Led by Richmond Hill High School (RHHS) teacher Ms Anna Wilson, 28 students participated in the Grade 11 Communications Technology February-June 2016 semester course – Exploring the Art of Storytelling.  The students worked in teams of five students with one senior.  At the end of the semester, the students wrote about what they learned about how to tell a story, they created their own personal narrative story, and they worked as a team with a senior to create a digital story about the senior’s lived experience.

We all tell stories in our lives. What’s your story? What’s mine? What’s our story?

This is the story, not of one person, but of a community. As this narrative begins, others will continue, or end, or begin as well. Some are happy; some are sad; some of the young and some of the old; some from those who have just arrived, full of memories and dreams of their community; some from those close at hand yet so far away. This is a story of a combined voice. All worlds have to start from somewhere: a dream, an idea, a notion. Stories create a world full of possibilities and one so easily accessible, if only
we could give our trust and time. Our tales and experiences are what shape people into what they will become. People connect and learn from one another through sharing their experiences and wisdom. Put together, they are perhaps our most valued human treasure. Why should our stories, any one’s stories stay silent? Sometimes we forget the importance of sharing, of listening to others in our technologically advanced world. In this story here, we unite in hopes of sharing who we are with those out there willing to listen and enter our world.