About Sarah Poff
You could say that Sarah Poff is not your everyday, ordinary presenter. While her presentations are primarily about history topics, she always wears some kind of costume, has her audiences engage in some type of hands-on activity, incorporates multimedia resources connected to the topic, and it’s quite likely that she’ll include art, music, and even dance into the presentation (hence, the “multimedia” in “multimedia storyteller”).
In other words, her approach is different.
And there’s a good reason for that. It all grew out of her experiences as a young teacher.
Here’s the story of how Sarah developed her multimedia storytelling style, in her own words:
A Multimedia Storyteller is Born
“Some time back, I was looking through photographs in newspaper articles written about me during my teaching and presenting career, and I noticed something strange…
“In every one of those pictures, I have on some silly costume!
“So, I asked myself, ‘How did I become so eccentric?‘ Well, here’s how it came about:
“My husband and I were down on our luck. I had seven (!) part-time jobs, and we were about to lose our house. I had an Art Education degree, but nobody would hire me for a full-time job.
“We didn’t have a clue about how to proceed, except to pray without ceasing.
“Then something happened. While teaching some young children, I decided to put on a homemade costume to make the lesson come alive for the kids. I got a great response and enjoyed teaching ‘in role’ so much, I started doing it more often.
“Soon folks started to notice, and some of the local papers started writing articles about me (I’ve been covered over 50 times in my career).
“I was eventually hired as an elementary Art teacher, but by then my basic teaching approach was set. Throughout my long teaching career, I continued to blend history, art, geography, music, and dance to make learning engaging and fun for my students.
“In addition, outside of regular school hours, I started presenting workshops about history for kids and adults in public libraries, churches, preschools, museums, and other venues.
“The feedback was so positive and I enjoyed presenting so much that I’ve continued to do it to this day. And now that I’ve retired from teaching, I’m able to present workshops for adults and kids full-time. I’ve truly been blessed!
“I feel that my God-given purpose is to use my Multimedia Storytelling programs to talk about our freedom through a historical/art/folk approach and inspire all my attendees (young and old alike) to carry it forward for the next two hundred years.”
Interested in learning more about Sarah’s presentations? Browse through her Workshop topics and her list of Historical Storytelling presentations to find the perfect fit for you!
