The Gathering Drum is an instrument used in many native cultures to bring together a group of people for a common purpose. During the 2003-2004 school year we brought together children, artists and staff to work towards the common goal of bringing our Character Education themes of respect, self-control, conscience and empathy to life. This interdisciplinary work involved storytelling, dance, writing, dancing, art, acting and invited children and adults alike to combine their efforts to create both a professionally produced book and a dramatic arts production for the community. The effects went far beyond the obvious 'products' and our themes were truly integrated into the daily thread of our school days. How did this all happen?

Our whole school was treated to introductory lessons in the fall of 2003 when The Storycrafters visited Tamarac Elementary to introduce the idea of using a tale to teach. They specifically concentrated on stories that focused on our Character Education themes. The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company performed as well, to introduce the idea of telling a tale using music, movement and art. Our fourth grade students met with storyteller Marni Gillard to learn how to use all of the elements of storytelling to convey their thoughts. They examined pieces of her writing and their own from the 'inside out', so they'd be able to include all of the important elements when they began their task in this project.

The fourth-graders had to write tales that helped teach one of our four Character Education themes, they needed to include a boy and a girl in each tale and they had to write with great description, as they would be passing their tales onto other grade levels to further develop them through art, music and movement. They wrote in the eastern Native American style to use what they’d learned in their social studies curriculum to add style to the tales.

During the spring of 2004 two third grade classes worked with Cathy Herrington, our art teacher, to create the illustrations that would appear in the book, while at the same time others worked with Brian Melick, percussionist, to create percussion instruments and the music and rhythms that would be used to interpret the sounds and movements found in the tales.

Ellen Sinopoli and Laura Spaziani worked with the second grade classes to use the imagery the children heard when listening to the tales to create the dance.