Digital Storytelling

Hi Friends,

It's hard to believe the New Year is upon us! I hope everyone is well and enjoying the holidays. I have been busy promoting storytelling at our school and helped one class work toward a Storytelling Festival in the library. They did a great job! I also received a grant to offer a Digital Storytelling Club after school for 4th & 5th graders. I hope to have a web page up showcasing their stories. I learned a ton! In fact, Alysia who helped lead the club, offered a workshop for teachers earlier this fall and we created our own digital stories. I'd like to share mine with you! Please keep in touch and happy holidays! Lorrie

Here's the link to my digital story: Following the Waters

Back from the Shore

Hello friends! Just returned from vacation at the Jersey shore with my extended family (a total of 10 people plus a few visiting cousins). At the end of the week, I entertained the group with storytelling- the story I worked on at our workshop and 2 more. Great fun and I was surprised (again) at how stories touch and entertain people of all ages.
-Jean

Hi Everyone

Hey - it's me. I took an "About Me" test today and they asked the question - When's the last time you cried. I had an exact date and pretty much a time too - 7/18 around 7:30 p.m. Things are beyond crazy here, we're in full workshop mode. Hope to see everyone at the Dodge Poetry Festival. Stop by and see us, we'll be there. Loretta

Hello from Jean!

I have been reading lots of stories the last couple of weeks. Seems the more I read, the more excited I am about ways to use storytelling. Of course, now I need to learn how to tell them! Today, I was speaking with a friend who is helping to develop our synagogue's environmental committee. At the end of Sept. or early Oct., she's organizing an environmental hike for families. She asked if I would tell a couple of environmentally related stories during the snack/lunch break. She said she was interested because I told her how I was learning to use stories to spark imagination and get people to think about things that are important to me. So, besides telling stories in my school, I think I will begin to tell stories in the community, if I can and if I don't chicken out.

Next weekend, my family will leave for a week long vacation at the Jersey shore with my parents and my brother's family. We have done this many times before (though not in usually in NJ), and fortunately, we have all gotten better at managing family dynamics. Most of the time, we are now able to enjoy each other's company. We will return home on a Saturday, and that Sunday, we'll drive my son back to college. I feel so lucky to have had this summer with him (he worked at a local day camp). He is becoming more of a young adult and has dropped his previous teenage angst. I love to hang out with him and just talk. I know that the older he gets, the less likely I will have summers with him. Meanwhile, watching him transform (like a monarch butterfly!) has given me more patience with my younger teenager.

I hope all is well with all of you. Anyone going to the Sept. 28 storytelling festival? Anyone planning to attend the workshops as well as the performances? Anyone interested in getting together to practice new stories?
-Jean

I'm in!

Hi everyone,
I'm on the blog! Whoohoo!
I've been planning and can't wait to try out storytelling with my class!
More info to come...
~Fatima

Hi everyone. What fun to be part of a blog! My kids have a whole life online, both met their significant others there. But until now, I've been limited to e-mail. Who knows what the future may hold for me here!

I haven't told my story again yet either. I'll have to just grab a captive audience somewhere sometime soon. Maybe in a doctor's waiting room!

I have bought myself a few blouses that seemed to fit this newly discovered part of myself. I intend to keep on playing!

Holly

Making Changes

In case you didn't know, we are ALL contributors to this blog. That means that any of us can add, edit, and delete. I already made the change about the Monarch Butterfly event, but if someone wants to add another event, links to important websites, a calendar, or other youtube videos, please do so. Click and play! This is for us!