{"id":132,"date":"2022-11-04T08:11:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T08:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2022-11-04T08:12:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T08:12:02","slug":"being-the-storyteller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/04\/being-the-storyteller\/","title":{"rendered":"Being the Story(teller)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Storyteller role in our classroom seems clear cut. \u00a0There is a book with the ritual we use to open our class. \u00a0The book contains the story. The Storyteller leads the class through the ritual and the story and dismisses children to their work.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the story?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But this role done well is an invitation into a different world. \u00a0A good story draws you in so that for a moment, the story is your story, the message is spoken right into your soul. \u00a0The telling is so important. \u00a0We are working with our stories this year so that the content is rich and ripe, but that is only the very beginning. \u00a0To be an invitation that draws one into the moment, we must take care to tell it with reverence and fascination. \u00a0The story is an opening to bring us all on a journey\u00a0together.<\/p>\n

If we peek inside the story(teller) we might witness this: \u00a0I sit with the story in the days before class.\u00a0 I wonder about it. \u00a0I live the story. \u00a0I become the story. \u00a0By Sunday I do not need the book. \u00a0I am the book. \u00a0Within me is the story that is every story. \u00a0It is my story and it is yours.<\/p>\n

Our first story is always the story of our opening ritual. \u00a0It is the welcome and the greeting we sing to one another. \u00a0It is the meeting of the eyes as we share a peace greeting, \u00a0\u201cI see your beauty. \u00a0I hear your needs. \u00a0I honor the wisdom in you\u201d. \u00a0This is a story we share. This is our story of Spirit Play. \u00a0This is the story of the spiritual life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And then begins\u00a0the story of the week. \u00a0Our ritual has gathered us into a community of safety and love. \u00a0Now we are ready to journey together into a new time and space. \u00a0We are ready to encounter ourselves and wonder about what is mysterious and scary and surprising. \u00a0A box or a basket containing our manipulatives comes off the shelf. \u00a0It is time. \u00a0We begin with wonder\u2026What is in here? \u00a0What could this be? I handle our props as if they are the most fascinating treasures. \u00a0I dissolve into the telling of the tale. \u00a0I am a mirror. \u00a0I am an invitation. \u00a0I am the story. \u00a0I am each character. \u00a0I am the scene. \u00a0I am the dramatic pause. \u00a0On a good story day, I do not make eye contact during the telling. \u00a0All my attention is focused on the story itself leaving the children to draw close and see themselves and see for themselves. \u00a0We lose ourselves together as we move along the narrative.<\/p>\n

When the story is done, we pause and come back into the room. \u00a0I emerge from the character, from the role and sit with these children as a curious fellow explorer. \u00a0What have we seen in this story? \u00a0We wonder together. \u00a0These stories are metaphors and symbols. \u00a0These stories are myths and dreams. \u00a0These stories are illustrations of human life and meaning. \u00a0They are a microcosm of the whole. \u00a0The experience of the story and the questions that follow are designed to bring us further on this journey of discovery. \u00a0What part of the story do you like best? \u00a0What part\u00a0is most important? \u00a0Who or what would you be if you were in this story? \u00a0Is there any part of this story we could leave out and still have everything we need?<\/p>\n

And the story moves on after the telling and is playfully processed through art, through puppets, through sand and exploration. \u00a0We become the story. \u00a0The story becomes our play. \u00a0The story becomes a teacher and we take it with us in our hearts and hold it and turn it and look for it\u2019s treasure. \u00a0If we take the time, we see ourselves there and know ourselves. \u00a0That awareness gives rise to our continued growth into people of integrity, a community of joy, and a life of service. \u00a0We bring our story to this story. \u00a0We hear this story and create a new ending, a meme, a backstory, a story within a story. \u00a0Our class creates a new story every week by our presence with one another. \u00a0We are transformed and that changes the world every week. \u00a0Create this story with us. \u00a0Let\u2019s write in Love and Life and Joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Storyteller role in our classroom seems clear cut. \u00a0There is a book with the ritual we use to open our class. \u00a0The book contains the story. The Storyteller leads the class through the ritual and the story and dismisses children to their work.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the story?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}