Early Literacy in Action

Here is my final project for Digital Storytelling Class 2015. I had a lot of fun learning the ins and outs of videotaping! Early literacy skills are a large part of what I advocate and help parents with at work in a public library. What I hope my video portrays is that building these skills in young children can be incorporated into everyday life, and is attainable for families to work on. I thank my library customers for helping me on short notice to complete this project. I think they enjoyed it too! There are three siblings shown at the end. The older brother has a nice loud voice, but the girls spoke softly. I had not realized this until I played back the video at home. I turned the background music down during their comments. I think they had relevant points to make an were so cute, I had to leave them in. Hope you enjoy it.

How will emerging technologies impact storytelling?

I see the answer being two-fold. On a slightly negative side, there is the ongoing ethical issues that technology continues to bring up as new innovative tools are invented and put out for public use. Take this blog for instance. I created this blog (my first one!) to use to share with this class. If a member of the class chooses to forward the link to my blog to some one else, I would welcome it. However, what if I did not want any of my classmates to share the link to my blog - even if it is an innocent act of sharing some good idea I have included here? I control the majority of this blog content, but not all of it. I can not control others actions, and that is the negative side of emerging technology - trust in those who use it, not to abuse it.

On a positive side, I see excitement in new advances all the time! Users love to have the power to be their own master of a digital story. Much as we have experienced using the tools we learned to use in this class. It is fun, and fun to hear, read, or view what others have taken the time to create as master of their own story using the emerged technology. What was not even conceived as possible decades ago, is steam rolling full force into future innovations. I think technology is and will be used to become more efficient for users and more user-friendly for novices. For instance I used my smartphone to video tape an interview for my final project. Fifteen years ago, I did not have a smartphone, and the cell phone I had did not record video. I am now able to travel and record a story. I am now able to connect what is on my phone with a laptop and tablet to create a digital story. I am now able to sync sites to build upon my story making it richer and fuller. I can only imagine what new technologies will allow me to do in the future...I wonder where it will take us?

Seinfeld Writing

Most times when I am faced with putting together a paper, presentation, or project of some sort, this is often my dilemma. I either have no ideas or I have so many that they are swarming around in my head bursting to become a part of the final draft. More often than not I sit at my desk and look at all my notes and ask myself, "where do I begin". An outline sounds like an easy task to a put together, but where do I start? How do I want to start? What do I want in the middle? How will it end the best? Once I get my head wrapped around my answers, and organize all the details, it all starts to fall into place, and before I realize it an emerging story is the final result!

Clifford Goes to the Library

 Here is a link to a WeVideo I created for my digital storytelling class 2015. The requirement was to combine audio narration, sound effects, music, pictures and pre-recorded video into one project.

I chose to loosely base my story on the book Maisy Goes to the Library by Lucy Cousins. I read that book to students who come from the local elementary school to learn about the library and get their own library card, from our public library. I used Clifford and other stuffed animals to tell the story!

https://www.wevideo.com/hub#media/ci/417815400

The new and improved Legend of the Jersey Devil

This is a shortened version, taken from the children's book titled The Legend of the Jersey Devil, by Trinka Noble.

Once I figured out the steps to save, import and export each sound effect file, I had a lot of fun searching through Freeesound.org. This site had all the sounds and music I searched for. After getting the hang of adding in the sound effects in Audactiy, I just wanted to keep going! I debated as to whether to make the background music louder, but decided to keep it as background music and soft until the ending change in music selection. There is definitely an art to mixing sound & editing. Listening to this recording with the bells and whistles added, verses week one with just my voice, helped me understand the rationale in putting together the total package. This version, I think, is more entertaining to listen to.  I needed to edit two places in my audio track of telling the story. I have the highest appreciation of the time and work professional editors put into their work. There is one spot I redid a few times. It is not perfect, but the best I could get it as a novice!

My journey from listener to teller

I finally broke down, admitted I need help, and attended my first SA meeting.

 Here is how I introduced myself…“Hello, my name is Karen, and I need help telling my story.”

“Hello Karen, we are here for you”, said my new friends at my first Storytellers Anonymous meeting.

Here is what I told them…   I am the 2^nd to youngest child of 8 children. 5 boys and 3 girls. When I was about 8 I remember consciously admitting to myself, as our family drove down to Virginia in an overfilled station wagon with no seat belts to my grandparent’s farm, that I LOVE my role as the listener in the family. I loved everything about being the captive audience to anyone who had a tale to tell. I loved reacting in surprise, the gut-wrenching stomach knots from laughing too hard, and the introspective contemplation as I learned from others. A good story, or any story for that matter, was comfort food to me…an imaginary warm blanket wrapped around me by loving hands. 

Castiglioni family year 2000

Kevin & me 

My husband Kevin is my older brother’s best friend. So when I was 7 he was 17, (no we did not start dating back then!)he visited our family during a summer vacation at the Jersey Shore. There was about 4 of us in the beach house one time when we heard the ice cream man jingle his truck’s bell signaling he was coming down the street. As we stood outside in line, something triggered Kevin’s memory, and he started telling us another one of his hilarious stories, at the expense of a family member or close friend that he found funny. By the time it was our turn to order, we were all in hysterics and I could only point to what I wanted...I was laughing so hard! Kevin, to this day, has a way of exaggerating the facts just enough to keep the story believable, but embellishes it enough to add flavor!

Benefits of listening…At that point in my life I reaped the benefit of other’s telling stories. I had no intent to reverse my role as the loyal listener.

In middle school we had a weekly 1 page story to write for our English class. I stand before you admitting I never wrote one of those stories. I admit I agonized over spilling the beans to my teacher every time she gave me an A+ with…”well done”…”so creative”…”great imagination Karen”…written at the top in bright red ink. Here is how those stories really were created; One night I shared my first assignment with my mom as I did my homework at the kitchen table. My older brother Paul (2 years older) also was there. My mom started giving me suggestions, helping me along with a story line, when Paul jumped in with more twists to the plot. Before we all knew it, they had completely dictated the whole story to me! As weeks passed, Paul and my mom somehow ended up in the kitchen with me, contemplating one scene after another, with one more adventurous tale, one more intriguing plot, and one more A+ for me.

REALIZATIONS…I began to realize the scope of my predicament. I had no storytelling skills. It was like I was at the bottom of a well with no way out, and I put myself there. How do I learn how to tell a story? What IS my story voice supposed to be like? How do I become a master storyteller?

Papa, Maureen, and one determined professor!  

My dad

My dad would stay with us 2 nights per week when Maureen and Ryan (my children) were in elementary school.  He was semi-retired living in PA, but still working in NJ 3 days a week so he slept over. Papa, as the kids affectionately called him, is a master storyteller. He would be the animal trainer to Maureen and Ryan who transformed into wild animals along with all their stuffed animals. He would create this magical world, and they would hang on his every command. Somehow he would weave in a physical competition that wore my children out! Other nights I would come home from, my then part time job, working at the public library to find Maureen wearing a blond wig, acting out some story as my father videotaped. These are all priceless memories for my family, and I recently asked my kids what makes Papa’s stories so great. The shared great insights for me which I am grateful I have such an excellent example to emulate.

Maureen in wig!

ü  His stories had meaning

ü  They were just the right length – not too many details

ü  Character development – characters had feelings

ü  He is enthusiastic and willing to share

ü  The stories answered questions

ü  The stories were unpredictable, suspenseful and made us think

When Maureen was a growing up, she would sequester me into her bedroom, and would ask me to tell her a made up story. At the same time the question escaped her mouth, panic flowed through my veins, and my mouth was suddenly dry. It felt like that amusement park ride that spins humans in a huge cylinder and the centrifugal force holds us all plastered to the sides as the bottom falls out. I managed to tell barely one minute stories, with no enthusiasm, and little plot. Maureen, to say the least, was not impressed. I felt like I was Winnie the Pooh sitting on a log out in the woods saying to himself….think, think, think.. It was as if my memories all left me; as if they all hid in the dark shadows of my brain I could not detect.

Eye Opener…This was a real eye opener. It made me truly understand my lack of storytelling skills. I needed to reach up into those dark crevices of my brain to pull out all those hidden memories and learn how to use them to tell a story. I needed to pull them back into place in my mind.

The past 2 years I have worked on my Masters in Library and Information Services. I have had one professor who challenged my English writing skills. He gently confronted me and pointed out my flaws, at the same time guiding me to see the rationale and reasons I NEED to learn how to story tell in my line of work. He was so passionate in providing me with purpose. I knew I needed to seek help and improve myself. I was probably the oldest student going in to the free tutoring for English help on campus, but who cares. In my line of work I need to learn storytelling and the structure of building a story. I need storytelling to communicate with my library patrons, write grant proposals, and collaborate with the town to raise awareness of the libraries community function as an information center. My professor gave me the vision and a goal.

Where I am going…I am still a work in progress, as is my story.  I have discovered, though, to look at others as examples of story structure, form and style to find my own style. The blinders are off. I am out of the well now.

DISCLAIMER: Storytellers Anonymous is a fictitious support group – I think J

The Legend of the Jersey Devil

Audio recording software >>


An eerie presence lurks in the bogs and swamps of the Pine Barrens of NJ. They call it the Jersey Devil. Listen to the story of how he was born, what he was, and how he saved the towns people from being over run by outsiders!

Tweets by @karenomalleyO

Karen's "short" story

Karen's "short" story

 Click on link to view my short video...a glimpse into what I love and who I am.

Outdoor activities with family is the ideal life! 

Working in a place, in a town, in a neighborhood that I love, is an added bonus!

The 3 bear library system

I have been working in a large township library system for the past 18 years. We have 3 branches.

The papa bear branch - or the "main branch" - is the largest branch with the administration departments within it.

The mama branch - the one I now work at - is the medium size branch that is cozy, and is in the center of town.

 The baby bear branch - the one I managed the children's department for many years - is our smallest branch. The smallest branch is a one room building, and everyone does everything from emptying the book drop to reference services.

Our system works well together. Being part of a system has its advantages when promoting our programs and services. The disadvantage is in person department meetings and ideal communications. Thankfully we have phone and email! We are a community information center for over 52,000 residents.

Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)

Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)