Author Archives: Jen Bearden

Teachers Write!

Yes, yes we do.  And for those of you who were wondering, no, we don’t really have the whole summer “off’, either.  No, we do not have to get up and get dressed and go to school, but we spend many, many hours learning new things that we’ll use in the next school year, planning with our grade level teams, reading and writing, and well, just becoming better teachers so we can help out students even more effectively in the fall.  Ok, but I digress….

So that being said, one of the exciting learning adventures I’m taking part in this summer (along with Mrs. Meihaus and Mrs. Berger–a few Robinson teachers you may know!) is an online writing camp called Teachers Write!

Every day for the next couple of months, there are assignments posted on the Teachers Write blog, and we do them and then post what we write for others to read.  Seems easy, right?

That’s totally what I thought going into this.  I mean, I’ve been a writer for many years.  Not a published author, but a writer nonetheless.  I thought that this writing camp thing would be a piece of cake.  But cake it is not.

Ok, let me explain.  It’s not necessarily the writing part that is hard for me, it’s the sharing part.  Up to this point, I’ve primarily written for myself and my students.  If I share my writing, it’s on my terms, when I want to and how I want to.  Usually its pieces that I’ve chosen to write, and I share them during the revision stages, so that my kiddos can help me fix it up and make it better.  That’s scary in itself, because kids can be really honest, but again, it’s on my terms.

This is a whole different ball game.  This time it’s writing prompts, and the “campers” I’m sharing with are other teachers and–get this–published authors!  Talk about pressure.

But I signed up for it, right?  And what an amazing opportunity for growth as both a writer and a teacher of writing.  So I guess I’m game.  Nothing but good things can come of it, and no one will die in the process.  I just need to put my pride aside and let people teach me something.  Goodness knows I have tons to learn!

Alright.  Here I go.  Taking the plunge.  Jumping in with both feet.  Wearing my floaties and nose plug and hoping not to drown. 🙂

Stay tuned for examples of my “homework.”  I’d love your comments.  Really, I would. 🙂

I’m Moving!

If you’re a student (or parent) in my school, then by now you know about all of the change that will be happening next year!  While I’m really sad that my old friends and colleagues are leaving, I’m excited about the prospects of all the new opportunities, learning and experiences that will come my way.

I’m welcoming 3 (yep, I said 3!) new teammates to 5th grade.    I haven’t even been in the same room with them yet, but I need to give an official 20somethingkids shout-out to Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Hong and Mr. Keischnick!  You are coming to an AMAZING school with AMAZING kids and AMAZING parents, and I know that you will bring even more amazingness to our team and our school community. 🙂

Oh, and the “I’m Moving” part–if you’re around school next year looking for me, I’m moving to Rm 202 next door.  I just couldn’t resist all the chalkboard paint Mrs. LeSeure was leaving behind…

 

Summer Homework?

Yes, I’m giving you homework.  What??  Summer homework?  You hardly gave during-the-school-year-homework, Mrs. Bearden!  I know, but now you have lots more time, right?  And don’t worry–it’s easy and fun.

Read.  Your homework is to read.  Read whatever you want–the sports page, the back of the cereal box, or…a Truman Award nominee.  Remember how we read some Mark Twain nominees this year?  Faith, Hope and Ivy June and The Secret of Zoom were nominated for this Missouri award, and I know several of you also read some of the others, like The Potato Chip Puzzles and Love, Aubrey.

Well, lucky you, now that you’re in 6th grade (well almost!), you get to vote for another MO award–the Truman Award.  This one is for 6th-8th graders, and the rules are the same: read at least 4 of them and you can be one of the many other MO middle schoolers who choose the lucky book to win this award! Find the list for 2012-2013 here. And I must be honest here: I was going to insert all of this information in this post for you, but the post I linked to is really well done, so I chose that one instead. 🙂

Now for my summer homework….it’s reading, too.  But not Truman Award nominees.  I’m reading new Mark Twain nominees to decide which to read to my new class of 5th graders coming this fall.  I think technically this award is chosen by 4th-6th graders, so maybe you’re just double lucky and can vote for both of them!  I’d also love to hear what you, my friends, think about what my new kiddos would like.  Read some of the new nominees and then tell me what you think!

This is my short list right now:

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea (thinking about this one for the beginning of the year)

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham (I love his writing as an adult, and I had another 5th grade friend who LOVED this series a couple of years ago.  This should be a good one. )

Ghost Dog Secrets by Peg Kehret (you know my thoughts on Peg Kehret’s books, but kids LOVE her, so I need to try this one, too.  Crossing my fingers…)

Half Upon a Time by James Riley (this is a crazy twist on familiar fairytales and looks pretty funny)

I am also going to try When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.  My friend Archie gave it to me as an end-of-the-year present, and Mr. Bearden recommends it, too.

But the best part about all of these reading plans is that I just got this big stack of books from Barnes and Noble, and it WAS ALL FREE!!  Ok, I think I may have spent $5 or something, but I bought the rest with a gift card (big thanks to Dr. Wheelehan!!).

Alright friends, you have your summer mission.  Let me know how it goes, and I will hopefully update you on how it’s going for me on here, too.  Happy Summer Reading!

What other suggestions do you have for summer reading or for 5th grade read alouds?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

 

 

 

The Other 22 Hours of the Day

Hello!  Remember me?  I’m the one who blogs here.  I know–you probably forgot I had a blog.  But no, I’ve just been so busy that it has been very hard to get here to tell you about it!

There is a quote (and I CANNOT seem to find it anywhere to share the exact words with you), but it goes something like “I write 2 hours a day, but it’s what I do the other 22 hours of the day that give me what I write about.”  I am certain that the exact words are more poetic and well-said than the way I paraphrased it, but you get the idea. 🙂

And I think this is absolutely true!  I have taught my students for a very long time all about how to use their Writer’s Notebooks and how to figure out what to write in them.  One of the tips I give is to pay attention to the things you are already doing.  We talk often about how the events/thoughts/ideas that you capture in your notebook don’t have to be monumental or “big” or necessarily special, they just have to be yours.  If you carry your notebook and pay attention you will find countless things to write about.

But then there’s my problem….I have been so busy with the “other 22 hours” that I have been neglecting the 2.  I mean that I haven’t been writing any of it down and that KILLS me! If you have a minute, be sure to check out the kid blogs, because they have written about it!

And while I know you’re hoping I’ll write a 1000 post right now all about those things, friends, I simply CANNOT do it right now.  We have one last busy, crazy day with kiddos tomorrow, and then it’s SUMMER!  I am hoping to come back in those next few days and update you then.  Can you hold on until then?  Please?  🙂

What do you do in your “other 22 hours” that you would write about?  What is a quote that you think is worth sharing?  What things have been keeping you busy lately?  We’d love to hear about it!  Leave us a comment! 🙂

Skype!

Remember how I told you about how lucky we were to be able to Adopt-a-Pilot?

Well, since that first visit, he’s come back two other times, teaching us all sorts of awesome things about geography and flight, as well as life-lessons related to doing our best and working to achieve our goals.

During this second-to-last visit with Mr. Smith, we got to Skype with him while he was out-of-town!  We got to guess “Where in the USA was Mr. Smith?” using clues he gave us.  We used our big map to mark where we thought he might be:

Molli guessed on the FIRST CLUE that it was Birmingham!  Way to go, kiddo!

Check out a clip of our Skype session:

This was only the second time I’d ever Skype’d (and the first was the end of Adopt-a-Pilot last year!), and it was so great!  I know lots of teachers use it in really creative ways in their classrooms for mystery read-alouds, conversations with authors and for class-to-class chats.  I can’t wait to see what else is out there that I might try next year!

How do you use Skype? I’d love to hear about it! 🙂

Stray Rescue Update #1–Sewing Class!

You already know we’re working on a project to benefit Stray Rescue.    I told you I’d update you as we got into it, but it took lots of time and we were so busy that I haven’t even had a second to tell you about it until now.  And boy is there alot to tell….but like I said in an earlier post, I’ll not tell you the whole story at once.

We decided that the best way to help Stray Rescue do what they do best was to do what we do best, and that’s be creative!  We had multiple conversations about how to do that, and we settled upon the fact that we should sew and bake.  Ok, maybe I added a little to that conversation, too, since I enjoy both of those things, but everyone agreed that it would be a good idea.

We did a little bit of research, and decided that we wanted to make chew toys for doggies that were shaped like bones.  We also thought that creating bandannas for our canine friends would be a good idea.  So the fabric, templates, scissors and sewing machines came out for the next several days and we got busy!  I taught everyone who didn’t already know about the basics of the sewing machine, and then each kiddo took a turn having-a-go.

I was SO excited when the first pupils in my sewing class were BOYS!  I know, that’s a little bit sexist to say that only girls would want to sew, but for some reason I was surprised.  Anyhow, they LOVED it, and I started hearing things like “I love this!” and “I have to get a sewing machine so I can do this at home” right after we started.  Here’s a little peek into our first “class”:

Tracing a “bone” onto some fabric to make the outside shape.  The bones were then stuffed with a plastic water bottle.  Somebody had the great idea that it would be a good way to recycle our bottles left over from MAP testing, and would make a great “crinkling” sound that doggies would love!  Double great. 🙂

Love how we got so many out of one shirt! All of our materials were donated by students in the class.

Archie and Harry sewing a straight line.  That was the first lesson. 🙂

Zarion totally rocked his first try at sewing, too!  He was adding a zig-zag stitch to the edge of our bandannas so they didn’t unravel.  These turned out great!


Motivated And Prepared

Did I ever share that acronym with you?  It was created by a really smart cookie in my class a few years ago named Ellie.  We were trying to come up with something that MAP could stand for instead of just Missouri Assessment Program.  She suggested Motivated And Prepared, based on the idea that that’s how we want to feel once we’re ready to sit down and take the yearly test.  And that’s exactly what we were.  I loved it then, and have used it with my classes ever since.

So the MAP test has come and gone again in our classroom, and I realized just the other day that I never posted some pictures I took during it.  They’re not glamorous or anything, but are definitely “real life” in a 5th grade classroom during the month of April.

MAP time is snack time.  Gotta have energy to do our best!

There were lots of goodies over there like granola bars, Cheezits and fruit snacks, but the first rule is you have to have “something orange.”  On this day is was cheese, Cuties and carrots.  Guess the directions could also have been “eat something that starts with C.”  What’s really funny to me is that it was totally a coincidence that all of this orange food showed up.  All the “fresh” stuff that day was just all the same color.  And in case you’re wondering–the next time it was apples and bananas.  So, no, there were no “color” directions. 🙂

Loved having donations of water bottles for testing, too.  Water breaks are good for your brain! (Oh, and look–Goldfish.  More orange food!  That is so weird how that happened!)

So once it was all over, and we had done our best job of showing what we know as learners, we needed a little bit of a break.  Choice time it was!  I love to see what 5th graders choose to do:

What does state testing time look like in your classroom?  What do you do to help your students relax during testing?  What do you do to celebrate when it’s all over? Share with us!

How Does This Happen?

How does it happen that I can be on such a good roll with frequent updates (sometimes more than you’d want to read in one day!) and then I don’t post for 10 days?!  Man….

Ok, I know the answer to that question.  The answer is that it’s April and I’m a teacher.  Seems that no matter how fast (or not) time passes throughout the first 3 quarters of the school year, time seems to move in extra-fast-forward mode once we hit the 4th quarter.  It’s like a switch flips and we’re all of a sudden in a rapid race towards the finish line and everything is a blur.  I have to force myself to slow down and pay attention.  And to blog about it.

So here goes.  And don’t worry–I promise not to tell you about everything that’s happened in the last 10 days in 1 post.  I’ll give it in bite-sized pieces.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy it that way. 🙂