Whilst much thought has been given to the use of storytelling as a tool in the development of children's oral skills, little has been considered with regard to the role of the teacher as a model of good practice in storytelling, as principle storyteller in the classroom. In this paper I have tried to connect a pragmatic approach to classroom storytelling (grounded in my own practice as an educational storyteller) with a teaching grounded in narrative understanding. My initial argument that an understanding of narrative underpins not only our teaching but our lives as humans draws on Bruner and Riceour and is developed (by utilizing a form of Greimas's Actantial Narrative Schema) into a means of constructing stories as the base on which to build coherent and comprehensible educational experiences. (Contains 3 notes.)