One of my favorite things about being a Waldorf teacher is telling stories to my students. There is nothing better than standing in front of them and building the images of the story together. When the story is good and the images are rich, the story comes to life because our collective effort.
Through the process of image-building, we come together as a group in the most beautiful, effortless way. We’re all (literally) on the same page. It’s so great!
But storytelling isn’t easy.
I have to confess, to this day, telling stories is the part of my preparation that takes the most time. There are lots of things that have gotten easier as I’ve become a more experienced teacher, but storytelling is still a challenge.
I mean, it’s definitely easier than it used to be. (I used to have to memorize my stories word for word. I definitely don’t do that anymore.) But through the years I’ve learned that there’s just no substitute for building images. I still have to read through my story the night before. I still have to write out (by hand) the images and events of the story. I still have to look over my notes just before telling, and sometimes as I’m telling. And I still get nervous about it.
And sometimes I just don’t have the time to put in the effort. And I know I’m not alone. I have visited lots of teachers’ main lessons and often those lessons don’t include a story.
I get it. It’s hard work, and even more difficult when there is a visitor in the room.
Reading instead of telling.
So, on those days when I feel pressed for time, I have sometimes tried to convince myself that reading a story is almost as good as telling it. Or at least, I figure, it’s better than no story at all.
Well, I’m writing this post on one of those days.
This week, the story of Ruth was on the docket for the 3rd grade. I LOVE this story. So much so that when I planned out the week, I knew I could tell the whole thing in one day, but I decided to savor it.
Yesterday I told the lead-in — Naomi and her husband moving to Moab. Orpah and Ruth marrying their sons. Naomi deciding to return to her homeland after the death of her husband and sons. Ruth staying by her side and returning to the land of Judah along with Naomi.
I told the story yesterday and even though the actual events of the story were minimal, we had that feeling of working together to build the images of the story.
Well, today was a day full of preparing to present our shelter projects and I was pretty sure we wouldn’t have time for a story. Sure enough, main lesson ended without a story.
But then, later in the day, I had some unexpected time with my class. I remembered what my mentor said about always reviewing stories — otherwise you may as well not have even told it. So, I decided to review yesterday’s story and read the next part of the story.
The review went just fine. Of course, because that image-building, group feeling was there yesterday, they remembered the story beautifully and I could see that the images were alive for them. Then I started to read.
Right away, I could tell the images just weren’t going to happen. I even said to them, “Pretend I’m telling you this story.” Silly teacher.
Still, I started reading. Every now and then, I stopped and said, “Did you hear that?” And I summarized in my own words. Ugh. They did their best, but it just wasn’t happening.
And then, the more I read, the more I remembered how much I LOVE this story. Finally, I couldn’t bear it anymore and I came to a stopping point (trying to make it seem natural — though they, of course, complained about it being a cliffhanger — this is their favorite complaint about my stories and I secretly love it.)
Thank goodness I realized it before I wasted the whole thing.
And thank goodness tomorrow is another day.
The moral of the story.
So the moral of my story about my story (so meta) is to TELL STORIES. It’s worth it. And it’s one of the things that makes Waldorf Education such a beautiful thing.
And if you want some tips on how to make storytelling easier, you might check out my course The Practical Art of the Waldorf Classroom. Storytelling is one of the topics we cover. It’s pretty great, if I do say so myself.
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