WELCOME EDUCATORS!
I would love to:
• share with you my experience teaching across the curriculum through arts integration
• give you specific, step by step plans, requiring the simplest of materials
• help you incorporate the 4 C’s of 21st Century Learning: Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Communication.
• make your classroom a center for enthusiastic learning!
Here are some options:
INVITE me to your community
… for a fun, hands-on professional development experience that will leave you with projects to use right away! My fees are on a sliding scale to make sure I can be a resource for anyone interested.
Teacher chat comments from recent Zoom PD class:
“This is so cool! I think this promotes empathy as well because it forces us to actually listen and respond in a real way - making for a better performance.”
“My head is spinning with so many great ideas! Thank you!!!”
“Thank you for presenting at the ArtsCore Symposium. I have heard from many participants how excited they were about the presentation and and how many ideas you gave them on how to incorporate puppets into the classroom. It was a joy working with you. The event was fabulous!”
“I want to thank you again for all that you did to help make the TAA week so successful - the major reason is due in no small measure to your workshops. On behalf of the entire staff of the TAA, bravo for a job well done!!! I wanted you to know how much I value the commitment you made in time and talent to Tennessee’s teachers during the Academy week.”
INVITE me to your school
… or other venue for a workshop or project based residency to work directly with your students. Please contact for individual workshop or package fees.
PURCHASE The Sophisticated Sock:
Project Based Learning Through Puppetry
Fifteen arts integrated projects, including all needed activity sheets, self assessment checklists, diagrams, and materials lists. Themes include language arts, social studies, science, art, and conflict resolution, as well as introduction to puppetry.
This book was written specifically to share effective classroom developed projects - helping teachers utilize the power of puppetry to engage learners across the curriculum. Also includes chapters on traditional puppet techniques using the most basic and recycled materials.
VISIT Teachers Pay Teachers
… for ready-made packets and videos from my own CALLIOPE PUPPETS STUDIO of puppet theater performances with related arts integrated projects.
Need ideas?
Here are some images from a few workshops I have presented for adults and for children.
Professional Development Workshop for the U.S. Embassy in Brunei
Teachers of English learned puppetry techniques to engage their students in language practice.
Workshop at a teachers’ college in Manama, Bahrain for the U.S. Embassy English Language Program.
The workshop series provided English language teachers with tools for their students of all ages to practice spontaneous use of a second language.
Workshop in Umlazi Township, South Africa for the U. S. Embassy, in support of literacy
This was a fantastic experience as I spent a full week with these teachers creating puppet theater using almost all recycled materials they brought in. On the final day, we went to a school where a group of children watched their shows. The workshops were conducted in English, but they performed their stories for the young audience in Zulu, their home language. This was such a great plan - allowing the teachers to immediately experience the success of their work! The children were fascinated - they had never seen anything like it!
Teachers’ college students at a Puppeteers of America Regional Festival in West Liberty, Iowa
With mainly a sock and a box, participants made portable puppet stages.
Book making at a school in New Orleans
Students grades two through four LOVED writing and illustrating autobiographical stories. This was such a fun project and such a strong lesson on writing events in sequence, staying on topic, understanding beginning, middle, and end, and much more. Every student read their story aloud to the class with pride, and was received with enthusiasm.
Strategies For Reading Comprehension class series with Kindergartners
These Bookworm Bookmarks have clearly come to life in these children’s imaginations! The first lesson was about “What is Text?” and these decorated craft sticks with wiggly eyes find text all around the room, and chat about what they have found. You can see how the kids have instantly become puppeteers: totally focused on their puppets as communicators!
Parade Bird Puppets near Offida, Italy
The kids loved making, and flying, their puppets, to be a part of the International Figura Offida Festival celebration, where I have assisted, performed and led workshops for three seasons with my wonderful friends Remo Di Filippo and Rhoda Di Filippo Lopez of Di Filippo Marionettes. The puppets were made by my design using reed, cheap fabric painted by the kids, cardboard, and string.
Teen docent performances at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans
For several summers, I led the teen docents to select works of art that inspire a story from the museum’s collection, make a storyboard, build puppets and props, and perform the stories in local libraries. The Teen Docent program won a 2015 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.
Stop Motion Animation project at a New Orleans school
This was so much fun, as I learned along with the students, grades three and four. They created storyboards, then their films using the Stop Motion Studio app on iPads. We culminated with a film festival!
Puppet Cinema!
With the pandemic virtual classes, students made puppets from simple materials found at home and performed stories for the camera on Zoom!