What if you are reading fairy tales all wrong? What if the witch is actually the good guy? In episode 38, we're talking Donna Lee Fields, a teacher-trainer and speaker in the international educational circuit with a passion for looking deeper into the underlying messages in fairy tales. The Witch as the Hero of Fairy Tales was the title of her doctoral thesis.  We talked about fairy tales and how the stereotypes we’ve made about the characters of the princess and the witch, may be wrong. We also discussed winter celebrations, their similarities and differences and their related religions based off one of her student-centered activities created for educators. 

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/@donnaleefields

www.scaffoldingmagic.com

As a gift for listening to Vanessa's podcast with Donna, find a free scaffold from her award-nominated website here. 

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Main Points

• Magic in education: Inspired by the teacher's love of fairy tales, combining education, fairy tales, and magic to create engaging learning experiences.
• Winter Celebrations Lesson Plan: Originated from the teacher's Jewish background and a desire for inclusivity in celebrating various winter holidays. Developed in collaboration with a nun in Spain, promoting understanding and connections between different religions and traditions.
• International Religion Day: A day created to encourage questioning about various religions, exploring their purposes and common themes such as love.
• Teacher resources: Lesson plans and scaffolding techniques available for purchase in the teacher's store, designed to complement existing curricula and promote inclusive education.
• Common threads in winter celebrations: Focus on vanquishing darkness with candles, fire, and light. Different cultures emphasize lights to combat the dark periods, using music and dance to elevate vibrations. Sweets play a role in bringing people together during winter holidays.
• Winter celebrations covered in the lesson plan: Boxing Day (England), Chinese New Year, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas (Mexico), St. Lucia, among others.
• Fairy tales and traditions: During research, the teacher was captivated by the joy of diversity in people celebrating winter traditions. No specific elements mentioned but the emphasis on the variety of faces and the wish for more diversity in the local community.
• Higher-order thinking questions: The importance of incorporating higher-order thinking questions in education to encourage creativity and critical thinking. The goal is to move beyond rote memorization to foster independent and creative thinking.

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