NewZNew (Chandigarh) : The festive season couldn’t get much exciting than to see the epic of “Ramayana” in a storytelling form with a twist. Chitkara International School in association with Ms. Simi Srivastava, Founder-Director of “Kathashala Educational Pvt .Ltd” hosted a special storytelling workshop for its students and faculty members.
Simi Srivastava is a soft skill, life skills trainer, a performing artist and who has been working with the students for almost around 20 years. The idea of weaving this event was to generate awareness and appreciation for storytelling as a powerful method of understanding and learning.
The first session by Simi Srivastava was knitted for the students and their parents, where she single handedly donned all the characters of “The Ramayana”. In this two and half hour of performance an exposure to creative drama, music and movement through the unique scripting of the legendary epic was visualized by the audience.
In the second session held, the faculty members were trained on “Creating Master Storytellers”. The session highlighted the importance of storytelling for therapy as well as for teaching. Due emphasis was given on several latent emotions of children can be brought to the surface with the help of stories and added that the main focus of storytelling should be to match the level of the child irrespective of their age. She also gave examples as to how storytelling can be an effective tool to convey messages of good behaviour and conduct and inculcate several values in the children.
Contemplating the event, Dr. Niyati Chitkara, Principal, Chitkara International School said, “storytelling is an efficient tool for the teacher, it can also be seen as a foundation for learning and teaching. While the story listener is engaged, they are able to imagine new perspectives, inviting a transformative and empathetic experience. Thus, with these sessions we wish that parents, teachers, students should incorporate this art for learning and expressing the ideas.”