Programme 400, Matthew Dicks on Storytelling and Teaching (9-5-20)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this 400th episode of Inside Education I am delighted to be joined by the co-presenter of my favourite podcast, Speak-up Storytelling. Matthew Dicks is also an elementary school teacher and the author of Storyworthy: Engage, teach, persuade, and change your life through the power of storytelling. He blogs and shares other resources at his website. Matthew shares a story with listeners to this week's podcast and among the other topics we discuss are: Becoming a teacher Studying in a community college while working in McDonalds before winning scholarships to university Manipulating his dream to fit his reality instead of manipulating his reality to fit his dream What he likes and dislikes about teaching Teaching children writing like an editor treats a writer (giving them time, choice, audience, purpose) The importance of letting a child share their writing and how to respond to the child’s writing Providing feedback for students on their writing Why he writes The kind of stories he tells on stage The idea he developed called “homework for life” How he uses storytelling in his elementary school teaching Improvisational story telling games The consequence of storytelling and story-writing being acts “of courage” Sharing writing as a celebratory moment Having a stage, curtains, lighting and a sound system in his class Teaching Shakespeare to fifth grade students “Whatever your passion is, bring it to the classroom” Albert Cullum Shakespeare in the classroom A typical day in his classroom Disliking school as a student Why he teaches to the students who don’t want to be in class; not assuming that any student wants to be in school on any given day How his approach to planning has changed He is a problem-solving, big-picture person – not someone who likes to write a unit of work or draft a school plan Managing behaviour in the classroom Why he dislikes homework: children should read every day and learn to study. He prefers long-term assignments over short-term ones Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath Using competence in storytelling to be a better interviewee when you go for a job Telling a story