How to Be a Great Chaperone for a Guided Visit at the Ackland Art Museum

Thank you for agreeing to be a chaperone. As a chaperone, you are a recognizable, friendly face in a place that is unfamiliar to many (if not all) of the students in your group. You are also a role model for them in this special place filled with art. Your work as a chaperone makes the museum visit more successful for every student in the group. Thank you for your assistance, and enjoy your visit.

As a chaperone, we ask that you:

Help children in your group be good museum visitors by following the rules. As part of each class's visit, please review the Museum's rules with students at the beginning of their visit and, when necessary, remind students of these rules. If you are following the Museum's rules, the children will be more likely to follow them, too. If a child is about to touch a work of art, label, or case, politely and firmly ask him or her to step away from the object. If the child is about to lean against a wall, column or case, please tell him or her to move away from it.
Click here to read the Museum rules.
Be prepared to assist the gallery teacher or students with planned activities. The gallery teacher is there to engage the children with the art through interesting discussion and activities. Please don't hesitate to ask the gallery teacher to restate instructions, or to make them clearer for you.
Model attentive behavior. If you are having a personal conversation with other chaperones during the tour, the children will think that it is permissible to talk with their friends too.
This is the children's time to shine. Save your responses to the gallery teacher's questions until the end of the lesson. Share information or ideas with the group, as it relates to something the students are studying in school or as a way to prompt discussion. Children tend to lose interest with adult-centered conversation.
Help a child who leaves the gallery lesson area return to the group. If a child is ill, please assist that student. If the child is leaving for another reason, help him or her to become re-engaged in the gallery lesson.