Living Streams is a 50 minute storytelling assembly program for kindergarten through sixth grade students. It includes participatory stories; questions and discussions about healthy watersheds; an on-line curriculum guide (www.portlandonline.com/bes/index.cfm?c=41191) a poster showing examples of simple actions we can take on behalf rivers and streams. A Living Streams CD will be produced in the summer of 2006. The project will continue to be funded in Portland area schools through 2008. Fotos, poster, evaluation forms and other materials generated for the project will be sent following the final performance at a local state park on June 21.

Project Director: Will Hornyak
11375 SE 33rd Ave. Milwaukie, Oregon 97222
willhornyak@qwest.net

The Living Streams Storytelling Assembly Program, seeded through the Brimstone Grant, is currently being performed in schools, community centers and environmental festivals throughout the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington area.

There are two assembly programs performed back to back at each school --- one for kindergarten through 2nd grade; the next for 3rd –5th or 6th grade. The stories include:

1. The Land of Bog (A Monty Python style tale about the importance of wetlands)

2. The Story of River (The concept of stewardship and respect for the earth. Told in the style of a Native American myth)

3. The Adventure of Medio Pollo (A participation folktale re-worked as an environmental story.)

4. The Star Thrower (A fable about the power of personal action in creating a healthy environment.)
From January to June 6, 2006 the interactive stories have entertained and educated over 5000 students and 200 teachers and administrators about salmon and steelhead habitats, wetlands, urban watersheds and healthy rivers and streams. (A list of schools, festivals and other performance venues is included). 95 percent of evaluations returned by teachers have indicated that the program is: “very effective in educating students about healthy rivers and streams; demonstrating the effect of personal actions on the quality of watersheds and holding the interest of students.”

The Living Streams program will continue to be funded in the Portland school district and beyond through a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board ($48,000) through the 2007-2008 school year. In addition, school districts outside of Portland, including Gresham, Oregon; Hillsboro, Oregon; Clackamas , Oregon and Vancouver, Washington have scheduled Living Streams programs for the 2006 and 2007 school years. Education coordinator Cindy Stienbarger of the Clark County (Vancouver, Wa.) Clean Water Program and outreach coordinator Hilda Stevens of the Clackamas, Or. Water Environment Services and Education Coordinator Jesse Engum of the Cith of Cresham have worked with Will in bringing Living Streams to schools within their service areas.
A CD with all the stories will be created this summer and offered at no cost to all participating classes. A copy will be sent to the Brimstone committee when it is completed.
Using the Living Streams program, Will has also provided a workshops in storytelling as a tool in environmental education to environmental educators at the Johns Inskeep Environmental Learning Center at Clackamas Community College; the Communications Studies Dept. of Marylhurst University and to masters in education candidates at Lewis and Clark College.

Storyteller Will Hornyak wrote and adapted the stories and created the program with the assistance of educational specialist Lynn Vanderkamp of the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services. Project assistance was also provided by other staff of the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services and members of the Portland METRO Greenspaces Educational Advisory Board. In all, approximately 10 people had input in shaping the educational content of the program. The program will continue to be improved and refined. Evaluation forms (enclosed) are given to all teachers asking for information on how the program could be improved. The program is also critiqued on a regular basis by Bureau of Environmental Services staff.

The teacher evaluations thus far for Living Streams have been positive, as mentioned above. The goal of the Living Streams assembly is to educate k-6th grade students in the Portland area about the environment in which they live, specifically their local watersheds, and to teach them how to be wise and caring stewards of those watersheds. Pre and post testing at several schools, conducted by educators from the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services have indicated that students had a better understanding of environmental concepts and terms after the assemblies. For example, students could better identify actions (such as restoring plants and trees along riparian corridors; gardening with native plants; reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers; walking more and driving autos less) after the storytelling program.
It is also important to remember that Living Streams is one aspect of a long-term, ongoing environmental education program sponsored by the Portland Bureau of Environmental services. Two full-time educators, Lynn Vanderkamp and Megan Hanson, visit classrooms regularly, arrange field trips and provide in-depth, hands on environmental education. The storytelling program provides a means to educate the largest number of students and teachers over the course of a school year. By the end of the year 2008, an estimated 30,000 Portland area students and teachers will have participated in Living Streams Storytelling assemblies. Approximately 3000 CDs will be in circulation in classrooms throughout the Portland metro area.

As a storyteller I enjoyed the challenge of creating and adapting stories to teach specific facts. It helps to reinforce classroom educational content. At the same time, there were moments when I struggled to find a balance between good storytelling and the mere recitation of facts through the medium of storytelling. As a storyteller, I wanted to make sure that the stories were interesting and enjoyable in their own right. Knowing that I would be telling these stories for 2-3 years and in 150 performances, I wanted to enjoy and truly love the stories myself.
I also grew as a storyteller by writing and adapting stories from a variety of genres: fables; myths, original material; tall tales. In some of the stories I have student participants help out with the parts. This always requires the need to handle chaos and make creative adjustments. But I think the participatory style adds to the level of student interest and keeps the program fresh and spontaneous. Teacher evaluations have been very positive about the participatory nature of the assembly. One of the stories (The Story of River) is a serious mythic tale about how human beings “forgot the ways of living,” and had to remember again how to respect the web of life or lose the River. I tell it with a frame drum and rattle. It creates a ceremonial tone in the performance space and the students have commented that they really enjoy the story. I think it’s a good contrast with the other stories which have a lot of humor.
The project management aspect of the program has been a substantial amount of work. I have attended countless planning and review meetings; scheduled all the performances; tabulated teacher evaluations; created props and banners; and will begin production of the CD this summer. At this point however, the program is up and running and is being well received so the most difficult work is done.

What are the highlights of the project? What moments stand out?  I am experiencing the highlights now ---- the enjoyment of performing and teaching at last after a long time of preparing and planning. I am elated to see students and teachers highly engaged in and enthused about the stories in the program. One of the moments that stands out was watching a group of fifth and sixth graders throw themselves into the wetland story called The Land of Bog, featuring Queen Hydrophyte and Sir Richard the Damp. They played the parts with great humor and abandon. But it was especially rewarding after the story and during the discussion, to see how much the students remembered about the valuable roles that wetlands play in the watersheds. Another highlight is watching the stories continually evolve and take on the new flesh of language and movement as the program is offered again and again. Teachers are also using our website and actively pursuing environmental educator Lynn Vanderkamp to come to their classrooms for follow-up activities.

What advice would you give to those wishing to replicate your project? Would you suggest any changes, based on your experience?

• Be patient! The writing and prep time took twice as long as I had anticipated.
• Working with a committee of interested “helpers” is a blessing and curse. Know when to refuse more good advice.
• The stories need to be good and solid before they’re offered in an assembly, BUT, they don’t need to be perfect. Let the stories be shaped and changed over numerous tellings.
• When using stories to teach content, don’t compromise the story. The story needs to stand on its own merit --- not simply as a tool for conveying information.
• Be passionate about the facts you want to convey! The power of the emotion can open the seed of an idea right before an audience’s eyes and ears.
• Storytelling is ritual. Begin and end the assembly in a good way. Environmental education has much to do with learning to be respectful and aware of the natural world. Without being sanctimonious, demonstrate that tone of care, respect and appreciation.
• Project duration. As this point, I am just NOW ready to really publicize the program, contact the public access channels, invite the media in for fotos, etc.; invite other storytellers and educators in to share what has been created. So, I would say, there was much more planning and development time required to create a solid program. I am glad that we have two more years now to really let the program mature and to make it more visible to the public eye.

The program was critiqued by environmental educators from the Portland Bureau of Environmental, the Portland Metro Educational advisory staff and a member of the Oregon Waterhsed Enhancement Board. Every performance was evaluated by teachers in attendance. Those evaluations were sent back to me. I will include a sample form in the packet that I send after June 21 .

The funding I was promised by the City of Portland upon receipt of the Brimstone Grant was held up for eight months, severely delaying the project. I worked with Lynn Vanderkamp and a grant specialist from the Bureau of Environmental Services to secure a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) which will keep the program going through the year 2008. Other obstacles were relatively minor. I had several false starts on stories; had to abandon some ideas and begin again. Trusting the creative process was also challenging. My performances were continually reviewed and critiqued by BES staff, which was a little unnerving at times. It made the work better in the end from a factual point of view, but it felt stifling at times to the artistic process. Some of the hardest performances were telling the stories to a group of 8-10 scientist/educators with yellow note pads in front of them, while trying to be enthusiastic and spontaneous!
At a certain point also I had to realize that I simply could not promote the program vigorously to the media and other storytellers and educators until I felt it was truly exceptional. I am reaching that point and I know that by next fall I will be ready to extend invitations to the local access TV station, The Oregonian Newspaper, etc. We will also have a performance next fall in which the City Commissioner, Sam Adams, who oversees the Bureau of Environmental Services will attend. All local media and city officials will be given a formal invitation by Joan Saroka, head of communications for the Bureau of Environmental Services, to that event.

I used the money from the Brimstone Grant to support myself while writing and researching the stories; attending planning meetings and rehearsing the stories. The money was also used for mileage costs, props, and a Living Streams banner. Yes, the NSN money was the key to securing the support of the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services.

I would like to thank the Brimstone Award Committee for their patience with me in getting the Living Streams Storytelling Assembly up and running. At last it is truly in a good, strong place and beginning to make a difference in the lives of students and teachers. Although it did take a long time to get this off the ground, I want the members of the committee to know that this program, seeded by Brimstone, is just beginning and will continue for at least another two years. I will continue to pass on news of the program and will send a CD along when they are available , sometime around Aug. or Sept. of 2006.
I have also enjoyed the opportunity to talk up the National Storytelling Network and to be more of an ambassador for storytelling through this project. Upon seeing my materials, or reading the banner I hoist up during the assemblies, teachers often say: “Tell about the National Storytelling Network.” As the word gets out more and more through the Living Streams program and accompanying publicity over the next two years, I believe that the seed of the Brimstone Grant will ultimately achieve its aim of developing an example of applied storytelling which can serve as a model for others.
Thank you again for the generous support and the opportunity to create the Living Streams Storytelling program.

Sincerely, Will Hornyak