As a special education teacher, I understand my role in the lives of young people as one of a storyteller. I craft so many stories with and about my students, and I try to constantly be aware of the ways that the stories created about students shape how people interact with them. Stories are powerful beyond belief.
My current (and favorite) experience with storytelling includes facilitating The Moth High School StorySLAM program at my school in the Bronx. I’m lucky to be the faculty advis...
RISK! If I had to think of one word to describe how I felt when signing my name on the paper to join the after school moth program, it would be risk. The thought of telling a story in front my schoolmates who I’ll be seeing the next day was risky. I wasn’t too sure if I was going to be judged or people would even listen. But I took a risk and signed away because this was a chance to unfold a different side of me.
First two weeks was very exciting and fun. Our Moth instructors, Catherine and M...
Each December for the past five years, the 7th grade English teachers at our middle school have organized our Storytelling Evening, the big event for the roughly 120 7th grade students in our English and ESL classes. The evening, and indeed our entire unit, is based on the Moth’s tagline: “true stories told live.”
It helps that our parent community at our school is engaged and artistic. One of our parents, Josh Blau, is a Moth storyteller, so we are lucky to be able to have him come talk ...
Our second-ever High School GrandSLAM took place on Monday. Nine high-school-student maestros took to the stage and told stories that made us laugh and made us cry. We learned about the beauty of an abandoned building, the trials of young love, and a girl’s dreams of becoming Hasidic. It was the type of magical evening that only The Moth can conjure. We have exciting plans in the year ahead.
We want to reach more students, build online teaching tools and provide the schools we serve with the ...
This past Monday, we held our first ever High School Grand Slam, featuring ten high school students from around New York City. George Dawes Green, our founder, reflects on the night. The first name called was Willa. When she approached the mike she seemed a little shy, as most high school girls would be before a microphone and a couple of hundred classmates and parents and teachers and Moth staff and Moth friends and Moth addicts.
She was nervous. We were all nervous. It was the first Moth Hi...
