I really dig KQED. I check out all the e mails I receive from “This Week in Northern California”, “Truly CA” to “KQED Arts.” I find all of their resources to be enlightening, educational, and helpful as I incorporate local stories into my lesson plans and classes with my After School Program at Edna Brewer Middle School. When I saw the workshop being offered to explore digital storytelling, I decided to attend because I have a passion for using flipcams, technology, photos, and other digital devices as a means of telling a story.
I’d visited MoAD once before, and wanted to check it out again, especially to see the signature by Marcus Garvey from his Black Star Line venture. Also, I thought this would be a good place to talk storytelling, given that Africa is the birthplace of telling stories as a means to transfer knowledge from one generation to another. Kristin from the KQED. Education Department was funny, witty, and facilitated in a way that opened people up, shared how we can access various resources to use in the classroom, and build our stories. I especially thought the teacher resources on the SFMOMA site, especially the story of Kerry James Marshall’s work in the Atrium, was revealing in how you can use images, with no explanation, to tell a deeper story than what’s on the surface.
Although a tour of MoAD set off a heated discussion about movement by African people prior to the Trans Atlantic slave trade, the role of the docents in sharing their opinions and possibly shortsighted facts about some of the collections, even in that there was a rich narrative. The collections on the third floor, and the wall of photos at MoAD offered all of us a chance to see how we can use images to tell stories, and how to use this methodology to engage our youth in our respective positions.
Overall, the experience was good because I was able to hear some of the perspectives of other educators in the room, and saw there are more resources in the MoAD library that could be helpful. Kristin took good care of us, kept us on task, and fed us great. I’d do it again, but wished it was like a one day intensive instead of being spread out over time. Thanks KQED and here’s a link to what I finally produced. I used my top 10 musical influences and created a narrative in I Movie using quotes from the artists. I am starting this with my students this week to create their own.
http://vimeo.com/37098725 Click This Link.
