NOJO Award for
Intergenerational Storyline Project 
Pip
Tench and Ged Stanton went down to London last week together with older
volunteers and a group of pupils from St Thomas More RC School because
they had been shortlisted for the NOJO (Not Older Just Old) Award. The
British Charity "Help the Aged" run this competition every
year. Pip and Ged were nominated for all their work since 1996 including
four Storyline examples and they won the School Category. Congratulations!
Click
to view a video of the award
Pencil
Portrait 
On my recent visit to Hirtshals in Denmark I was fortunate enough to
be presented with this pencil portrait of me. The artist was an nine
year old pupil. My question is "Can you see the resemblance?"
The Child &
Family Centre, Hirtshals, Denmark
Storyline and Special Needs
The
Child and Family Centre is designed to cater for the special needs of
selected pupils and to give support to their parents. In this small
school in Hirtshals the staff have recently been using a Desert Island
storyline very successfuly to motivate language work from their 8 pupils.
The teachers have experienced a rich and rewarding reaction to the linked
activities targeted mainly at language development and self awareness.
The topics also provide for sharing and cooperative learning. Parents
visit regularly and are always included in the culminating event.Two
Storylines are used each year and previous designs have included the
Circus and Witches. Click
here for a gallery of their work.
Storyline-Toolbox
for learning on the Net 
Kvinesdal Upper Secondary School Team
March
7th 2003 was a very special day for Storyline in Norway. On this day
Kvinesdal Upper Secondary School presented the Storyline-Toolbox to
Steve Bell and many other invited guests. This programme gives the opportunity
to use the Storyline Method in web-based teaching. It is a totally new
web programme designed from scratch especially for this purpose. It
is thought by the design team that it can be of value in the teaching
of any subject and that it is suitable for use from kindergarten to
college level. The first subject available is an internet-based teaching
programme for kindergarten assistants. The team believe that this is
just the start. Click here to go to the Storyline-Toolbox: http://storyline.kvinesdal.vgs.no
A Norwegian Resource
Centre for Storyline
Kvinesdal
Upper Secondary School now has several years of experience in using
Storyline for teaching students at that level, something which is not
so common in Norway. In May 2002 it was decided that the school would
become a Resource Centre for Storyline teaching in Norway. Courses are
now being offered in ordinary classroom teaching and in the use of the
Storyline-Toolbox mentioned above. For more information click on www.kvinesdal.vgs.no
Storyline to
train Nurses in Denmark
In
January an article about the use of the storyline method was published
in the Danish nurse magazine “Sygeplejersken”. The article
is written by Eva Hoffmann who is a nursing teacher on “Den sønderjyske
sygeplejeskole” in Sønderborg. Eva Hoffmann tells in the
article about her experiences with using the storyline method in the
education of a group of 30 new nurse students.The article includes facts
about the method and it also gives a lot of concrete directions on how
the method was specifically used as an educational tool. The students
invented a fictitious person called “Sofie Clausen”. In that
way they created their own patient who became a very lively focus for
the theoretical part of their education.
The article, in
Danish, was published in “Sygeplejersken January. 31. 2003 nr.5”
www.sygeplejersken.dk
Three Presentations
in Luleå 
Sanna
Ranweg was responsible for organising two Storyline courses and one
lecture during week 8 in her home town of Luleå in the north of
Sweden. Thirty-two participants attended the Storyline 1 course held
at the university and twenty-five came on the Storyline 2 course on
the designing of topics. The interest for this approach was also reflected
by a large evening attendance for a lecture presentation by Steve Bell.
Sanna's plans are also designed to support the modular course offered
by the University in Luleå and described in a previous news item
below. Click on Sanna to see gallery of photographs.
More News from
Huamin Primary School, Singapore 
Jessie
Siva, a class teacher in Huamin School, writes
"I've
great news. As
you know (see news item below) my students and I took the 'Letter' Storyline
to great heights. We invented some games to promote Singapore and some
of these have now been developed commercially. A bazaar 'Wacky Inventor's
Tournament' was held where pupils exhibited their masterpieces. Students,
parents, teachers and the Cluster Superintendent voted for the best
games. Fourteen were selected. So far five have been developed commercially
and they look beautiful. It started with the letter and now we
have these games to promote interesting places in Singapore. Isn't it
wonderful? I submitted an article describing our work to the Ministry
of Education and it came out as the top story in the month of December."
Click here to read the article
New Book by Beate
Grabbe (in German) 
Dr
Beate Grabbe is well-known to many Storyline practitioners as a very
experienced teacher, former headteacher, lecturer, educational psychologist
and author. I have had the pleasure of working together with her on
many Storyline courses which she organised in Hamburg and Pinneberg.
She was also responsible for organising the Golden Circle Seminar of
the European association for Educational Design in Hamburg in 1996.
In this book "Dennis: 'Here I am the class fool!' " she introduces
several case studies based on 'difficult pupils'. This is done in a
very lively form by using a 'script' technique. The classroom situations
are brought to life and the problems confronted and discussed. Illustrations
also give a valuable insight to the pupil's thinking.
ISBN 3-403-03746-0 Published by Auer Verlag
Comenius Project
Kumi
Tømmerbakke, a Primary 7 class teacher in Løkeberg school
in Haslum, Norway, has recently reported a very interesting visit made
to Gloucester Primary School in Peckham, London, as part of a Comenius
project. A school in Italy, "A. Gandiglio" situated in Fano,
completes the group of three schools connected to this project for a
period of three years. The main thrust will be film-making and creating
e-mail contact between pupils but teachers are also encouraged to visit
each other's schools to get to know the staff involved and also each
other's school systems. On this first visit the Norwegian teachers involved
the English pupils in a Storyline about Trolls. The picture shows class
4D, taught by Mrs Diana Valcheva, and the children who participated.
New building
material and Storyline
While
attending the Seminar of the Norwegian Storyline Network in Vestfold
College of Education recently I met Arvid Undebakke, the managing director
of a company called Percolo A/S. He showed me a new building material
which he has designed with illustrations of how it had been used
together with Storyline. Arvid explained: "The notches on the blocks
also fit together mathematically. Two blocks with 3 notches make 1 block
with 6 notches. In this way, mathematics is practiced on both a practical
and theoretical level. This, in turn, helps a child's understanding
of mathematics. Two Storyline booklets written by Merethe Fagernaes
have also been produced called "The Viking Farm" and "The
Loghouse Village". Percolo Playwood is used in both Storylines
where mathematics is the leading subject for Ages 6-13." Visualisation
plays and important part in the methodology and it is obvious that this
material is yet another creative option for teachers. www.percolo.com
Storyline
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