iPad Storytelling to Foster Perspective

Click Using Picturebooks to Expand Perception by Hayley McEwing, or click on the title on the right hand side under "Youth Services Programs and Resources."

I worked at our "downtown" branch recently.  After helping a middle-aged woman find some books on "recovery" and some religious music, she shared with me a personal story as well as the Cherokee tale about "the two wolves inside of me."  ... another commonality of humanity -- the fight within us all ... 

Here's a Youtube telling:

Nonviolent Communication (quotes)

Things to think about while helping an angry person:

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg

"Behind all those messages we've allowed ourselves to be intimidated by are just individuals with unmet needs appealing to us to contribute to their well being." (99)

"...messages previously experienced as critical or blaming begin to be seen for the gifts they are: opportunites to give to people who are in pain." (100)

Emotional - Social Learning

"The goal for parenting should not be achieving a brittle "positive" psychology -- clinging to a state of perpetual joy in one's children -- but rather teaching a child how to return on her own to a state of contentment, whatever may happen."
-- from Daniel Goleman's Social Intelligence (183)

Google Books

Have a quote? Google Book search it.  (Note the new interface!)
 
"The overall purpose of human communication is -- or should be -- reconciliation." M Scott Peck

Active Listening for Unity and Leadership

I've recently submitted an article to the EMIE Bulletin within the Multicultural Review.  The article is entitled "Using Picturebooks to Foster Unity"

In my personal and professional life, communication, especially communication across differences, has been on my mind, and I've been exploring paths toward unity.  I've recently listened to 21 Ways to Defuse Anger and Calm People Down and have been observing my mentors as they listen and speak with others - the public and colleagues as well as friends and family.

The term "active listening," a term I first actively heard as an Emerging Leader last year, also offers some solutions.

According to Mind Tools, the five key elements of active listening are:

1. Pay attention.
2. Show that you are listening.
3. Provide feedback.
4. Defer judgement.
5. Respond appropriately.

Donald Clark's adds that "active listening" is when the "listener attends to the words and the feelings."  He also succintly outlines the barriers of communication.

Once again, I am thinking about the correlation of emotional intelligence and communication which result in leadership...

Digital Storytelling Resources

While reading the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of OJELA: The Ohio Journal of English Language Arts (a publication of OCTELA, the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts), I came across an article by Jessica Fries-Gaither.  Here are the digital storytelling resources she lists:

Ohio State University's Digital Storytelling Program 
Berkeley, California's Center for Digital Storytelling.
Guide to Digital Storytelling from Scholastic
Integrating Digital Storytelling into Your Classroom

Here are some of Fries-Gaither's quotes that speak to illustration and story's ability to transfer learning:

"Image selection sets digital storytelling apart from the traditional writing process because illustration is often an afterthought or only part of the publishing step when writing traditionally." (11)

" 'Stories' in all content areas provide opportunities for students to make connections and synthesize information, two important thinking strategies for reading comprehension." (11)

Patricia Polacco, the Ultimate Storyteller (Video)

Patricia Polacco is an illustrator, writer, and storyteller who captivated the Mazza 2010 Summer Institute audience with personal, historical vignettes.  She touched the audience to tears with her themes of loving relationships, abounding beauty, learning and educational challenges, and heroism.

Below is Ms. Polacco sharing her family's four (or more?) generational "keeping quilt."

Image from Amazon.  Notice the Sydney Taylor Book Award in the upper right hand corner.

Mo Accepts the Andy at ALA (Video)

Mo Willems at the American Library Association Annual Conference 2010. This is the introduction to his acceptance speech for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. (Yes, I took this video.)

Screencast of Science Through Stories

I still have some experimenting to do, but here is a decent screencast of my PowerPoint "Science Through Stories."

(I'm not sure how it appears on "regular" computer screens. You may have to scroll up and down a bit to see the whole slide.)

www.jingproject.com only allows 5 minutes of free screencasting, so I couldn't do a full audio presentation with it. I have a few other resources I'll try that might help me incorporate that aspect.

Science Through Stories PowerPoint (Story Version)

I'm a little disappointed that only a slide "shot" (not the animation) is captured. You'll see that this creates some cluttered slides ... What I do like is that Slideshare publicizes the notes for each slide, which is especially important when comparing the story version with the report version.

Science Through Stories (Story Version)

View more presentations from Hayley McEwing.

Science Through Stories (Ready?)

My Powerpoint and five bibliographies/webliographies for Saturday's OCTELA presentation are complete and are posted to my professional wiki: http://hayleymcewing.pbworks.com/

Now comes the biggest challenge ... After another trial run last night and receiving some honest feedback from another individual, I acknowledged what I knew subconsciously.

I have to "practice what I preach" and present the information in an entertaining way ... through stories! Isn't that what I learned in November? Now, I need to practice what I've learned ... and learned again ...

Visit My Professional Wiki

I already have a private wiki that I use to back up my professional documents as I work on them. As mentioned in an earlier post, I have now decided to take this resource a step further.

After researching and playing around with some wikis other than the familiar pbworks, I've decided to stay with this provider. I have created another account under my first and last name that will be used to upload and present the final copies of my storytime handouts as well as any PowerPoint slide shows and accompanying handouts that I may use during various presentations. Among the first uploads are some of those for my "Science Through Stories" presentation for OCTELA at the end of this month.

Take a look: http://hayleymcewing.pbworks.com/

Along these same lines, in a few months I hope to explore the Ohio Ready to Read Wiki and perhaps contribute some storytime handouts there, too.

Leadership, Emotions, and Education

“Great leadership works through the emotions.” from Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (1)

The first slide for my upcoming presentation:

Good Morning! My name is Hayley McEwing. I am a children’s librarian with the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. I am pleased to be here today to explore two of the mutual challenges of both educators and librarians – The first challenge is, how do we motivate others to learn? The second challenge is for ourselves as well as the individuals we serve, and that is, how can we all better understand the information we come in contact with?

While there are numerous possible solutions being acknowledged in the 21st Century and here at this conference, the following presentation focuses on the solution of story sharing. Demonstrations at the end will share stories embedded in science concepts.

Emotions and Cognition

Though slightly more busy than may be ideal, I feel that all is well. I have ideas and thoughts that are converging and are yielding exciting “new” concepts that I have yet to explore more fully.

Idea 1: From a recommendation by Emerging Leader presenter Maureen Sullivan, I’ve started to listen to the audio version of Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.

Idea 2: I’ve also been preparing for my “Science Through Stories” presentation for OCTELA on March 27. As I began to explan the importance of story sharing as a mode for learning, I came across the following quotes:

“Stories differ from other narratives (arguments, scientific reports, articles) in that they orient our feelings and attitudes about the story content.” Mallan quoted in Haven, Kendall and MaryGay Ducey. Crash Course in Storytelling. (98)

“Story aids memory because it puts information into a meaningful context, to which other information can be ‘attached.’” From Norfolk, Sherry, Jane Stenson, and Diane Williams. The Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum.

What I initially assumed were two separate paths of learning have now found a crucial overlap. While Primal Leadership is awakening my mind to the importance and pervasiveness of emotional intelligence in organizational interactions, I am also seeing the crossover of the importance of "affective education" or using emotions to guide learning.

While this is not a totally new concept, I feel as if my mind had a personal "Eureeka!" moment.

I look forward to following this path as I finish forming my presentation.

Science Through Stories

Great news! My presentation proposal called "Science Through Stories" for the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (OCTELA ) was accepted.

This fifty minute presentation was inspired by the workshop I participated in for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County's Headstart teachers last February.

Here is a summary:

"Educators will be connected to literature that has been correlated to the Ohio Department of Education’s academic content standards, particularly the early learning/primary, science content standards. Sharing correlated literature using story reading and storytelling techniques (plus extension ideas) will be demonstrated. Science and storytelling resources (books and websites) also provided."

These correlations will also be posted to the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education (ILILE) website with the support of one of my former Kent State University mentors, Michelle Baldini.

I am also thinking of creating a professional wiki that will make such presentation handouts electronically accessible (save paper) and eventually, share and showcase my library program handouts.