Stirring up Foxfire: Rekindling Personal Passion for Teaching through Storytelling.

Abstract

Engaging students in their curriculum can be a challenge. Great educators have searched for the holy grail of learning and engagement for many years. Teachers’ and students’ needs often run counter to each other in a learning environment (Glasser, 1998). Students' engagement can be as simple as clapping your hands to get the students’ attention. The more complicated process is finding something of interest to the students. Educator and teacher Andrea Turner uses the technology of Podcasts to spread her ideas on education. She started her Podcast, The Power of Storytelling in Teaching, with these words, "Tell me a fact I will learn. Tell me a truth I will believe. Tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever. (Turner, 2016) This idea of a story taking residence in permanent memory is attributed to a Native American Proverb in multiple research sources (Garret, 1998). Walking into a classroom, the teacher is partly a distributor of information, partly a catalyst for the learning to come, and another critical part, an entertainer. Over my years of Teaching, I have found significant power in the story as a teaching tool. Storytelling provides a window into strengthening learning and subsequent retention of that learning (Egan, 1986). Over the years, as I taught students in college, high school, and even one of my favorite groups to work with, fouryear- old children in early childhood development classes, storytelling has always met with success. This paper aims to share storytelling to engage students in the curriculum and help teachers tell stories to give context to the content. This idea is not a cure-all, as many packaged educational tools claim, but a tool in a teacher's toolbox that is immensely powerful when used appropriately and with other lines of learning (Egan, 2008).

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Room 106

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Presentation (Open Access)

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Jun 10th, 9:15 AM Jun 10th, 10:30 AM

Stirring up Foxfire: Rekindling Personal Passion for Teaching through Storytelling.

Room 106

Engaging students in their curriculum can be a challenge. Great educators have searched for the holy grail of learning and engagement for many years. Teachers’ and students’ needs often run counter to each other in a learning environment (Glasser, 1998). Students' engagement can be as simple as clapping your hands to get the students’ attention. The more complicated process is finding something of interest to the students. Educator and teacher Andrea Turner uses the technology of Podcasts to spread her ideas on education. She started her Podcast, The Power of Storytelling in Teaching, with these words, "Tell me a fact I will learn. Tell me a truth I will believe. Tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever. (Turner, 2016) This idea of a story taking residence in permanent memory is attributed to a Native American Proverb in multiple research sources (Garret, 1998). Walking into a classroom, the teacher is partly a distributor of information, partly a catalyst for the learning to come, and another critical part, an entertainer. Over my years of Teaching, I have found significant power in the story as a teaching tool. Storytelling provides a window into strengthening learning and subsequent retention of that learning (Egan, 1986). Over the years, as I taught students in college, high school, and even one of my favorite groups to work with, fouryear- old children in early childhood development classes, storytelling has always met with success. This paper aims to share storytelling to engage students in the curriculum and help teachers tell stories to give context to the content. This idea is not a cure-all, as many packaged educational tools claim, but a tool in a teacher's toolbox that is immensely powerful when used appropriately and with other lines of learning (Egan, 2008).