A NEW Virtual Offering!
Trees and Tales- A Poetic Weave
Diane’s newest nature workshop has been developed especially for virtual platforms. Drawing upon over thirty years of telling stories of the natural world, Diane shares story and music meditations on nature and trees from a variety of cultures. Insights into our 
deep relationship with the land alternates with beautifully recorded storytelling and Celtic harp pieces that reveal these meanings in the form of story narrative. Meditations and writing exercises for the participants continue throughout the workshop and a live chat stream allows for back and forth and Q and A. Depending on the size of the group, break-out sessions for story sharing will also be facilitated.
Seize the Narrative!
a workshop for environmentalists, nature educators and all those who love the natural world.
What is a narrative and how can it give both the environmental movement and ourselves renewed vision? In this three-part workshop we’ll create new frames for ecological issues examining how language and slogans shape perceptions, trying our hand at coining our own phrases. In part two, we’ll craft a short anecdote about the meaning we’ve found partnering with the natural world. Lastly we’ll look at ways to heal our eco-narratives honoring ways we’ve made a difference. A nature-oriented teller and workshop leader for over twenty-five years, Diane’s stories have been featured on NPR, at the National Storytelling Festival and International Storytelling Center.
Doorways to Empathy: Storytelling and the Natural World
Shared experiences create empathy. Using the power of story – identification through a shared narrative – we discover ways to help audiences travel from an “it” to a “thou” model all the while sourcing our own stories about the natural world. This workshop uses a combination of lecture demonstration and active exercises sure to get everyone participating. This master-class is for teachers, nature workshop educators, naturalists, interpreters and all those who wish to use story to increase empathy for this living world and its non-human inhabitants.
Diane’s dynamic workshops empower participants to use narrative in all of its forms. Sign up for her e-newsletter to find out about upcoming workshop opportunities.
Storytelling in Nature and Science Education
This workshop explores the many ways stories build imaginative bridges to the natural world. Using examples from over twenty years of collecting and creating educational nature tales, Diane focuses on how original and folkloric stories can enhance nature and science presentations. Exercises center on incorporating narrative into factual studies, brainstorming anecdotal nature tales, creating educational tales and enhancing folkloric nature tales from various cultures. Lecture/demonstration, participatory exercises and question and answer time will all be included An extensive bibliography of tellable-tales that link story and scientific facts will be provided.
Join a host of others who have chosen Diane to present on Storytelling in Nature Education: Mass Audubon Society, Mass. Environmental Educators Conference, Sharing the Fire Storytelling Conference, Chewonki Nature Education Center, Appalachian Mountain Club, Interpretive Training Institute, Boston Harbor Conference, the Mass. Institute for Teaching Science, Conference on Bio- Diversity, Arnold Arboretum, Project for Excellence in Teaching Science and the New England Science Center. She has led professional development workshops for teachers in how to use storytelling to enhance classroom presentations for over twenty years.
– Gail Herman Ph.D Festival Organizer and Enrichment Consultant
Storytelling Magazine recognized Diane in their article “Green Grow the Stories” as a leader in finding innovative ways to link storytelling and nature. Her original story “What Now, Cloacina?!!” published in the collection Spinning Tales Weaving Hope uses story to teach important elements of water conservation and has been featured in story collections in England, Canada and the U.S. Diane has developed over fifteen original storytelling performances that celebrate nature and the environment.
