Bye Bye Bessie

So honored to be part of yet another Travelling Teddy Project. I’ve been involved in the project for the last 4 years. Thanks to @PanaAsavavatana and her team.

Bessie spent about 2 weeks with 3JG at Jakarta Intercultural School and the kids loved it. One of the highlights was when Bessie went on a becak ride during Indonesia Week.

Bessie enjoys a becak ride during Indonesia Week

Bessie spent time with us and went specialists classes, lunchtimes and recess. You can read more about it in Bessie’s blogpost Bessie the Bear Comes to Indonesia and JIS. We really enjoyed seeing where Bessie has been around the world (Ireland, Hoboken, Newfoundland, Beijing…) and to see the artifacts she collected, many of them which we used in our own inquiries and had lots of wonderings.

So what did the learn from this global project?

• the opportunity to connect with another class around the word (skype in with another class to share Bessies adventure)
• the opportunity to inquire into different cultures, different parts of the world
• collaboration and communication skills (kids made a farewell video and creating a blogpost for Bessie)
• empathy, sharing and caring – everyone wanted a piece of Bessie and there were some conflicts
• using technology to enhance learning, iMovie, QR Codes, photography and visual presentation skills
• responsibility to look after the bear and her belongings

So would I recommend this global project? Absolutely. The Traveling Teddy project is all set up for you so you can focus on the learning opportunities with your kids. It is one of the projects where if you put more into it you get more out of it. I did a bit of pre planning, some guided inquiry to start us off them let my Grade 3s have ownership. We checked in to the Traveling Teddy blog to see what she was up to, where she had been and most importantly when she was coming.

Selamat Jalan Bessie! Sampai jumpa lagi.