Leaning forward in their seats, eyes open wide, mouths gasping and grinning in turn, roars of applause at the end…that’s what our students –and teachers- look like while listening to Susan McCullough telling stories! Susan has joined us for story telling during our annual Book Week for a few years now, and her performances never disappoint. Susan has a talent for engaging children and choosing stories that they love. She creates a warm, engaging environment, and with just a few words she magically transports us to times long ago, places where animals talk and situations where…ahem…passing gas can save a marriage. The children love listening to new tales and ask for their favourites to be told and told again-sometimes even years later! Thank you, Susan for always creating an amazing experience for our students and teachers!
Anna Kmiec Literacy Coordinator, Leipzig International School
A wonderfully passionate storyteller, full of energy and humour. Susan gave me the inspiration to read and tell stories and to understand the power they can have, by making a difference and changing one’s world…including my own. Sheen Kooner, graduate student in person-centered experiential psychotherapy (Nottingham, UK)
I still vividly remember sitting in the back of Mrs. Durkin’s 7th grade classroom, listening to you tell stories, being able to actually SEE them. I remember how they sparked my imagination and I realized then, that I wanted to be able to do the same thing one day. So thank you soooo much for inspiring me to use my words to paint stories with emotion. I really feel as though you had, and still have, a huge influence in my work today as a spoken word artist. Alisha Lockley, Spoken Word Artist and former student
Susan is an amazing storyteller. Her energy & creativity are absolutely contagious…and she’s just so much fun!!! The power to engage the audience is continuous and awesome!!! Diana Metello, Results Coach (Lisbon, Portugal)
“You were perfect with the children… extremely entertaining!” – Mrs. Fischer, Grade 1 teacher
“Susan is a real storytelling volcano… full of energy. She will knock your socks off (and hers as well) and boil up her stories till they burn themselves into your heads, hearts and soul – ready to change your life whenever needed!”
Monika Gehle, storyteller and enthusiastic listener (Portugal)
A talented and effective storyteller… Susan could have supported any element of my programme on narrative writing (characterisation, themes, language and style etc.) but I chose to invite Susan in, to complement the work we were doing on structuring stories. Susan worked on “fractured fairy tales” with my students. Not only did the students find this work interesting, motivational and fun, they also learned a lot about structuring their own stories. I think Susan is a tremendous asset as a story-teller. I have not only recommended her to my own colleagues, I would also give my strongest recommendation to colleagues in other schools/organisations.” Fiona Eels, Secondary English Teacher
Susan is a wonderful storyteller. She brings power and excitement with her and into her stories. The children love to listen to her and are always very happy when she is coming.
The movement and gestures support her way of telling stories. We could have never thought of anyone better to tell a story to our children than Susan.
Susan lets the children dive into the stories, so that they can see how the characters feel in different situations. She can also explain words in German so that everybody can understand.
Judith Bostin, Little Daisies Kindergarten München
Definitely one of the most inspiring sessions of this international seminar on Fairytale and Storytelling Therapy. Building Character Through Stories is just an amazing trip or adventure that one will never forget. It hooks you in life and for life. Thank you so much, Susan, for sharing it with us with such joy and wisdom. Monica Franco, Founder, Movimento Bloom, and puppeteer. (Sintra, Portugal)
Energetic, engaging, and instructive on the use of storytelling in the educational context. Mary Owens, Psychotherapist (Ireland)
She combined history and traditional storytelling and tailored the content to fit with our unit of study on gender stereotypes in our Global Perspectives class. The storytelling was useful in demonstrating the historical context of certain role stereotypes and ideas of masculinity and femininity. The students gained a lot from the storytelling and were able to apply the morals of the traditional stories to their critique of roles in modern society. The use of storytelling in this context was a rich and rewarding educational experience for the students. The session was carried out in an engaging and professional manner by Susan, who took the time after the lesson to discuss further the issues raised by the traditional stories with interested students.
Gary Bell, Secondary Social Studies Teacher Leipzig International School
The students learned how to think like their character, how to express a range of emotions with their bodies, and how to talk in different styles to suit different emotional situations. She showed them how to project their voices and how to really get into the character. Susan’s storytelling is so expressive and fun and invites the audience to participate and anticipate what will happen. Students are engaged from the beginning to the end! Charlene Bredder, Grade 5 teacher Leipzig International School
The storytelling session added an excellent element to our unit as it enabled a large group of students to share the same story simultaneously, which meant they could all be involved in a retelling of what they remembered about the story. It gave them a rare opportunity to compare a live storytelling to a reading from a book and to witness and think about the different techniques the storyteller used to bring the story “to life”.It helped students understand the history of storytelling and the nature of folktales and how storytelling was not only used as a source of entertainment but also as a way to spread a message. The students enjoyed the session so much that she was asked to come back and do another storytelling session with the story “Anansi”. Elissa Colvin, Grade 4 teacher
“She tells the best scary stories!” – Julia, Grade 11, on inviting Susan to tell at school overnight events. "I love when she teaches us with stories!" - Sean, Grade 7 "Her stories help us understand the lesson better." - Clara, Grade 6. “How did you get all those ideas?”-Doreen, Grade 2 “How did you create these stories?”-Josephine, Grade 2 “It was funny!” –Solyana, Grade 2 “How can you remember it all in your head?”-Lilith, Grade 2 “You worked really hard”-Hrushikesh, Grade 2 “I found the Jack story really, really funny.” –Vedikaa, Grade 2 “I liked all the stories.”-Louise, Grade 2 “We found the story with the bat really really cool!”-Nam Hoang and Landis, Grade 2