Looking for something a little wild in a staff development experience? Here’s your chance: The Texas Department of Education recently approved the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, as an accredited professional development provider.
The museum, dedicated to honoring the pioneering women of the American West, offers regular on-site workshops for teachers on the historical figures and events it documents. A recent workshop entitled “Cowgirl Curriculum in the Classroom” sought to instruct participants on how to weave lessons about the West into core subjects like math, science, and writing. The museum is also planning both a workshop and a video conference next year related to its 2010 exhibit “Georgia O’Keefe and the Far Away: Nature and Image.”
In addition to its professional development programs, the museum also offers online resources for teachers, including lesson plans, such as How to Measure a Horse and How Does a Horse See?, as well as classroom-activity ideas like Calf Roping Relay. (You might want to be careful with that one.)
