I have been extremely lucky this summer during my trip to Colombia to have had the opportunity to find amazing people who can continue contributing to my professional development and to become better at what I do, teaching language to children. This time I had the opportunity to learn from Jaime Andres Castaño of Corpoteatro. Corpoteatro is a small organization that provides workshops for teachers to learn more about how to incorporate theatrical techniques into their teaching. It also offers workshops for children and anyone who is interested in learning how to use theatrical techniques in their daily life. Reminds me a bit of all the ads I’ve seen on the subway (T) cars in Boston for Improv Asylum and their ads that say “No More Group Hugs with Brad From Accounting,” targeting corporate team building, as well as all the amazing ways theater is used in social cause grassroots organizations. Theater is essential – it really enriches the theater of our lives and is fantastic for teaching people of all ages.
One form of theatrical art involves puppets. With my visit to Corpoteatro, I wanted to learn more about basic techniques to use with simple puppets. With their help, I learned that mouth puppets work great because they are very simple to handle and give me one free hand to point at other materials. I have always loved puppets and use them frequently into my teaching (I am a PreK to 3rd grade Spanish teacher in a FLES program) because puppets give me excuses to create silly and joyful situations that open the children to learning and make a dynamic conversational environment based on play and make-believe. Puppets are a great teaching tool that allow children to forget they are listening to a language they are just learning and gives space for a playful and natural-feeling environment. In many cases, my puppet friends show up in class to teach something new, or to ask my students about something we recently learned. Their appearances in my classes are usually very short, which makes my students ask for their puppet friend in the next class. Each of my puppet friends has a name, and I usually use a name that is tied to a cultural connection or refers to a word in Spanish. For example, I have a puppet girl that I have named Cumbia (traditional Colombian dance) and another one I named Rana (frog).
Tips to Keep in Mind!
Andres gracefully shared his basic tips that can help educators when using puppets in their classes.
1. Treat your puppet like any other class member. Give it a name, a voice, and a space in your class. This puppet cannot be used by your students. They need to show respect to the puppet too!
2. Make sure you always use the same voice for this puppet, and don’t confuse it with any other puppet. Limit yourself to one or two characters for the school year. This will make the children feel confidence and know that it creates a safe environment for everyone.
3. Use syllables when your puppet talks. You want this puppet to look very natural.
4. Always look at your puppet when he or she talks.
5. Make sure to greet your puppet when he joins the class and also say adiós when he leaves the class. Put it away very carefully. Have a box or bag where you always place it.
6. Most importantly as with all teaching, smile and have fun!
I do have to admit that at the beginning it is not comfortable when using puppets, but once you see your students’ faces, you will see how rewarding it is to have puppet guests in class!
It would be so useful to watch it in action, just a thought. I would love to do more puppets, but I am not too confident yet, but these are great tips! Muchas gracias
Hola, voy para Colombia y me gustaria mucho poder asistir a un workshop con Jaime Andrés Castaño. ¿Cómo me comunico con ellos? Le agradezco de antemano su colaboración, María
Hola, gracias por compratir tus experiencia y ideas! podrias darme ideas de topics de como interactuar al titere ya que nunca he trabajado con titeres. gracias
¡Hola! I am Carolina, a Colombian elementary Spanish teacher based in Boston, MA. Fun for Spanish Teachers is the result of my passion for teaching Spanish to children and my desire to inspire collaboration and creativity in a vibrant teaching and learning community. It’s the perfect stop if you are looking for songs, games, teaching tips, stories, and fun for your classes.
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Great post! You're so pretty. 🙂 Just shared on FB.
Gracias por el cumplido y por compartirlo en FB! Abrazos!
Caro
It would be so useful to watch it in action, just a thought. I would love to do more puppets, but I am not too confident yet, but these are great tips! Muchas gracias
Hola, voy para Colombia y me gustaria mucho poder asistir a un workshop con Jaime Andrés Castaño. ¿Cómo me comunico con ellos?
Le agradezco de antemano su colaboración,
María
Hola Maria, gracias por escribir. Que bien que visitarás Colombia y pasaras por Corpoteatro. En su página de Facebook en encontrarás toda su información:https://www.facebook.com/CorpoteatroBiotallerZonaCoaching?ref=ts&fref=ts
Muchas gracias para estas ideas creativas.
I love this idea and can't wait to practice!
¡De nada! Let me know how it goes!
Hola, gracias por compratir tus experiencia y ideas!
podrias darme ideas de topics de como interactuar al titere ya que nunca he trabajado con titeres. gracias