ooo--Trish's digital story debut!

This is my friend and colleague Trish's first digital story, made at the Center for Digital Storytelling's first Workshop for Educators. Trish and her mom kindly agreed to share it. Trish came to my digital story premiere (a big do) and then enrolled in the Redwood Writing Project's tech institute with me (where we floundered together and learned a lot to take back to our classrooms and apply to the rest of our lives as well).

The stories produced at CDS were great, especially considering many people didn't have images. Trish had her mom's dress and dad's letters, and very creatively filled in with other images. Beautiful.

"Lucky", my first digital story

Everyone has stories, but I wasn’t sure how to tell mine. Coming together with the other people in this project, I learned how to listen to their stories and also listen to my own.

It took a lot of time, listening, sharing, talking to get to the heart of our stories. It took a lot of risk and a lot of trust.

The actual putting the words, images and music together required an intense, scary, grueling and thrilling 3 days. None of these stories could be shared in this amazing way without the generous support of many, sharing their time and talents, and their money.

Humans have always told stories. Around the fire, at the market place, on cave walls, even around a favorite watering hole, be it a river, a well or the neighborhood bar. Stories have been shared on cave walls, on paper, by phone, or email.

And our stories? Even with the latest technology, they are really just the same as stories have always been—the unique voice of one person sharing part of the human experience with another .

Poet Muriel Rukeyser says “Say it! Say it! The universe is made up of stories, not atoms.”

Amen.

I hope you take some time soon to share one of your stories with someone else.

"Blankie School", a digital story for my kids

I made this story at the Center for Digital Storytelling with a group of other educators.
I wanted to make a story for my own kids, to teach them a few things I might not be around to pass on to them. I realized I'd feel better if the story told them things that they knew, and had actually taught me.

The music is "Heliotrope Bouquet" by Scott Joplin.

I might have added a few more seconds to the end, but did keep it under one minute!

It's a Wrap! the 1st 1st grade movie

Woo! Our first class production, just in time for Back to School Night. The kids bonded over this experience. We have two more stories in production. I hope each student can make a personal story this year as well. Onward!

Jack Johnson's song "We Are Going to Be Friends" was a natural for the soundtrack.

I love my class!

Altered Books

OK, for me it is sometimes appropriate to say "Altared" Books. I love books--reading them, writing them, making them, buying them, giving them, and now--hacking them up and re-creating them. Once you get over your inner librarian, it's a blast. I can't remember where I got the idea, but there are great examples and communities online. Now, my kids are doing their own books, and every time a friend comes over, we get out the books. Most of the kids' books live at our house (I tolerate/encourage creative messes more than most). I love that our home is a safe haven for art.

These photos are of my altered book, "What Happened: The Stories Behind the Science Stories in the News". (That was the original title of the book. See, even science is just our stories). It's about my experience with breast cancer. If you click on photos, you can see them enlarged and scroll around. The book has many pages that have not been photographed yet.

Here's one of my favorite altered books artists: Modern Gypsy

flip.com

Oh oh. I may have a new obsession--flip books. It's collage, but online. Another form of scrapbooking gone wild.

I love cutting and pasting--probably the reason I teach little kids. I still don't like virtual cutting and pasting as much as the real thing, and I confess I usually do it in reality, then scan or take digital photos. I'll probably continue with my backwards methods, but I may flip for flip books anyway.

Digital Storytelling?

I've been lucky to be able to learn from the folks at the Center For Digital Storytelling.


In brief, digital storytelling is creating a short personal narrative, sharing and helping improve the story in a story circle, and adding a voice over, soundtrack, and images in a movie making program.

Digital stories are cool, because the storyteller's voice is literally heard in the story. Plus, each is unique as the author chooses sound and images to go with the text, or script.

It's not that different from storytelling around a fire, at the local watering hole, or anywhere else. Except it can be preserved and shared in a new way.

Here's the digital storytelling wiki I've been working on.

Poet Muriel Rukeyser said "Say it! Say it! The universe is made up of stories, not atoms." Amen.