Category: Storytelling

Grandparents, History and Social Science, Parents and children, Relationships, Storytelling, Teaching and Learning

Who Was X in Your Family?

by KathyLeave a Comment on Who Was X in Your Family?

On the day I received my bachelor’s degree in music, my father told me that I was the first person in his family to graduate from college.  It was a fact I’d never known.

Years later, while digging into genealogy, I learned that my paternal grandparents–the generation that emigrated to Boston–received only a few years of schooling. Some of my great- and great-great grandparents had no education and used X to sign their names.

VG.PotatoDiggers.

This didn’t surprise me.  My family lived in western Ireland, the area hardest hit by potato famine. Somehow they suffered through severe poverty, cold, starvation, and disease.  Their lives were about survival, not adult and child literacy.  X spoke volumes to me.

My story is not unique. Most immigrants share a similar tale of escaping poverty and disease in search of a better life and education for their family.  Look back a few generations in your ancestry and you’ll discover where your X is.

 

Family, Grandparents, Speaking and listening, Storytelling, Teaching and Learning

Family Storytelling at Thanksgiving

by KathyLeave a Comment on Family Storytelling at Thanksgiving

After the pumpkin pie is put away, take your phone and sit with a loved one in a corner.  Ask some thoughtful questions.  Listen and record (video or audio) their responses.

Why?  You’re participating in StoryCorps’ Great Thanksgiving Listen, by asking meaningful questions of someone close to you. Storytelling is an art form that links us humans through time.  Oftentimes, some of our most personal and meaningful stories come from loved ones, like grandparents, and we should preserve them whenever we can.

Here’s how to do it.

You’ll always be glad you did.  There is no greater act of love than listening, really listening, to another human being.

 

Family, Grandparents, History and Social Science, Social and emotional development, Speaking and listening, Storytelling, Teaching and Learning

Military Family Stories

by Kathy2 Comments on Military Family Stories

Veterans of World War II rarely speak of their service.  In the case of my father, humility is part of the reason.

SSgt Morgan P. Molloy, Sr., age 91. Tail gunner who flew on B25 "Rhode Island Red."
SSgt Morgan P. Molloy, Sr., age 91. Tail gunner on B25 “Rhode Island Red.”

 “Everybody did it,” he shrugged, referring to his peers in the 1940s.

He is one of a handful of remaining WWII veterans in his town. Read his story, published this week in the Metrowest Daily News.

 If you are a veteran, or have a family member or friend who served in the military, record the story.  Videotape it or take notes as you talk.  Ask to see what pictures or memorabilia they have from that time–that helps to prompt remembrances.

Get your children involved–sometimes they come up with the best questions–because this is how they learn about family history, world history, democracy, and making peace.

Grandparents, Interdiscipinary learning, Parents and children, Social and emotional development, Speaking and listening, Storytelling, Teaching and Learning

Do Pets School at Work, or Work at School?

by KathyLeave a Comment on Do Pets School at Work, or Work at School?

To mark Take Your Dog to Work Day (June 26), I offer this piece from 2010, published at Lesley University as “The Magic of Mario and G Force.” Learn what a difference pets make in the classroom.

It’s a steamy spring afternoon in a city school. Twenty-six hot first graders in navy polo shirts plop onto the rug to hear their teacher read a story.Brown and white guinea pigs Afterward, she asks her students to write a journal response from the perspective of hamsters Mario and G-Force, the class pets.

Then the magic of this lesson unfolds. As students drift to different areas of the room to write, many of them choose to sit in the camp chairs arranged around the large hamster cage. It has tall rolling legs, bringing it right up to student level—perfect! This means Mario and G-Force participate as full members of the class, offering viewpoints from all 4 sides as they nibble, groom, and snuffle around.girl writing

Students who gather around Mario’s and G-Force’s cage sit as easily in their camp chairs as if they were adults sitting around a campfire, except they have journals in their laps. Voices drop to a murmur as students read Mario’s perspective aloud to themselves or review G-Force’s opinion with a partner.

Where is the teacher during this half hour of student writing? Not at her desk, which is practically invisible. She’s working one-on-one with two or three students as the rest of the class handles the writing on their own.

And their writing is terrific! Children show me some of their journal responses and I see spirited and imaginative writing, wonderful vocabulary, and students who love to write. Mario-G-Force-and-camp-chairs-as-writing-center is a blueprint for success if ever there was one.red guinea pig

For first graders only, you say? Not by a long shot. I’ve been in secondary classrooms with pets and comfortable chairs and they are the kinder, gentler places our adolescents need to support their growth and development.

Try some Mario and G-Force in your classroom. The results won’t disappoint.

Arts, History and Social Science, Storytelling, Teaching and Learning

Buried Treasure: X Marks the Spot

by KathyLeave a Comment on Buried Treasure: X Marks the Spot

Before students write a story, ask them to draw an illustrated map.  Visualizing, creating, drawing, painting, coloring, and discussing a map stimulates the imagination in ways that words sometimes cannot.

It worked for Robert Louis Stevenson (1854-1894), who spent a rainy day with his son drawing this map, which inspired his masterpiece Treasure Island:

This marvelous text in Treasure Island came to Stevenson after he drew the map:

“The paper had been sealed in several places with a thimble…The doctor opened the seals with great care, and there fell out the map of an island…shaped…like a fat dragon standing up…three crosses of red ink…”Bulk of treasure here”  (Stevenson,  p.47).

 

 

Stevenson, R.L., (1911). Treasure Island. Illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. (Original work published 1883).

Source for map:

Source for text: OpenLibrary.org: https://archive.org/stream/treasureisland00stev#page/46/mode/2up

 

Arts, Grandparents, Music, Parents and children, Social and emotional development, Speaking and listening, Storytelling, Teaching and Learning

Your Story Through Song

by KathyLeave a Comment on Your Story Through Song

baby dreamsSongs connect us to all of humankind and tell our story from the earliest days of human history. You have songs that tell the story of your life, too. Did you sing while you did chores?  Rode in the car? During play?

Think about the earliest songs that hold meaning for you. My father sang I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen when he drove me home, days-old, from the hospital. My mother sang Baby Dreams every night. When I see a crocus, a kindergarten song runs through my mind: “Out of the earth, a crocus springs, just like a jack-in-the-box…”

We kids sang while swinging and washing dishes; a ride in the car meant breaking into three-part harmony. At my grandmother’s, we sang songs like Elsie from Chelsea. My sister and I knew all the songs from Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music from records. Extended family gathered at Christmas to sing Handel’s Messiah.

Color My World, by Chicago, was my prom’s theme. In college, I sang along to Orleans and The Beach Boys while learning airs, madrigals, lieder, and chorale themes used by Bach.

As both teacher and principal, I taught children to sing patriotic songs; God Bless America became the all-time favorite. I played the familiar two-note shark theme from Jaws on the piano as a classroom quiet signal. The result? Instant silence and it worked every time.

What’s your story through song?

Grandparents, Parents and children, Speaking and listening, Storytelling, Writing

The Lowell Goat’s Tale

by Kathy2 Comments on The Lowell Goat’s Tale

A good community story engages readers of all ages, especially when it’s about an escaped animal. Our area had one: the Lowell Goat who escaped slaughter by fleeing from its Tewksbury, MA farm. The goat went on the lam.

Photo by Frank Peabody, Lowell Sun, 12/29/14
Photo by Frank Peabody, Lowell Sun, 12/29/14

The Lowell Sun started a hilarious Twitter feed from the goat. No kidding. A Go Fund Me campaign raised money for his life post-capture. A Facebook page appeared on the goat’s behalf and gained around 1,000 followers.

Throughout January, we read of his sightings. Puns and clever turns of phrase posted about the Lowell Goat ranged from “getting your goat” to “you goat what it takes.” Goat jokes, Photoshopped pictures, videos, and clever comments even attracted local CBS affiliate. Police and animal rescue from other towns teased local police about their abilities as goatbusters.

Even the Dorchester Coyote weighed in.

What strikes me is the wonderful humor people display during a story like this. It unites us into a family, a community, a gathering of imaginative souls. People of all ages smile and maintain a balance of concern for the goat (safely captured) and funny observations, which I believe shows the best of humanity.

Interdiscipinary learning, Social and emotional development, Storytelling, Teaching philosophy

Empathy and Kindness, Pet-Style

by Kathy2 Comments on Empathy and Kindness, Pet-Style

A few days ago, our family lost our beloved 17-year-old mini poodle, Muffy.Muffy Aug 2012  Saddled with a girl’s name, Muffy lived a pretty healthy life. Though he endured infirmities as a senior, we accommodated him by finding snuggly blankets, adjusting his water bowl to a comfortable height, and carrying him in and out.

In his younger days, I brought Muffy to school and the students made him an instant celebrity.  He’d never had so many stories read to him in one day.  The students showed empathy and kindness, something we now have entire curricula to teach.

I admire teachers who keep pets in the classroom because they seem to have a special insight into children. Their focus tends to be less about teaching children responsibility and more about what each of us learns from animals. I know educators who bring their dogs to school and I’ve seen how stroking them helps evoke a kind of mellow grace in students. Especially in older students.

Other colleagues of mine have created ingenious roles for animals in schools.  One kept an aquarium with a student desk and chair parked in front of it. She’d read that watching fish could help children self-regulate, and she had a couple of students in mind.  The rest of the class wanted to use the aquarium for quiet thinking, too.  Soon she had to post a sign-up sheet.

Another teacher kept a rabbit hopping around freely.  You might think that would distract first graders, but not at all. The children easily integrated the rabbit into their routines and learned to step carefully around him.  The rabbit used a litter box, too.

In one urban school, a teacher kept two guinea pigs in a huge cage on legs. She made it into a writing center.  Children drew their chairs around all four sides, some propping up their feet on its edge.  The guinea pigs went on with their lives as students watched them and worked on writing projects.  Each child who wanted to hold one knew the procedure for letting out the guinea pigs, always putting the animal’s needs first.

Empathy, kindness, care, grace, sharing, patience–that’s a short list of what students learn from school pets. How lucky the world is when children carry those forward.

 

 

 

 

Celebrations, Parents and children, Storytelling, Teacher reflection & PD

Gifts to Self

by Kathy1 Comment on Gifts to Self

Are you a teacher or parentIMG_3246 scrambling to make the most of every second before the holiday break? Have you had enough of malls and stores?  Sounds like you need an Education Spring-style restorative gift.
Two kindred blogs, Musing off the Mat and Jenny’s Lark, inspired me to adapt their idea.

Relax comfortably. Allow your mind to wander over the array of happy experiences you’ve had this year. Write them down and number as you go.

IMG_3247
Widen your spectrum to include peaceful decisions and happy coincidences. Keep going as long as you want. It didn’t take me long to reach 76 .

Add richness by including moments of all sizes. While writing my list, I found small moments that were IMG_3249easily overlooked. It was simple to add a visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Inside that large moment, though, was a smaller one in the inner courtyard.

When we list the gifts we’ve given to ourselves, several things happen. We see our blessings in black and white. We recognize what we have cultivated in our world.IMG_3250

And we realize that by noticing our gifts to self that we’ve been good enough teachers and good enough parents.

Family, Grandparents, Speaking and listening, Storytelling

Family Storytellers and StoryCorps

by KathyLeave a Comment on Family Storytellers and StoryCorps

Who’s the storyteller in your family?  I’ll bet your children know who it is. Here’s a chance to prompt them with questions and listen while recording them for posterity.StoryCorps

This Friday, November, 21, 2014, is the National Day of Listening sponsored by StoryCorps and is a perfect time to start. Continue it on Thanksgiving and you’ll gather an even bigger trove of treasure.

My grandmother’s stories were like a song catalogue.  And she took requests. Someone would ask, “Grammy, tell the one about…” She’d glance around, and smack her lips into a wide O-shaped smile.

Grammy used a firm “Well” in place of Once upon a time. Soon we’d hear the one about crawling on her hands and knees up the long hill to get home (at age seventy-five) after a hair appointment.  Grammy’s inimitable style was part of the storytelling and included succinct descriptions with perfect timing.

The only time anyone recorded her was the day she lay down on the floor at a big family party, a tour de force for someone in their eighties.  The word passed like wildfire: Clare’s on the floor! Guests produced video cameras to record the event. While it was hilarious to see, it was her voice and style that gave it unforgettable flavor.

StoryCorps reminds us that all families have storytellers like Grammy. You can choose your questions to suit your storyteller or the conversation.  It’s vital to record their stories—using audio or video–because nothing speaks across generations than hearing the stories we love told again and again.