What Teachers are saying about having a Spellbinders Trained Storyteller visit their Classrooms
“Stories are at the heart of learning and are a wonderful way to engage students’ creative thinking and creative writing skills. Storytelling represents a universal language of communication. It provides opportunities to learn how different cultures view the world. It encourages students to tell their own stories. That is how we foster creative writing.”
– Judith Johnson, Former Superintendent, Peekskill, NY
“I teach in a Spanish Immersion setting, with 10 ELLs students out of 25! Most of my group could understand English, however my ELLs loved having Steve tell stories because he used a lot of body language and sense of humor that even with very little understanding children were engaged and loved singing, retelling parts of the stories!”
– Denver Public Schools classroom teacher
“My kiddos (any myself) look forward to Mrs. H. each month. She was so captivating and welcoming they could listen, comprehend, and remember the stories each month. Storytelling helps develop self-regulation and a love for an art that is not very prevalent any more in our school cultures.”
– Denver Public Schools classroom teacher
“I have several students who struggle with behavior in the classroom. When our storyteller came, these students would calm down and attend for longer stretches of time than they normally would in the classroom.”
– Denver Public Schools classroom teacher
“We were studying a unit on Animal Defenses. One of my students was having a difficult time focusing on the specific facts he needed to write a research paper on a specific animal. Mr. Ray came and told the students several stories with animal characters and intertwined facts about the animals in the stories. My student was so inspired that not only did he write an incredible research paper on wolves, but he also wrote a fable about wolves.”
– Denver Public Schools classroom teacher
“My students learned about other cultures and traditions through the stories told by Ms. H. She encouraged my students to learn about different topics and she motivated them to learn English. She demonstrated how story telling is a way to support other readers and love reading. She invited students to go to the library and search for specific books..”
– Denver Public Schools classroom teacher
“Some of our English speaking students would refer back to characters in the story throughout the day, “Oh that’s like when… in the story!” They love the morals and lessons of the stories.”
– Denver Public Schools classroom teacher