Interpretive Tips and Tricks — Lessons from BIGI 13

Lessons from BIGI 13

True learning happens through community, not through top-down instruction. The Basic Interpretation for Guides and Interpreters (BIGI) training has always embraced a community learning style. In this January’s offering of the class, participants grappled with the tough stuff of our past, shared ideas and insights, and left the week feeling energized and empowered. Here are but a few of the tips and tricks that emerged from the BIGI community.   

Gamify Your Program 

In an age of apps and smartphones, everything from banking, to tracking your likes or dislikes of coffee, tea, and beer, offers a badge, ribbon, or some other electronic accolade. That’s not even to mention the opportunity for side-quests. People like to collect, track and earn points and rewards. So, why not harness the human desire to be rewarded by, for example, turning animal identification into a mystery to be solved? You could talk about food chains in an interpretive program, or you could have participants embody prey and predator and see what a roll of the dice can tell us about survival in ecosystems. People like games, and while our cultural and natural resources are serious, the way we convey them need not be stale and rote. Play a game, hand out a gold star or two, and watch your audience come alive. 

Unleash the Power of Story and Storytelling 

People think in story form. The whole of human history has been about sitting in front of a flickering flame and telling or hearing stories. The fire ring has now been replaced by the blue-glow of the smart phone or the television, but the stories we tell each other have changed very little. And, if there is one thing that connects people across time, place, and cultures, it is the very human practice of taking information and, often subconsciously, turning it into story form. Stories of the people of the past enter through our ears, but by the time we encode them, our brains have already assigned the roles of heroes, spiritual helpers, villains, all wrapped in a resolution, with a moral to boot. 

At BIGI 13, Kim Whitfield, State Park Interpreter III, shared a tool used at the California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) called the Storyteller’s Workshop. Whether planning an exhibit, distance learning program, or an interpretive talk, interpreters at CSRM think through the opening act, plot, driving emotions, resolutions, and the key takeaways. In a sense, story form becomes both a planning and organizing tool, while also serving our visiting publics in a mode and method that is familiar and rewarding. Did you know that scientists have measured the brain activity of people hearing magical story words such as “once upon a time…” and have discovered that people become calmer and more focused? If we think in story form, we might as well plan in it, too. 

Find your Why

Had he known any, Willie Nelson may have changed the lyrics of his song, “Mamas Don’t let your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys,” to “Interpreters.” For all its tremendous joys, being an interpreter can be difficult and tiring. It’s an awesome responsibility, important work, that is not often rewarded with pay or praise in proportion to what interpreters put into it. It’s important, then, as Peter Ostroskie (Staff Park and Recreation Specialist on paper, but forever interpreter) said, to find your “why.” Your “why” probably has nothing to do with bureaucratic necessities or programmatic demands. Your “why” is the stuff of heart and mind. It’s the stuff that gets you up in the morning, suited up, and ready to make a difference in the world. If you need an example, just read Kaylie Williams’s fine article in this edition of The Catalyst. 

Be a Part-time Crusader 

Interpreters have many superpowers and top among them are skills of improvisation. Some of you may know that the first rule of improv is “yes, and.” In other words, a good improv-er accepts whatever comes before and then builds on it. In that spirit, it is important, nay essential, as stated above, to “find your why.” But that doesn’t mean that you must give all of yourself to the toil of it. Here, the words of Edward Abby ring loud and clear: “…do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast.... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it.

We’re rooting for you!

—Cara O’Brien and Ty O. Smith, BIGI Facilitators