Sometimes teachers are accused of talking to themselves. As a teacher I know the feeling. I have a whole classroom of Korean kids I have to get speaking English. Even listen and repeat is difficult. I find myself speaking and then moving my hand like a mouth and signaling for students to listen and repeat. Sometimes still nothing happens.
Then one day I brought my son to school last year and he was the same age as these kids. He was the middle man and opened their hearts. They called him, "kid teacher." But he could only stay one day. Now what could I do? I needed a little friend who was at their level.
That's when the puppet idea came to mind. I had been working on drawings of cubed radish kimchi "kkak Doogie" and came up with a character called "Doogie Kkak". He is a fermented cube or orange delight.
I made a lot of drawings and couple simple animations with Doogie but I always wanted a puppet to bring to class. Last year I ordered a couple of simple hand puppets and they were very expensive. How much more then would be a specialized character puppet?
Then one day I had no afternoon classes and was passing by the material room in our school. I went through the left over materials and made an interesting discovery. They was almost a whole roll of left over orange cloth. There were some left over sponges and needle and thread and some left over cardboard. I was in business.
First, Cut the sponges to size.
The first thing I had do do was get the sponges to fit my own hand. I wanted a nice pocket to slide into when I opened and closed the mouth. The easiest mouth to make was a mouth like Cookie Monster's mouth that could open wide and swallow a ton of cookies. That was only a vision at this point. For now I just wanted a place to put my hand between the large sponge on the bottom and the two sponges on top.
Second, Sew up the sponges and fold it.
I made like a catcher's mit for my hand but I didn't want it busted up. I'm not good at sewing, but without some needle and tread there was nothing but glue. I first glued the sponges together and then sewed it with needle and thread. I wasn't worried that the colors didn't match because I knew I would cover it up with orange later.
Third, the eyes.
The eyes came from a Styrofoam ball I cut in half. The front part is the cool part. Like Cookie Monster I gave the front of the eyes a chance to roll around.
I used the bottom part of a plastic two liter drinking bottle of water as the front of the eye. Inside was backed with white cardboard and a black circle for the pupil to roll around. I taped the plastic bottle bottom with red masking tape and attacked it to a popsicle stick to make the eyes ready to put in the head.
Fourth, the fabric.
I found some orange cloth and put it around so that the mouth was still free to open. I cut a whole in the back to put my hand through and two wholes to stick popsicle sticks for the eye support.
Then it was just fold and glue and staple. I used six staples total. Most of the fabric was held together by folds and glue.
Finally, the mouth.
This was the most simple part. I just folded a piece of cardboard back and fourth until it was flexible and then glued it onto the fabric. I had no idea that this part would be the most fun of all for the mouth was no stiff enough to bite anything, even an English book.
In the time of social distancing this puppet became my glove between me and the students, but it turned out to be more of a bridge.
It may be the most goofy thing I ever made, but it works. Kids are mostly down and depressed and don't want to go to school, even in the younger grades. One month they are told to come and the next month they are told to stay at home.
They don't want to talk to a big teacher standing up in the front of the room, but when it comes to this alien looking mutant monster kimchi they will speak to it in English.
When my hand gets sweaty and I don't want to do the puppet anymore I put it down on the chair and the kids start to chant, "We want Doogie."
I'm really glad Doogie is finally alive.
What a fantastic idea! That puppet is really awesome, and it's great that the kids have found a way to connect! That's what teaching is all about. You folks don't get enough credit.
Thanks @wwwiebe. We have a lot of limits put on us, but these limits sometimes force us to be creative. Thanks for your appreciation and support for teachers both in the classroom and online. It's a real drain psychologicaly on kids today when they see many empty seats and some days are told to go to school and other days stay home. As a parent I can say that the schools in Seoul were very supportive and provided a place and computer for kids who had none. It has been a challenge and opportunity to excell in a difficult circumstance.