Teacher Information

What do we do with our teddy?

Hello! Thanks for being a part of the Traveling Teddy Bear Project! Here is some information for you about the project that will give you a better idea of things you can do with your bear once it arrives.

1. Meet and get to know your bear!

Open up his or her box and see what the previous class has sent along with your bear. What things can you learn about where it’s been so far?

2. Learn more about your Bear’s SDG

Each bear is supporting one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to help spread awareness and engage students around the world to take action! You can learn more about your bear’s SDG by looking in the passport. There you will find a short comic about that Global Goal as well as some resources and possible activities to do with your students. Participants will also have access to a Google Drive folder of resources to utilize in the classroom.

3. Stamp Your Bear’s Passport

Your class will get a 2-page spread in Teddy’s passport. Things you can include on those pages:

1. A flag of the country you are in (Click here for a link to flags you can print out)

2. A passport stamp: This template creates editable passport stamps for you to use

3. A class picture

**if you want to put anything else on the passport, again, feel free to get creative!**

4. QR Code fun!

Within the passport you will find a section to paste a QR code. Classes before you should have already included their QR codes in the passport, scan these codes with your students to learn more about where your bear has been. You will have to create a QR code for the next class too. You can link anything you want to it! Some ideas include a short video about your school/class/location, you can also share what you learned about your SDG. Feel free to get creative! Here are some QR code creating sites that you could explore.

Kaywa QR Code

QR Stuff

QR Code Generator

4. Post at least one blog post to travelingteddybear.com (Optional: Use Easy Blog Jr. to do this)

The first and simplest option is to post directly onto our WordPress site by logging in through the main webpage. The second option is to use Easy Blog Jr. and work with your students to grow as authors. The beauty of Easy Blog Jr. is that it is SO EASY! You can allow your kids to independently post about the things they are teaching the bear. Post together as a class or allow some children to do some independent posting, you can set it up however you want!

A code for Easy Blog Jr. as well as username and password for the blog will be sent to you by email.

5. Skype/Hangout/FaceTime with another class that has had Teddy or will have Teddy visit

This depends heavily upon timezones, but we can always keep this option open! A list of all the participant’s Skype names is provided in a GDoc with each bear’s itinerary.

6. Tweet to #GlobalEdTed

If you or your class is connected on Twitter, share snippets of your teddy bear adventures with us on the hashtag #GlobalEdTed!

7. Learn about where Teddy is going next so you can pack for him appropriately!

Check out Teddy’s itinerary on the Itineraries page to find out where he will be going next and do some research about what he may need with him. What’s the weather like at his next destination? Should he bring something to get ready for school at his next class? Communicate with the next class to see if they can help you!

7. Posting Your Teddy

Sending your bear to its next destination and what that will cost is probably going to be one the first things on your mind, we’ve given that a bit of thought too. Deciding to participate in Traveling Teddy would probably mean you are happy to accept the costs of sending Teddy off to his next destination. Depending on where you are it could cost a significant amount of money to post something. Please be willing to spend up to USD 50-60, this is most important when sending our bears into locations with unreliable local postal systems. The higher cost comes from the necessity to use a private courier service into these locations.

Please know that we’ve tried to organize each bear’s itinerary in such a way that you are sending it to the next closest destination. This still does not mean it will be cheap. We also require that ALL the bears are mailed with door-to-door tracking service so they are not lost along the way or take too long to arrive at the next destination.

So, with that in mind, we’d like to thank you for committing to the project, it’s going to be great for the kids!