Three teachers from the Pierre School District and one from the Stanley County School District have been chosen to serve as TALES Project Fellows next year.
According to the South Dakota Discovery Center, the Teaching Artifacts from Lived Experiences used in the Storyteaching Project empowers educators to go beyond the textbook and teach with artifacts from their lived experiences.
Mary Steffan teaches 3rd Grade at Stanley County. Jessica Carr and Hope Armstrong are both Science teachers at Georgia Morse Middle School and Ashley Boone is the 9th grade English teacher and Oral Interpretation coach for T.F. Riggs High School. They’re part of the inaugural TALES cohort of 11 educators from across the state.
TALES Project director Anne Lewis says when educators use personal experiences to teach, learning comes alive for students. She says TALES is innovative, which is why they call it storyteaching.
Other members of the inaugural cohort of TALES are:
- Nicole Troxell– 10th grade language arts, speech and debate at Madison High School in Madison
- Kelly Preheim– kindergarten teacher in Armour
- Lisa Plummer– English Language Learners at Medary Elementary in Brookings
- Julie Olson– scientific research methods and college credit Biology at Mitchell High School and Mitchell Second Chance High School in Mitchell
- Bree Oatman– Chemistry, Physics and Health Science Careers at Lead Deadwood High School in Lead
- Amanda Klawonn– K-12 Behavioral Special Education at Madison Central School District in Madison
- Marci Hoffman– 6th-12th Special Education at Madison Central School District in Madison
For more information about the TALES Project go to talesproject.org. The TALES Project is a community innovation project funded by the South Dakota Community Foundation.
Photo credit: TALES Project website.
Mary Steffan
Jessica Carr
Hope Armstrong
Ashley Boone
