Geobears
Teachers wanting to enhance their geography curriculum encourage students to bring a stuffed teddy bear to school that they can bear to part with. Students then equip the bears with 4 x 6 poster board identification tags that have a class photograph on one side and instructions for their traveling companion on the other side. The tags are covered with contact paper, punched with a small grommet in the corner and attached to the bear's pack zipper pull with a small key ring. The packs can be a home economics class project and contain travel logs and an autobiographical letter from the student. To help travelers recognize the student whose bear they are traveling with, the students place a small star under their signature on the autobiogaphical letter and a matching star on their chest in the class photograph before contact paper is placed over the identification tag. Also, to help non-English speaking travelers, the instruction side of the identification card can be translated in additional languages and placed on both sides of another 4 x 6 laminated tag that is attached to the key ring. Travelers are encouraged to put small items in the packs such as foreign coins, miniature flags, menus, or any other symbol of a country or its culture. The tags ask travelers to take the bear along on their journeys, write postcards back to the class, hand the bear off to another traveler when they reach their destination and try to return the bear to school by the end of the school year.
Like the bears' travels, the students' educational potential is endless with the geobear project. Students are given an opportunity to expand their world views, conduct a wide variety of research and correspond with people from around the world. As a result of a thank you note one student sent his bear's traveling companions in England, both families met on a Hawaiian vacation.
Before beginning a geobear project, teachers and students should be aware that some bear's traveling companions send very few postcards and although many bears return to school on time, some arrive a year later, some return with empty packs and some bears, being party animals, never return from the wonderful time they are having on their world wide adventures. Placing students in partnerships to share postcards and pack contents divides their disappointment and doubles their joy. At the elementary level having the teacher bring in 3-5 bears for the entire class to send off and track has also been very successful.
Bears are best launched with traveling friends and relatives. Due to security issues, airlines personnel are no longer allowed to transport teddy bears. Bears with a modest beginning can still have a very extensive journey.
Geobears are highly motivational and bring the study of geography alive as students anxiously await each day's mail and map the bear's new locations. Adults traveling with geobears obviously enjoy helping to further the education of children as can be seen by their enthusiasm in the informative, playful, and often humerous manner in which the postcards are written. The geobear project should receive high marks on all counts!
Dr. Smith-Horn has been at the middle school level for 20 years as a reading specialist and language arts and social studies teacher. She loves teaching middle school almost as much as she does kayaking and bee keeping.
Example of note to include in a bear's backpack:
My name is_____________ Geobear from Dr. Smith-Horn's 7th grade class and I want to see the world! Would you please sign the log sheet in my pack, take me with you as far as you are traveling, send a post card to my class, and then give me to someone else who is traveling to a new place. If you wish, place a small symbol of the country or culture in my pack such as a menu or coin. Please try to have me back home before _________. Call my school and someone will pick me up. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,_______________
Dr. Smith-Horn's Geobears
Springfield Middle School
1084 "G" Street
Springfield, Oregon 97477 USA
Phone (541) 744-6362
Example of a letter received from a enthusiastic traveler:
Dear Eric and class (I hope you are still there!)
I hope you received my postcard a year ago and were not too concerned about my safety. My adventure was exciting but I am so very glad to be back among friends who will take care of me and where I don't have to think about where I'll be the next day--at least for a while.
When I left Springfield after Christmas and got on the plane I was excited about seeing the world and especially the United States. But twice during my adventures I became lost and both times for a long time. I remember the second time better so I'll relate to you that story.
I arrived in Detroit just as spring was beginning. I was looking forward to seeing "motown" when I was temporarily put in a closet on an airplane. I had been in closets before on crowded airplanes so I was not too concerned. I could hardly contain my excitement when I felt the wheels of the airplane thump down at the Metro airport. The plane parked and I could hear everybody getting up and gathering all their belongings. I was happy to be able to get out of the packed closet where I was stuffed in a plastic bag and very cramped. I heard the closet door open and could see light streaming in through my bag. There was a lot of jostling around as passengers quickly and forcefully tugged their things from around me. I had been on top but kept falling lower and lower until I finally fell behind a little folded up wheelchair which is part of the airplane's equipment. I couldn't wait to be pulled out.
Well, I waited and waited and voices became fewer and fewer and suddenly the lights of the plane were turned off and I knew I had been forgotten again. What made this time worse was that I was out of sight--would anybody ever notice me again? It seemed not. For the next day and for many days after people came on and off the airplane. I heard engines roar, feel myself lifted into the air and then land again. Day after day, several times a day, this happened and there I was in the closet and nobody knew. I was so sad that I wished I had never left Springfield.
It was morning in some city somewhere cramped behind that wheelchair when I heard the crew members coming on the plane. They were always first and over the weeks I got to know how airline people talk--especially flight attendants. Often I would be stuck in that closet overhearing their stories and laugh to myself. It helped me get through many long, long, days and nights. I then heard someone putting a bag in the closet (nothing new to me) except this time I felt something pulling at my plastic bag. I heard a voice ask"I wonder what's in this bag?" I felt myself being lifted up and a man's face peering in at my documentation and learned that I was a traveling bear and decided to take me with him on a few trips to get some traveling done.
Because the man found me in Westchester County, New York, he decided to call me "Westchester." Because the man works for an airline, he flies all the time and all over the world. He decided that I should spend some time in Europe (especially England) so he began taking me on trips to London. I was excited about going to England because it is where Paddington (another traveling bear) found a home and a new life after a difficult beginning.
The man who took me on his travels is named "Greg" and kept me in his rolling suitcase. I like going to London because it was much more comfortable there. Twice he took me to the Caribbean and it was very stuffy in that suitcase. The first time I went to England, we went down to Brighton where I had sent a card to you. Did it arrive? We got on a fast train to London where Greg always goes when he is England. He does some kind of studies at King's College so he always goes in to see his professor. As the train began pulling into the big station in London, I thought of how Paddington must have felt when he arrived in London but had no one to help him. We arrived at Victoria Station so Greg thought I should be named after that station. "But Victoria is a girl's name" I thought, so I didn't want to be called that. "I will call you 'Victor' after Victoria Station" he then said. "Paddington only had one name but you will have two. Westchester will be your surname which now means that from now on you will be known as Victor Westchester." This pleased me very much.
Many times after that first trip I made other trips to Europe. Like Greg, I prefer London. I've been on more double-decker buses than I can count (that's not just because I can't count very high) and have seen all the scenes of London many times because I just tagged along as Greg did his business. I saw the daffodils in St. James' Park and across a pond was Buckingham Palace. At the end of the day, Greg would often go to this park because it was his favorite in London and he called it a good "thinking park." We also sat on a bench along the Thames River many times as Greg looked out at the boats and ate his lunch. Greg's college is along the Thames and he said he had been using that same bench for many years. One exciting time was when Greg visited a friend at a radio station in London. I think he called it the BBC World Service or something like that. His friend reads news to people all over the world. It was a huge building near the "Strand" in London. Guards had to let us in to wear a little badge saying that I was safe.
Near the end of the day, we would sometimes walk down "Drury Lane" over to "Museum Street" where we would have our cup of tea. Tea is very special to Greg. He said it was the most important thing he learned while in England. On Museum Street was a little tea shop where Greg knew the peoople and he would take his cup outside and sit at a table and watch all the people arriving at the famous British Museum. Inside the museum, is the equally famous British Library which has a special reading room. Sometimes in the evening when the museum was closed, Greg would walk up to the guards and show them a badge and they would let us in. I felt very important. The reading room was a large dome-shaped room and was very quiet. It was a different library in that Greg would make a request for a book and give the person his seat number. Soon somebody would come along and deliver it to him. Greg said that was "real living."
We would not always stay at the hotel in Brighton, but sometimes stay in a little town called Horley between London and the airport. We stayed at a guest house called "Gorse Cottage" and run by a friendly little lady named Greeta McLean. She always had tea and biscuits waiting for us. Her husband "Jim" would often give us a ride to the airport the next morning. He was very kind to us and I am sad to say that he died a few weeks ago, so we got a quick flight to England to attend the funeral.
Well, I know I could go on and on for days but then I would not get home again. I've got to tell Greg everything and then he writes it down for me. Greg also said that I must get back before something else happened. Greg was ready to send me back once when his mother died. He had to take care of a lot of business and he forgot me in his car trunk for a long time. He was very sorry for this and hopes you fogive the terrible delay it caused in getting me back home. So, here I am. I am really glad to be home. And do you know what? I just heard the other day that they no longer let bears do what I did. Boy, am I glad that I had the chance to do what I did. I wouldn't exchange it for anyhting in the world!
Love,
Victor Westchester