by Kim McCloskey | Nov 26, 2014 | About Storytelling
It’s the season for giving thanks and at the Timpanogos Storytelling Institute we are grateful for the many teachers and librarians who touch the lives of students with their storytelling. To show our appreciation, we have compiled a list of resources to help you enhance your storytelling.
Whether you are a teacher, a librarian, or a parent you know that storytelling is one of the best tools to engage students and get them involved in active learning. We are all hardwired for stories. Current research supports this theory and offers new resources to educate the educators on this powerful tool.
“(Storytelling) is unsurpassed as a tool for learning about ourselves, about the ever-increasing information available to us, and about the thoughts and feelings of others,” says The National Council of Teachers of English “Guideline on Teaching Storytelling.” Check out this helpful resource here.
Further evidence of the impact of oral storytelling on learning can be found at Storynet -Advocacy.org which has compiled a list of research papers and quantitative studies.
So with that in mind, here is a list of resources that will help you 1) enhance your lessons through storytelling, 2) engage the students in active learning, and 3) explore the resources available to you through the storytelling community. This list is in no way comprehensive but it’s a good start.
- Resources to help you enhance your lessons with storytelling. I’m not talking about becoming good at reading stories aloud, although that is a worthy goal, but about using personal, traditional or historical stories to illuminate a subject. There are a number of online resources to help you develop your skill as a storyteller.
2. Resources for creating opportunities for your students to tell their own tales. Students learn by doing, so create storytelling assignments which are performance-based or technology-based. Performance-based storytelling projects help them develop confidence in public speaking, while technology-based projects are always exciting for students and help them to develop needed computer skills.
- Myth-Off – A storytelling competition where four storytellers battle with mythologies. For more information, click on this article from the National Storytelling Network.
- Stop Motion animation– Stop motion is an exciting option for students to prepare and tell a story. This website offers a free, simple-to-use software download for MAC. Other options for technology-based storytelling presentations include videos and voice recordings.
3. Create opportunities for your students to listen to great tellers
- Utah State Office of Education Professional Outreach Program to Schools (POPS) – Timpanogos Storytelling is offering free storytelling events at Utah schools. Due to high demand, our spaces for the 2014-15 school year are filled and we are no longer accepting applications. However, if you would like to be contacted about visits in the 2015-16 school year, please feel out the form below or contact Eliot Wilcox about questions at ewilcox.timpfest@gmail.com or 801-228-1350.
- If your school is in Utah County, a storyteller can be scheduled for an assembly at your school during the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. The coordinator is Stephanie Ashton, or anytime during the school year by contacting a storyteller directly.
- There are a number of storytellers who have posted YouTube videos of their stories. One example is David Heathfield who tells Juan and the Magic Tree (Filipino)
- The Orem Public Library has an impressive collection of storytelling resources available for everyone. Videos, audio recordings and picture books can all be found in their online catalogue.
Check out the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival website for a schedule of upcoming events, and check your local library’s calendar of events.
Do you have some resources that you use to enhance storytelling in your classroom? Please share them with us.
by Kim McCloskey | Nov 10, 2014 | About Storytelling
While face-to-face storytelling is the ideal, most of us can’t attend storytelling festivals or sit around a campfire each weekend so we have to get our fill through other mediums such as radio, which is still one of the best places to find great oral storytelling.
Think about Orson Welles’ notorius “War of the Worlds”, which I recently found out was broadcast the same week my father was born. This historic broadcast, and the public’s reaction to it, demonstrated what a perfect medium radio can be to show the power of the human imagination. Lou Orfanlla explains, “Radio has the power to individualize its presentation within the mind of each and every listener. There is an intimacy and shared vision that it creates.”
Radio dramas of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s are the roots of today’s TV comedy, drama, adventure, mystery, and science fiction. Did you know that serialized dramas began on the radio as 15 minute segments that were sponsored by soap companies. They eventually became known as “soap operas”. In the heyday of radio these soap operas could be heard between variety shows with a wide range of genres. Today’s TV shows are descended from great radio programs such as Saturday Night Theater, the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and Laurel and Hardy.
While TV, movies and Youtube videos have become the go-to for many when they want to hear a story, the power of radio that makes this medium a great option. There has been a resurgence of storytelling on the radio, which has moved away from the serialized story and is more often formatted around a weekly theme with autobiographical stories. The Moth Radio Hour is a popular program which highlights true stories told by seasoned and novice storytellers alike. The Moth Radio Hour a broadcast based in NYC and can be heard in the Salt Lake area on KCPW on Saturdays at 11:00 am – 12 noon.
Storytelling has become somewhat of a movement in NYC and around the country. Other radio shows that use a similar format of true stories told by everyday people are Snap Judgement (storytelling with a beat), Risk (true tales, boldly told) , True Story (a night of true tales told to friends), StoryCorps (one of the largest oral history projects of its kind), and a favorite mentioned in an earlier blog post, This American Life. All of these have archived podcasts which can be found on their websites.
While true stories told by everyday people have really gained a following, there is something to be said about the art of the traditional tale skillfully told by professional storytellers. One weekly radio broadcast that really celebrates this ancient art is The Apple Seed on BYU Radio.
On The Apple Seed you’ll hear everything from traditional fairytales, to interviews with storytellers, Jewish tales, scary tales, Southern tales, stories for and about girls, The Odyssey, Lou Gehrig, Grimm, Ray Bradbury and many others. You’re bound to find some of your favorite storytellers on The Apple Seed as well. The most recent broadcast was from the Four Corners Storytelling Festival which featured Alton Chung, Andy Offut Irwin,The Storycrafters, Dan Keding and Evelyn Roper. And just take a look at some of the past performers that have been featured on The Apple Seed:
Clare Murphy, Diane Ferlatte, Kim Weitkamp, Geraldine Buckley, Motoko, Donald Davis, David Holt, Donna Washington, Simon Brooks, Tim Lowry, and Jay O’Callahan, among others.
What a great resource for teachers, families, and anyone wanting something great to listen to on their lunch break! You can catch The Apple Seed live on air weekdays at noon or go to BYU Radio for the podcast.
So, when you really want to fire up your imagination, turn off the TV and head for the glow of your computer to find a radio program that celebrates the art of storytelling.
Do you have a favorite storytelling radio program? Leave a comment and share it with us.
by Kim McCloskey | Oct 26, 2014 | About Storytelling, Benefits of Storytelling, Story Contest
Can you think of the first really scary story that you heard? Perhaps it was a ghost story at a sleepover, or an urban legend around a campfire. Do you remember how you felt? If you are like me, you probably felt fear and excitement simultaneously. What is it that draws us to these stories? Is it just the adrenaline rush, or is there something we can learn about ourselves in these dark corners?
Tonight is the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival’s Hauntings Storytelling Competition and I can’t think of a better way to treat yourself this Halloween than with some spine-tingling stories. Forget those gory slasher movies, give me a good old-fashioned cerebral scare any day.
Here are a few things that we can learn from a good scary story:
1. Dragons do exist, but they can be defeated. This applies to monsters, demons as well. If we have the courage to find their weaknesses, we can prevail.
2. Stories can be scary but predictable, which life rarely is. Like a roller-coaster ride, there is anticipation, drama, a predictable climax and then the satisfying conclusion. For the adrenaline junkie, it is a safe thrill.
3. Often, scary folklore is created by cultures to warn people against bad behavior. Think of the ghost stories in which someone returns from the dead to settle unfinished business because they did something wrong in life or someone did something to them. Think of the scary fairytales warning children to stay away from strangers or not to go into the woods alone. When these stories were originally published children were often facing very real and perilous dangers every day. There are real dangers today that we must be on the watch for.
4. We can gain a sense of control over our own demons and monsters when we take the time to stare them down.
5. We stumble into closeness when sharing a good scare with someone else. The shared screams, gasps, and nervous laughter cause us to cling to one another and remind us that we really aren’t alone.
Contemporary myths, urban legends, ghost stories, folklore and fairytales can not only provide us with entertainment but with insight as well. A good scary story will take you to dark places in order to enlighten you. Whatever it is that draws you in, surrender yourself and come to the Haunting’s Storytelling Competition on Monday at 7 pm at the Orem Library. It’s free, it’s frightening, it’s fun and you might just learn something about yourself.
Haunting Contest 2014
by Kim McCloskey | Oct 10, 2014 | About Storytelling
Storyteller Antonio Sacre
At the invitation of the Timpanogos Storytelling Institute Antonio Sacre will be performing a live concert on Monday, October 13 at 7:00 pm at the Orem Public Library.
He recently performed at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, and I am a big fan. He is dynamic, energetic, honest and funny. He weaves English and Spanish into an intriguing tapestry that perfectly showcases the traditional and personal tales he tells.
If you want to hear a multitalented storyteller, author and solo performance artist who has graced the stage of the Kennedy Center, then don’t miss this opportunity.
Can I just brag a little? Antonio tweeted this recently and now I’m his 9,000th follower. He even sent me a tweet in response. Jealous? You should be. It won’t be long before he is trending. 🙂
Who will be follower 9,000? I’m HUGE on Twitter. Am I trending? Let me check…nope. Not trending. Sigh.
by Kim McCloskey | Oct 7, 2014 | About Storytelling
I had the opportunity to go to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee for the first time this weekend and can I just say, it was as good as I hoped it would be. If you have never had the opportunity to attend, sit back and let me describe it for you.
Flying into the Tri Cities Regional Airport, we could see the beauty of the Appalachian mountains below and it was apparent from the get-go that we were going to be in for a treat. Luckily, or perhaps serendipitously, we were sitting next to a former board member of the National Storytelling Festival from Maine, who introduced us to the founder of the festival and former president of the International Storytelling Center, Jimmy Neil Smith. His Tennessee lilt would be one of the first voices to greet us, what a fitting way to begin our new adventure.
The drive from the airport takes you through some beautiful countryside with undulating hills carpeted with trees and fields for grazing. We headed for the nearby town of Kingsport because the hotels near the festival fill up quickly and are more expensive. After checking in, we drove into Jonesborough to pick up our festival tickets and get acquainted with the layout of the town.
As we walked into the historic district the first word that came to my mind was “charming” and that word doesn’t come to mind very often. The red brick Washington County courthouse with white columns and a clock tower dominates the historic main street which is lined by quaint antique shops, a general store and the Lollipop Shop, among others. If it weren’t for all the white tents you might think you had stepped back in time a few hundred years, which is fitting for a town that is said to be the oldest town in Tennessee and the birthplace of Andrew Jackson, country music, and of course, the storytelling revival.
We ate dinner at the Tupelo Honey Cafe in Johnson City and I just had to try Brian’s Shrimp and Grits, the “Shoo Mercy” version with goat cheese grits, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and spinach drizzled with a spicy roasted red pepper sauce. Shoo mercy it was a big plate of food! Okay, since the suthern vocabulary has crept in let me tell you that we were really enjoying the sweet twangs and drawls that surrounded us. No two accents are the same, although all are wonderfully tempting to try. I did resist the urge, though, because I was afeared that y’all would confuse my admiration with ridicule, and I do admire a beautiful southern lilt.
The next day was rainy and cold and we arrived early at the tents all bundled up to settle in and claim our spots. Our group decided to divide and conquer, sharing the highlights afterward, so I began by listening to Sue O’Halloran tell passionate stories about the racial tensions on the Southeast side of Chicago in the 1950s, which was a moving way to begin my adventure. This was followed by Tim Lowry sharing his hilarious experiences as an imaginative child in Kentucky, “a place that rains sweet tea.” Tim will be coming to our festival in 2015 so I was happy to get an early introduction to his down home, boy-next-door style. Don’t tell him this, but his goatee and bow tie remind me of a young Colonel Sanders. Let me know if you agree when you see him next September.
The rest of the festival was filled with laughter, reflection, poetic language, music, and insights. I saw some of our old favorites such as Carmen Deedy (back in full form), Bill Harley, Donald Davis and Bil Lepp. I also found some new favorites in Daniel Morden, 
Linda Gorham, Will Hornyak, and Tom Lee. Dovie Thomason and Tim Tingle reminded us of the wisdom of our native American culture. Kuniko used the beauty of the Japanese language and the art of origami to teach us that anger is the gate of hell and contrition is the gate of heaven. Regi Carpenter pulled back the curtain on the stigma of mental health issues. Carol Birch brought the literary genius of John Steinbeck to the stage and she joined Megan Wells along with Jim May to bring Ray Bradbury to life.
Music could be heard throughout the tents. Nashville singer and storyteller, Kate Campbell made us laugh with her quirky characters, and Healing Force’s harmonies reminded us that beauty is as beauty does and it can never be concealed.
I’m not a crier (at least, I keep telling myself that), but a new voice, Pete Griffin made me cry with his touching story of fishing for salmon in Alaska with his mother-in-law, as did Kevin Kling, with every story that he told.
Occasionally, performances were interrupted briefly by passing Norfolk Southern Railway trains, whose tracks are within feet of two of the tents. The tellers would often weave the interruption into the fabric of their stories with a twinkle in their eyes. I also noticed that the audience in Jonesborough is very generous with the tellers and participated eagerly and joyfully, whether it is chiming in on a refrain or playfully repeating phrases. The tellers fed off of this generosity and brought their “A” game.
Here are some of my favorite quotes, overheard at the festival:
“I was nine years old when I met the stars.” – Megan Wells
“Nobody looks better than when they are helping someone else.” – Kevin Kling
“From here on everything that happened was my brother’s fault.” – Donald Davis
“Greed is a hunger that starts in your belly, but if left unchecked it will twist its way into your heart.” – Carol Birch
“Respect is the other hand of love.” – Dovie Thomason
“West Virginia is the oldest and sickest state in the union, which gives a whole new meaning to ‘almost heaven.’” – Bil Lepp
“God made the earth round so we can’t see too far down the road.” – Carmen Deedy quoting Danish author Isak Dinesen.
“McDonald’s arches are the devil’s eyebrows. Don’t be fooled.” – Daniel Morden
“Shall we think or shall we listen?” – Tom Lee
“The precipice of a putrid paradise.” – Regi Carpenter describing the dump she would visit with her father as a child.
“The first rule of writing – butt in chair.” – Bill Harley
“The most sophisticated technology you can invest in is a human being.” – David Novak
“A great gift is an answer waiting for a question.” – Kevin Kling
We ended the weekend at Cootie Brown’s Cafe reflecting on our favorite moments and tellers, all of us happy and filled. You never know what the future holds, but I hope that it will include another trip to the festival. If not, I’m grateful that I had the opportunity and that I can see many of these great storytellers and musicians closer to home at our own Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. Until then, I will ruminate on the truths that I heard (thanks David Novak for reminding me of such a delicious word) and savor the sweetness of the stories that were stirred in the deepest part of my memories. Thank you to all of the volunteers in Jonesborough who made the 42nd annual festival possible. I hope to see all y’all soon.
by Kim McCloskey | Sep 6, 2014 | About Storytelling
I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks. ~William Shakespeare
It’s that time again. The tents are empty, the memories are fresh and we are feeling gratitude in our hearts, so some thank yous are in order.
THANK YOU STORYTELLERS! First of all, we want to thank the storytellers for their wonderful talent. I’m always in awe at their ability to delight us all. I watched our talented tellers create magic in the schools, inspire new and seasoned tellers in the workshops, and entertain and enthrall intimate groups as well as large audiences alike. I’m sure each of you has a particular favorite who seemed to know just how to touch your heart or tickle your funny bone, I know I had several favorites.
THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS! Of course, we need to thank the hundreds of volunteers who took care of all the details, from the parking, to the tickets, to the Fanfare, to hosting the tents and everything in between. As you can imagine, the logistics for putting on such a large community event are awe inspiring. It’s like the old saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Pretty gross, I know, but you get the point. Without each volunteer taking care of the tiny details, we would never be able to pull of an event of this size, so thanks.
THANK YOU FESTIVAL GOERS! We also want to thank the patrons, new and old, who made this year’s anniversary celebration such a success. We saw familiar friends who have been to the Festival almost since it’s inception and some friends who came for the very first time. Without all of you, the Festival would never have survived and thrived for a quarter of a century. With you, we look forward to celebrating our golden anniversary.
We welcome your opinions and advice, so please let us know if there is anything we can do to improve on next year’s Festival. And, thanks again!
Antonio Sacre @antoniosacre
