The money was used to buy rulers and pencils for use in their final exams. Fantastic for us to see where the money went and it feels so real!

Original post in Swedish (the above is a translation made by Google):

7C skänker pengar till skola i Swaziland.

www.smedingeskolan.se

At the invitation of Peter Geerdink and Simon Olbertijn, who were participants at the 5th International Storyline Conference held in the University of Iceland in August 2012, we were invited to present at a Miniconference for the staff of the teacher training universities of Stenden and Meppel on Wednesday 10th April 2013.

Peter and Simon introduced the morning with some stories from Iceland before Steve gave an illustrated talk on “How Storyline developed and its major features”.

This was followed by a delightful presentation entitled ” Leerlingen de petteflet” by a class of primary school pupils who had designed an ecological school in the shape of a flower. It was obvious that they were excited about their experiences and had engaged in many worthwhile educational activities to achieve a most attractive outcome. The final model was amazing and greatly admired by the staff members.

Workshop presentations were then led by Steve, Sallie, Simon and Peter, Hanneke Venema ( the teacher involved in the new school design) and Ellen Reehorst, co-author of “Verhalend Ontwerpen”, a Dutch book describing Storyline.

Sallie completed the morning programme with a talk on “Book-based Storylines” which added a new dimension to the flexibility and creativity in Storyline.

Marie-Jeanne McNaughton

In October 2012 Steve Bell and I had the privilege to attend the 23^rd Annual International Conference ‘Language and Culture’ in honour of the 80^th anniversary of the Department of Foreign Languages of Tomsk State University, Siberia. The conference also celebrated fifty years of service by Dean of the Faculty, Professor Svetlana Gural.

Tomsk State University was founded on 28^th May in 1878 by decree of Emperor Alexander II and a number of the imposing university buildings date back to this period when TSU was the only institution of higher education in the vast territory from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Now the extensive and beautiful university campus also includes other more modern and well appointed buildings housing the 24 faculties and 162 departments.

The conference, which began on Monday 22^nd October, was attended by students and former students of the Department of Foreign Languages along with visiting professors from other universities and members of faculty staff. The first part of the programme was devoted to tributes to Professor Gural followed by a series of presentations given by the visitors. In the afternoon Steve gave a presentation on ‘Storyline as an Effective Approach to Teaching and Learning’ which was well received and paved the way for the Storyline workshops that followed later in the week.

As the rest of the conference was conducted in the Russian language Steve and I were able to spend some time seeing the city of Tomsk and prepare for our workshops, but we were generously invited to the social events around the conference which included a theatre visit followed by a buffet supper and a magnificent banquet held in the university itself. Professor Gural was a most gracious and generous hostess and we were delighted to discover that she had happy memories of attending a conference held in the University of Glasgow some years previously.

Our Storyline contact in Tomsk is Peter Mitchell, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Dean for International Affairs at TSU. Peter is using Storyline approaches in his work with students and is keen to establish ‘Storyline Russia. Peter and his wife Liudmilla, known as Lucy to her English speaking friends, attended the recent Storyline Conference in Reykjavik in August 2012 where they issued an invitation to the other Storyliners there to come to Tomsk in October. It was the greatest of good fortune that enabled us to accept this invitation, to make the long journey to Siberia, and to have the pleasure of meeting Professor Gural and many of her staff. We are most grateful to Peter and Lucy for their care and attention during our stay in Tomsk. They were thoughtful hosts and ensured that we had all the materials need for the Storyline workshops, also that we could see something of Tomsk itself while we were there.

The conference programme concluded on Wednesday 24^th October and on Thursday 25^th and Friday 26^th we gave a two day Storyline workshop for lecturers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages. The well- tried Storyline ‘Capital Tours’ was adapted to enable participants create Russian families who would visit the UK in order to assess its potential as a tourist attraction and then give a report on their experience.

On Saturday 27^th a one day workshop for language students followed. The Storyline used was an ‘old favourite’ – ‘New Neighbours’.

We were greatly impressed by the staff and students’ excellent command of the English language and were delighted to discover that our Storyline workshops were received with the pleasure and enthusiasm we have experienced elsewhere. We hope to hear of more Storyline experiences being promoted in and around Tomsk.

We felt it was a wonderful experience to spend a week in Tomsk and we were fascinated by the contrasts of old and new that we saw in the city. We hope that our visit has helped to introduce and establish ‘Storyline Russia’ and look forward to continued contact with the new friends we made during our short visit.

Sallie Harkness, November 2012

The book starts with an introduction to the Storyline approach. So teachers who have not visited a Storyline course will find the necessary information to plan their own Storyline. The book was published by BoD and can be ordered in any book shop, ISBN 978-3-8482-4202-3. An electronic version (E-book) is also available at Amazon, itunes and libri.

Per Anders Aas & Siv Eie

As part of a cultural study visit to Scotland  48 social science students from Oslo and Akershus University College attended a morning workshop in the Pearce Institute in Govan, Glasgow. The purpose of the course was to introduce them to Storyline thinking and the travel topic ‘Capital Tours’ was selected. As usual on this annual visit Sallie Harkness and Steve Bell of Storyline Scotland organised and presented the course.

The Norwegian leaders , Per Anders Aas and Siv Eie indicated later that in the evaluation of this experience the students were very enthusiastic and in their reports expressed interest in using Storyline in future when they qualified as teachers.

For the last 10 years Marit Storhaug of Oslo University College and her colleagues have brought groups of student teachers on a one week cultural visit to Scotland. As a part of their experience they attend a morning workshop on the Storyline approach presented by Sallie Harkness and Steve Bell of Storyline Scotland. This year they met in the recently restored  Maryhill Burgh Hall. Marlen Ferrer, lecturer, and Marit Storhaug led the group of 25 students who are training to be primary teachers. The Storyline topic selected was  ‘Families in a Community’. It was not just an enjoyable morning for all concerned but a new experience for most with the hope that the enthusiastic response creates a continuing interest in the Storyline way of working.

At the invitation of Katrin Harder, an English teacher in Werbellinsee-Grundschule, Steve Bell presented a one-day workshop course for 65 English teachers working in primary and secondary schools in Berlin. The topic chosen was the Open Market and the participants produced the most amazing models of a variety of stalls before inhabiting them with characters representing stallholders and customers. The purpose of the course was to inform teachers of the possibility of using the Storyline approach to create a context in which students are motivated to practice their English language. Katrin is very experienced at working with Storylineas were several Tutors who attended the course, amongst them Ulla Ondratschek and Lilli Eckes-Boehmer. This meant that there was much discussion after each of the art/craft activities about how the productions could become a focus for valuable language practice and development. It will be interesting to hear of teaching developments arising from this experience. In October Katrin will give a workshop at the university about how to use Storyline for EFL teaching at secondary level.

Link to more photos