Storytelling Breaks Barriers

On Monday Nakia Hood from ex Fabula returned to our classroom for another storytelling workshop. 
I loved watching the students relax and open up when they talk to Nakia.  His stories are a great illustration of the ex Fabula mission to build community through storytelling. On their website Rae Johnson says, "Ex Fabula facilitates brave spaces to be heard and seen. Their work is liberating for the larger Milwaukee community so that we all may show up as whole humans with dignity and value.” 

I know the students will learn more about the craft of telling a great story and hopefully will be inspired to tell their own story, but one of our biggest objectives in my classroom is to grow empathetic students. Storytelling has an amazing ability to create connection. People relate to personal stories.

Welcoming Nakia to my classroom has opened my eyes to other ways to build empathy for my students - exposing them to talented community members who can be role models. Wisconsin has a diversity problem in its teacher population. According to a Spring 2018 report, "Same-Race Teachers and Students in Wisconsin: Exploring Academic Achievement and Disciplinary Outcomes" by Carl Frederick, students achieve greater success when they have people of color as their teachers but this does not happen often enough in Wisconsin. 
I'm looking into other ways to develop community partnerships to ensure that students see themselves represented and reflected in the role models and educators they interact with at school.