Storyteller, Author
Educator, Conference Speaker
Barbara Wright Jones serves as secretary for Territory Tellers, is on the executive board for PAWS writers association, and is a member of Respect Diversity Foundations Speaker’s Bureau. She served on the Oklahoma Foreign Language Teachers board, and is past president of Oklahoma Elementary Teachers Foreign Language Association.
Barbara has taught public school at all level and subjects, including English as a Second Language (ESL) and Spanish. She is presently teaching adult education.
She has presented at teacher inservice and conference workshops throughout the USA including, Texas Foreign Language Association, Southwest Conference on Language Teaching, Southern Conference on Language Teaching, U.C.O. Multicultural Institute, Red Dirt Book Festival, Spirit of Oklahoma Storytelling Festival, Oakdale Schools, and Oklahoma A+ Schools.
WORKSHOPS
Make The Connection With Stories and Games
Address core curriculum objectives and have fun while learning with tales and games that teach. This workshop shows how to make learning come alive using stories and games to teach information and review for testing. Attendees will leave with ideas for lesson plans and suggestions on how to choose appropriate stories and develop learning games.
Target audience: Classroom teachers, grades K-12 , parents and staff
Celebrate Storytelling Magic
Sharpen children’s spoken language, reading, and writing with a story. Curriculum objectives for reading, writing, and listening are addressed in this workshop. By listening, telling, retelling and rewriting stories, children are able to employ a wide range of skills. Workshop participants will leave with ideas for lesson plans and suggestions on how to choose appropriate stories.
Storytelling Basics and Beyond
Storytelling Basics and Beyond is for anyone who wants to know how a story is born and given spirit. More than just a ‘how to’ session, this workshop will share stories and ideas to make a story jump out of your imagination, or off the pages of a book, and become real to your listener. Participants will leave with ideas for how to choose, develop, and tell tales.
Stories and Games that Teach Cultural Diversity (Educators, Teachers)
The cultural diversity of Latin America comes alive through legends of Spanish explorers and folk tales of the native people of the Americas. In addition to story examples, the workshop includes games, map activities, and suggestions for choosing and telling stories.
Culture Quest (Gr. 6-12)
Students will learn how to research the folk culture in their community. The goal is for students to become aware of the scope of cultural diversity in their neighborhood, and recognize how that culture reflects the behavior and values of a society.
School Daze: Curriculum Connection
Using stories to teach core curriculum; history, geography, languages, science, literature.
‘‘Have a Food Fiesta (Educators, Teachers)’’
This workshop gives practical ways to use food and cooking to teach culture, traditions, and products of Spanish countries. Learning about food is a bridge that gives students cross culture skills and expands experience beyond their boarders. Eating touches emotions and breaks down barriers. If I can eat what you eat, I can know you better.
’’Creating an Effective Multi-Cultural Club (Teens - Adults)’’
Ideas and methods for creating exciting and worthwhile Multi-Culture Clubs. The workshop offers program ideas, games, and more. A club is a fun, informal strategy for learning about diversity.
‘‘Collecting and Telling Stories’’ ‘‘(Teens and pre teens from 12-16)’’
Teens discover how to collect and tell stories. For this workshop I would need some senior citizen volunteers to attend and work with the teens as I demonstrate techniques for collecting and telling stories. Both teens and volunteers are put together and the teen will ‘collect’ stories from the older adult. Teens learn the value of preserving family stories and that ‘old folks’ are real people. The seniors learn to value their own stories and the importance of passing them along to the next generation.
OFFERINGS FOR THE OKLAHOMA CENTENNIAL
Oklahoma’s Heritage - Cultural Diversity (Gr. 4 - Adult)
Listen and participate in tales and legends taken from the multiplex of people who settled Oklahoma. Learn how to find historical stories, develop them into tellable tales, and pass them down to the next generation.
To learn more about having Barbara lead a inservice or workshop, Contact Us.
