Press Play to hear Catherine Burns who is Artistic Director of The Moth speaking on diamonds in the rough, coaching new storytellers on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

The Moth is America's #1 storytelling podcast with over 600,000 downloads a month and at least 100,000 listeners. Catherine Burns is one of the minds behind the curtain at The Moth storytelling main stage in NYC and LA.

The Moth storytelling website.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #049 Jackie Baldwin & Kate Dudding
	for $2.23 Storytelling in Schools a reference guide to educational programs.

(from Storytelling Magazine) – Quantitative Studies * Innovative Projects
by Jackie Baldwin and Kate Dudding
First, we must confess a strong bias. We believe that storytelling belongs in every school around the world, and we want to encourage and support that goal. Here’s how we went about it with our project, Storytelling in Schools.

As pressures build in schools for national testing, reporting and accountability, many people feel storytelling can be eliminated in schools. However, we knew that there were many quantitative studies documenting the methods and effectiveness of using stories and storytelling techniques in traditional classrooms to help teach the standard curriculum. But these studies were not easily accessible nor widely publicized. We wanted to make this information readily available to anyone interested in storytelling in schools so they could examine, learn from and emulate these studies.

Storytelling in Schools contains four basic elements.

1) A free downloadable booklet for school and arts administrators containing brief descriptions of classroom projects, broken down into Quantitative Studies and Innovative Projects, with follow-up links to the web site. (www.storytellinginschools.org/booklet.pdf)

2) A free downloadable brochure to be handed out at appropriate venues containing information about this project, backed up by position statements from national agencies on the value of storytelling in classrooms. ( www.storytellinginschools.org/brochure.pdf )

3) An online searchable web site for school and arts administrators, which describes each classroom project in detail with contact information for the program director.

(http://www.storytellinginschools.org )

4) An online searchable how-to web site specifically for storytellers, including detailed information about varied topics such as state standards, marketing and fee structures. (http://www.storytellinginschools.org/how-to)

For our first edition, we found 25 quantitative studies and 65 innovative projects covering art, music, drama, history, language arts, mathematics, physics and science, oral interpretation & presentation, cultural awareness & understanding, classroom behavior, behavioral problems, student/teacher relationships, teacher training, libraries, and museums. Other studies and projects will be added with our quarterly updates.

Already this information is being used. For example, Susan McCullough in FL wrote us: “I’m putting together a proposal for a county-wide Storyteller-in-Residence position. Because administrators don’t like to read research, though they like everything to be research-based, I’m going to use your booklet. You’ve done my work for me. The research is there in all fields: cross-curriculum, literacy, behavior, student & teacher, K-12; all the areas I’m addressing.”

Here’s what we’d like you to do to help us with our campaign to bring storytelling to all schools. We suggest that you print out copies of the brochure to keep with your business cards and your own brochures. Whenever you display your business cards and brochures, include the Storytelling in Schools brochure. When you have a meeting with school or arts administrators, print out a copy of the booklet for them. And add a link to www.storytellinginschools.org on your web site.

All feedback is welcome. If you are aware of additional programs underway, please go to www.storytellinginschools.org/how-to/submit or contact Jackie Baldwin
through (http://www.story-lovers.com) or Kate Dudding through (http://www.katedudding.com).

Fill out the form and press play to hear storyteller Heather Forest on sharing musical folk tales with young children on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #032 Heather Forest
	for $2.23 Musical Folk Tales for Children.

Purchase a CD of this telephone interview…

CD Telephone Quality Audio Interview #032 Heather Forest – Musical Folk Tales for Children for $9.95.

Heather Forest writes…
I enjoyed this conversation on the topic of sharing musical folk tales with young listeners. Music and children are an exuberant match. I have found in my storytelling experience with young people that melody, rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of musical refrains keeps young listeners listening. When my son Lucas was a three-year-old and already quite experienced listening to stories, he loved our story times and would often clammer, “Mama, sing me a story!.” From his listening point of view, speaking and singing in storytelling were all part of song. I named my first recording for young listeners “Sing Me a Story” after his way of asking for tales. I always weave singable refrains into my storytelling for young people. One doesn’t need to be a trained musician to add music to storytelling. Start simply and have fun with sound. “Playing” music means just that! Play!

In our conversation we explored

* how to notice the natural rhythmic flow and musicality of speech
* how to make simple singable melodies
* why children respond to music in stories
* how to include elements of audience participation in musical tales

As a teller I have always enjoyed retelling traditional folktales. Classic nursery tales for young listeners from all around the world offer simple, useful messages for living in harmony with others. My repertoire for young listeners focuses on tales celebrating themes of cooperation, sharing and perseverance.

We talked about

* how to select age-appropriate folktales for young listeners
* how to highlight memorable moments in a tale with music and participation.

Hope you enjoy listening – Cheers!
Heather

Biography of Heather Forest:
Heather Forest is a storyteller, recording artist, and children’s book author. For the past thirty years, she has toured her performance repertoire of World Folktales to theatres, schools, conferences and storytelling festivals throughout the United States and abroad. Her many performance credits include The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., The National Storytelling Festival, TN, Tales of Graz Festival, Austria, the Sidmouth International Folk Festival, England, Glistening Waters Storytelling Festival, New Zealand, and the International Storytelling Festival in Ljungby, Sweden.

She has published seven children’s picture books, two folktale anthologies, eight audio recordings of storytelling and a popular educational web site Story Arts Online http://www.storyarts.org. Her recordings have won an American Library Association Notable Record Award, two Parent’s Choice Gold Awards, and three Storytelling World Honor Awards. Heather holds a Master’s Degree in Storytelling and a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change. She is a recipient of the Circle of Excellence Award presented by the National Storytelling Network, and is an adjunct professor of Oral Tradition at Southern Connecticut State University.

For more on her current work check out her website at http://www.heatherforest.com

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #009 Kate Fox, Ellyce Cavanaugh & Zayanne Thompson for $2.23 Camp directors talking about storytelling with children at camp.

Post written by Zayanne Thompson, Ellyce Cavanough and Kate Fox. These camp directors.
How have you used storytelling in camp settings?
Zay Thompson Answers - Stories are a natural for camps. Camps offers an opportunity to create a meaningful and memorable connection to the outdoor environment. Educational research suggests that this connection to the outdoors creates a highly charged environment that facilitates learning. This emotional value of the camp experience opens the gateway for learning, and personal meaning provides the key to memory. As an educator I always imagine each brain as a closet. You can actually shove a lot of “stuff” into each closet, but without some kind of organizer, finding anything is pretty difficult. This is where stories come in. Stories provide the hangers that help to organize experience and knowledge for the kids (and adults!) at camp. Creation stories, coyote stories, made-up-on -the-spot stories, real life natural history stories, they all give meaning to the experience in a personal and memorable way.

The other way we use stories, is to help people find their voice.Summer staff repeat a story they hear a senior staff member tell at a campfire, and pretty soon they are developing their “own” story. Staff read stories, repeat stories, and make up stories to tell their kids in their cabins at night. And the kids love it. They love it because the stories are being shared by an “elder”, by someone they respect who is taking the time to share adventure, friendship, challenges, or many other things (except fear, at our camp we never tell scary stories since emotional safety is important) through the safety of a shared experience. Stories can lead to great discussions, and the best staff use stories as a springboard for working out any issues that are going on in the cabin and to reinforce positive values and a sense of community.

Ellyce Cavanough replies – Someone has said, “God made man because He loves stories.” (N. Scott Momaday) The storyteller is a magician, artist and creator who uses themes of life’s challenges and connection to the natural world to teach about relationships.

Storytelling is an experience that contributes to the listener’s life. Folktales, especially when shared through storytelling, help children find meaning in life. Bruno Bettleheim has said, “When children are young, it is literature that carries such information best.” He believes that stories must entertain children and arouse their curiosity if they are to hold the child’s attention. They offer enrichment to the inner life of children. Folktales carry important messages. Folktales can convey to the child the advantages of moral behavior. Folktales offer “new dimensions to the child’s imagination which would be impossible for him to discover as truly on his own.” (Bettleheim) The form and structure of storytelling provides images to the child so that he can create his own daydreams. Folktales deal with existential dilemmas, such as the death of a parent or an aging parent, in a simplified form that allows the child to come to grips with the problem.

The traditional Native American lives in the company of stories. The indigenous storyteller imparts the traditions and beliefs of his culture to his community through his stories.

and what are your some of the best stories you use?
Zay Thompson answers -
I love creation stories. And coyote stories (as long they are appropriate – you have to be careful!) I love telling stories about real people or stories that we can learn from. One of my favorite books is called Peace Tales that is a collection of short fables from around the world – all with morals of course. But they are a terrific springboard for discussing real life situations. I also like guided imagery for empathy. Personally, I really enjoy stories so I find that I tell different ones all the time, I am always looking. Every week of summer camp, right before the kids get here, I meet with staff to share a story. I never choose the story ahead of time because I want to tell the story that needs to be told that day. The story starts our week, it gives meaning to our experience working with the kids at camp.

Ellyce Cavanough replies At Free Spirit Nature Camp I selected storytellers who included Native American oral tradition as part of their collection of stories because they are about man and nature. This vital relationship is severely lacking in our modern, technological world. Native American folktales promote understanding, appreciation and caring for the Earth and all its living beings. These stories form a link between human society and nature because indigenous people live more closely to the Earth. They use natural images to teach both about relationships between people and between people and the Earth. Plants and animals alike were considered brothers and sisters to the Native American.

Stories are magical and the storyteller is captivating. Through storytelling children are the center of their learning experiences.

One of my favorite American Indian stories is, Gluscabi and the Game Animals (Abenaki – Northeast Woodlands). At camp the children heard this story many times and eventually learned to enact it themselves. It has a powerful message about conservation and stewardship of wildlife. Through the power of storytelling this learning experience will never be forgotten.

Zayanne Thompson is the Program Department Head at YMCA Camp Surf, part of the camping branch of the YMCA of San Diego County. She is also an accreditation visitor for the American Camping Association (ACA), and is on the state board of the Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (AEOE) in California. As a credentialed teacher with a degree in environmental biology and advanced degree in education, she has worked with children in the outdoors through museums, the national park service, and for the last fifteen years in residential environmental education and summer camp programs. She lives with her family on a resident camp located on the beach in Southern California.

Kate Fox, Camp Directorof Free Spirit Nature Day Camp:
Kate leads the camp community and designs the program. Kate has seventeen years experience managing programs for children, including ten seasons of summer camp. She shares her understanding of ecology and respect for nature through unique, creative activities that emphasize cooperation and healthy physical and emotional development. Some of her favorite camp activities include outdoor cooking, small and huge puppet-making, tie-dying, parachute games, adventure challenges, cooperative and multicultural games, learning about birds, and exploring at the pond. She has directed summer camp and afterschool programs for the YMCA, the Boys & Girls Club, and other Youth Service organizations. When she is not at camp, she is developing programs for middle schoolers focusing on conflict resolution and character education. This is her eleventh season at Camp.

http://www.freespiritnaturecamp.com
http://www.camp.ymca.org/english/index_marston.html