Professional Learning for Busy Educators

The Moth has been around for 20 years, and is known to many who hear excerpts from the program’s live storytelling show, The Moth Radio Hour, on public radio. The program’s founder, George Dawes Green, named it after the fluttery insect when he realized that people gathered to storytellers like moths to light. Since then, The Moth has become a storytelling juggernaut, hosting up to 400 live shows a year in 25 cities and providing podcasts to interested listeners. More recently, it has moved into schools, offering afterschool workshops, a class curriculum and an intensive three-day storytelling session for teachers.

“I want to give teachers The Moth principles, and support them as they bring storytelling and listening into their classrooms,” said Micaela Blei, who along with Catherine McCarthy leads The Moth’s education team. Blei, a former teacher, performed a story at SXSWedu earlier this year to a group of educators and shared highlights of what makes a good story.