Storyteller, announcer, supporter of family based agriculture and youth. I write from my inspirations and fill my blogs with my other love - photography.
Re-posting a blog on Participatory Storytelling, crossing platforms and geographic area to engage people in a blogs, Facebook, tweets and other social media to tell a final story when all the components are gathered. I loved the Three Little Pigs segment to access via QR code. Check it out looks like fun! By: Robert Pratten
Saying yes to teaching a spring vacation storytelling class was a "no brainer", as the kids say. I love helping kids discover their voice and the power of story.....
Day One
Four rotations will come to me over the course of the day. Each group will have a high school aged guide. They will stay with me for one hour, then move on to the next art offered in this Vacation Arts Experience sponsored by EastConn an educational service. www.eastconn.org I must introduce the stories and engage them in activities that bring them back wanting more. We need to get a story framework in their head in under an hour.
A group arrives all the desks have stories on them in print, they all look alike from the door. We introduce ourselves around and mention a favorite story we have seen, heard, or read. They have 3 minutes to read the intro to the story." GET UP AND MOVE TO A NEW DESK AND STORY" We take several rotations and already a couple students are hugging a story not wanting to leave it. I allow them to keep what they have been attracted to. 4th desk, if they haven't found one I make some suggestions and share some books that might entice a student. Everyone has a story, now we can read through to the end.
Project Time - Getting our Hands on the Stories
This Play-Doh creation blew me away!
This is the story of the Christmas Truce during WWI near Ypres, France. Note the German's Christmas tree, wounded soldier in "no mans land" and soldiers in trenches. 30 minutes, start to finish and he understood the story! Try this link to read a version of event: http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/christmastruce.htm
While some students worked in Play-Doh others were making cut and paste murals from magazine pictures. On the second day they will switch and make the other project.
Felt boards were used for other students who again tried a different hands on the story project on day 2.
Come back soon or follow to find out about day 2 and day 3 of the Vacation Arts Experience/ Storytelling with Carolyn Stearns Storyteller. www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com
How to use Skype for live image conversation, meetings and how to workshops.You could be practicing a story with a friend far away! This video is great but it starts a little to far in the experience for a very new user. First be sure your computer has a built in web cam or purchase one that can be plugged into you computer. Once the computer is ready with a camera you are much closer to being live online. From a search engine page such as Google type in Skype. You will be given a site you can download Skype from and add it to your desktop. Just follow those step by step instructions.
Here is a you-tube instructional to take you from there to talking with a friend.
Corn Harvest in Connecticut is a story of 2011 rain and mud. For every day spent out trying to chop corn into much needed corn silage there is three days of rain. In the spring we had so much rain we couldn't plant all the fields some had standing water in them.
Ruts in the fields, these are minor compared to some
Corn likes it hot and sunny. This year we had mostly a cool rainy summer. The corn is shorter and the ears are smaller.
Fall comes and it is time to begin harvest but the rains just keep coming. Some days it takes a tractor or bulldozer to pull the truck to catch the corn, and a duo of vehicles to chop as well. Then repairs to the rutted fields have to be made when they dry. When good weather comes the crew is working steady to get that corn home to the silage stack.
Everyone will be happy when the stack is full and covered and we know we have enough feed for our dairy cows for the next year.
The tarp covers the old corn we are feeding out still. The new corn is pushed and packed by the bulldozer. The tight packing into the cement lined pit completed, the plastic cover is laid over it and weighted by tires to protect from wind damage. Then the stack of freshly chopped corn ferments. This is the basis of our dairy cows diet.
A milk producing cow will eat approximately 40 pounds of corn silage a day. So it is important we get all our corn home and undercover. The frost begins to sap its nutrients so time is of the essence.
Our family came to this farm in 1772. The first 100 years here they were subsistence farmers. In 1871 they incorporated the dairy business. www.mountaindairy.com Since then the rhythm of the farm has stayed in tune with the seasons. The crops coming and going on the land are the basis for maintaining the dairy cows. The days of horse drawn milk delivery are gone and the glass bottles are only a Christmas Season novelty.The work of milking has gone from hand to machine, what is consistent is the Stearns family being stewards to the land and animals.
This is our family story, of working the land and the land nurturing the generations.
"Change the Story" A TedX Talk / Calgary
Is our non-profit, community group, church or civic group stuck in a changing world? Do we need to look at things in a new fresh perspective, a new story? I found some great advice and motivation in this Ted Talk filled with " the intersection of leadership and STORY!"
"Carolyn, 7/10/11
Thanks for the kind words - and, of course, please feel free to post to your blog - glad to hear it's meaningful to folks out there.
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