Episode 277: ‘Sewing’ Seeds of Success and Caring at Fort Herriman Middle School

Julie Beaird:
We're continuing a project where we're making teddy bears to donate to Primary Children's Hospital.

Anthony Godfrey:
So this is a fast-finisher project because they've done their final project. They're diving in and helping out here. That's really cool.

Julie Beaird:
Kids aren't as exposed to sewing as they used to be. I was born in the 70s and my mom made our clothes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a class at Fort Herriman Middle School which is sewing seeds of success, kindness, and caring for some incredible students.

On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside a sewing class to experience firsthand some very talented students making teddy bears which will bring comfort to countless children in area hospitals. Find out how this class is teaching life skills and so much more.

We are here with Julie Beaird at Fort Herriman Middle School and we've been meaning to come back for a long time. We were here before for an episode about cosplay and another teacher and the sewing that kids have done to make that possible. But today we're here to talk about a very different project. Tell me a little bit about that.

Julie Beaird:
Okay, well thank you so much for coming back. We love having you. So today a bunch of the kids have finished their final project. So we're continuing a project where we're making teddy bears to donate to Primary Children's Hospital. Just for the kids that when they go to the hospital they’re sick or hurt, and need something to comfort them. So other people donate toys, new toys, and they will accept, as long as it's new, they will accept like the little teddy bears.

So I have a little assembly line going with about seven girls that – they were the fast finishers of their final project. So the boys are great but they aren't as fast as the girls. I have a few that I'd love for you to meet but they're joyfully helping make these bears just because they love to be helpful but also for the kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
So this is a fast finisher project because they've done their final project. They're diving in and helping out here. That's really cool. Now I will say I was also slow in my sewing class in eighth grade but I absolutely loved it. Last time we were here I think I mentioned it to you. I made a golf shirt that I was very proud of with all of the…

Julie Beaird:
Do you still have it?

Anthony Godfrey:
I really meant to look for it. If I find it I'm gonna come show it to you because the thing I remember, and it's funny that I still remember this. Tell me if this is right. It was the the material we had to stretch it as we sewed. I don't remember the name of the material but it was kind of stretchy material.

Julie Beaird:
It’s knit. It’s called knit.

Anthony Godfrey:
It was knit. Yeah so we pulled it and...

Julie Beaird:
It's a challenge to sew on. I'm surprised your teacher even let you try and sew on it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I was very advanced Julie. I mean it was you know.

Julie Beaird:
Eighth grade, wow.

Anthony Godfrey:
There were buttons, there was a collar. It was kind of a big deal.

Julie Beaird:
Kids aren't as exposed to sewing as they used to be. Probably back in your time, my time.

Anthony Godfrey:
The 1900s you can say it.

Julie Beaird:
Yes yes. I was born in the 70s so my mom made our clothes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Julie Beaird:
But by the 80s about 90% of all clothing shipped overseas to me. So it got so much cheaper to just buy clothes in a store like Kmart or something that my mom gave up sewing. So I never really learned till I got to middle school. And then once I got my teaching certificate I realized this is what I really love to do. It's fun to see the little light bulb turn on in their face. Because it is kind of a rare skill it's fun to see them figure it out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Was it during your certification as a teacher that you decided this is really what I want to do.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it kind of lit a spark. And I love seeing this because like you said it is a skill that is fading. Not enough people have the ability to do this.

Julie Beaird:
And it's problem solving at its best. And it's intricate too because it's not what you think. Like right sides together is like sewing 101 but it's not logical to think you turn things inside out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah.

Julie Beaird:
You know what I mean.

Anthony Godfrey:
You would think you would align it so that both of the right sides are going the same way instead of facing each other.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah. There's a few things that are just a little bit tricky that help challenge their minds. So I think it's a really fun skill.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the hands on learning isn't something they look forward to in the day I'm sure.

Julie Beaird:
They love it. The seventh graders just beg to sew. And I save it for the end of the quarter because I have I have a new group each quarter because they look forward to it so much. I'm like no you have to wait for that.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have to earn it.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have to earn it. That's really cool. It must be very rewarding to have them come in and start knowing nothing and just see how far and how fast they can advance because I mean as a language arts teacher they all know English. They know how to speak and read and write. And we hope to improve those skills. But you're taking them from zero.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about how that feels.

Julie Beaird:
It feels amazing. Yeah. You totally nailed it because they know nothing. And day one we learned the parts but then they get a so on a paper that has shapes. So they just get to see the way the nail or the needle goes up and down and up and down. And just to get familiar with how a sewing machine works.

And then the next day we learn threading and then the next day we learn sewing scraps and then the next day they get to do a pillow. So by the end of the week or two they have something they created themselves. So it's really awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the offerings that are available here. So if there's a student who's really interested in sewing they start out in seventh grade with those exploratory classes. So tell me about if you start in seventh grade and you really love sewing. What what's available to you here.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah. So eighth grade I teach all three grades sewing. So seventh is just CCA which is required. And like you said exploratory eighth grade it's an elective. So if they did like it they can sign up for FACS A. We just split it up actually a couple years ago some places in the district still do as one semester class. But we split it up so they can have more time sewing. So Mrs. Grant teaches the B portion of FACS. I teach the A portion. I remember it because B is baking. A is like I always think of the scarlet letter being sewn on the dress.

Anthony Godfrey:
Being sewn on, okay.

Julie Beaird:
They don't know that reference.

Anthony Godfrey:
Nice mnemonic device.

Julie Beaird:
I had to read that in high school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Julie Beaird:
So A is for the sewing. So I get to have them for a whole semester. So we spend a whole month sewing in eighth grade whereas in seventh grade we only do a week or two. And then in ninth grade, this is a ninth grade class. They get to sew the whole semester. So it's it's pretty fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's really cool. What are some of the projects that they make besides the bears that we're going to go around and see through the course of a ninth grade year in sewing. What are some of the things that they make.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah. So the bears aren't even something that we do.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's not even part of the curriculum.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah. It's just every year we keep making them because it is a fun fashion finisher project. It's a great donation type thing. We donated to the police department last year. So our resource officer actually we gave them all to him so he could give to families when they go on calls to little kids maybe that are struggling.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, to comfort a child.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah. So we did that last year. But anyway, see this rope that I guess on the podcast you can't see. But this drawstring– not drawstring rope, it's called clothesline. What we used to use for clotheslines before dryers

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I can see that.

Julie Beaird:
We make bowls in here. I learned at a conference. You just sew a zigzag in a circle and you go and go and go and go and go until you have a bowl–

Anthony Godfrey:
–connecting the rope. Oh yeah. That's really cool.

Julie Beaird:
This is one that a student didn't want to take home but I use it for lotion for the kids. He kind of messed it up and it still looked cute. So the rope bowl is a great way to start.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. You would not be able to tell. It starts kind of wider and narrows at the top so it holds things in it well.

Julie Beaird:
Well, he did it narrow at the top but–

Anthony Godfrey:
He's not supposed to? I kind of like the design.

Julie Beaird:
I know! It turned out cute.

Anthony Godfrey:
It turned out. It has a little handle on it.

Julie Beaird:
I know. I tell everyone about him when they're here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Julie Beaird:
I’ll have to thank him someday. He'll graduate next year. I’ll have to go—

Anthony Godfrey:
It's such a cool project that even if you mess up it looks cool.

Julie Beaird:
Yes, it still looks cool. Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sorry, you said he's graduating this year.

Julie Beaird:
He's a junior this year. So maybe I'll go to his graduation next year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

Julie Beaird:
Maybe hold up the bowl or something.

Anthony Godfrey:
There you go. There you go.

Julie Beaird:
He probably won't remember but it has been really useful to have.

Anthony Godfrey:
I could assign myself to speak at his graduation and mention the bowl. You know maybe we'll do that.

Julie Beaird:
He would love that, I bet.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back more with the sewing class at Fort Herriman Middle School.

Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
Do you have people come down and say, "I lost a button. Can you help with this repair?" Or bring things from home and say, "Hey, can you help me hem this?"

Julie Beaird:
Yes! Kids are coming in all the time, “Can you fix my hole? Can you do this?" And other teachers too, but mostly it's the kids. I am happy to help because I almost feel like I'm paying it forward.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Julie Beaird:
Because before I knew how to sew, I'd go to my neighbor's house. “Will you fix this? Will you help me with these curtains?”

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Julie Beaird:
So I didn't get into teaching until I was 40 years old. So I had already been at home with kids for 20, well, 15 years, I guess. Anyway, so I feel like I'm paying it forward by fixing people's stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's really cool. Yeah, that's...

Julie Beaird:
One kid brought me something recently, though, that was all chewed up. It was the bottom of his jeans. And I thought, this is going to be hard. I'm going to need a patch. I said, “I could teach you to do it or you could pay me to do it”. And he's like, “oh, I'm paying you. My dad said it's OK. You just do it.”

Anthony Godfrey:
So he hired you to do it.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah, he hired me.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Wow.

Julie Beaird:
I normally wouldn't charge, but that was a tough one.

Anthony Godfrey:
Side hustle.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey;
It's almost like being a mechanic, I guess, you know. “Hey, I've got this knock in my engine. Can you help me fix it?” And my pants are torn at the bottom. I need a repair.

Julie Beaird:
People say “Do you go home and sew?” No. Because it's just like a mechanic. Like you wouldn't need a break from your day job.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure. Sure. So let's go talk to some students and look at this project.

Hi, Lily. How are you?

Lily:
I'm good.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what are you working on right now?

Lily:
I'm actually making a rope with my mom for the Christmas present.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK, cool. And tell me about the process and what stage of the process you're in right now.

Lily:
Well, at the moment I'm just getting it all set up by putting this here and starting to get everything in place.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, so you're threading the machine? Oh, wow. It looks like you have done this many times before. You are a pro. You are cranking it out.

Lily:
I actually did this with my grandma over the summer.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, really? So you and your grandma have been doing some sewing?

Lily:
Yeah, we did it over the summer.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the things you made?

Lily:
Well, we made clothes for my dolls.

Anthony Godfrey:
You made what?

Lily:
Clothes for my American Girl dolls.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, clothes for your American Girl dolls. Very nice. So now you have it all threaded. This is a bobbin, if I'm not mistaken.

Lily:
Yes, I'm going to switch this black now.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, show me that. So you've got black thread on the bobbin underneath. You’re going to pop that out. Wow, you are fast. It's really good.

Lily:
So this is threaded or else it doesn't work?

Anthony Godfrey:
Thread the needle. Here we go.

Lily:
You take this wheel here and you go in and you just pull it out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, yeah. Okay, you're all set to go. All right. Well, good luck with this project. Let's take a look at it here. Let's see you get started. Okay, I can see the zigzag pattern with the needle there. All right, we're going to head down the track here, but it's great to see you. And good luck. I'm going to come back in a few minutes and see how that bowl is looking.

Lily:
Okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Hi, Cora tell me what you have here.

Cora:
I am working on the bears that we are sending to the Children's Hospital. So I just finished on selling some of the hearts.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're putting on the heart and the nose, the eyes. Are the eyes hand stitched?

Cora:
Yes, the eyes are hand stitched.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. And then you have a tummy right there as well. Okay, very nice. Looks great. Are these polar bears? They look polar.

Cora:
Just teddy bears in general.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just teddy bears. Okay. So this is the front of the bear.

Cora:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And this is an assembly line set up.

Cora:
Yeah.

Athony Godfrey:
So is this your responsibility to put all of this on the front of the bear?

Cora:
Now, I think we're all just doing kind of like what is left to do. So I was going to work on putting on the backs.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Cora:
And then stuffing them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Shall we go do that?

Cora:
Sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Here are the backs. They've been all cut out and everything ready to go. So we're here at the machine. You're all loaded up. The bobbin has a white thread in it.

Cora:
Yes, it does.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're set to go. So you're going to lay the back over the–

Cora:
–front of the bear.

Anthony Godfrey:
Over the front of the bear. Right. Because then you have to turn it inside out. Man. Okay. You’re pinning it together. You're doing this quite quickly. Obviously, you're a skilled professional at this point. Very used to the creation of bears. How does it feel to be making these bears knowing that they're headed to help kids at Primary Children's?

Cora:
It makes me really happy to know that we get to help people in need at this time of year, even though sometimes it doesn't feel like we're doing a lot. We're just making tiny bears. It can really brighten people's days when they see them, when kids see them at the hospitals when they're waiting in the emergency room.

Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely. Something their own that's very, that's unique. Everyone is unique and they get to keep it. All right. Let's see. You're getting started there. And it's a different kind of shape to make. So there's a lot of twists and turns as you make this.

Cora:
There are.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh. Going at a good pace there. You're farther in than I would have thought. Is that a?

Cora:
It's a 5/8 seam allowance. So it's the usual seam allowance.

Anthony Godfrey:
A 5/8 seam allowance. Take out the pin as you get to that. As you're sewing, tell me what is it like to be in Ms. Beaird's class.

Cora:
It's a really fun class. I love Ms. Beaird. She's a great teacher. She is super fun and just great at teaching what she does. Her assignments are really fun and they don't get boring ever.

Anthony Godfrey:
So is this the class you look forward to during the day?

Cora:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey;
You've had it for three years now, right?

Cora:
Yes, I have.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that's a pretty good endorsement for any teacher that you want to make sure you have all three years that you're here at Fort Herriman.

Cora:
Yeah. And then we're going to stop it right here so we can--

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, yeah.

Cora:
--stuff it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I almost-- I didn't even think about the fact that you needed to stop so you could stuff it.

Cora:
Yeah. And then just snip the threads and then you trim it up and sew and then you stuff it and then you're done.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. That looks awesome. That looks great. So you've got the little red heart and the mouth and– Yeah, that's really cool. Very cute. Well done. And it's soft. It's very soft and nice. Yeah, personalized too. Well done. Thank you very much for letting me watch that. I know the kids are going to love them.

Lily, we're back. We went and visited another student. And I can already see this rope bowl is really taking shape. I love the look of the stitching. I didn't realize how prominent that stitching would be. And the colors on the thread, the rainbow colors of the thread and the zigzag pattern, it looks really cool. I have no doubt your mom's going to love it.

Lily:
I know.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's coming together really well.

Lily:
Yeah, it really is.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK, well, thanks. Merry Christmas. Have fun.

Lily:
Merry Christmas.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you again for letting us visit today.

Julie Beaird:
Thank you for coming back.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is such a cool project and such a great class.

Julie Beaird:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love your passion for it and the opportunities for these kids. As I talk with them it's obvious how much they love having your class specifically, but also learning sewing as well. So thank you very much for being here.

Julie Beaird:
Thank you, Mr. Godfrey.

Anthony Godfrey:
So fun to be back.

Julie Beaird:
Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for coming.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.