Storytelling to me is about sharing unforgettable family stories, fairy tales that we read when kids, or we read our kids before we put them to sleep, stories of wonderful people who gave it all because of their strong beliefs. Storytelling is that moment when we filll our hearts with magic, bravery, love, tragedy, adventure, incredible trips out the space or underwater.
Storytelling is an out loud shout to our senses.
Close your eyes and see that hero fighting again the evil?
Smell the lilies when Mrs Baker tells the story of how she planted that first flower in her front porch and eventually fell in love with gardening and how she became an active member in planting flowers in her community?
Smell and taste the flavour of the knishes my grannie cooked while she told us how, who and why she learned how to cook knishes?
Feel the paper of the yellowish book, we still keep on our bookshelf, of an elephant, “Dailan Kifty” who was so huge to fit in that little home? Thanks Maria Elena Walsh for that story.
Alan Levine, is so inspiring when it comes to the learn about the power of Digital Story Telling. In his wiki you can read about his 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story. I am so thankful to him, I really understood the power stories have in a person’s life and in our classrooms.
“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” ~ Gautama Buddha
But this time I will focus on the power of story telling without using technology, and share how I felt I was able to support one of my students and even felt we hugged during an online class.
But this time I will focus on the power of story telling without using technology, and share how I felt I was able to support one of my students and even felt we hugged during an online class.
Pao is a nice and sensitive young woman in her mid 30s. Her life has not been “a bed of roses”, having had three kids and being a single mother does not seem to be so easy, does it?
But she is so special in many ways. The first day I met her and had a little chat with Pao I just felt like I wanted to hug her and somehow protect her. But soon I realised there was a strong woman inside that skinny body.
She has studied English for two years only. But not really regularly, for lots of personal issues.
At the beginning of this year, she called me and she said she wanted to go on with her classes but she could only have classes while her little son was in Kindergarten, and that is quite far from my home office. I offered her online lessons. And she accepted.
The online lessons turned out to be really effective with her. She was less dispersed during the class, she had a more positive and less complaining attitude, she tended to be childish sometimes, laughing and complaining like a young girl, “No, Debbie, I don’t know”, usually switching to Spanish.
So this day, we were working on a project about Vincent van Gogh, Pao loves art, enjoys music, painting, photography; actually she is a hair dresser, the owner of her saloon and if you ask her why she likes her job, she will usually say “it’s creative”, she feels she can express her art by dealing with different colours, she is absolutely passionate about her job.
We started watching a short video clip about Vincent Van Gogh, and I asked her what she had learnt about him, and she got some information, then she did a more intensive listening comprehension and she managed to do it quite well.
Then I asked her to write some questions about Van Gogh, and she came up with quite a few. I could see she had been captivated by the life of this painter as much as I had been. So, we made a list of questions and started working together to answer them.
The texts were a little over her level, so she would ask me for assistance and I was there to hold her hand. This is so important when learning online, to feel the presence of the tutor. At the end of our project I shared the song, “Starry Starry Night”, yes, how could I not share it?
And while she was listening, I was always watching her. I’m sure she could not understand all the lyrics, but she had tears dropping from her eyes. As the song came to an end, I just told her: “Nice song, beautiful pictures, Pao. Want to tell me something sweet Pao?”
“Debbie, life is so difficult”
“I know Pao, I really know, but it is also beautiful. I’d like to share one story with you, are you ready to listen?”
“Yes”
“A friend of mine is a long distance runner, he lives in the outskirts of Boston where he enjoys running as much as he enjoys looking for beauty around him. Just the other day, Tom was running near his home on a street lined with trees on both sides. There was a cool breeze, which felt so good for him. It is springtime in that side of the world, so many bushes, plants and trees are all blossoming. The breeze had loosened many of the flowers’ petals such that they swirled in the wind and fluttered to the ground like a winter snowstorm. Tom told me that the breeze made him feel he was in the middle of storm of pink petals, and that made him feel he was surrounded by beauty.”
“What a nice story, a storm of pink petals …”
“Pao, look outside the window, what can you see?”
“Well, the sun’s shining”
“Wouldn’t you like to go out and try to see if you can get into a storm of happiness, there must be beauty around you, go for it Pao”
She was drying her tears with the cuff of her shirt now.
” Yes, I’ll try. I love you”
“I love you Pao. Thanks for sharing your emotions and your whole beautiful heart with me. By the way, I have a little break, I think I’ll go out and search for my own storm of beauty and happiness.”