Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on March 4th at 8PM ET when I spoke with Mark Morey on the Art of Mentoring.
For more information on Mark Morey Checkout his website and the Institute for Natural Learning that he runs. Also be sure to attend the Art of Mentoring class in Vermont that he helps put on every year.
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Joyce Slater writes…
Storypartners for Teenage Parents is an intergenerational storytelling/mentoring residency for high schools. It is designed to promote communication between teenage parents and parents of another generation. Like it or not parents have similar experiences no matter when they became a parent. This program gives all participants a chance to tell his/her own story to someone who is there to listen to them.
Before the residency begins, possible mentoring partners are interviewed and screened. After the mentors are chosen, they participate in a workshop designed to help them tell their own personal stories. The students participate in a similar workshop before the two groups meet.
The residency lasts two to three weeks with monthly follow-up gatherings for the mentors and the students. The facilitator meets with the parents and the mentors separately and together to develop the process of telling their own stories of child rearing. The facilitator also uses stories to illustrate topics of discussion, like love, hope, disappointment and fear. Sometimes music is Read the rest of this entry »
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Purchase a CD of this telephone interview…
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CD Telephone Quality Audio Interview #034 Elizabeth Rose – Empowering teachers to use storytelling for $9.95. [wp_eStore:product_id:19:end] |
Elizabeth Rose writes…
In this podcast I hared my ideas on how to use storytelling in the classroom in a realistic way in order to help teach the mandated state curriculum. Many of the skills that teachers are held accountable for can be taught with the use of storytelling. Children respond to stories in the narrative form. Many teachers do not believe in their own storytelling abilities. More teachers need to be empowered to test their storytelling skills with their classes; the rewards are great.
Children also have the capability of becoming great storytellers. So many skills can be learned through storytelling such as plot, sequencing, vocabulary, story structure, characterization, point of view, figurative language, listening skills, the list goes on and on and on. Elizabeth will discuss the value of having youth storytelling clubs and educating more people about the opportunities for youth storytellers, such as the National Youth Storytelling Showcase. Read the rest of this entry »
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Purchase a CD of this telephone interview…
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CD Telephone Quality Audio Interview #032 Heather Forest, Musical Folk Tales for Children for $9.95. [wp_eStore:product_id:20:end] |
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 Read the rest of this entry »
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Fran Stallings writes…
My main concern with this topic is the observation that many of our Environmental tales are DOWNERS. While our storytelling ancestors probably used them as Read the rest of this entry »
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Judith Black writes…
Adult sensibilities and child needs infrequently travel the same orbit.
Adult: “Now sweetie, why don’t I tell you that nice story about the little girl who loves visiting the dentist?”
Child: “No mommy! I want the one about the little girl who goes into the wrong house in the forest and the wolf eats her up.”
Adult: “How about the lovely fairy tale where the princess frees the imprisoned prince and opens a shelter for the kingdom’s peasants?”
Child: “How about the one where the beautiful princess marries the prince and lives happily ever after in a big rich castle.”
Adult: “Let’s tell the one about the kind dragon, who helps the villagers find water.”
Child: “Na, I want the one about the slimy green dragon who rips up all the people into itty bitty bits and gobbles them up.”
The chasm is so deep and wide that they opt for a video tape, a shander* in storytelling circles! (Shander: A Yiddish expression meaning an act of debased dishonor)
Adults edit and censor the stories they share with children. In so much as we are the adults these are our choices to make. Making them solely out of our wants and objectives instead of based in our children’s needs, might Read the rest of this entry »
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Selections from the book RETURN TO CREATION, by Manitonquat (Medicine Story):
(Reprinted with permission.)
What we need to investigate and learn together is healing. In a time of great sickness nothing else should concern us. Healing the earth, healing society, healing our communities, healing ourselves. To paraphrase a saying, if we are not part of the medicine, we are part of the disease.
You have come to the circle which this book represents to hear me speak. Perhaps you wish to learn something about Native American healing from a medicine man. Maybe you wish to experience a healing yourself. Well, I hope you do learn something, and I hope you get in touch with the spirit of healing. I must tell you, however, that the healing power for you is only within you. A medicine person’s real job, whether it be with a ritual, with herbs, with steam or water, with song or dance or with story – whatever the medicine, the real work is to convince you of your own healing power. That is the healing power of Creation which is within each of us.
Sickness of any kind is a dissonance in the harmony of nature, a noisy intrusion into the Song of Creation. A certain amount of dissonance and conflict is expected and desirable. They are a spur to consciousness. Our most essential teachers are Read the rest of this entry »
