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| Spellbinders Mesa County Newsletter
Volume 1/Issue 4 |
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| Once Upon a Time.... |
June & July 2009 |
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Profiles in Storytelling
Steve has been a Spellbinder for three school years. He has recently expressed interest in becoming one of our trainers for new Spellbinders. He will complete the training this summer. The departure of John and Norma created a need for additional trainers and Steve is one of the Spellbinders who volunteered to assist in this vital role. Thanks Steve!!
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Summer Wrap-up...and seasons change. To each and every one of you wonderful storytellers, I marvel at your talent, commitment and friendship to Spellbinders! Children who have a Spellbinder in their classroom are privileged young people. Sharing your stories, fables and tales enriches their learning experiences, letting them discover for themselves their own creative talents. Embrace your gift as your gifts of time and stories are bound to be gifted back from those very children you influenced. That's yet....another story!
Lois Becker,
President Mesa County Spellbinders
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Resource for Spellbinders
Terri Smatla shared information at the May workshop regarding District 51 Content Standards for reading and writing for grades K-12.
Mary Ann had requested that Terri share this information as a result of the presentation she and Ruthmary attended in April, which pointed out the ways in which storytelling can enhance the curriculum. Although the information is quite extensive, the details regarding what concepts are covered at each grade level can serve to reinforce for us the value of what we do, as well as give us some ideas of the types of stories to tell!
The current standards and the revised standards are listed on page 10 of the document; 5th grade details start on page 82 of the document. NOTE: These documents are being revised and are not finalized, so the page numbers may change slightly as time goes by. |
Archives
Want to read past issues? Just click on Archives and you will find them all! |
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Mesa County Spellbinders Board
Lois Becker, President and Library Liaison
Ruthmary Allison, Vice-President
Ingrid Bratz de Leland, Treasurer
Pat Malone, Secretary
Sally Matchett, Public Relations
Laurie Kollasch, Training
Robert Spears, Statistics
Karen Hurst, Newsletter
Evelyn Kyle
Claudine Bogart, Rotary Liaison
Terri Smatla, School District Liaison
Mary Ann Janson,
National Spellbinders Liaison
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 Greetings!
Welcome to Mesa County Spellbinders Newsletter!
A little bit about us:
The mission of the National Spellbinders organization is to nurture literacy, character and intergenerational community through the art of oral storytelling. In order to spread the magic of oral storytelling Spellbinder chapters train volunteers to become storytellers in their communities.
This newsletter is sent to you by the Mesa County Spellbinders. Enjoy! |
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Spellbinder Profile - Steve Skoglund
 Steve spent his early years in suburban Chicago and has lived in Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Columbus and now, since 1981, Grand Junction. He also spent a year traveling and working odd jobs in Europe. (The Beach Boys song "I Get Around" comes to mind as I read this!)
He and his wife owned a small engine sales and service business here for 11 years (Tompkins Saw Shop.) Steve then became a counselor in a drug and alcohol treatment center for 12 years (ARU) He is now a real estate investor, He buys single family homes and rents them or sells them.
He and his wife moved to Colorado to be near the ski areas. In the summer he enjoys golf and riding his bicycle.
Steve initially heard about Spellbinders from one of the members. He called John and signed up for a training session....and the rest, as they say is history!
Steve likes several types of stories and his favorite story is always the one he is telling at the moment. Although, he tells me he always enjoys telling "Juan Bobo"
Steve tells stories to 2nd , 3rd and 5th grade classes
His advice to his fellow Spellbinders is that they should find stories they enjoy and find meaning in and, most importantly, have fun telling them!
Sounds like great advice to me! Thanks Steve, for sharing your stories! | |
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Question of the Month:
Is there any sort of special story or activity I can do during my last visit of the year to my classrooms?
I like Susan Sharp's story of the 10 pencils, and like a few of us who have adopted that one, I give them each a pencil (not yellow--those are too common.) I tie the story into the summer times when they don't know what to do with themselves, or are with their moms or babysitters and have to sit and wait somewhere. A pencil and paper can be great entertainment, and the 10 things in the story can just be a beginning! Judy Herr
I always have my various classes vote on which stories they want to hear again for the last meeting; usually after the April telling. Sally Matchett
Last year Anne Saunders shared a great idea with me. She told me about something that our Founding Fathers often did. Many of them kept what is known as a Commonplace Journal. One of the definitions I found of this is: an edited collection of striking passages noted in a single place for future reference. When I researched the practice I realized that I had been doing this for years! Anne then gave each student a blank journal to record their summer reading in. So, at the last meeting of last year, I give each student a blank journal. I told them about writing passages from books that they liked, but I also told them that they could: keep a list of the books they read, record their opinions of those books, write their own story, or whatever they wanted! This year, having worked on collecting family stories, I shared the story sparks from the last National Newsletter and encouraged them to start collecting family stories. I assured them that when they grow up they will be glad they did! Karen Hurst (Note: Michaels has blank journals that are $1 each; sometimes 50 cents! The trick is finding journals that boys will use (i.e. no flowers or fairy princesses!), but it can be done!
Although no other suggestions have been officially submitted, I can share ideas I have heard at our monthly workshops: Many Spellbinders have their classes pick their favorite stories to hear again, but some also have the students tell stories that they have been working on. This has been done in a variety of formats and is usually a very pleasant experience for the students as well as the Spellbinder!
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Spellbinders Show & Tell
Stories at our May workshop:
I shared two of my favorite stories: My modified version of The Three Little Pigs, and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by John Scieszka. I tell these two together to demonstrate "point of view" to the kids. I ask them when I am through who's story they believe and get some interesting answers!
Patsy May was scheduled to tell a story, but we ran out of time so she will be on the agenda for our August meeting. We look forward to hearing it!
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New School & Special Events Coordinators!
 Anne Saunders (on the right in the photo) has agreed to take on some of Norma's duties for our chapter! She will be working on coordination of Spellbinders assignment to the schools. Elizabeth Clark has agreed to assist by organizing Special Events. Thanks to both of them!
At our May workshop, Anne distributed two forms: Spellbinders Volunteer Form and School Signup Sheet for teachers requesting a Spellbinder. If you were not at the workshop on May 14th, please email me so that I can send you the Volunteer Form. You will need to fill this out and return to Anne as soon as you can. The information requested includes information regarding the classrooms you currently tell stories for, as well as any willingness to take on more classrooms. There were many classrooms in which John or Norma was the storyteller that we'd like to fill with other storytellers. If we all take one additional classroom we might be able to cover the same number of classrooms next year.
The second form Anne distributed was the form to be used by teachers who request a Spellbinder. Anne wanted to receive feedback as to what revisions Spellbinders might suggest before it is finalized.
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New Trainers!
As listed above, Steve Skoglund has volunteered to receive  training to become a trainer for new Spellbinders. Laurie Kollasch (that's her on the left!) has also volunteered to become a trainer, stepping into John's role as overall coordinator. They will both make great trainers and we all thank them for filling this valuable role!!
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Cool Websites!
Janice Shepherd shared information about a pretty cool website. The website is called freerice.com. Students can practice and improve their vocabulary as well as practice their math skills and much more! For each correct answer the sponsors donate 10 grains of rice to the U.N. World Food Program.
Other subject areas include: Art, Chemistry, English Grammer, Geography, Language learning (French, German, Italian,and Spanish), and Math.
There are levels of difficulty starting at 1 and go all the way to level 60 in the vocabulary area! So, you can suggest this to your students next year and/or enjoy it yourself. I love word games so I donated lots of rice when I tried it out!
Don't know how to pronounce something in your story? Another website that you might find useful is inogolo.com. This website is an English pronunciation guide to the names of people, places and stuff. She found Scieszka there! I should have consulted it before I told my stories!
Thanks Janice!
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Coming Attractions!
Next month our Question of the Month will be:
Do you have any favorite stories that you like to tell at the beginning of the school year? If so, please share the name of the story as well as the source.
If you have a great suggestion/answer to this question feel free to share it with your fellow Spellbinders by sending me an email. Please include Question of the Month in the subject line. Some of the suggestions will appear in our next issue along with a note citing the source.
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At our August workshop, we will be distributing Volunteer Forms provided by our school liaison, Terri Smatla. Each Spellbinder should complete one of these forms for each school they will be telling stories for. If you tell for more than one classroom at any one school you do NOT have to fill out a form for each classroom; just one form per school, listing one credentialed teacher as your contact.
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The Mesa County Spellbinders Board of Directors will have openings this fall due to the end of terms for Ingrid de Leland and Bob Spears. If you are interested in serving as a Board member, please let Ruthmary or Lois know.
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We hope you find this newsletter useful. Please let us know what you would like to see in future issues by clicking Newsletter Feedback to send your suggestions via email.
Thank you for your contributions and support to our organization. If you know of someone who might enjoy this newsletter please forward via the link below.
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 Sincerely,
Karen Hurst
Spellbinders Mesa County |
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| Quotes from kids:
Ruthmary Allison shared her quotes from kids story after hearing The Three Little Pigs: She began her story: One day the mamma pig told her three little pigs, "It's time for you to move out and make your own money!"
One of the first graders listening to the story added: "That's no problem, all they need is a printer and they can print all the money they need!"
(I wonder if he knows how to spell F-E-L-O-N-Y ?!) |
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| Copyright (c) 2009 Mesa County Spellbinders. All rights reserved (but feel free to copy it, post it, quote it, think about it, and forward on to others.) |
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