“Teachings come from everywhere when you open yourself to them. That’s the trick of it, really. Open yourself to everything, and everything opens itself to you.” Richard Wagamese
Let me tell you a story…
Stories are life. When we study imaginative stories in films, books, poems scribbled in the edges of notebooks, or those told through movement or song around a fire or in a lecture hall, we explore what it means to be alive. To study story is to study the human condition.
Stories teach us lessons about the past, about ourselves and each other, and about future possibilities. Through story we can explore some of life’s greatest questions; stories open our imagination and help us position ourselves in the bigger picture. Within stories are embedded cultural wisdom, social norms, consequences, values, and our greatest hopes and dreams.
English Language Arts (ELA) is the study and improvement of the art of language. ELA is about building proficiency in the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, and finding joy in communication and expression. It’s the means by which we articulate and exchange our stories.
Stories build connection. Through the study of ELA, we learn how to express ourselves, how to communicate and how to listen. We learn to respectfully and empathically explore different points of view; we engage in debate; we reflect on our ideas and form intelligent opinions. These skills foster greater self confidence, efficacy and connection to each other.
My goal as an educator is help students to find the confidence to own their stories and to master the skills to share and listen to the stories of others. Ultimately, I hope that my students are empowered to engage meaningfully with the world.
The late master storyteller Richard Wagamese so eloquently articulated the importance of story with these words:
“All that we are is story. From the moment we are born to the time we continue on our spirit journey, we are involved in the creation of the story of our time here. It is what we arrive with. It is all we leave behind. We are not the things we accumulate. We are not the things we deem important. We are story. All of us. What comes to matter then is the creation of the best possible story we can while we’re here; you, me, us, together. When we can do that and we take the time to share those stories with each other, we get bigger inside, we see each other, we recognize our kinship – we change the world, one story at a time.”
Richard Wagamese
Through our stories, we can change the world.
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Coastal Embers Classroom 