Berkeley is in...Berkeley!

Boys and girls, I have been at HOME for the past two weeks! I love to travel my beautiful state, but I also LOVE to be at home with my Sugar Maple Friends! It has been so nice to get some rest and enjoy this beautiful spring weather! Bears love springtime!

I will tell you about some of the schools I have visited while I have been at home. I made a special visit Back Creek Valley Elementary for their Mountaineer Day! This is a special day when the students do all fun things relating to West Virginia. Of course, I had to come and tell them all about my favorite state! There were other fun things for the children to do, too, like learning to square dance, singing along to banjo music, and homemade ice cream. I'm so glad I could be a part of their end of the year festivities!

Back Creek Valley Elementary!

Some of the very special students in Mrs. Holben's class!

Next, I visited Spring Mills Primary School to speak to their second graders. They were very well behaved children, and I thought they were good examples to the rest of the students in Berkeley County for how you should act when you have visitors. Spring Mills Primary is a Green School. That doesn't mean that the school is painted green! It means their school was built to save energy and take care of the environment. I think it is very important that their school helps keep West Virginia beautiful.

Where's Berkeley?

What a nice welcome from Mrs. Waters' class!

Look at those raised hands! No calling out of turn here!

They knew many things about West Virginia already!

While we were there, Mrs. Sponaugle stopped by to see one of her teachers from elementary school! Mrs. Altman, the art teacher, was Mrs. Sponaugle's teacher when she went to Marlowe Elementary. I think that is wonderful they were able to catch up...and I just love art class! I'm an artist bear as much as I am a writer bear, you know?

Mrs. Sponaugle and Mrs. Altman
(and Pablo Picaso in the background)!

Now, last week I made a special trip with Mrs. Sponaugle...to a radio station, WEPM and WLTF! This is the local radio station for Martinsburg. You may listen to this station in the car with your parents, or at home when you are listening for school delays and closings during the winter. Mrs. Sponaugle was there to talk about ways teachers can improve themselves so they can be leaders. Marsha, the nice lady who interviewed Mrs. Sponaugle, allowed me to have a little talk time as well. It was neat to speak into the large microphones and see my little bear voice recorded with zig-zaggy lines on the computer screen.

Here I am with a radio from another generation!
This is an antique radio. I don't recommend sitting on
antiques, unless you are a little black bear.

With Mrs. Laskey and Mrs. Sponaugle, waiting my turn to speak!

After my successful interview! All of those little keys and screens
help them put together an interview segment!

At the end of the week, I went on a field trip with the students at Tomahawk...to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.! Yes, I did get to go back to the nation's capital, to learn about the many animals in our world. I promise that I will write you all about it, as soon as I finish packing for my trip to Beckley (in Raleigh County).

Until next time...

Special Visits to Rosemont Elementary and the University of Charleston!

Boys and girls! I can let time get away from me like Harrison Honeybee on a warm summer day! I know a new month starts tomorrow (don't you go April Fooling everyone, you hear?), but I wanted to tell you about two more of my special visits to schools in March!

Earlier in the month, I went to Rosemont Elementary in Berkeley County for their S'more Reading Night! A s'more is a special snack made with graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate. It's almost as tasty as my delicious honey! After the Rosemont Rockets put on their special Reading Night play, the students rotated to different reading stations - and I was one of them! I got to share my favorite book, M is for Mountain State. A big thanks to Mrs. Spataro's class helpers, who made sure my Sugar Maple Friends had everything we needed that night!

Rosemont Elementary is in Berkeley County - hey, that's me!

It was a very busy night - here I am resting with Clay in Mrs. Spataro's third grade classroom!

At the end of the month, Mrs. Sponaugle made a special visit to another college, the University of Charleston! She spoke to the student teachers - they will have their own classrooms in the fall, and Mrs. Sponaugle wanted to talk to them about becoming teachers! The room that she met the student teachers in had a wonderful view of one of my most favorite things ever - the state capitol building! Of course, I had to get a picture!

The University of Charleston's mascot is the Golden Eagle!

I practiced my very best listening skills while Mrs. Sponaugle was speaking. I can't say the same for Harrison Honeybee and Morgan Monarch.

Hey! It's me in Charleston!

Even though this has been a slow month for Berkeley, Mrs. Sponaugle has been very busy. I hope she remembers to hibernate every once and a while. April is going to be our very busy month, where we will go to many places, classrooms, and the White House! Do you think the president has ever met a little black bear cub? Maybe I will be the first.

I'm so excited to "spring" into some more adventures with you!

Until next time,

My Digital Learning Day Adventure!

Oh, my, boys and girls! I am typing this as fast as my little paws can go! It has been a busy travel month for me, and I have seen so many special places and people. I know you have been patiently waiting for me to update you on my travel tales, so first I will tell you about Digital Learning Day!

We worked very hard on our presentation!

Digital Learning Day is a very special event. Schools everywhere celebrate how they use cool things, like computers, the internet, and iPads, to help their students learn. Since I am a special little bear, I went with Mrs. Sponaugle to Charleston (my second trip to the capital city!) to teach some second graders all about West Virginia!

I was so excited to run inside and meet the students!

Well, it wasn't just me that went to Charleston this time. All of my Sugar Maple Friends came with me so that the students could learn about West Virginia's other state symbols. I was very glad to have my friends with me this time, because sometimes I get lonely when it's just Mrs. Sponaugle and me. Oh, I love spending time with Mrs. Sponaugle, it's just that I miss my little friends when I'm away.

We arrived at Mary C. Snow Westside Elementary in Kanawha County on the morning of Digital Learning Day. Now since we are celebrating how to use technology (that fancy word for using things like computers, internet, and iPads) we we not only going to teach the students in this school about West Virginia. Three others second grade classrooms in West Virginia did a video conference with us, so they could learn about West Virginia, too! Those other classrooms were at Hollywood Elementary in Raleigh County, Burch Elementary in Mingo County, and Norwood Elementary in Harrison County.  Of course, Harrison Honeybee was just buzzing about getting to speak to kids in the county with his name!

Mingo County!

Raleigh County!

Kanawha County!

Harrison County!

I had so much fun teaching all of those second graders about our state! They were very excited to meet me too, I believe. The rest of the Sugar Maple Friends had a great time, too, especially teaching those kids the motions to some of our favorite landforms in West Virginia.

This is how we were able to have class with the students around the state!

Hello, everyone! Did you know there are 55 counties?

Making some mountains!

What's that you said, Hollywood Elementary?

A fun group shot with all the Sugar Maple Friends!

You can watch a little bit of our special time on Digital Learning Day by clicking on this link.

At the very end of our lesson, I gave those students at Mary C. Snow something special - a book about West Virginia! Since I am a very artistic little bear, I drew them some pictures on the inside cover of all us state symbols. I colored very neatly and made sure to only draw on the blank page inside the front cover.

The artist bear at work!

What an exciting day! This little bear is ready to meet more students in our state! In my next post, I will tell you about my day at Slanesville Elementary in Hampshire County!

Until next time...

A Few Other January Adventures

I had a couple other adventures that I had to attend as the official travel buddy to the teacher of the year. I will try to keep this short, since I have written you a lot today about the things I have been up to in January.

One thing I have learned about Mrs. Sponaugle is that lots of people want to speak to her, or want her to speak! I think that's great, because she has lots of nice things to say about the teachers and students in West Virginia! Right after we returned from the State of the State,  a reporter from a news station called WHAG called us and wanted to do an interview. I was excited, because I had just done my first interview at the capitol and knew that as long as you just stayed calm, it's no big deal. So the very nice reporter stopped by Tomahawk to interview Mrs. Sponaugle, and asked if I had anything to say.

Here I am telling Bejoy Joseph all about my time in Charleston!

Unfortunately, my answers were edited out of the evening news. It was still fun to talk to Mr. Joseph and meet the students in Mrs. Sponaugle's math class. I bet she misses those kids.

Remember when I told you that Mrs. Sponaugle gets to speak to a lot of people. Well, one group of people she has been speaking to in Berkeley County is the Rotary Clubs. Those are people in the community that work together to do good things for others. I went with her when she spoke at the Morning and Noon Rotary Clubs, and I think the people liked what she had to say. One thing I like about Rotarians is that they have a special "Four-Way Test" they recite before all of their meetings. I like it because it's something that I think everyone should remember about treating others.

The Four-Way Test!

Excuse me, is the mic still on? I think we need to sing "The West Virginia Hills" before we leave!

Thank you for listening to our speech!

See, I told you I would keep this post short! You are now all caught up on what Berkeley has been up to since my journey began! I bet I will have lots to tell you about my February adventures, so please stay tuned!

Until next time...