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It was inspiring to meet Corban and Carter when they were in eighth grade and learn about how they designed the Choose To Care recycling program at their middle school. This little RockyDocs story shares the details: So it came as no surprise when this story showed up on CBC this summer to share how Carter started his own business called The Detail Lab after graduation!
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This is my favourite studio space at home. A notebook, my phone, a reclaimed wood table from a flea market and a manual typewriter that's as old as I am. There's just something about the clack of the keys that inspires my imagination. It's become a part of my daily routine of mindfulness and wellbeing, too. Facing the blank page for a few minutes and journalling manually, the old fashioned way. Making marks on a surface with ink.
When we facilitate the routines of journalling and writing with our students, it's like exercise for their imaginations. Journalling can be personal and private, but it can also reveal ideas for stories, essays, presentations and productions that have purpose and audience, as well. The process of daily exercise builds strength and strength builds confidence, which results in quality exhibitions of student artifacts, publications, presentations and productions that are visible to their audiences on the page, stage and screen.
So, whether it's on papyrus, parchment, paper or pixels, the best worksheet for developing creative confidence has always been the blank page. It doesn't seem to matter how digital we get, either. Almost every creative project or endeavour begins with some form of scribbling an idea on a surface.
The Knowledge Keepers of the plains made their marks on the living rock at Áísínaiʼpi (Writing-on-Stone) to capture their experiences for generations to come. This RockyDocs story shares the journey of some #rvsed teachers who learned on the Land, firsthand:
Learn more about the creative process and storytelling with your students in the Rocky View Studio WORKSHOP and this visual lesson, "Create by Writing":
When I was a younger teacher, I got this great summer job as a writer in the Story Department for three seasons on a popular children's television series called, The Incredible Story Studio. The idea was simple: take stories written by middle schoolers and adapt them into ten-minute movies. You can still see some of the episodes on the Encore+ YouTube Channel, including the one linked below. But honestly, the best part of the work for me, as a creative arts teacher, was getting to run around the school district to lead the Writing Workshops in local classrooms on behalf of the show. There were literally thousands of stories to choose from, many of which poured in from eighth and ninth grade writing workshops from across the country and around the world. We had to read all of the stories submitted to select just the promising few that could be adapted for the series and the intended audience of younger kids on YTV. Leading these writing workshops and reading thousands of student stories was a formative experience for me as an educator, and it's informed how I approach the design of learning for students' creativity to this day, especially the idea of making learning visible with stories that kids create in all subjects for the page, stage and screen. And it reinforced just how important it is in mentoring young storytellers for the teacher to do the project, too, and experience the challenges, pitfalls and triumphs of workshopping a piece of writing from imagination to exhibition. Of course, nowadays, we have such incredible access to imagining, creating and exhibiting our own students' work in online portfolios and our own youtube channels. Back in the day, we had to film the stories on 16mm film with a big crew. Now, all you need is your mobile device and an internet connection to reach a global audience! The Creative Process we employed in those writing workshops is shared with you in the Rocky View Studio Workshop, which contains inspiration, lessons, examples and resources that you can practice yourself and with your students at your own pace, all open and free! Plus you can see numerous examples of teacher and student storytelling for the Page, Stage & Screen on the Animation, Bookshelf, RockyDocs and RockyTalks pages. In the most important ways, the creative process that we engaged in for the tv show hasn't changed much at all for our classrooms today. As teachers, we still design the conditions in our for students to feel safe, mindful and well, and to offer them the opportunity to develop their own voices and creative confidence through cycles of journalling, drafting, feedback, revision and editing with purpose for audience. Then we share work that we are proud of with our audience and the world. Making students' storytelling visible is the best way I know to foster their originality, express their individual voices and build their creative confidence. Okay, so here's the episode that contains the first teleplay I ever wrote, which was based on a short story written by ninth-grader, Amber Smith, who narrates the film: "A Pinch of Fame, a Dash of Ego & a Whole Lot of Imagination" Incredible Story Studio, Season 2, Ep. 9A
Story by Amber Smith | Teleplay by Rick Gaudio | Directed by Alan Goluboff In Rocky View Schools, the phrase Making Learning Visible means designing opportunities for students to imagine, create and exhibit original writing, speaking and representing with purpose for authentic audiences. That is how we foster creative confidence in ourselves and our students. We publish, present and produce their stories on the page, the stage, the screen and the web. The Rocky View Studio Bookshelf is a collection of stories and exemplars that offer inspiration for being creative in your classroom, no matter what grade or subject, nor whether you are learning in person, online, at home or on the land. The process for creating original works remains the same: publish student writing and storytelling to be read, viewed, listened to and interacted with by authentic audiences. Learn more about the creative process in our Workshop and design learning in your classroom so that you can publish original student writing and storytelling on the page, stage, screen and web. And share your learning with #rvsed from your online on your site, channel and social media.  Student artist & author, Macki C., pictured in grade ten with her teacher, Mr Gray, sharing her first published book, When I Grow Up, which began as a class project. Her second book, What Makes Me Special, was completed in the spring, after schools closed, and is now available on amazon.ca!
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The Studio JournalMusings & Lessons on Creativity & Storytelling in Rocky View Schools, Alberta, Canada.
Rick GaudioLearning Specialist Archives
September 2020
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