Stories Resonate—This Is Why Teachers Should Capture Them

Part Two of my S5E20 @schoolutionspodcast conversation with Dr. Michelle Chanda Singh, learn about effective digital media and edu tech tools that give students creative agency, fostering interactive learning.

In this episode, you'll discover:
🎯 Why traditional curriculum fails and how storytelling bridges the gap
📱 Digital storytelling tools: Canva and Adobe Spark
🎤 The guest speaker strategy that actually resonates with students
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 How a 10th-grade interview assignment preserved family legacy
✨ The difference between "supporting" and "RAISING" classrooms
🚀 One actionable next step to start Monday morning

Michelle shares how a simple 10th-grade assignment—interviewing an elder family member—became an irreplaceable treasure when her grandfather passed two years later. This is storytelling as legacy, connection, and curriculum combined.

💫Check out Part One & Digital Tools Mentioned:
• Canva for Education 
• Adobe Spark
• Microsoft Clip  

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction: From Why to How—Taking Action with Storytelling
1:00 - Welcome Back to Part Two with Dr. Michelle Chanda Singh
1:46 - Reminder: Listen to Part One First!
2:00 - Bridge Building Solutions: Why Incorporate Storytelling into Curriculum?
2:22 - Storytelling Makes Teaching Human, Simply Put
2:48 - Traditional Curriculum Misses the Mark: The Gaps
3:09 - Storytelling Democratizes Education
4:00 - Seeing Ourselves as Whole Human Beings, Not Victims
4:26 - Digital Storytelling Tools: Capturing and Creating Stories
5:00 - The Power of Canva: Student Agency in Storytelling
5:31 - Removing Barriers: Not Every Student Wants to Raise Their Hand
6:00 - Adobe Spark and Free Educator Accounts
6:42 - Collaborative Memoir Writing: NCTE Session Inspiration
7:00 - Funds of Knowledge: Interviewing Family Members
7:42 - The 10th Grade Assignment That Changed Everything
8:00 - Meet Michelle's Grandfather: The Father Figure Who Made It All Possible
9:00 - Recording the Interview: A Moment of Intuition
9:42 - Discovering Family History: Seeing Grandpa as a Teenager
10:00 - 2 Years Later: Grandfather Passes Away
10:42 - Creating the Funeral Slideshow: Videos Become Legacy
11:00 - Stories Passed Down to Great-Niece's Twins
11:42 - Guest Speakers: Beyond the Perfect Resume
12:00 - Kids Need Real Human Stories, Not Just Credentials
12:42 - The HBCU Guest Speaker Example: Pastor and First Lady
13:00 - Models Who Look Like Them: 90% Black or Caribbean Descent
13:42 - "How Did You Get From Here to There?" The Stories That Matter
14:00 - Mentorship Through Lived Experience
14:42 - Balance: Expertise AND Human Touch
15:00 - Michelle's Quote: "Stories Resonate, Connect, and Cultivate Community"
15:42 - One Next Step for Monday: Start Small
16:00 - Stories as Entry Points to Learning
16:42 - Video Clips, Podcasts, Student Grandparent Stories
17:00 - Storytelling Is NOT an Add-On—It's the Foundation
17:42 - Connection to Learning, to Each Other, to Content, to Teachers
18:00 - "We're Raising the People. We're Raising the Humanity."
18:22 - Closing: Emotional Engagement
18:42 - Olivia's Reflection: Try One Story-Based Entry Point
19:00 - Preview: Next Week with Maria Walther on Read Alouds
19:42 - Credits and Thank You
20:00 - How to Connect and Share This Episode

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

Olivia: [00:00:00] Welcome back to part two with Dr. Michelle Chanda Singh. If you have not listened to part one yet, pause this episode, catch up with part one, and then come back to this conversation. So if part one was about why storytelling matters, this is about taking action with storytelling in your classroom. It's your “how.” Michelle walks us through digital tools that give students creative agency. Guest speakers who offer real mentorship instead of just polished resumes and why a simple 10th grade assignment to interview a grandparent became one of the most powerful legacies her family will ever have. She even breaks down what it means to raise classrooms through story, not just support them.

This is Schoolutions Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that isn't just theory, but [00:01:00] practical try-it-tomorrow approaches for educators and caregivers to ensure every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. I am Olivia Wahl, and I'm so happy to be back with Dr. Michelle Chanda Singh for part two of our conversation. If you have not listened to part one, it is right below this episode go back, pause this, go back, listen, and then come to this episode. 

Uh, Michelle, we talked a lot about your story and how you had a particular teacher, Ms. Fernandez, that helped you be seen as a 9-year-old girl coming to the states for the first time from Jamaica. I think it's important for teachers in part two of our conversation to learn how they can incorporate storytelling, especially digital storytelling into their classrooms. And we're also going to speak to guest speakers and why guest speakers need to look and offer [00:02:00] opportunities that resonate with their kids. So let's start off, um, some bridge-building solutions. You spoke in part one to curricular fails and that often the textbooks that we're using in classrooms do not reflect or represent all of the stories of the children in those rooms. So why is it critical that we incorporate storytelling into our curriculum?

Michelle: Storytelling makes teaching human simply put, yeah. Yeah. Right? And we all know, um, our ed, where our education system, how it was founded, how it currently is, and we know that curriculum, traditional curriculum misses the mark. There are gaps, and storytelling gives us [00:03:00] an opportunity to ensure that we are bringing the relevance and the relational aspect of teaching in the curriculum.

Olivia: Yeah. In in your words, you actually say that storytelling democratizes education, and I think that that's really powerful. So say a little bit more about that. I, I 

Michelle: believe that it just. Gives students and teachers an opportunity to see themselves and say, this is who I am because this story that was shared was human. And I am human and I can connect on a human level with the experiences that this person has shared be because it's not flat, it's not abstract, it's not, [00:04:00] a depiction of someone who looks like me, but they're a victim and they need to be rescued. But they are a whole human being. They are complex. They have experienced things that are just on different levels, and that is what a human does.

Olivia: Yeah. Yeah. Well said. And what tools do you recommend if we're trying to capture the stories of our children or our own stories when it comes to digital storytelling? 

Michelle: Yeah. And so I really love using, um, technology because it's just so powerful. Uh, it, it allows for the idea of storytelling to shift from us and even our students just consuming the stories to actually creating them and even capturing them. And that could be as simple as just, you know, using your phone. Then using tools - listen, I love Canva, so I will [00:05:00] always advocate for Canva, but ultimately what these tools are doing is giving students, uh, more ways to have agency with their, you know, with, with the telling of the story. 

Olivia: Yeah. 

Michelle: Uh, it's removing some of those, um, barriers. I would say that often come up in our, uh, traditional ways of teaching where students are only expressing themselves in one kind of way, right? Not every student wants to raise their hand and speak out loud. Not every student wants to take a multiple choice test. Not every student wants to write a five-paragraph essay, but many of them, if given the opportunity, can tell a story with their voice and with visuals and with music and with design and their creativity will shine through so wonderfully.

Right. And their tools, like I said, Canva, Adobe, those are some tools that I, that I often [00:06:00] go to for that Adobe Spark - um, I would say those two tools because the students, uh, teachers can get the free educator account on Canva. Set up classrooms, set up a classroom where their students have access to that too. So I would, I would definitely like put Canva at at at the top of my list because there's a lot that can be done with Canva when it comes to storytelling.

Olivia: You know, this is also making me think too, we ask kids at all different ages to do memoiristic writing.

Michelle: Yeah. 

Olivia: About a moment that impacted their lives. And I recently, um, I missed you at NCTE this year, but I know you are doing a virtual session, but I, I would've loved to have coffee and just talk more about this. Oh. Um, and I was attending a session. It was brilliantly done, and it was with a writer and she was sharing as she was crafting her own memoir, it was critical to do interviews and so she called it a collaborative writing process and she interviewed her [00:07:00] brothers and other family members so she could have other perspectives on the experience. She lived from different angles and vantage points, and that was so fascinating to me. 

Michelle: I love that. 

Olivia: And it reminded me of you because I thought you, you, you have such expertise when it comes to storytelling. Yet our stories are limited to how we see them. 

Michelle: And so one side. Yes. 

Olivia: Right. And so I thought that could be so cool to bring in and interview family members. Again, those funds of knowledge. Um, yeah. 

Michelle: Oh yes. Funds of Knowledge, that's, listen, Funds of Knowledge. I, every time I teach a class, a college class, that is like on the top of my list, I will say this about the storytelling piece and the project. So when my daughter was in the 10th grade. Her teacher. Shout out to Ms. Dylan. I'm always gonna shout Ms. Dylan out because what she did with my daughter for this assignment, it literally, this has impacted our [00:08:00] family forever. Okay, so my daughter had to interview a family, uh, an el, you know, an elder in our family.

And at the time my grandfather - so my grand, just a little bit of background. So my grandfather practically was my father. Like he raised, he raised me, you know, my mom was, my mom raised us, but for the father figure, it was my grandfather, right? And so my grandfather was the one who came to America, left Jamaica, left everything he built, came to America, started from scratch, saved money, bought a house, made sure fa the family was ready to receive us and filed for us. And we came to America because of him. Right. So giving you all, giving that background. So my daughter had to interview a, a, a, a grandparent, um, to talk about like their origin story ultimately is what they, what it was. So she interviewed my grandfather and you know, something just told me, [00:09:00] turn on your phone and record these interviews.

So I recorded about maybe like, she asked probably about 10 questions and I recorded my grandfather and my daughter having this conversation. And he even shared things in that conversation that I didn't even know. Right. Like I actually got to see him as, he's talking as like a teenager with his brothers and sisters and with his mother. I knew his mother growing up when I was young. She lived like three blocks behind us and we used to always go to Granny's house for, for dinners and stuff. But she, you know, she was my great-grandmother. That's, you know, yeah. Like, that's how I saw her. I saw him as my grandfather. I never saw him as a teenager with brothers and sisters playing, you know, games and stuff in, in, in the neighborhood.

Right. And so, I mean, he even revealed some things about me, um, and why, oh, [00:10:00] that's why my name is, what my name is, and things like that, that I had never known. Bringing the, the story to a close, my grandfather passed away two years later 'cause my daughter was in 10th grade and he passed away when she was in 12th grade. And I had all of these videos of my grandfather talking about his life and I pulled them out of the Google Drive and I created, um, you know, like, uh, you know, we have to, we had to make the slideshow when we had his funeral and things like that. But we actually had live videos of him talking about his family and his love for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and I was able to like put all of that together. 

Olivia: It's beautiful. 

Michelle: And yeah, it, it was, and now we have those stories about our own history and how we came here. Like it lives, it like that could be passed down [00:11:00] to my daughter's children and all, you know, my niece just had twins, so now I'm a great aunt, so her kids get to Oh, good. And, and that was all because that storytelling piece was a part of the curriculum. It didn't have to be, but it was.

Olivia: But it was, it's that, what a beautiful example. And, and I also, I am wondering too, when we ask for guest speakers to come into our classroom spaces, what is your ideal scenario for who we're reaching out to so our kids will feel connected?

Michelle: Listen, I, so when we think of guest speakers, we normally think I'm gonna go get the person that has the most awesome resume, the most amazing resume, and all of these check, check, check checks, all the roles and all of the, the, the, the initials and things like that. 

Olivia: Yeah. 

Michelle: But here's the thing. Our kids, especially the ones that need this connection, that need this relevance, [00:12:00] they are not gonna relate to those things. They are gonna relate to the person who comes in and talks about their real human story. This could, I've had guest speakers come in who, uh, are not the traditional executive from this place. I actually had my pastor and his wife come to talk to my students. They weren't talking about Jesus, but they were talking about HBCUs.

Historically, Black colleges, universities, because at that time, in that setting where I was teaching, I wanna say like 90% or so of the kids were, were, were Black or from Caribbean descent. And so. They needed to see models of people who looked like them, and people who came from where they came from in a position that they could possibly be in themself. And they needed to understand how did you get from here to there? Those are the kind of stories that they need to hear. So when my [00:13:00] pastor and, and and his wife came, the, our first lady, they talked to them about what an HBCU is, why they chose an HBCU. What are the benefits? This is how I got to it. I came from this, you know, this same situation, but look at, look at where I am now. And they, they loved the students, loved it. They loved it because it was real. It was relevant. They could, they could see it. It's not just a struggle story. That's not what I'm saying. It is a human story. It's complex. It is full. You need to bring people in like that. 

Olivia: Well, and it's also a mentorship. It's idea of, you know, I have walked a day in your shoes, and I can share those experiences and here's how it, it's breaking down the human experience into baby steps. And I think that's something that often our students get [00:14:00] so overwhelmed, and I think of seniors in high school where you at, you say, you know, what do you wanna do? Where? And I remember my own son, he is like, I don't know what I wanna study yet. It's, it's, I'm young. It, it's hard to decide at that age. So having these connections, I, I really appreciate the idea of guest speakers being community connections that kids can reach back out to. Instead of an exec you're flying in and bringing in and you may never talk to again. So that's really powerful. 

Michelle: I think there can definitely be a balance of both. Like you do need the folks, you know, because they have expertise and they have skills, life skills and sure, things that they can share, but you also need the balance of the human, uh, the human touch as well. 

Olivia: Yeah. Yeah. Well said. Let's end part two and I, I wanna read a quote of yours that touched my heart before I ever met you. Uh, it's so beautiful your words, Stories don't just educate, they [00:15:00] resonate. Connect and cultivate a community where every voice enhances the educational journey. And you know, Michelle, you walk the walk, you are a writer, and I follow you. I love reading your articles. They're so real. And uh, they're, they're really actionable and that's what I appreciate. And then just the fact you took the time to have this conversation means the world to me. Um, what is one next step that teachers can leave this part two conversation with and jump into storytelling right away when it comes to Monday with their kids?

Michelle: I would say that you could start small. Start with one story. Start with one perspective. Start with one, one moment. Um, I don't want you to, I don't want you to feel overwhelmed because I want you to think about the story as [00:16:00] the starting point, the the entry point. And, um, we know that we have to provide different ways for students to different entry points for students to access what we teach them to access the content. And why not use stories as your entry point? How can you bring in a. Uh, a, a, a video clip. Uh, maybe it's you actually reading the story or a podcast episode of someone, or, um, maybe a student sharing something about their grandparent as it relates to, or as it connects to what you're teaching.

But that story, that very small segment can be that entry point for the student to see the humanity, to see themselves. Then be motivated and engaged and interested to go a little bit further in the learning. Right? [00:17:00] I would say also the storytelling is not just an add-on or it's not just extra. It's really how we, it's, it's, it's like the foundation of that connection, right. It, it's, it is the foundation of connection. I'm not even gonna say like it is. It's, it's that, that connection. For that student to the learning. It's the connection for the students with each other. It's the connection for the student with the content. It's even the connection for the students with us as their leaders and as their teachers. And that is how I would say that we raise classrooms because when we incorporate the stories, we are raising the people. But we're raising the humanity. Right?

Olivia: We, we'll end right there. It is emotional engagement 101 and I love it. We're raising the classrooms, [00:18:00] not just supporting, we are raising it. Um, Michelle, thank you for taking the time to have this conversation. I appreciate you so much. 

Michelle: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. 

Olivia: Yeah. Take care friend. Here's what I'm leaving my conversation with Michelle. Thinking about stories resonate. They connect. They cultivate community. As Michelle reminds us, they raise classrooms by raising the humanity in them. I'm so grateful to Michelle for this beautiful, actionable conversation this week. Try one story-based entry point in your classroom. Maybe it's a two-minute video clip that connects to your content.

Maybe it's asking a student to share something about their family's background. Maybe it's you reading a short story or a podcast excerpt that brings a human perspective to what you're teaching. Start small. Notice the shift, and if you're feeling [00:19:00] inspired, record it because those stories, like Michelle's videos of her grandfather, become legacies that outlive the classroom. 

Next week, I am so happy to host veteran teacher Maria Walther. She's joining us to reveal how to transform beloved read alouds into powerful bridges toward reading independence. She'll share the simple scaffolding that moves students from passively listening to actively discovering literacy skills through short, laser focused shared reading bursts, all while keeping joy and community at the center. 

Schoolutions Teaching Strategies is created, produced and edited by me. Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son, Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. Thank you again to my guest, Dr. Michelle Chanda Singh for Illuminating [00:20:00] why representation in storytelling and curriculum matter to our children. If this episode inspired you or fired you up, share it. Tag someone who needs to hear it. Leave a review so other educators and caregivers can find it. Check out the show notes for links to Michelle's website and other resources we mentioned.

Send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com to let me know what you are excited to try next. And as always, tune in every Monday and Friday for part one and two of my guest conversations with the best research back coaching and teaching strategies that you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. Look for your 60-second bite-size piece of learning on Wednesdays from our conversation to share with a colleague. Most importantly, take care and thank you for forever getting better with me. See you next [00:21:00] week.