The stories that shape me...

Last week, I was lucky to sit in on an online discussion with Alan Levine who is an expert on digital storytelling and how it can be applied in today’s classroom. The online session started out with a question from Alan, “Think of a story you have told in the past.” As soon as Alan asked this question, my mind started going and I realized, wow, I have so many stories. I have never thought of it before, but story telling is such a large part of my life, whether I’m telling fictional stories or stories about my life adventures, friends, happiness and even sadness.

Like Alan, I truly believe that everyone has a story to tell, whether it’s about being happy, sad, angry or even proud. Whether we’re shy or self-assured, we all have a story we want to share. After listening to Alan’s online session and thinking back to that first question, I realized how meaningful storytelling is. We all tell stories, whether we know we are or not. When we tell stories, we want people to listen, and when they listen we feel accepted. Especially in today’s classroom, it is so important for students to connect and feel accepted by one another. As Allan said, we all have shared stories, by telling them, we learn our similarities and our differences. I strongly believe that allowing students to share their stories will only make them feel accepted and help maintain an inclusive classroom. Children need to feel accepted and as a teacher, by showing them that I want to hear ‘their’ story, they will feel appreciated and included. As a hopeful French Teacher, there are so many meaningful ways I can incorporate digital storytelling into my classroom. During the live and interactive session, we talked about incorporating it as a ‘get to know you activity,’ at the start of the year or even as a beginning of unit activity. In a language class, it's also a great way to get students to practice their speaking and listening skills. At the beginning of the year, it is so important to create an inclusive environment right from the beginning. What better way to do that by getting students to tell a story about themselves in order to show who they are. For example, I could assign each student the task of finding a picture of themselves, family…etc. and ask them to tell a story about themselves that relates to the picture. Would this not be a much more meaningful experience when a student introduces themselves with a personal story, rather than telling the class or writing down what their favorite colour is, or subject is? You can really see who a person is when they tell a story about themselves. Using images and videos to tell a story about yourself is not only a fun way to use technology, but it’s also an extremely meaningful way to allow students to build connections with one another and to gain a deeper understanding of who each other are. Alan has an excellent website entitled "50 web 2.0 ways to tell astory," which is an excellent tool to help guide you in finding appropriate media to use for digital storytelling, as well as how to create a good outline and tools to help build your story. Ultimately, I thank Alan Levine for opening my eyes about the importance of storytelling, particularly through using digital technology. I always want my students to feel accepted and included, and what better way than to start them off with forming connections with one another. I recommend all storytellers to follow Alan’s blog and wiki which is full of insights into the digital storytelling world. All I can say is keep creating stories and never stop sharing them with the world around you!

I picked this picture because it represents an entire year of my life where I was pushed outside of my comfort zone, met new people from around the world and gained new experiences as I travelled from Country to Country. Each person in this picture is from a different part of the world, which not only represents the bonds I formed with different people I came across but it also represents the unforgettable experiences I had along the way. These 4 people each had a story to tell that created a meaningful bond between us and helped shape my own stories and views about the world. I am lucky to have had an experience that has provided me with a lifetime of stories to share with those around me.