Storytelling is meaning.

Storytelling is about recalling past events and linking past to the present, so that we can, perhaps, be prepared for the future. Storytelling is not a mirror that reflects directly, but more like a prism that refracts; a medium that colors whatever is viewed through it.

I was named Martha in honor of my mother’s special friend or so the story goes…I don’t recall, but my sister Louise says it’s so. A week ago, I was blessed by the birth of twin granddaughters: Olivia Aldrin and Phoebe Becket….They will laugh when they learn the origin of their names. For many months the family has lovingly referred to them as A & B as indicated on many sonograms that reflected their tiny growing shapes. Their middle names reflect their parents’ heroes.

Is there a story in your name? Share your story.

Author Chun Yu.....begins her tale of the Chinese Cultural Revolution with the story of her name…precious jade worn close to the heart. Read additional excerpts from her book at: http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=503965&agid=2

Interview with the author:

Little Green -- Xiao Qing --
was the name they gave me.
Qing, the green
of tree leaves in early spring,
of clear water in a deep pond,
my baba said;
of beautiful youth,
the evergreen of life,
my mama said;
and of precious jade worn close to the heart,
my nainai said.

Media Literacy

Since teachers and parents cannot predict what specific knowledge and behavior will be demanded in the future, we must concentrate on educating citizens who will be able to solve problems that cannot presently be foreseen. Tomorrow's citizens must effectively analyze information, resolve problems, and make informed choices. Students must learn to spot bias, stereotypes and propaganda that often appear in advertisements, television and the news media.

The summer presidential debates featured video questions posted on You Tube. Why not get your students to focus on key national and international issues by developing their own video debate questions. Students can learn about media literacy as they research issues and write debate questions. Hold a school presidential debate or post the video questions to the next CNN debate by November 28.

http://www.youtube.com/republicandebate?utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=youtube%20presidential%20debate

Combine media literacy education with technology training by creating video questions using Adobe Vlog It. http://www.adobe.com/products/vlogit/

Drag and drop photos, video clips or music into Vlog It. Using the teleprompter, add narration to digital images and video clips. Record narration directly into the program and publish your work as a video or e-mail attachment.

Watch a short Vlog It video about the Latin America workshop media presentation designed by Christine Kleck, TAMU Department of Communications

Sharing Our Culture

Celebrate the wonderfully diverse cultures and heritage of the Brazos Valley community at Brazos Valley Worldfest on November 17, 2007 in historic downtown Bryan from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Brazos Valley Worldfest, presented by Citibank, will celebrate international awareness by offering cultural displays, demonstrations, international cuisine, performances, children's
crafts, educational competitions and many other activities.
This event is free and open to the public.

If you teach in the Brazos Valley, your students are eligible to participate in the Brazos Valley Worldfest Education Competitions:

• Sharing Our Culture Through Digital Stories
• Sharing Our Culture Through Posters

The Education Competition poster is attached to this message and additional information is available on the Brazos Valley Worldfest site: http://www.brazosvalleyworldfest.org/

Worldfest Flyer for Brazos Valley Worldfest Education Program

Cultural performances include:

• World Fashion show presented by the Discovery Program
• Flamenco Andaluz of Houston
• Texas A&M Bellydance
• Academy of Modern Martial Arts of College Station
• Kaminari Taiko of Houston
• Ballet Folklórico Los Altos de Jalisco
• Texasnischer Schuhplattler Verein (German dance group)
• Indian Classical Dance
• And more to be added

Special events:

The Tipitellers Story Telling Group will be on hand to share Native American Indian stories with children inside a giant tipi in the Kid’s Village adjacent to the Children’s Museum of the Brazos Valley. http://www.tipitellers.org/

Admission to the Children’s Museum of the Brazos Valley will be free all day!

Tellabration!, a national storytelling event, will be taking place inside the Children’s Museum http://www.tellabration.org/

The Bryan Public Library will present “Singabration” which will highlight cultural storytelling set to music. Visitors will have a chance to hear international and folk songs as well as learn about instruments and their significance in different cultures.

http://www.bcslibrary.org/bryan.html

Additional ways to share global culture with your students:

Cultural Suitcases from the Southwestern Bell World Room
http://worldroom.tamu.edu/ Cultural Suitcase flyer is attached.

Cultural Suitcase Flyer

One World Classrooms – New Site

http://www.oneworldclassrooms.org/

• OneWorld Classrooms provides a wide range of FREE password-protected, curriculum-based online content for K-12 classrooms that is designed to help students explore different cultures.
• Online Classroom Travel Resources allow classes to travel online to the world region they are studying (Africa, China, the Amazon Rain Forest, the Galapagos Islands and the Canadian Arctic), meet students who live there and learn about their lives and cultures
• Electronic Cultural Exchange Library features artwork, music, PowerPoints, videos and audio submitted by participating classes from around the world
• Student to Student Language Lab allows students to share their first language while they learn a foreign language from their overseas peers.
• OneWorld Classrooms also links US classrooms with overseas partner classes to complete art, music, E-mail Q & A, video and PowerPoint exchanges.

Postcard Geography Project

The Postcard Geography project is a national and international, class-to-class exchange of picture (purchased, computer, or handmade) or email postcards. All public and private schools, home schools, and youth groups with students aged 5 to 19 years old are invited to participate. The project will begin on September 24, 2007, and run until February 1, 2008.

The project creates an opportunity to foster global friendships; it is now in its sixteenth year. It is free of charge and open to all learning groups around the world. However, join only if you have a serious commitment to participation. A teacher discussion list, conducted as a blog, will establish an educator community for sharing information and for problem solving.

Registration is open until September 21, 2007. For more information, visit http://pcg.cyberbee.com/ or contact mailto:postcardgeography@comcast.net.

Student Educational Exchange (SEE)

A new, non-profit website that provides a FREE tool for teachers Designed by Connecticut social studies teacher Meghan Connelly
http://www.studenteducationalexchange.org/

The purpose of the site is to make it easy for teachers to increase current events and discussion in your curriculum. Students read articles on the site and respond to discussion prompts on our forum, along with all other SEE student users.

Go to the site now and sign up for an instructor's account, and you will receive a teacher code for your students to use when they register. This will make it easy to track your students' posts. Follow the prompts to create an assignment that your students will see when they login to the site. After that:

• Articles are from diverse, worldwide news sources
• Background links and discussion prompts are provided for each article.
• Articles are categorized by subject area to help teachers align current events with their specific curriculum.
• It is easy for you to manage your classes and your students posts.

The World We Want

What a great topic for students to consider.
http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/video_icdb.html

The deadline for submitting student projects to the 2007 Children's Day broadcast is past, but the topic would be great to use for a digital project in your classroom. Take a look at the example videos. Make a Difference! One Minute Video Contest: http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/video_icdb.html

Great resources and examples for digital storytelling are also available on the World Room web site. http://worldroom.tamu.edu/

International Children's Day of Broadcasting: "The World We Want"

The 2007 International Children's Day of Broadcasting will take place on 9 December 2007 with the theme "The World We Want." Broadcasters around the world, both television and radio, are encouraged to participate in this special day by creating special programs for kids and inviting youth into the studio to participate in the production and presentation of broadcasts. UNICEF and the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will jointly award the International Children's Day of Broadcasting Award to honor broadcasters who capture the spirit of the ICDB.

UNICEF appeals to broadcasters to engage youth in the media-making process not just on the International Children's Day of Broadcasting but throughout the year. Children have the right to voice their opinions and the empowering aspect of participation in radio and television encourages them to develop ideas and inspires them to take action.

Save the Date

Latin America: Issues 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
College Station Conference Center

The focus of the first International Outreach Education K-12 workshop for 2007-2008 will be Latin America. Workshop presentations will look at current issues:

• Political populism
• Brazil and the biofuel debate
• Eco-tourism as a tool for environmental education
• El Salvador and the consequences of northern migration
• Global impact of the Panama Canal enlargement
• Agricultural research and development
• Media literacy: Representations of Latin America in the press

Check the Worldroom web site for the 2007-2008 Workshop Calendar

Immigration will be an important topic in the upcoming presidential election. If you plan to discuss immigration issues with your students, you may be interested in the following resources sent recently from Annenberg Media.

Annenberg Media: If you are not familiar with Annenberg Media, the video presentations and resources are free and available for you to use in the classroom. Just sign up at http://learner.org/redirect/august/view11.html to access free Video on Demand.

Inquiry learning in the geography classroom
If you are looking for a new method to use in your social studies or geography class, draw ideas from the 10th-grade geography lesson of California teacher Mavis Weir as she shares an inquiry based approach to teaching about issues in Latin America. http://learner.org/redirect/august/sslib8.html

The program includes a Lesson Background page offering information on "Migration Trends in Six Latin American Countries," as well as links to Video on Demand and NCSS Standards.

Interpreting Constitutional Rights
Immigration issues are not a new, but an integral part of the ongoing process of interpreting constitutional rights. Watch a lively discussion between distinguished discussants of differing perspectives in "The Constitution: That Delicate Balance"
http://learner.org/redirect/august/cons9.html Program 11, "Immigration Reform."

History offers clues as to the power of the economics forces driving immigration.
"Capital and Labor" http://learner.org/redirect/august/boa10.html
Program 17 of "A Biography of America."

"Teaching Multicultural Literature: A Workshop for the Middle Grades"
http://learner.org/redirect/august/tml3.html
Workshops 7 and 8, introduce authors, literary works, and key references related to immigrant issues.

"The Power of Place: Geography for the 21st Century"
http://learner.org/redirect/august/pop4.html
Program 2, "Boundaries and Borderlands," looks into the forces behind border crossings and migration patterns.

Articles providing background on the immigrant experience in the U.S.

"Coming to America: Immigrants at Ellis Island"
http://learner.org/redirect/august/apass5.html

"How the Other Half Lived: The Lower East Side"
http://learner.org/redirect/august/apass6.html

"Unionism and the Farm Workers Movement"
http://learner.org/redirect/august/apass7.html
These pages also include links to historical images and poetry, which can be used to create a slideshow.

Sharing Stories: Revealing Ourselves to Others

In Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence, Roger Schank points out that daily conversation is actually storytelling. Through conversation we share our experiences, both minor and significant, as we reveal a bit of ourselves to others. It is the sharing that is key to both good conversation and to meaningful digital storytelling.

Last Wednesday afternoon after a two-day fast paced digital storytelling workshop, twenty-eight teachers sat down to share their stories. It was a powerful personal experience to enter into the world of each teacher. If you would like to see their digital stories, they are now posted on the Worldroom web site.

The International Outreach Digital Storytelling Workshop for K-12 teachers was held on June 26 & 27 at the Brazos Valley Children’s Museum. K-12 teachers learned about the digital storytelling process, multiple technology methods for designing digital stories, and curriculum approaches to engaging students in digital storytelling. See the International Programs E-News to read about the workshop:

http://international.tamu.edu/intradeptnewsletter.asp (see July 2)

During the workshop, Jamie Gustin, Elementary Technology Coach for Magnolia ISD demonstrated Movie Maker, Photo Story3 and Audacity. Dr. Ron Zellner from TAMU Department of Educational Technology, presented a live demonstration of VideoQue Pro (MAC. The completed story is called Emily’s Wild Adventure, a digital story written, illustrated, and narrated by third grader Ashton Hinton. Enjoy the adventure with Ashton!

After the workshop, several teachers inquired if similar programs that use green screen techniques are available for PC users. Dr. Zellner provided links to two programs: Visual Communicator by Adobe and Vlogit. Vlogit is very inexpensive compared to Visual Communicator, another plus is the program is easy to use. I spent the afternoon of July 4th totally absorbed in playing with the possibilities that Vlogit provides, and I’m heading out this afternoon to find fabric to make my own green screen. Being in the story just adds a bit of spontaneity to a digital story or to a pod cast interview.

For information on using green screen techniques, see the articles on Dr. Jason Ohler’s web site: Nome green screen storytelling project, 2007: How-to pictorial guide for green screen digital storytelling and Going green - using green screen and chroma key editing in digital storytelling.

Watch 4th grade student Hannah Davis tell The Fox Who Became a Better Person, a digital story posted on YouTube.

Hannah shares Native American Indian cultural values as she tells a story that uses animals as characters. What is the moral of her story?

VideoQue Pro and Green Screen Techniques for Digital Storytelling

Martha Green discusses a creative approach to digital storytelling with Dr. Ronald Zellner, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Coordinator of the Educational Technology Program for the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University.

Preserving the spontaneity of the storyteller is a benefit of working with VideoQue Pro according to Dr. Zellner. The child becomes an active participant in the digital story which can be told in English or in the first language of an ESL student. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Zellner describe the use of a green screen and discuss classroom applications for VideoQue Pro in the development of digital stories.

To demonstrate VideoQue Pro, Dr. Zellner collaborated with International graduate student Minga Xu to produce a digital story based on a Chinese storybook called 12 Animals Compete to Be Number One published by Tian Yuan Books, Inc. in 1998. Watch the video and see if you can understand the story as Minga reads it in her native Chinese language.

Often second language learners lack confidence about participating in class activities because of their limited English proficiency. Chris Pim, an ESL specialists with the Portsmouth Ethnic Minority Achievement Service suggests that combining technology with traditional storytelling is an excellent way to meet the needs of second language learners as well as their English speaking peers. In Digital Storytelling for EAL Pupils, Pim talks about a Zulu boy who tells his class a South African warrior tale in his native language. Other students understand much of the story through his animated tones and gestures, and they are also impressed that this boy speaks two languages, something none of them can do. Elizabeth Lannotti describes her successful digital storytelling project with ESL students in How to Make Crab Soup: Digital Storytelling. I hope you will enjoy reading both articles.

Real Super Heroes Use Knowledge to Save Lives

Super heroes continue to capture the imagination of American youth. Why not focus attention on the heroes among us who use knowledge as a tool to change the world instead of some fantasyland set of super powers?

Texas A&M agricultural researcher Sam Goff cited Dr. Norman Borlaug as a real hero who used agricultural expertise to increase grain yield to feed people in areas of the world where many were starving.

Listen to the podcast to hear Sam Goff discuss current issues in agricultural research in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Norman Borlaug, Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture is credited with saving more lives than any other person who has ever lived through his breakthrough agricultural research often referred to at the Green Revolution. Now I call that a super incredible feat!

Dr. Borlaug’s research lead to the development of new varieties of rice, wheat and maize that allowed for increased levels of production in the tropics and saved many people from starvation in Asia, India and Africa. In December 2006, Dr. Borlaug received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest civilian honor. He was also honored with the Nobel Prize in Agriculture in 1970.

Use these links to learn about Dr. Borlaug and his research.

• Biotechnology and the Green Revolution

• Congressional Gold Medal of Honor

• Sasakawa African Association

• The Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M