Author Archives: Jen Bearden

The Other Side of Me

I’m a teacher.  I love what I do, and try to do a really good job of it.  But I’m also a lot of other things–wife, mom, friend, sister, daughter, writer, crafter, runner.  I love what I do, but it’s the other things I do outside of school that keep me going, make it possible for me to stay balanced so I can do the best job I can with my students.

So I thought I’d take a minute to write about how I’ve been nurturing the other side of me lately.

On Winter Break, I had a lot of  down time.  I filled in a lot of that time sewing.  It’s a new hobby that has come up for me just since my baby girl was born; it seemed that there were many more things that a little princess needed than when Riley was a baby.  So that was the spark, but it’s grown into a crazy crafting fire!   Here’s what’s come out of my sewing room recently:

Sweater dress made from a shirt I don’t wear anymore.  Loved how the sleeve detail looked on those tiny sleeves!

Another sweater dress–this one from a “too-itchy, too-small” donation from her big brother.  Again, loved the details on this one: sleeves match the bottom, pleats on the sleeves and top of the neck.

Made these from leftover material from Riley’s Peter Pan Halloween costume.  The ruffles were a cute addition, right?  My favorite part. 🙂

These little pants were for baby girl’s birthday party.  Again re-purposing an old shirt I don’t wear.  There were really cute in the cake-smooshed-on-the-face pics.

Wish this picture came out better, but these were a Winter Break project to help corral all the new Super Hero toys Riley got for Christmas.  Love how they turned out.  So quick and easy.  Was thinking about making more of these for manipulatives or games in the classroom!

Mesh bag ($1 from GoodWill, 3 pieces of ribbon I already had, 30 minutes and two suction cups later, our tub toys have a new, drier home!

                                Baby girl’s GOTTA have bows in their hair.  And so then I had to make a board to keep them all organized.  This was my first project with Mod Podge.  Next one will be a little neater.

Ok, so this is a picture of the scarf, not me. 🙂  This was one of the first things I’ve made for myself.  It’s a knit scarf made all scrunchy with elastic thread.  This will become an easy gift for others–or for me! I want one in black now.

These were too-small pants that I added ruffles to.  Now she can wear them again and they are so much cuter than before.  Again, an old shirt of mine that wasn’t wearable anymore. 🙂

We’re a cloth diapering family, and I’ve been busy refreshing all of the Velcro on our diapers.  This job is super simple, but takes much longer than you’d think, but still so much fun!

  

This is probably my favorite project to date.  It’s a messenger bag that has straps that snap on to the stroller.  And I LOVE the the inside red and the print.  I think I’m gonna try this in a different size and shape next.

Ok, so I know–this is not a post about life in a 5th grade classroom.  But it is about the life of a 5th grade teacher, and so somehow it’s fair game, right?  Thanks for indulging me. 🙂

Oh, and don’t want to forget to mention that these are not my original ideas.  Ashley at www.makeit-loveit.com is my cyberspace mentor and inspiration.  It’s just my sewing machine and me doing the work.

A Conversation about Homework

We had a great conversation in our class today.  I wasn’t surprised that it was great, because like I’ve told you before a hundred times, I have really amazing kids.  Here’s what happened:

In our classroom, Wednesday is homework day.  Today, however, instead of sending home the homework sheet, we had a conversation about a decision that our 5th grade team has made to not do that weekly homework sheet anymore.

What follows are some of the things my kids said in response to that announcement:

  • I think that’s great, but I’m not sure my parents will believe me when I tell them.
  • But what about next year?  I don’t think I’ll be ready for homework in middle school.
  • I think it’s a good idea because I’ll have time to play outside now.
  • Well, even if you don’t tell me to, I’ll still read and write at home anyway.
  • I think that even if you don’t send home homework to do, my parents will still give me things to work on anyway.
  • I don’t like that idea.  I’m just not sure about it.

I have to admit, I was a little surprised by some of them.  Maybe naively, I figured they would all think it was a great idea.  But I love that they were honest about what they were thinking, and that they were asking questions.  I have very thoughtful friends, and so several of them asked me about how long we’ve been thinking about it and how we had decided to do this.

I was happy to share with them what this announcement meant for them, and what it did not:

  • It does mean that they will not receive a weekly homework sheet of have-tos that they are to turn in on Tuesday.
  • It does not mean that they will never have homework, though.  Just not weekly, busy-work kind of homework.
  • It does mean that I expect them to use every minute we are in the classroom together wisely.  We cram a lot of learning into a day and I expect that they remember this and work hard.
  • It does mean that some days there will be things we will have time to start–but not finish–in class.  These things may have to go home for homework to be completed because we will need it for the next day.
  • It does mean that I want them to have more time to spend being a kid.  Doing things they want to do like play outside, ride their bike or spend time with their families.
  • It does not mean that I want them to stop reading and writing at home.  I am just not telling them they have to.  I want them to want to, and continue doing so.  (Many admitted that they would do this anyway, even if it wasn’t homework)
  • It does mean we will still have spelling tests each week.  We will find times to work on this practice during the school day.
  • It does not mean that I think my kiddos should go home and sit in front of the TV or video games all night long.  I hope that now they use their time to choose to do active things with their families or friends.
  • It does mean that I want them to continue to work had and love to learn.

I can’t wait to hear about how the conversation went when they went home tonight!  🙂

Geometry Video

Ok, so the other day I posted about our first lesson in our new geometry unit.  I was a little frustrated by not being able to post videos, because I caught a great conversation about rotational symmetry that one group had.

After some smart thinking by my brother-in-law, I am attempting it again, using our newly created YouTube channel.  Let’s see if it works:

But anyhow, I hope you caught what was happening in that conversation.  The boys were working to put their geometry terms into groups and label them, and got to talking about rotational symmetry related to triangles.  Evan was trying to explain to Harry about how all triangles have rotational symmetry and was showing him with the picture on the post-it.  Harry–and then Dom, who you only hear but not see–help him with the idea that regular triangles, but not all triangles have rotational symmetry.

I love how you ask kids to do one thing, and then they take the conversation to other (and many times deeper) levels.  Great job, kiddos!

(And sorry to those of you who were annoyed by the quality of that video.  I’m still new to this part of blogging and uploading!  I’ll get better, I promise. 🙂 )

The World of Geometry

Today was the first day back after Winter Break.  In math we went back to a unit we had briefly started before we left–2D geometry and measurement.  You just never know how kids will be the first day back into the routine of school after being gone for so long, but my kiddos totally rocked it!

We started a unit from the book Differentiation in Practice by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Caroline Cunningham Eidson, which I have used before with other classes.  I love the way it’s tiered so that everyone can engage at the level they need, and the lessons are written in such a clear way that I can just jump right in!

We started with the first lesson today, which began with a rating scale to get them thinking about how well they know geometry.  We made a class chart that looked like this:

Obviously we already feel like we know a lot about geometry! That will mean we can go to great places and expand our learning to topics we might not otherwise have been ready for!  What fun we will have!

After we completed our rating scale, we went ahead with a List-Group-Label activity related to geometry terms.  In small groups at their tables, they first listed words they thought of that were related to geometry.  Remember when we made Wordles in math last month? Well they used those to help get their thinking started.

Lauren references her Wordle to help with geometry terms for her list today.

Taylor and Abigail work together on their list.

Harry and Evan have a variety of polygons on their list of geometry terms.

After their groups listed terms, then their job was to group these terms into categories.   They did this on paper first, and then we started a class web that we’ll finish up tomorrow:

While what we were doing today was not hard, and was based on prior knowledge, they really dug in and did some great work.  If only you could see the videos I took of a conversation on rotational symmetry from Harry and Evan’s group!  I will have to find a way to be able to upload it–such an amazing example of students building on each others’ learning and working with misconceptions together.  I just got stand by and watch.

More to come as we dig deeper into this unit.  Cannot wait to share what happens next! 🙂

Often It’s the 4th Time That’s the Charm…

…or “What I Learned From Mini-Muffins and 4 Tries at Allie’s Birthday Cupcakes.”  Either way, this is worth a read, I’d say.

So first a little back story: my daughter’s 1st birthday was right before Winter Break, and so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and try out a muffin/cupcake recipe on my students to see if it would pass for Allie’s birthday treats.  I set out to find the right recipe; a first birthday is a big deal, after all.  (I actually hate to admit it, but I started noticing yummy things I might use last winter.  Yep, right after she was born.  I know–that’s weird.  But that’s how my brain works.) I found a recipe that I wanted to try, and made my mini-muffins on Sunday night before school.  And as I was baking, I was scripting a post in my head all about things I’d learned about how baking relates to learning, and life in general.  But I couldn’t get the words just right.  I drafted and revised and didn’t like how it sounded.

Then came Friday.  Allie’s birthday party was Saturday, and so I got out all the ingredients I needed to make A’s treats (and, by the way, I found what I thought would be an even yummier cupcake–sweet potato with cinnamon cream cheese icing!).  I had made a trial batch on Thursday, and aside from being a little hard to get out of the wrappers, they were pretty good.  Especially the icing.  They even looked good:

So I did some research after the last batch and figured out that probably the batter was not blended enough, and that I had under baked them too, so they were dense and hard to unwrap.  I had that info in my head as I got started tonight, and so tried to make sure I didn’t make the same mistake again.  But alas, the second batch was the same as the first, maybe even worse.  So I tried again, and these were awful, too.  So I scrapped that whole idea and started over on something else that looked a little more promising.  In the end, the new recipe wasn’t promising–it was amazing!

So here’s a short list of things I learned (or was at least reminded of) while I was baking. Enjoy!

1. Follow the directions–all the directions.  I realized as I was making the 3rd batch of cupcakes that I had left out the egg.  Made sense then, that they wouldn’t come out like they were supposed to.  Any time you’re working with a step-by-step process, doing all the steps–in order–is an important thing.

2. If it doesn’t look right at first, then it probably isn’t. The whole time I was making the first (and second and third) cupcakes, I kept thinking that the batter just didn’t look like it was supposed to.  That lead me to the next one:

3. Trust your gut. This lesson was related to something simple like cupcakes, but in all things, you usually get a feeling about whether or not something is right or good.  I should have listened to that little voice instead of having to make the same cupcakes 3 times in a row!

4. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! In this case, if I had quit, my baby girl would have been cupcakeless at her first birthday party!

5. If all else fails, try something else. Like I mentioned before, after those three failed attempts at Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing, I chucked the whole thing and instead made Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing (the icing part from the first part was definitely worth saving!).  They turned out so great and were so yummy!

    

Happy Birthday, Allie Bearden!

Are you connected?

Today I was at school all by myself.  Ok, not all by myself, but without any students there.  It was a work day for teachers before students return tomorrow.  And it’s definitely a nice way to ease back into the school routine slowly.

I had a couple of goals today, one of them being this new bulletin board:

It’s right at the front of the room, behind the rocking chair I sit in for read aloud and much of our carpet time.  I hope it becomes a place where we can have daily conversations about the world, specifically about the people and places we’re connecting with via our blogs.  The plan is to mark the places where visitors (and those who leave comments) to our site are from.  I anticipate some really rich conversations around culture and geography will spark from this map–thanks to you, our readers.  Can’t wait to see how full the board becomes as the year goes on.

Will you help us?  We’d love to set the goal of getting as many different pins as possible on our map! Be sure to leave us a comment after you read and tell us a little about your town and yourself.  My kids would love it if you did the same on their blogs, as well, which can be found at www.kidblog.org/MrsBeardensClass2.

Can’t wait to see who we will meet this year!

New Year, New Theme

So if you’re here as a returning reader, then WELCOME BACK and HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you’re here for the first time, WELCOME and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you, too!

Just wanted to take a minute to say hope your 2012 is off to a great start! I wanted to officially start off a new blogging year with a new theme. Ok, I really just can’t decide which theme I like best and so I decided this would be a good time to try out another one that looked good.

But whatever the reason, I hope for you your best year yet. Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? My kids will be blogging about that very topic this week, but until you read theirs, tell us about yours. 🙂

Ready, Set, Blog!

We did it.  We’re officially online!

After a little technological hiccup yesterday, we set today as the day for our first “real” blog posts.  Remember how I’m always saying my kids are amazing? Well, today they did not disappoint. 🙂

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I know you will want to read what they’re doing, and I know they will love to have you read it!  And, as most of them remembered to add to their posts, please remember to leave a comment!

Check us out at www.kidblog.org/MrsBeardensClass2!

 

10 Things I Learned Today

I have always thought that good teachers are also learners.  I try to learn something every day.  And today was one of those days when I was learning a lot.  Here are just a few of those things.

1. My students are ready for Winter Break.

2. Many of my students like to argue–I mean debate. 🙂 

3. My friend Melissa is really sneaky.  She left me a really great Christmas gift on my desk, right under my nose.  And it was perfect–partly pink, partly related to writing, and mostly made from a cupcake.  YUM!

4. My students are ready for Winter Break.

5. My kids are amazing bloggers, even though they just did their first post today.  I knew they were great writers, but I LOVE seeing it in action.  And I chuckled out loud at some of what they wrote.  This will definitely be a great way to get to know them better as people, not just writers.

6. If you eat too many Oreo Cookie Balls, you will get a stomachache. But then you might keep eating them anyway because they are so amazingly yummy.

7. My students are ready for Winter Break.

8. If you’re walking in a parking lot and there are two paths–one through a big puddle and another on dry pavement–you will walk on dry land and the kids around you will stomp through the puddles every time.

9. There are many people in my school I don’t talk to often enough.  I got to have a great conversation this afternoon with two friends I don’t see very often because their roles are different than mine.  Our paths don’t cross unless we make them, and I need to learn to do that more. Thanks Rochelle and Erika for chatting today.  I learned from you in that short time and enjoyed myself, too!

10. My students are ready for Winter Break.  But so am I. 🙂