Professional Development Workshops take place on Thursday evenings.
Pre-registration is required for each workshop.
To register, please call 973-971-3710 or send in the attached application Professional Development Application PDF
Program prices include resource materials, classroom activities, and a light dinner. Payment is required at the time of registration.
Registration may be cancelled up to 2 weeks before the scheduled program date. No refunds will be given to participants who cancel later
than 2 weeks prior to the workshop date or who do not attend their scheduled workshop without officially cancelling.

A minimum of 5 participants is needed to conduct a professional development workshop. If the workshop must be cancelled due to low enrollment, all participants who have registered will be notified one week before the workshop date.

The Art of Looking

Thursday, October 25, 2012
4:30-7:30 PM
$25 per teacher

Workshop Presenters:
Jennifer Schweitzer, Education Coordinator, The Morris Museum,
Michele Marinelli, Outreach Educator, The Morris Museum,
Ann Marie Cuskley, Museum Loan Coordinator, The Morris Museum

This workshop will focus on the cultural insights and effects that art can provide. The meaning of art changes over time to meet different needs of society. The Morris Museum folk art exhibition will be featured and the varied meanings of different objects discussed. Different methods of “learning to look” will be introduced. The connection between art, history, and current events will also be a workshop topic.
Visual and Performing Arts Standards: 1.1.D, 1.2.D, 1.3.D, 1.4.D
Social Studies Standards: 6.1.D
Language Arts Literacy Standards: 3.3.A, 3.3.B 3.4.A. 3.4.B, 3.5.B

9/11 in the Classroom: Strategies for Addressing September 11, 2001

Thursday, March 7, 2013
4:30-7:30 PM
$50 per teacher

Workshop Presenter:
Vernoy Paolini, enrichment teacher of 37 years, Lounsberry Hollow Middle School; Vice President of the Council of Holocaust Educators; President of the Diversity Council at Kean University

The events of September 11, 2001 pose a challenging issue to address with children, regardless of age. Increasingly, educators are being tasked with discussing the attacks with their students. Appropriate and non threatening approaches must be considered for all grade levels. This workshop will present a number of strategies and vehicles through which educators can begin a dialogue about the September 11, 2001 events using a suitably comfortable approach.
Social Studies Standards: 6.3.A, 6.3.D
Language Arts Literacy Standards: 3.3.A, 3.3.B 3.4.A. 3.4.B, 3.5.A, 3.5.B. 3.5.C
Consumer, Family, and Life Skills Standards: 9.2.D

Musical Marvels

Thursday, April 18, 2013
4:30-7:30 PM
$25 per teacher

Workshop Presenters:
Jere Ryder, Guinness Collection Conservator, The Morris Museum
Kelly McCartney, Guinness Collection Curator, The Morris Museum

This workshop will explore ways to teach music history, science, and technology through the Morris Museum’s extraordinary collection of 18th- and 19th-century mechanical musical instruments and automata: the precursors of today’s recording devices and animated entertainment. Educators will learn how mechanical musical instruments, and the international scope of the music genres they perform 100+ years later, are windows onto the world in which they were made and the society that enjoyed them. In addition, the workshop will explore the science and technology behind these ingenious machines: early programming; the use of power sources (such as gravity, unwinding springs, electricity, and more); ways that energy is transformed and controlled; and the use of simple machines. Educators will enjoy a live demonstration of a selection of mechanical musical instruments and automata, participate in hands-on activities, and receive educational materials to bring back to their classroom.
Visual and Performing Arts Standards: 1.2.A, 1.3.B
Science Standards: 5.1.A, 5.1.D, 5.2.C, 5.2.D, 5.2.E
Social Studies Standards: 6.1.C, 6.1.D, 6.2.C, 6.2.D
Technological Literacy Standards: 8.2

We Dig New Jersey: Object Based Learning Approaches

Thursday, May 2, 2013
4:30-7:30 PM
$25 per teacher

Workshop Presenters:
Jennifer Schweitzer, Education Coordinator, The Morris Museum
Michele Marinelli, Outreach Educator, The Morris Museum,
Ann Marie Cuskley, Museum Loan Coordinator, The Morris Museum

This workshop will introduce teachers to various strategies of object based learning. Artifacts from three different periods and contexts will be featured. Fossils and casts will be examined to highlight the different behavior patterns between carnivores and herbivores, with a focus on New Jersey’s two dinosaurs: Hadrosaurus Foulkii and Dryptosaurus. The Native American artifacts will be analyzed to gain clues about their culture and the manner in which they used their natural resources to survive. Finally, artifacts from the Revolutionary War will be discussed in order to give students a greater appreciation of New Jersey’s role in the struggle for independence.
Science Standards: 5.3.C, 5.3.D, 5.3.E, 5.4.C
Social Studies Standards: 6.1.A, 6.1.B, 6.1.C, 6.1.D
Language Arts Literacy Standards: 3.3.A, 3.3.B, 3.5.A, 3.5.B
Consumer Family and Life Skills Standards: 9.2.A

The Magic of Geology: New Approaches to teaching about Rocks and Minerals

Thursday, May 9, 2013
4:30-7:30 PM
$50 per teacher

Workshop Presenter:
Dr. Steve Okulewicz, Professor of Geology at the College of Staten Island and Hofstra University

This workshop will emphasize a hands-on approach to the identification of common rocks and minerals using a variety of specimens, brief PowerPoint presentations, demonstrations of various physical tests, and visual observations. Minerals will be defined and their physical properties explained using mineral specimens. Special ‘magical’ demonstrations will accompany these topics and be scattered throughout the presentation.
Science Standards: 5.1.A, 5.1.B, 5.1.D, 5.4.B, 5.4.C, 5.4.D