Numismatics in Schools
KellenCoin
Posts: 1,206 ✭✭✭✭
Hey guys!
I am a YN, and as such I naturally go to school. I personally try to share numismatics within my school whenever I can. Last year, we made a whole school project. Each class decorated a letter of "[Name of School] Celebrates Diversity". My idea was to take a bunch of cheap, duplicate foreign coins into class, and each person could decorate the letter with a coin from their ethnicity. Or, if they did not even want to do that they could just choose a coin they liked.
That ended up working out well.
The ANA has several Powerpoints and programs for teachers to incorporate coins in schools as well.
Sam Gelberd had a foreign coin bucket in his classroom when he taught. If the students got an A on a test, they would get a coin. It became a competition among the students.
So, I want to hear your stories about how you have tried to get kids in schools learning about numismatics. Or, if you have not done that, ideas about how you could accomplish that.
CCAC Representative of the General Public
Columnist for The Numismatist
2021 Young Numismatist of the Year
Comments
Why aren't you in school right now, young man?
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
I imagine he's on the boards right now for the same reason I am.
I participate in the "Great American Teach-in" which held in Florida in November every year. I have a Power Point presentation and bring some coins into show.
Over the years there have been a few things that struck a chord with the students. One was the six wives of Henry VIII and the way he divorced two of them by beheadings. In one class that led to a rather grizzy discussion about how beheadings worked. I remembered some stuff from my readings when I was 14 or 15 and was interested in such things. One lady in the class exclaimed "That's just not right!" Well ... yea.
Another class was impressed by the 1907 High Relief St. Gaudens double eagle. They thought that it was "beautiful."
I teach part time at a grade school K-8th. For 6th grade,they cover ancient and world history, I bring in some ancients for them to look at. 8th grade covers U.S. history, so roughly when they're on the Civil War, I bring 2-3 display cases full of CW coins and currency. They get a kick out of it and enjoy holding some of the coins. I also have the PCGS periodic coin table hanging in my room, they all enjoy that as well. Hopefully some of them will get this wonderful disease we all have!
Put up a sign that says "Coin Club Meeting. room 204. 4 pm Thursday. Everybody interested please attend". If You build it, they will come.
You may wish to contact Rod Gillis at the ANA through the "Coins in the Classroom" email (citc@money.org) and ask him for ideas specific to your interests [tell him Lane told you to contact him]. You may also consider connecting one or more of your teachers with him. He is a former teacher and a great guy. You can also find some resources on the Coins in the Classroom page (https://money.org/teacher-tools.
The purpose of the Coins in the Classroom project was not to teach numismatics in schools directly, but to show educators how to use numismatics as a learning tool to engage students in their "normal" curriculum. Teachers who attended the workshops where quite excited about infusing numismatic threads into their lesson plans by the end of the workshops.
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
Great ideas here...I remember (many, many years ago) that during French and Latin classes, coins were used as teaching tools... Cheers, RickO