So, why am I telling this story? On Saturday morning, I took in SADPC's Beginning Teachers — Classroom Management workshop. One of the points the instructor stressed was sharing personal stories to appear more "human" to our students. I admit that an alarm went off when I heard that. I wondered, "Will students respect and see me as an authority figure if I share personal stories?!" The instructor said there is plenty of brain research that supports personal stories and learning. A quick Google search confirmed it.
I found this article, The Science of Storytelling: What Listening to a Story Does to our Brains, and I am a believer. I have my course outline ready to go and have a personal story about my work being plagiarized. I wasn't going to share it because I thought, "students aren't going to care." After reading the research, though, I am going to share it. The article says that our brains are "wired for storytelling." I should take advantage of that!