A Leap of Faith
It was back in the ‘80s. I had been teaching for 7 years and was asked by the Middle School that I had worked in to act in their musical play, “Hans Christian Andersen”. They wanted to cast me as Hans. I took a leap of faith and agreed. I’ve written about this before (http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=483). I had never been in a play before, and certainly never told stories. I was enthralled by the reaction of the audience to the play and my performance, so much so, that I decided to find out more about this thing called storytelling. I read books about it and discovered that there was an organization called N.A.P.P.S. (The National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling). I even convinced my school district to send me to down to Jonesborough, Tennessee one weekend in October to the National Storytelling Festival (I went the following year also). I was hooked.
Coming back to my class after that first week in Tennessee, I decided to test out my storytelling skills with my class. I decided that I would take one daily reading aloud time each week and tell a story instead. For the first one, I found the story I wanted to try. It was a Jack tale, “Jack and the Robbers.” It was a long story, so I decided after reading it a few times I would tell it in two parts. The first part, one week, and finish with the second part the following week. What I didn’t expect was that when I finished the first part, my class wouldn’t let me stop. They demanded the second part right then. So I told it, even though I hadn’t practiced it. (http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=24)
The following weeks I told more tales. It became a part of my program. I even got students involved in telling tales.
Telling stories also solved one of my anxious activities as a teacher, Open Houses! When my mindset changed from giving a lecture to parents about my curriculum and class expectations to telling them a story about my curriculum and expectations, Open Houses became mostly anxiety-free. I even added some real stories to my presentations.
Storytelling, as well as writing, has become an important part of my life and who I am. I’m glad that I made that leap and took the part of Hans Christian Andersen. It’s amazing how one role in one play can inspire you. Of course, considering what happened, who knows what I would be doing now and how great I’d be if the play I was in was about Thomas Edison.
