My first play, "The Three Little Pigs"

Joann, in your comment to my answer about computers in the classroom you asked how I became interested in puppets. In 1932 I was teaching summer school in Edmond OK when I saw a man from New York City demonstating marionettes. I knew my students would enjoy them and started making marionettes with the help of my family. I continued to study puppetry during the summers I spent in New York working on my masters degree at Columbia University. Here are 2 of the pigs from my first play. Later I used wood and paper mache', but these first marionettes are made out of cloth and stuffed.
You may be able to see that I put little metal taps on the feet and washers under the ears to give them better movement.

School without computers

Yes, Joann it was a different world when I was a teacher. We used dictionaries, encyclopedias and chalk boards. At first little chalk boards for each student, then later the big ones you still see in some classrooms. We wrote everything by hand, no copy machines or printers, so I was very strict about penmanship. My first graders could write in perfect script by the end of the year, and were also good readers before I sent them on to second grade. It may seem that it was all very slow, but maybe if I had had a computer I would not have spent so many hours making all of the marionettes and stage settings for our little theater. That is something that I would not want to change, I loved making those things and my students will always remember our puppet shows. Computers are wonderful tools, but what really counts is what happens on the inside when we learn new things, and we managed quite well with our reading, writing, drawing and of course those special Friday plays as a reward for good work. Thank you for asking, I can tell you a lot more about teaching in the old days if you are interested.

Miss Fay Armstrong

Good Morning Miss Fay

This is your puppeteer, Joann McMillan. I am surprised to see you being so modern. After all, there were no computers when you were a teacher. How did you ever get anything done?

MISS FAY'S CENTENNIAL DAY PLAY

Hello Everyone,

My name is Miss Fay Armstrong. I taught school in Chandler Oklahoma from 1911 to 1961. From 1932 on I used marionette shows as a reward for good behavior and to help teach my students manners and morals. Today in Chandler there is a marionette theater named after me which has presented plays about Oklahoma history since 1992. I am here now to answer your questions about puppets, marionettes, Oklahoma history or about my career. The picture you see here shows 2 of the 14 marionettes in MISS FAY'S CENTENNIAL DAY PLAY with puppeteer Joann McMillan which starts with me reading your student reports for our 25th birthday celebration in 1932. Behind Joann you see some of the stick puppets which appear at the end of our play operated by students in the audience. They represent famous Oklahomans from the time between 1932 and today. I hope you recognize all of these characters. I will give you one hint, the Marshal lived in Chandler for many years and was also an Oklahoma State Senator and helped Benny Kent make some of the earliest moving pictures in a series entitled THE PASSING OF THE OKLAHOMA OUTLAW. Any questions? If you need more hints about who these people are I will be happy to help you. Of course, once you have identified all of the puppets in the picture you will receive an A+ as the students standing in the back of our picture have. Raise your hand (or write here) to answer or to ask a question.