Harriet's Story Blog

How To Be Alone

2010-08-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Love this poem/song/animation/video. as was said on CRAFT, maybe a better title would be HowTo: Be Aone.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Thought Bubble: Kindness

2010-05-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

2009-10-01T14:52:00.000-07:00

Students tell why they write (from the National Writing Project)

The Children of Birmingham

2009-05-27T21:07:00.001-07:00

Very powerful piece. Great artwork and voice-over and song.

Tropfest NY 2008 winner, "Mankind Is No Island" by Jason van Genderen

2009-05-01T18:03:00.001-07:00

Housing California-- This Is Home: A Story of Hope and Opportunity

2009-04-30T18:42:00.001-07:00

My friend Julie asked me to put together sound and photos to tell the story of several families and their need for homes. She had a song and great photos to put together. It took me so long to assemble that I can sing the whole thing and tell you what happens with the images. (Now, I think I could do it much faster with less glitches along the way.)

I think the result is very effective--I love seeing these real families and their improved housing. I can only take credit for the grunt work of putting beautiful pieces together.

change.org widget

2009-04-11T19:54:00.001-07:00

"A Good Hand" by Taylor Youngblood

2009-02-28T17:55:00.001-08:00

Taylor's story is posted at storiesforchange.org.
She's generously shared her experience in this well-crafted digital story.

Welcome!

2009-02-28T17:38:00.000-08:00

Hi, glad you're here.

This is a home for stories, and story thoughts and ideas.

I love stories of all kinds, and although my heart currently belongs to digital storytelling, there's room for video, books, art, altered books, and the spoken word, and more.

Some of these posts are digital stories, some aren't--check the post title.

On the right, scroll down to access the digital story wiki. I update it every couple of weeks to make sure the links are viable. I am exploring a more user-friendly set-up for the blog and wiki, so you can find what you're looking for and don't have to deal with chronology.

How Books Get Into Our Brains

2009-01-14T19:04:00.001-08:00

Yo Comments Are Whack!

2009-01-14T18:57:00.001-08:00

Just tossing in sister salad here, because I love them!

What is a digital story (and what is not)?

2008-08-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

I think I've come to a realization about the definition of digital story. don't focus on the digital part--there are digital reports, digital poems, all kinds of digital presentations but it's a digital story if I KNOW the author after viewing it. That "I", that unique personal perspective, needs to be there.

iMovie is a valuable tool for presenting all kinds of work, but don't let the media supersede the story. (same with moviemaker for you pc users, or for any other technology.0

It's the story, first.

2008-08-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

Why Let Our Students Blog?

2008-04-28T06:39:00.001-07:00

This video also answers the question: why does anyone blog? It's not my work, but it is a great piece.

What Is A Digital Story?

2008-04-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well, this is a partial definition of what a digital story is, but remember--
1. It's a story.
2. It's personal.
3. It's unique.
4. After you listen, you know something about the storyteller.

Lindsi Learns Her Lesson (and I finish the very 1st, first grader's story)

2008-04-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Love and Forgiveness, oh yeah...

2008-04-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

loveandforgive.org My story is here, and I was featured in the newsletter with the big names in love and forgiveness. Cool, and a great reminder to keep up with the loving and forgiving:

April 2008
loveandforgive.org

In This Issue
Campaign Blog: New Orleans Volunteer
Wake Up & Smell the Coffee...Community Spotlight: KEET/Eureka
Elie Wiesel, Thich Nhat Hanh Featured in The Power of Forgiveness Book
Let's Talk About It
Spring: What's New Again
Wake Up & Smell the Coffee...
Community Spotlight: KEET/Eureka's Digital Stories

Do a loved one's habits get on your nerves? How do you summon love or forgiveness when daily irritations get the best of you? Check out Harriet Watson's story of how she got past a "grinding" irritation to find her husband endearing all over again!

Harriet's digital story came out of a workshop sponsored by campaign partner, KEET/Eureka in northern California. In January, participants from the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project and the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre came together to transform a brief personal story about love or forgiveness into a digital story.

Participants used their voices, artwork, photos, and even the "Ken Burns effect" to create humorous and serious stories of love and forgiveness. Sample a few for yourself.

Fetzer Institute | 9292 West KL Avenue | Kalamazoo | MI | 49009

Wake Up & Smell the Coffee

2008-01-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

This story's theme is Love and Forgiveness, in this case a small thing that made a big difference.

This is a little story made with funding from the Fetzer Institute and their Campaign for Love and Forgiveness, and with KEET TV, our local PBS station. The story tellers in this project were from the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project or Dell' Arte, and they were amazing. I hope to see their stories broadcast.

ooo--Trish's digital story debut!

2007-11-15T17:08:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-12T21:31:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-12T16:13:00.000-08:00

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

2007-09-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-06-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

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.