Graduate Courses

College courses

All courses can be offered anywhere in the world with credit given through the Northeast Consortium/Salem State College.
For dates and times click here

NEW: Bully Prevention Through Classroom Puppetry Arts
co teacher: Robin D'Antona, Ed.D - area of expertise Bully Prevention
offered summer session NEC, Salem State College.

This course will address issues relating to Bullying and how classroom teachers can help children to understand the role of the bystander, the bully and the victim. Teacheers will exerience the dynamic impact of puppetry in developing bulling prevention awareness and empathy. Teachers will learn hands on tehniques for using puppetry to address bulling and bully prevention issues in the classroom and the school. $10.00 handbook and some materials. Participants are responsible for most materials, a list will be provided.

Puppet Power in the Classroom: unlocking doors to the mind

This course will provide ideas on how to use puppetry in the classroom to stimulate learning and provide a unique way to assess understanding of literature, social studies, multicultural issues and interpersonal relations. Teachers will learn how to construct a variety of puppets and masks, how to use them in an expressive way, and how to incorporate them into the curriculum in the inclusion classroom.
$10.00 materials fee
(3 credit course 37.5 hours)

NEW: Puppets Literacy and the Young Child.
3 credit graduate course offered through MEC, Fitchburg State College

Developing literacy skills is crucial for young children and puppetry can be a dynamic interactive approach to skill building. Puppets have the power to engage young children in oral language and stimulate their cognitive skills. This course will present innovative ways to use a variety of puppets to stimulate language and literacy skills in young children, to engage them in oral communication and social interaction, to develop skills to re-tell stories, and to construct imaginative puppets.
$10.00 Handbook and start up materials fee. Bring a lap top computer if you have one.
Participants are responsible for most materials (list will be provided)
Each should bring several favorite children’s books

Literacy skills and cultural awareness through Folk literature and Puppetry arts ( Toy Theater and Shadow puppets)

Participants will build a small table top puppet theater called a “Toy Theater, and puppets and scenery to retell folk tales form a variety of countries. They will create a curriculum and lesson plans to reinforce literacy skills, and to compare and contrast cultures through the use of puppets and folk literature. They will make and use two types of puppets in one small theater.

Puppets and Masks: Integrating art, drama and language arts
This course is designed to give art teachers and classroom teachers a new way to incorporate puppets, music, drama and art into the overall curriculum. There will be a demonstration of glove, rod, shadow, giant puppets and masks and how they move and come alive. The Workshop includes an exploration of puppet design and movement, and construction of 3 types of puppets/masks; open mouth puppet, paper lamination mask technique, and shadow puppets. There will be samples of simple, easy to store, yet large theaters. (1 credit = 12.5 hours)

Puppetry Workshop
This course covers basic hand puppet construction and manipulation. It focuses on using puppets to express feelings, developing characters, and story telling techniques. It is an excellent introduction to puppetry for educators.(1 credit course)

Using Puppets to Express and Understanding of Our Literary and Cultural Heritage Using Greek Mythology as a model

Participants will read, discuss and develop ways to express these stories through puppet construction and performance. The basis of the course will be incorporating puppetry art and drama, literature, social studies, creative writing, and personal expression into an integrated experience for children. The course will illustrate techniques to meet the goals of the Language Arts and Arts Curriculum Frameworks. Prior to the course, please read these myths: The story of Perseus; Persephone, Demeter, and the Seasons; the Story of Arachne and Pandora's Box. (1 credit)