Last summer (2006), Dr. Maria Kaylor, Dr. JoAnne Ollerenshaw and my school district organized a series of digital storytelling academies. On Saturday (03/03/2007), I had the chance to attend the Storytelling Festival held at the University of Texas at San Antonio. This event--which was free to the public, especially K-12 educators--featured Tim Tingle as its keynote speaker, as well as a host of other presenters. Not only was I fortunate enough to chat with Tim Tingle, as well as record his keynote (and he was generous enough to grant permission to post as a podcast), I have several other great interviews to share with you.

At the March 3rd Storytelling Festival held at UTSA, two teachers--Sandra Garcia and Juliana Berry--shared what they had done as a result of the Academy one of them had attended. I was thoroughly excited and delighted about what they had to share, and I interviewed them regarding what they had learned as a result of their work with 5th grade students.

I urge you to listen to this if you ever doubted the power of digital storytelling to help students improve and be more engaged in their writing.

 Listen to Sandra and Julianna share about Digital Storytelling in 5th Grade at Smith ES

MORE INTERVIEWS
In addition to the interview with Sandra and Julianna, I also chatted with Tim Tingle. He shared a few words about the importance of reading, as did Doc Moore--fellow storyteller. I also found Dr. Courtney Crim's discussion of creativity and storytelling in K-16 education powerful. Click on their names (in bold) to listen to them.