So many YouTube videos advise new VIPKID teachers to purchase a puppet as part of their basic prop set. You can find the props I suggest to beginning teachers here. If you are like me, after you buy that puppet you may not know what to do with it. Today, I’ve invited the one and only MICHAEL VENN to the blog to help all of us find out what to do with our puppets.
Tell us a little about yourself and how long you have been in online teaching.
My name is Michael Venn and I am a Canadian online ESL teacher, puppeteer, and YouTuber. I have been teaching ESL online for about 3 years and I absolutely love it. Before I got into the world of online teaching I worked at a ton of different jobs. Some of the highlights include being a traveling puppeteer, a circus performer, and an English teacher in both Korea and Italy. Nowadays, I spend most of my time in Canada teaching online and making ESL-related videos on YouTube.
How did you learn so much about puppets?
I learned most of what I know about puppets from Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia. I started working there about 4 years ago after taking a 3-week puppet intensive training program. After that program, I got hired on a contract basis and went on to tour all over the US, Canada, China and most recently, Singapore.
Since I linked up with Mermaid Theatre I’ve learned a ton from the puppet builders there and that interest eventually led me down the YouTube rabbit hole where I started learning more about puppets, puppet construction, and object manipulation from others puppeteers online.
From there I started making my own props and puppets for the classroom which taught me a lot as well.
Do you think all teachers need a puppet for their online classroom?
I don’t think that all teachers NEED puppets in their online classroom, just like I don’t think all teachers need a whiteboard. It certainly helps though!
How does a teacher determine if they need a puppet for their classroom?
I think if you’re teaching children or if you’re looking for a way to engage with students who aren’t particularly interested in your lesson (or the company’s curriculum) there’s room for a puppet in your classroom.
Puppets have a really cool way of bridging age, language, and cultural gaps between you and your students.
They can also serve as a very useful teaching tool. For example, if your student is struggling with a certain word or phrase, you can use the puppet to model how to say something correctly.
Inversely, if your student knows the material well, you could use the puppet to say a word or phrase incorrectly and have the student correct the puppet’s mistake. In this way, the puppet almost becomes your teaching assistant in class.
Do you have any tips for teachers who are shopping for a puppet?
One of the first things I look for when shopping for a puppet is its functionality. How easy is it to put on and take off? What else can it do? Does it have a moving mouth? Can it speak? Can you pick things up with it? Etc.
Because time is so precious in the online classroom I don’t want to spend a lot of time putting on and taking off my puppet. If the puppet gives me problems in the store, no matter how cool it looks, I won’t buy it.
Secondly, I want it to be able to actually do stuff. I prefer puppets that allow me to pick things up and put things down. In that way, I can use the puppet to hold cue cards, props, and other supplementary teaching tools.
Finally, I look at how the puppet relates to the material I’m going to be teaching. If you teach younger kids and are constantly talking about farm animals, I would look for a farm animal puppet.
For me, I mostly use the hand puppets from VIPKid because the characters are recognizable to all of my students at every level.
Do you have any suggestions for storing puppets and taking them on and off quickly?
If you’re using a hand puppet, I suggest using a plastic cup or mason jar to put inside the puppet when it’s not in use. This allows even the floppiest of hand puppets to sit up straight and also be used as part of the classroom decor.
As for putting them on and taking them off quickly, I try to anticipate when I think I’m going to use the puppet ahead of time so I can discreetly put it on off-camera and pop it into the frame at the precise moment it’s going to help me.
Additionally, don’t be afraid to make modifications to your puppets. If the hand hole seems too small you can always make a cut in the back to open it up a bit or make some other modification to fit your specific needs.
When do you find you reach for your puppet the most?
I reach for my puppets A LOT! That said, I find they’re most helpful when I have either a really shy or a really rambunctious student (which is pretty much all of them!).
With shy students, I’ll sometimes step out of frame so the child can speak to the puppet 1-on-1, without the pressure of this strange foreign teacher staring at them. Once the student seems comfortable speaking with the puppet I will reintroduce myself into the classroom.
For rambunctious students, I like to mimic their energetic or silly behavior with my puppet as a way to keep control of the class. When it’s time to calm down and get focused, I use the puppet to model how I expect my student to behave. I might ask my puppet, “Are you paying attention?” and have them respond, “Yes! I’m paying attention!”. I make sure to high five or praise my puppet when it’s behaving well. Then I’ll ask the same question of my student, hoping they respond as my puppet did. Sometimes this takes a few tries.
What is the trickiest part about using a puppet in class?
For me, the trickiest part about using a puppet in class is putting it down! I always have to remind myself that I don’t have a ton of time and the lesson objective needs to take priority over puppet time.
For a lot of other teachers, one of the trickiest things about using a puppet is knowing what the puppet is capable of. Even a simple hand puppet has the ability to walk, run, jump, kick, throw, climb, and catch.
Because most of us don’t have a lot of experience using puppets it does take some time outside of class to explore and fully realize the capabilities of your puppet.
Michael is an online ESL teacher and Brand Ambassador for VIPKid. When he’s not teaching he can most often be found performing puppet shows, making YouTube videos, or hosting his online education podcast Extra Credit with Teacher Michael. Make sure you are following him on Instagram and then check out his website.
Take a look at which puppet I use and see the full list of all my favorite props HERE
