Last week I got the opportunity to go into Bethel with a group of students. There is an art grant in the district that helps educate teachers and helps artists travel to work with students. This year the focus was on Yupik stories and visiting with elders. We had an elder come in and share a Yupik story to us. We then used a Yupik story book to create our own story based on the book. We did a story called The Man Who Turned Into a Wolverine. For the past couple of weeks we have been working on using the green screen to create the movie. The first thing we did was create the script. Once making the script we then created the artwork for the movie. Then the real fun began as we started filming and editing the movie.
As I said on Monday we traveled into Bethel. 120 students traveled into Bethel from 12 different schools. Each school brought a different interpretation of a Yupik story with them. The week was filled with preparation of the big show. The students created all the artwork for the performance area and then worked on an opening and closing number. The students had to work on memorizing motions as well as learning a dance. It was interesting to see what the students were able to create with the help of the elders and their teachers.
The shows were on Friday and Saturday. It was incredible to watch all the pieces together, although I could not always tell what was being said, you could feel the energy and still feel the overall message of the story. The skills the students picked up from this project include digital storytelling, acting, art techniques, and Yupik song and dance. It was fun to watch the students build relationships with one another over the course of the week.
1 comment:
How wonderful that they keep their traditions and stories alive in this way! And you are getting to participate in the whole process. That's one really cool thing about living in an area where the people are all of the same heritage. Thanks for sharing!!!
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