Puppets Take Center Stage in Online Drawing Class

One of the most inspiring things to see throughout COVID-19 has been the community banding together, pooling their resources, time, and expertise to bring at least a little sunshine into the lives of kids stuck in quarantine. What started out as expats and locals in China offering free online workout classes, language lessons, mindfulness workshops and more, has now blossomed into a worldwide effort towards alleviating the unrelenting boredom and stress through digital means.

One such individual who has taken his love of teaching, puppetry, and the arts to a wider audience is James Marshall, who recently started conducting online drawing lessons from his humble abode in rural Thailand. His classes not only provide students with a fun break from traditional school work, they also feature songs and cameos from some of Marshall’s handcrafted puppets.

The classes are held Monday through Friday at 2.15pm on Zoom (Zoom ID 726 967 267). What’s more, there’s a WeChat group in which kids can share their artistic creations and make suggestions for future class topics (scroll down for the QR code).

We spoke with Marshall about why he started offering the classes, what kids and parents can expect, and how his love of teaching influenced his current pursuits.

James Marshall

Please introduce yourself.

Hello! I’m James from Australia. I first started teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in Taiwan back in 2007 and then worked in mainland China from 2011 to 2017 when I made the switch to working entirely online/remotely. Now I live in rural Thailand in a sleepy little town that thankfully has fiber optic cable Internet!

When did you start doing the free online classes and what was the inspiration for it?

I often do drawing activities in my online classes called ‘wordtoons’, which are drawings based around letters, numbers, and words. They are usually based on the lesson content, or sometimes just as a fun reward for good behavior. I noticed early on that this part of the class was always a big hit with the kids, even the older ‘too cool for school’ teens that I sometimes struggle with.

When the quarantine started I continued teaching my regular online classes but many of my students were miserable and said that they seemed to be doing even more homework than usual, and rarely had any time to do fun or creative things.

I’m a parent too and often saw the frazzled parents in the background of my classes and wanted to offer them something to give their kids a creative and fun activity, and also give the parents a chance to relax and have a break!

A panda ‘wordtoon’

How many kids have been participating in the classes? Where are they tuning in from?

I started with just my regular online students, so I had around 10-15 students a day, but then I mentioned it on my WeChat moments and on Facebook and the classes quickly grew from that.

Now we have between 25-30 students joining the live classes each day.

Most of the students are from China but we also have kids from Australia, Thailand, and the Philippines joining in.

You have kids from various nationalities in the class, but it’s conducted in English, correct?

Yes, that’s right. I can speak some basic Chinese so for the younger students I might use phrases like “show me your drawing” or “that looks great!”. 99% of the class is in English.

Can you walk us through an average class?

I originally wanted to include a story with each class, but the feedback was that the kids just wanted to draw! So now we start each class with a song that changes each week, and then we do some quick greeting time with one of my puppets and then start drawing.

During the class, I will pause and then take a look at the students’ progress throughout the drawing exercises and that’s a lot of fun. We also do that at the end once everyone is finished.

Anything else you’d like to share?

A lot of students aren’t available at 2.15pm Beijing time so I edit the classes and upload them to Youtube, Youku, and Bilibili.

I also have a puppet business at www.pubbets.net and hope to start an online puppetry training program for ESL teachers once schools re-open soon.

Scan the QR code above to join the Online Drawing Club WeChat group.

Photos: Courtesy of James Marshall, Pixabay