My third full day in the Philippines began with another all-day teacher workshop, the same workshop that I did the day before. This time, the workshop was held at Lourdes School of Mandaluyong (in Metro Manila). The teachers were just as enthusiastic, creative, and daring as the day before, stepping outside of their comfort zones to learn new methods of using storytelling in the classroom.

Here we are, creating a board game from my modern telling of “The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza.” Although I told the same story as the day before, the board game came out completely different. That’s the beauty of working with different groups - every group has its own interpretation of the story. I love that.

After explaining the “Stories on Board” method, the teachers went to work creating their own board games from the stories: “The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza,” “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” and “The Three Little Pigs.” Here is a picture of a very creative board game in progress. It is titled “Pizza Party.”

Colorful, fuzzy pom poms were used as game pieces while dice or spinners were used to determine how many spaces to advance the game pieces.

Here is a picture of Sister Ceterina playing one of the groups’ games called “A Tail’s Tale,” based on the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” She is having a ball. I wonder if she won? Go, Sister, go! Actually, Sister and I sat together for lunch and had a wonderful conversation about the power of reading and education in children of third world countries. We can make change - one story, one child at a time.

Here is a picture of some of the amazing board games that were created that day. I am always in awe of the talent and dedication of these teachers. Their energy and enthusiasm was absolutely contagious. I just LOVED being around these teachers. I can’t wait to see what kind of work they will be instituting in the classroom and how those students will be affected for the rest of their lives. Wow!

After the “Stories on Board” portion of the workshop, we moved on to “Tangram Tales.” Here is a picture of me instructing the teachers on how to create a tangram without a pre-designed patterned. All you need is a square sheet of paper.

Here are the teachers working avidly on their tangrams.

It was then on to create our Tangram Story Theater. Like the groups the day before, they performed “Tiger’s Tale, Anansi’s Stories,” and “It Could Always Be Worse.” The dynamics of the groups were different than the day before but nonetheless amazing. Here is a teacher named Son telling her part of the story, “Tiger’s Tale, Anansi’s Stories.” Her storytelling really touched me - she was so passionate and lively that when she finished, everyone clapped for her! See the tiger tangram in the background? Too cool!

Here is the story chorus, led by a teacher named Ning. Ning was lively, energetic and a real group motivator. The picture is blurry because they were all dancing up a storm! Ning is the third one from the left, in red and the blurriest because she is really movin’ and groovin’!

My workshop ended with “Tell Along Tales,” where I encouraged the teachers to use audience participation in their storytelling. I shared several examples of stories and shared a couple of stories they really liked - “The Viper” and I ended with “Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle.”

It was a great day, filled with enthusiasm, creativity, and lots of caring teachers. I had a blast with the teachers and look forward to returning soon!

I have to thank my sponsor, Scholastic Book Fairs, for an incredible time. Your staff was, as always, so accommodating and helpful. A special thanks and BIG HUG to Meinard Cruz, general manager, who over the years, has become a friend as well as an education partner. Another thank you to Elinor Ferriol, the sales manager of Scholastic, who made sure I had everything I needed. As I said before, Scholastic is FANTASTIC! I look forward to working with all of you again — soon! Here is a picture of Meinard, me, and Elinor (Enoy).

Of course, after the workshop, my day was not over. I had the privilege and the pleasure of spending time with my good friend, Zarah Gagatiga, a librarian and great storyteller herself! She met me at my hotel, the Legend Villas in Mandaluyong, where we had dinner together. Here is a picture of Zarah and I. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun!

After Zarah left around 9:00pm, my day was still not over! I had a date to celebrate with my friends from Alitaptap Storytellers Philippines. We met at a bar called Club Serve in Cubao at the Araneta Center. Boy, did we have a blast! Check us out! (Hi, Cha, Pie, Bing, Mario, Percy and my cousin, Katrin!)

Here I am at the end of the night - exhausted but very happy. And to think - I still had to go back to my hotel room and pack for my trip to Boracay the next morning!

Here is a picture of me with my friend, Jay. Jay is a fantastic storyteller and actor who presents storytelling workshops all over the Philippines. He also attended my first day workshop. Jay told me that my the marketing workshop I taught in 2004 in the Philippines really inspired him to make the leap into professional storytelling. Wow! Jay was kind enough to escort me and my cousin, Katrin, back to my hotel - just to make sure we made it back okay (more coffee, Jay?). Thank you, my friend!

Thank you to all the staff of Scholastic, the teachers, the librarians, storytellers, and my friends in Manila who made my visit so very special. One of the librarians told me, “Dianne, you are my idol! You inspire me so much!” I have to tell you that it is YOU who inspire me! Let’s keep connecting children with learning through the rich and diverse art of storytelling. I will be back - I promise!

Warmly, Dianne

Tags: Author, Storyteller, Storytelling Tours, Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 12:33 am and is filed under Author, Storyteller, Storytelling, Storytelling Tours, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.