 |
| From American Indian Legends and Stories, Scuola Media Unificata di Cuneo,May 22, 2012 |
Photo: Students of Scuola di Via Sobrero
How The Beaver Got His Flat Tail as told by the students of Scuola di Via Sobrero
Over the last two months, I’ve been sharing American Indian culture through a series of workshops with the students of the Scuola Media Unificata di Cuneo school system as a “Mother Tongue” teacher. I had the pleasure to be invited to:
Scuola di S.Rocco Classes 3E and 3H.
Scuola di Via Bersezio, Classes 3O,3L,3N,3I,and 3M.
Scuola di Via Sobrero, Classes 3B, 3F, 3C, 3A, 3D and,
Scuola di Via Barbaroux, Classes 3S and 3R
I’ve had such a wonderful adventure holding these workshops with the kids who are eager to experience new things while adding new words and phrases to their English language knowledge. The enthusiasm of these wonderful students and the helpful insights and professionalism of all the teachers involved made me feel right at home, making it easy to be myself and ham it up for my young audience while sharing what I know.
Favorite moments: When one student completely changed the story and made it way more interesting. The sentence in the story goes, “And the great spirit told the beaver that his new flat tail would help him swim faster through the water, and he could also now use his new tail to warn other animals of danger by making by slapping it on the water.” The student said, And the great spirit told the beaver he could use his new tail to slap the other animals around..” Or the student who decided that “the beaver goes to the river,” was the MOST important part of the tale (I would take the puppet to the desk of the student who had something blue on top of it, a notebook, a pencil case, etc, and pretend that it was the river.., hamming it up!) and volunteered the sentence over and over again during the retelling! Oh, and the moment I walked into the Scuola di Via Sobrero and saw a big bulletin board right smack in the entrance complete with a “Welcome Leah” sign and a poster-sized teepee drawn by Elisa Mossimimo: It was such a remarkable work that the art teacher wanted to keep it, I did too! So Elisa was nice enough to make me a smaller version to take home. How sweet a moment is that?!
 |
| From American Indian Legends and Stories, Scuola Media Unificata di Cuneo, May 22, 2012 |
But most of all, the moments that made my heart soar were the ones full of smiles. I loved the smiles, the laughter, and the excitement as students participated in the telling of the “beaver” story. Just look at the faces in the photos, watch the video, expressions, and laughter were my biggest reward and my most favorite moments of all.
About The Photos and Film
These photos and short film are from the 2nd in the workshop series. American Indian Stories and Legends, How The Beaver Got His Flat Tail. After telling the story of how the beaver gets his flat tail, I then ask the students to re-tell it back to me through the use of the puppets. (I hope I didn’t get the class designations to wrong, they were a bit confusing! If I did, please let me know so I can correct it, (email: leah.sillyfish@gmail.com ) Students: I think you can tag yourselves in the photos, so write your names if you’d like!
Photos here:
 |
| American Indian Legends and Stories, Scuola Media Unificata di Cuneo,May 22, 2012 |
The movie, (at the top of this post.); the kids did a fantastic job with the retelling of the story. Unfortunately, I did a so so job in capturing it on film with my tiny handheld video recorder! Nevertheless, here it is, you might want to listen to it using your headphones to hear the voices clearly.
How The Beaver Got His Flat Tail
Audio for study is available here: http://daniluzern.posterous.com/
(Dani has since moved her blog since Posterous closed it’s doors, stay tuned for a link update!)
Special thanks to all the teachers allowed me to temporarily take over their classrooms. Their patience was without depth and their help and suggestions invaluable.
Special thanks to the Scuola Media Unificata di Cuneo who offer innovative programs to their students. In my opinion, they set the standard for schools today.
And lastly special thanks to two special teachers Dani Luzern and Dani Tomatis (you can read Dani T’s educational blog here: http://themachinegoeson.blogspot.it/ who guide me on my journey and let me cut my teeth on them while I learn the ropes. You’re both, as always, phenomenal!