Meet Bruce
Name: Bruce Mallam
Age: 55
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Family: Married for over 20 years, no children
Economic status: Upper middle class
Education: M.A. in History
Professional title: Executive Director of local historical museum
Quote: “We’re only just beginning to learn about our past. There’s still much left to discover.”
A typical day for Bruce:
Bruce is an avid learner with a particular passion in Civil War history. He’s well-versed in slavery in the Shenandoah Valley, knows the local Civil War battles inside and out, and most importantly, loves working with the general public. His love of history is palpable, and he’s always looking for new avenues for public outreach, educational programs, and fundraising events for the museum. He shares his research happily with anyone who wants it and is eager to educate and inform. The museum has limited paid staff and relies a lot on its volunteers, so Bruce holds monthly get togethers for the volunteers to show his appreciation for all that they do to support the museum’s mission. These events are everything from potluck dinners to myth busters, where he divides fact from local myths. His passion of learning makes him open to new ideas for reaching the general public and creating captivating exhibits. Bruce’s primary goal is to teach and share the research with the community.
Professional goals:
- Collaborate with other museums and historical institutions on historical research
- Create public programming that draws the general public to the museum
- Design notable exhibits that generate public interest and drum up donors/sponsors for future exhibits
- Educate adults and youth on the museum’s history and mission
- Most importantly, never stop learning
Meet Kate
Name: Kate Brill
Age: 37
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Family life: Married mother of two young children (ages 4 and 7)
Economic status: Middle class
Education: MEd – Secondary Education and Teaching
Professional title: High School History Teacher of U.S. History and U.S. Government
Quote: “To teach details is to bring confusion; to establish the relationship between things is to bring knowledge.” – Maria Montessori
A typical day for Kate:
Kate is a married mother of two young children. She starts her day at 5 in the morning, prepping her kids’ lunches, getting everyone up and out of the house on time so that she can be to school – i.e., her job – by 7:15 a.m. when her morning duty starts at the front door. She teaches U.S. History and U.S. Government to 11th and 12th graders and holds a Master’s in Education degree with a focus on secondary education and teaching. She’s been teaching for 15 years and has seen the evolution of technology in the classroom. All of her students have a Chromebook, so she’s adapted her lessons to be digitally captivating and her assignments to be exclusively online. Kate’s always looking for new ways for her students to engage with history and inspire historical thinking, so she’s eager to learn more about how she can tie local history into the SOL preparations.
Professional goals:
- Inspire students to learn more about the history all around them
- Use technology wisely and efficiently to engage and teach students
- Tie local history into the Standards of Learning (SOL) preparations and expectations
- Design assignments that are short enough to sustain short attention spans but long enough to teach a valuable history lesson
