Sunday, November 30, 2008

Local History

Sometimes as Social Studies students we forget that we have some really cool local resources for history lessons that can be incorporated into Grade 10, 11, and 12 Social Studies lessons (besides the museum) some of which have good online resources (military musem has some cool links to stories about local events and people), some not so much. But all of them are really cool to visit, and relatively inexpensive. They are great to explore, especially if you can build a proper lesson around them, instead of doing what most of our teachers did which was to drop us off and let us just wander until we got bored. It is important to include local history into the lessons, it'll help get the students more interested in the material and learn more about the area in which they live. Keeping that in mind, here are some links to the websites for them (ps. Hatley Castle does historical tours and X-Men tours!)
Craigdarroch Castle
Hatley Castle
Military Museum a CFB Esquimalt
Fort Rodd Hill

2 comments:

Cameron White said...

What a great post! I've been meaning to post something like this for a while, as I work at a local historical site ( St Anns Academy ) that has a school program

There are so many opportunities for us to bring local history into the curriculum. There are a host of local museums and historical sites that can be used to supplement lessons on everything from military history to western settlement and the treatment of first nations.

The Canadian Museums Association has a great website which includes a directory of pretty much every museum, historical site, art gallery and archive in the country. You can search by city, province or the type of institution you're looking for.

It'd be a great resource for anyone who ends up teaching in region that they're not super familiar with. Heck, I was raising here and I wasn't familiar with HALF the results for Victoria!

Aheard said...

This discussion of Museums has got me all hot and bothered (in an academic way). There are also other museums in the victoria area that are good as well. One of these is the Maritime museum which can be found in Bastion square between Darcy's and Irish Times. The museum is actually the old Law court! Anyways I did my literacy project with field trip to the maritime museum and I have to say it is one of the most unknown or seems like un visited museums here in Vic. Anyways it has lesson plans that go with the tour but I would suggest that you make your own, and yes it isn't that hard for the exhibits. These show early exploration to the Pacific northwest, native maritime use, and the evolution of maritime culture and industry on the coast. It also has a great exhibit on the Canadian Pacific lines as well as RCN exhibit!If your into a bit of a longer field trip with an environmental and industry kick there is also the BC Forest Discovery Center in Duncan which is a great I mean you don't actually get to see a real live tree crusher but there are pictures! Also in the Duncan area there isthe Quw'utsun Cultural and Conference Centre which is great to get a better understanding of the cowichan peoples