Tonya and I are friends through the National Writing Project, so it was nice to see her name pop up in my aggregator through your site. She and I talked a lot about claymation this past summer. We both have witnessed some different aspects of the creative process as students take control of the story in a production that is multi-modal in a variety of ways.
I have done a collaborative claymaking story project that pairs my sixth graders up with second graders, but she gave me some new tools to try this year (starting next week .. gulp) for stop-motion animation.

Here are some experiments with stop-motion that I have been attempting before I introduce it to my students. I invented a character called Thelonius and I have been using him in various ways. Plus, my own children were so enthralled with what I was doing that they decided to invent and film their own movie series: http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/category/adventures-of-thelonius/

Sounds like a terrific workshop. I wish I could have been there.
Thanks for sharing.

Sincerely,
Kevin H.