Week 12 - Sight Unseen

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater" - Gail Godwin

Mandy eyed the roomful of fifth graders and desperately wished she were somewhere else, anywhere else! Then to add to her apprehension, she caught sight of her reflection in the glass doors and cringed at her lack of hair, hollow eyes, and less-than-rosy complexion. The chemotherapy had done it job. The cancer was gone, but the calling card it had left was hard to ignore. What would the children think? She was afraid that all they would do is stare at her; they'd never hear the story she planned to tell.

The library was abuzz as the students watched Mandy walk onto their makeshift stage. She settled into the chair and unpacked her guitar. Many was sure she heard muffled giggles from the back of the room. She knew that it wouldn't be long until she had their attention, but for the wrong reasons.

After ten minutes of musical storytelling and quick changes, Mandy looked briefly into the eyes of a girl in the first row. Those eyes were laughing. But it wasn't her patchy hair or the dark circles under her eyes that made the girl smile. It was the escapades of Scooby-Doo that Mandy spun on her guitar. At the day's end, students surrounded her and asked questions. But they weren't the kinds of questions Mandy expected. "How do you make your guitar sound like a truck? What are those knobs for at the top of the guitar?" Relief flooded Mandy as she realized that they had seen her after all - the real Mandy, not the shell.

Good storytelling is a lost art. It distracts the mind from what is seen and draws it into what can only be imagined.

Prompt: One way I can use storytelling in the classroom this week is . . .