Digital Story Telling...My Thoughts on Session Two

The freedom to explore and be creative while telling meaningful stories about human experiences is something that I use crave all of the time when I was a journalism student. When I changed career paths and became a teacher, I didn't realize the value in doing this very thing in my classroom until a few years later. Now I know the connections I am able to make with my students and any audience I am in front of comes from the stories I use to draw them in. I have always told every group of students I have worked with in my career that, "it's not how you start out, it's how you finish and what you do in between." I would tell them stories about myself and others to support these words, but most of the time I didn't think they were really listening.

Fast forward to 2010, as my eighth grade class prepares for their big day and have to vote on a theme and motto...they repeat the very words they have heard me (and I am sure many other people say to them). They decided that the theme they wanted for their eighth grade completion ceremony would be, "it's not how you start out, it's how you finish and what you do in between." They were listening.

How does this connect with what I gleaned from the second session of the digital story telling? I learned that pictures can and do speak volumes when they capture the essence of their subjects, but words can relay the emotions connected to those who share the story. As we all share our own stories over the next few weeks, I hope that they touch and inspire someone the way my students have inspired the stories I tell, the stories they have help to create.