Are You a Great Storyteller? Try A Career In Teaching!

Do you love telling stories? Are you able to inspire, thrill and amuse others with your tales? Have you ever asked yourself the question ‘would I be a good teacher’? A career in teaching could be a great fit for you.

If you know what level you’re keen to teach, you can get a head start on your teaching career, but ultimately, your storytelling talents can help keep students engaged in their studies at all levels. Research has demonstrated that having fun whilst learning helps you to retain information. Furthermore, students may connect more with you as a teacher and want to listen to what you have to say, as exploring a story together is a great way to bring people together.

When you can engage kids in learning, they are more likely to absorb and retain information. Not only that, but they are more likely to think critically about the subject, explore other facets beyond what is taught and develop a personal interest in the subject. Although storytelling is obviously a key component of being an English teacher, this skill can also be applied outside of that as well. For example, if you are teaching GCSE children about concepts such as philosophy or science, then it can be helpful to place these abstract concepts in a linear story.

In addition, stories can be a particularly powerful tool for anyone who’s interested in helping students with special needs, as they can be a simple way to discuss more complicated concepts that are trickier to learn.

It can be assumed that storytelling is only appropriate for young children, but when you can contextualise concepts that can be hard to understand, creating a story around the idea can be very helpful. If you are good at storytelling, you are likely good at explaining things clearly, which is an essential teaching skill.

Children spend approximately 635 hours in the classroom every year. Alongside learning about mathematical facts and scientific equations, these children are developing in a range of other ways during their school years. Being a great storyteller is also useful when educating children on developing good communication skills and developing empathy and understanding for others. 

Stories are a fantastic way of teaching children about interpersonal relationships, as it gives them the ability to see things from another perspective and discuss their feelings through other characters. Children can pick up on different aspects of the story and see how the characters react to one another.

This is particularly useful for younger children, as you can also gain insight into their own understanding of others during critical stages of development throughout the early years. By asking them which characters they relate to and what they think of characters’ choices or interactions, you gain valuable knowledge about how that child sees the world.

Sharing stories, whether it is a short, fictional story for toddlers or a real-world story for GCSE students, stories are a great way of expanding our knowledge of the world.

For example, a story about a soldier can be helpful to learn about the life of a soldier in the trenches, but it can also help students understand the broader context of war itself.

When characters we connect with are put into a setting and a situation, it is much easier for us to remember and absorb what life is like around them, rather than simply learning different facts about a time, place or subject.