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PPP Last day Hospital D | Puppet Portal Project - hospital D
2009-12-07

PPP Last day Hospital D

Last Wednesday was the final contact day of the Puppet Portal Project. Final project day though is an evaluation meeting with all involved, this week Wednesday.

Again the Hospital school �s classroom was closed, and I worked one-to-one with children on the wards. Looking back now to the first project weeks, were I felt somehow enclosed in the classroom and would have been eager to work on the wards more, it is curious to think that it was a situation which extremely restricted my work on the project, and at the same time finally allowed me to further the radius of the PPP & work with the children in their space, on the wards.

I worked with a boy I had seen last week as well, making a puppet with and for him- when I first came one of the teachers was still with him. She is working in an environment which is even less "structured" then the classroom, from the bedside, in a room with 5 other children, parents & staff passing by - an insight which again adds to gaining an impression of the teachers work in the hospital. Three other children made puppets, using the prepared puppet making kits, time flew buy!

At Lunchtime we had a small, informal get together in the school �s staffroom. Later Ciara (the main teacher and partner in the PPP) and I took sometime to pick images & discuss and prepare our final presentation for the evaluation day. Talking with Ciara and also recapitulating parts of this conversation with Ann during the mentoring session today highlighted how much the perception of certain challenges (technical issues, working with children of so different ages etc) changed throughout the project- .Also Ciara & I looked at highlighting positive aspects and challenges of the project, as we wrote them down they could have been listed as a two-columned confrontation as each positive aspect grew from challenge or via verse. Another aspect that we both found important was the time this Project needed - we both feel that we greatly benefited from the summer break, after which all -myself and all Hospital school staff- somehow had arrived in the projects structure and also had grown a group. I feel there could not have been a shortcut- .

Finally I packed up all my materials. But not all traces are gone: The PPP display in the hall will stay for another while, the puppets displayed may (depending on funding) become part of a permanent , interactive display box for the A&E reception. Silent & subtitled videos will be projected on screens in waiting areas. And one of the teachers said she d make Wednesday her "puppet day", using the puppet making kits.-

I am looking forward to meeting the extended crew again on Wednesday-