Heads and Tales Storytelling

7 years was a good run.

Born in Bangkok, molded in Melbourne and Manila, Heads and Tales Stories is moving on.

A big shout out to people whom I met on this journey.

I celebrate our shared belief in making reading a part of our lives and the power of stories to remind us of our humanity.

I will keep this FB page and www.headsandtales.net as a library of sorts.
I will, however, close our Bangkok Families group.

I continue my story work as Anna Manuel.
I help people jazz up programs with stories so children become happy and motivated learners.

I continue storytelling with children.
I continue coaching adults and their organisations.

Visit www.annamanuel.com for current storytelling and coaching offers.

On behalf of my amazing storytellers Deepa and Gabi,
THANK YOU.
Maraming salamat.
Kap khun maak na kha.

Catch you later!

Cheers,
Anna

www.annamanuel.com
[email protected]
Stories on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/annamanuel_storycoach/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-manuel-8a1b68231/

For my birthday, I'm celebrating the thick and sticky web of connections I made the past year!⁠
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It’s through these connections I was able to work with people and organisations who deeply care about their communities and do so creatively through stories:⁠
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Developing creative teaching materials with ⁠
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Running teacher workshops in different cultural communities within and beyond Australia ⁠
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Hosting monthly online chats with diverse publishing creatives ⁠
scrawl.collective ⁠
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Coaching creative educators on story making and bilingual telling ⁠
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Narrating children’s stories for Feelix Library ⁠
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Sharing multimodal story making by ⁠
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Being a Role Model and sharing the love of reading⁠
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Returning to my Filipino roots via creative projects with and a community of artists ⁠
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These good and brave hearts keep my resolve to stay in my chosen path strong and my faith in humanity alive. There’s so much good being done in the world, and so much more we could do together!⁠
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So I invite you: ⁠
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If we’ve connected last year, let’s see what else we can create with our crossed paths.⁠
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If we’ve lost touch, I’d love to reconnect so send me a DM. ⁠
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If we haven’t connected yet, let’s chat! ⁠
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Children aren’t meant to sit down for long periods of time.

Even when telling stories with them.

By moving their bodies, children:

Orient themselves in space which primes their learning heaps of skills eventually.

Use all their senses to make sense of the world and the experiences you provide.

Improve memory and re-creation of what they read/heard.

Embody their learning (literally) by connecting concepts with actions.

And so much more!

Here are some of my go-to ideas incorporating movement in storytelling sessions:

🌈 Patterned finger rhymes or call-and-response stories are great to have children tell the story WITH you by using their bodies or parts of their bodies.

🌈 Action songs in or between stories invite them to link words to actions. These can be done sitting down, standing up or even lying down!

🌈 Body percussion or stories with beats give them the chance to make and feel rhythm and tempo in their bodies.

🌈 Breathwork allows them to feel and become aware of their breath in their bodies. They can use the rhythm to inform themselves to self regulate eventually (How am I breathing? Is it making me feel calm/agitated?)

If you’d like to try out any of these ideas but unsure how, send me a DM and let’s chat!

We’ve all been told to make sure to “relate” to kids when we share stories with them.

But what does that mean exactly?

Having worked with children as a storyteller, storymaker and a reading teacher, I’ve got some handy tips for you to really grasp what 'relating' to children with stories means.

1. What's their world like? Know this, so that you cater your content, process, language to what they are able to understand and appreciate.

2. What's your story's message...really? You will use this to anchor all your decisions, actions and telling so the message lands on your audience as you inteded.

3. Why should they care about this message? Your role is to bridge the world of the story to the world of a child in a way that it makes perfect sense for them to care!

4. What feelings do you want to leave them with? It’s not just about the story. It’s about the experience they have around the story that will make children engaged and inspired to read more.

Once you’re clear about these things, you’ll have children at the palm of your hand in awe about your stories.

Which question do you find most helpful? Leave 1, 2, 3, or 4 below. 👇🏾

I found another exciting avenue of storytelling for children. ⁠
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When Vision Australia had a call for auditions for audio narrators of storybooks for their Feelix Library collection, I instantly raised my hand and went in for an audition. ⁠
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After a couple of weeks, I was in the studio.⁠
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So far, I’ve done 10 titles!⁠
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The audio interpretation is added to the Brailled story books and props which are all included in the Feelix Library reading kits. ⁠(swipe for photos)
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I feel so grateful for this opportunity of making picture books accessible to children who are blind or have low vision. And I'm looking forward to more recordings. ⁠
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If you haven't found other avenues of storytelling for children that supports your passion, skills and business, send me a DM and let's talk them through.

Want a new tool in your storytelling toolbox in 2022?

Let me share with you the amazing power of kamishibai (Japanese paper theatre).

Kamishibai, or paper theatre, is a Japanese storytelling artform that involves a tabletop stage, a set of paper cards inserted in the stage, and a storyteller who narrates the story while sliding the cards out one at a time, as the story progresses.

Kamishibai is simple, clever, and highly interactive! It is a blank canvas for various story formats (i.e., contemporary tales, non-fiction, fairytales, short stories, etc.) And it welcomes many visual styles and creative interpretations.

With a bit of imagination and visualisation (maybe even humour) and a wild
love for stories, anyone can add this format to their storytelling toolbox!

Join me in this session:
UPDATED DATE:
16 February 2022
6:15-7:30pm


Sign up with

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Been having a love-hate relationship with social media the past weeks.

Anyone experienced that before?

I find it challenging sometimes to write to a faceless audience.

But I know you're there and THANK YOU for being there.

So I decided to get back on it today and share with you some exciting things that are coming up in the next few months:

1. Kamishibai workshop for adults at Laneway Learning Melbourne on 19 January

2. Launch of our publishing talks series .scrawl.collective

3. Kamishibai performances in Regional Victoria (deets TBA)

4. Collaboration with a children's publishing organisation (deets TBA)

5. Renaming of THIS account!

So, watch this space!

Cheerios,
Anna

What was predominant in your reading list in 2021?

Compiling the titles I've read, I see that I've read a lot of books:

- by women
- by people of colour
- that are dystopian / speculative fiction / cli-fi

This year was the year when I first read a book by a First Nations author - Bruce Pascoe's "Dark Emu." HOW COME?

I think it's because I rely on what I see. And I don't see them in bookshops, not in book clubs, nor in the "Hot Picks" section in the library.

Not until I had a conversation about it with a friend, that I realised, yeah, I need to read books by First Nations authors to hear their voices, learn about their stories, acknowledge the rich cultures that were wiped away from plain sight.

So in 2022, I've got the following lined up:
Living on Stolen Land - Ambelin Kwaymullina
Tell Me Why - Archie Roach

In addition:
It's Not About the Burqa - Edited by Mariam Khan
Caste (The Lies that Divide Us) - Isabel Wilkerson
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man - Emmanuel Acho

What have you got in your reading list for 2022? Let's swap titles!

You may take a break off social media this time of year, but why aren't you?

Can I make a wild guess? It's because you're hardwired for stories.

It's stories that allowed people to survive this far.

Our ancestors would have told stories about the land, the animals for food, the animals to run away from, the people to trust, and their roles in the group.

But now that there won't be many animals endangering our lives (it's now more the other way around, huh?), we keep on telling stories to thrive.

Out of the many reasons why, my favourite is: Stories keep us connected with...
- ourselves
- others
- our environment
- our beliefs

I believe that with feelings of connection come feelings of safety, purpose and love.

How about you, why do you keep telling stories?

Here's some of my hopes for you (actually, for myself too!)

I hope you're with the people you could laugh your heart out with.

I hope you celebrate all your accomplishments.

I hope you show yourself grace in the face of challenges and mistakes.

I hope you embrace your strengths and use them in ways that fulfill you.

I hope you find time to slow down and breathe when you need to.

I hope you continue to unravel the wonders already within you!

What do you hope for?

Ever wondered why 3 is the "magic number" in storytelling?

Your stories are still valuable when you have just one, two, or even three related items, but it's just much stronger when they're in the 3-link pattern.

A short, creative exercise for you to try:
Step 1: Choose one from these topics: resilience, love/joy, connection
Step 2: Think of 3 events/people/places where you’ve experienced it in 2021.
Step 3: Complete this story template:

My Story of _________
2021 has brought me some experiences in _________.
First was when I…
Next, happened in…
Last was when…
For these three things, I/I’m…

Here's mine:

My Story of Connections

2021 has brought some wonderful feelings of connection.

First was when I moved away from Thailand and still kept connected with people there.

Next, happened in Melbourne where I've worked with friends and clients who are deeply connected with their cultures and causes.

Last was the desire to connect more with mine was seeded through these experiences.

For these three things, I'm grateful and looking forward to building and nurturing connections in 2022.

Lemme know how you go with yours!