Pauline Grondin

Readings

As a professional storyteller the contents of my presentation would be on a subject as requested by the teacher or librarian after they have referred to my web site www.paulinegrondin.com.

In the oral tradition of storytelling, Pauline Grondin has delighted audiences in Canada, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland. Participation songs accompanied on a number of musical instruments enhance the telling of fairytales, myths, legends, fables, folk tales and self-penned stories for all ages. Dressed in period clothing, Pauline will take you back to yesteryear, sharing tales of the early settlers planting their roots firmly in Canadian soil. Hands-on heritage programmes using reproduction and original artefacts and clothing are available to enhance heritage celebrations and educational programmes. Pauline’s first CD Voices of the Past was produced in 2006.

Workshops

Learning Through Literacy: "The ability to speak and present is an art" — Aristotle
In this workshop, students will experience the excitement of learning through storytelling. It will help develop drama skills and oral literacy and encourage participants to be risk-takers in a non-threatening environment. This is a half-day programme.

Storytelling Workshop for Students Learning History: “The role of the storyteller is to awaken the storyteller in others and provoke them into action and to listen to other people.”
The basics of storytelling will be discussed with your students in conversation in this half-day programme. An example of storytelling through history will be presented. Artefacts and reproductions, and some of the stories behind them, will be demonstrated. The students will then have a chance to explore these items first hand and write and present a story with a group of other students using the heritage item of their choice.

The Three R’s in Role Playing Workshop:
This workshop fills the curriculum requirement for role- playing linked to social studies, the world and Canada. In the pretence of a one- room school house an introduction will be presented on the beginnings of schools in Upper Canada and the role in the school systems played by the students. Your students will have an opportunity to become a child of the past, and learn as they would in years gone by. Helpful hints will be given for answers to questions and introduction remarks will help the children understand their role with families and students of the past. A slate and slate pencil will be provided for the children’s figuring. Upon booking this workshop, ideas will be given for ways the students can dress to help them with their role- playing.

Special Equipment:

A large table.

Biography

Pauline Grondin has been telling stories and making music all of her life. In 1973 when she became a Cubmaster for Scouts Canada, Pauline was able to incorporate her talents and love of stories and music into her cub-packs. Her cubs encouraged her to tell the Jungle Stories of Rudyard Kipling over and over again. Scout leaders participated in her workshops as part of their training and she was soon in demand with Scouting and Guiding groups all over Southern Ontario. In 1985 a schoolteacher discovered Pauline’s talents and the rest, as they say, is history.

Following her Métis and Irish roots, Pauline’s storytelling has delighted audiences of all ages in Canada, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. In the oral tradition of storytelling she presents a potpourri of fairy tales, myths, legends, folk tales, self penned and first person stories, often accompanied by a number of musical instruments and song.

Leroy, a child sized puppet whose voice is, to say the least, different, often “tags along.” Pauline took her love of storytelling one-step further to make history come alive for children and adults. Dressed in period clothing she will take you back to yesteryear to share tales of the early settlers who planted their roots firmly in Canadian soil through adventure, hardship and joy. Pauline sings the songs of long ago accompanied by a number of heritage instruments.

She has also written a number of books for children and the young at heart, and appeared on several television shows, radio programmes, and has been the subject of many newspaper articles across Ontario and Northern Ireland.

In 1998, Pauline wrote and performed a song in honour of the City of Burlington’s 125th. Anniversary Celebrations. She taught the song to exchange students traveling to Itabashi Japan to “bond friendships over the oceans”. Pauline’s song was published in a booklet that was distributed to officials in Canada as well as Japan.

Keeping the audience’s attention is a fundamental rule for all storytellers. Stories are always told, never read, making them a bit like magic. Pauline first gets the audience’s attention, then, as if with a wave of the magician’s wand, you are transported to the land of the story, to become one of the participants perhaps even the hero or the heroine.

“When love and skill work together expect a masterpiece.” –John Ruskin 1819-1900

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:
Storytelling Workshop for Teachers: “The story is told eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart” – Scottish Proverb
This workshop will help teachers make stories come alive for their students. The basics of storytelling will be discussed and demonstrated. Helpful hints for audience “control” and examples of how to make your own inexpensive puppets and props. What stories will work best for you? How can you make your storytelling session with your students a precious memory?
This workshop is a fun filled experience for all educators. What a wonderful way to spend part of your Professional Development Day!

Voices From The Past:
This workshop teaches you how to bring history into your classroom through storytelling. The basics of storytelling will be discussed. You will hear a story from a lady from the past and then you will have an opportunity to gently try your skill at becoming a person from the past with prompting and participation with other teachers in the session. You will also have an opportunity to choose an artefact from a collection and tell a story around that object. Ideas will be given to help you write your own story on a subject from Canada’s past. Resource material will be discussed. Activities for your students to incorporate storytelling into your teachings will also be discussed.

“Tell your tales, make them true. If they endure, so will you.”