more technological mishaps. 

It was joyful to listen and watch the children, even though they were not present in the classroom. They were engaged throughout the lesson. Clearly they were used to online learning by November in the Covid ridden year. They were curious and questioning. Ross dealt with their sometimes misinterpreted instructions, at times lost in communication from the teacher’s guidance. 

Jo shared with me enthusiastically the Learning and Engagement team’s intentions to continue to reach more schools, further afield. Online learning, she explained, helped them to do this efficiently. The team were infectiously positive about the benefits that had arisen even as the nature of their cultural and heritage work had changed almost entirely. They were grateful that, being in association with Durham University’s outreach program, technology was provided to them so that the transition to online teaching and communication was not as challenging as it may well have been without this support. 

The team’s key aim is diversity which they promoted through diversifying the artifacts they presented and curated, especially, as Charlotte showed me, with their Silk Roads Gallery opening in 2021. 

The day was heavily informative. The team shared their aims and dreams with me openly and enthusiastically. It was a team I was pleased to be welcomed into for this placement period and I couldn’t wait to go back and watch another lesson, to keep learning.