Sue Kuentz Weaves Stories with Her Students at Stone Oak Elementary

Sue Kuentz has taught for 27 years, but she says each day is as exciting as the first. Teaching all subjects in a self-contained fourth grade classroom, she includes reading, speaking and listening in every subject throughout the day.

Even in math class, the students learn to solve math story problems that involve higher order thinking skills. Science is "hands on" inquiry based where the students are encouraged to ask questions to motivate them to discover through the scientific process.

Storytelling is one of Ms. Kuentz' loves. She was co-creator of the Texas Storytelling Youth challenge 10 years ago. In her classroom, an exercise students do called "Oh, that's good - Oh, that's bad!" provides the initiation for students to bring their own lives and enthusiasms into spoken stories. They learn to apply what they learn from telling stories aloud to putting the stories down on paper, showing emotion and time sequence, eliminate "dead" words and develop cohesiveness through written words as well as through their storytelling performance.

Ms. Kuentz says her goal for each student is to help each learn to work hard early in life so he or she can be successful, regardless of the path chosen. She knows from experience that, as lifelong learners, there is nothing to stop them!