Storytelling is the newest tool in my toolkit, having learned how to leverage this tool effectively most recently.    Stories have been used throughout time passing information and ideas from generation to generation, imparting culture, religion, values, information, and what it means to be human.  Stories engender in us to the values of love, forgiveness, and empathy.  Stories encourage us to reflect and change ourselves and spark us into action to change the injustice we see around us.

       Storytelling helps us learn through the use or real-life examples of struggles, mistakes, and often humorous situations that serve as concrete examples of lessons rather than abstractions, thus reducing learning anxiety, and increasing safety in the classroom. 

       Storytelling builds bridges of understanding between people providing areas of commonality and shared experience, builds a connection between the speaker and the audience, and emotionally connects the learner to the content, making the content relevant to the learner or audience, and increases learning retention.