A Storyteller’s Delight…

It was my last set of sessions for this academic year at the school as March is an exam month followed by summer vacations. So, I told myself that I would try to make it even more fun and interesting.

It was session for Grade 4 students. Since, it’s the month of February which is universally associated with LOVE, I decided to take that as the theme for these students too. The discussion began and as expected I got the standard responses. So, I knew it was all the more reason to expose them to different expressions/shades of love and break the stereotypes. And my go to story was Ramayana.

While, I wanted to focus on a specific episode for a specific expression of love, I am sure you will all agree that it is one epic which has examples for all forms of love – some extreme and some very subtle too. And the best part, it gives a lot of scope for interaction and participation which I knew the Grade 4 students would definitely enjoy.

So, I began,

“We are going to listen to Ramayana”

“Eh??!”, came the sounds from the class.

“And am sure, many of you here already know it – if not the specific episodes but atleast the broad outline. Right?”

“Yes Ma’am!”

“Then, you are going to help me with the story – i.e. tell the story until we reach a certain point. And that is where I will be sharing a small episode that will talk about a certain form of love!”

“Wow! Yay! Sure Ma’am!”, came the resounding response. And I could see they were all excited.

Without wasting another second, the telling began – each student eager to tell.

The Ramayana slowly unfolded. While the students not only sequenced it well and told but I could also see how they excitedly exchanged those small bits of extra information that they knew at certain points of the story. And if something was missed out in the sequence, one would jump in and say,

“Ma’am… no there is something we missed!”

And then fill in the missed portion. No doubt that atmosphere in the room was so electric. I knew I just had to create that spark and I am glad that I just did the right thing doing this .

At one point, in fact it became so engaging that we lost track of the time and I realized that I had to share that one particular episode too to bring out a shade of love – the theme for that session, in the next 15 mins😊

So, finally we reached the point and I stopped them to share the story. No doubt it was received well and the students could appreciate that expression of love too.

While stories lighten us up, it indeed lights up the atmosphere too… And as a storyteller I am happy to have done my wee bit and as if that is not enough, a student walked up to me and gave a paper and said ,

“Ma’am, this is for you”

I was surprised. I took it and thanked her bidding goodbye to all the students as they left for the next class.

Then, I slowly opened up the paper and I was in for a surprise. It was a beautiful hand-made card with a smiley at the top. When I opened it, it read , “You are the best teacher Ma’am”

Indeed “A Storyteller’s Delight” … Don’t you think? 😊