Education Directors and Museum Teachers

People who choose to be education directors and teachers enjoy spending time in museums, botanical gardens, or zoos. They also enjoy teaching, planning activities, organizing projects, and carrying a great deal of responsibility. Those in zoos should like animals and being outdoors. Those in museums may like the quiet of a natural history museum or the energy and life of a science museum aimed at children. Directors and teachers should enjoy being in an academic environment where they work closely with scholars, researchers, and scientists.

Education directors in larger institutions usually have their own offices where they do planning and other administrative work, but they spend the majority of their time in other parts of the museum and at other locations where they lead education programs.

Most museum teachers have a base of operation in the museum but may not have a private office, since the bulk of their work is carried out in exhibit areas, in resource centers or study rooms within the museum, in classrooms outside of the museum, or in the field. Permanent staff work a normal workweek, with occasional weekend or evening assignments.

Museum teaching varies from day-to-day and offers innovative teachers a chance to devise different programs. However, museum teaching is different from conventional classroom teaching where educators have the benefit of more time to convey ideas and facts.