Guerilla Educators

Pets in the Classroom; Tamara

At a Public Charter School in Philadelphia over the weekend, it was necessary to unplug the filter of a 75 gallon fish tank.  Due to the inevitable and most unfortunate human error, the filter was not re-started as it should have been so this morning, when the teacher arrived, the big beautiful fish that have been a part of the culture of the school for years, except for the algae eater, were gone.  

Tamara is now a smart, happy 3rd grader at this school.  She has been a student there since kindergarten.  When she arrived at the school, Tamara was disruptive, violent, and uncommunicative.  By a series of good fortune, astute observation, and a caring educator, Tamara was given charge of making sure that the fish were well cared for, starting with feeding the first thing every morning.  That simple act of responsibility given to her in kindergarten and continuing to this day, helped transform this young lady from an asocial, belligerent child to, by dint of her consistent responsibilities with the school pets, a position of leadership.  Right about now, Tamara will be at the classroom door where the teacher will let her in and walk with her to the fish tank where there will be no fish to feed.  There will most likely be heartache and tears both on the part of both Tamara and the teacher as they commiserate over their mutual loss.  They will share this bond of sadness and then, if she is true to form, the educator will use this as a powerful "Teachable Moment" for Tamara.  There will be so many opportunities to explore and practically demonstrate how leaders act in situations like this.  There will be opportunities to use Higher Order Thinking Skills, and of course, there will be the necessity of determining next steps to lessen the impact of this tragedy on the student body, the faculty, and the admin team.  

My guess is that, before long the fish tank will be up and running with new fish in the tank and Tamara will get back into her routine of care and feeding, a little older, a good deal wiser, and farther along in her accidental development as a citizen/leader.

Iggy; an Eerie Coincidence

As previously stated in a prior post, Iggy was released from his mortal coils in the early morning hours of March 17.  Over the years, Iggy had been a fixture at 5 different schools, including in the classroom of a dear friend and colleague at an elementary school in West Philadelphia.  This teacher also had a "Red Devil" fish as part of her classroom menagerie, which she had in her classrooms for more than 10 years.  Iggy actually shared this classroom with the Red a couple of years ago.  In one of those eerie coincidences that life often presents, when the teacher arrived at her classroom on Wednesday morning, she found (cue the "Twilight Zone" music) that her Red Devil had passed away on precisely the same evening as had Iggy.

Iggy

To my former students and all those who knew Iggy, it is with great sorrow to announce that after 17 years of service in classrooms across the City of Philadelphia and beyond, on this morning, March 17, 2010, Iggy breathed his last. Perhaps it's fitting that our beloved Green Iguana, who fascinated a generation of students should pass away on St. Patty's Day.Today, Wearin' o' the Green will take on special significance. Thanks, Iggy, and goodbye. It's fitting that Iggy died right where he belonged; in a classroom.  Right up to the end, he was still an invaluable educational resource. This year, a particularly precocious, and occasionally rambunctious 3rd grader always made Iggy her first stop. She was responsible for his care and feeding. This young lady's interactions with and responsibility for Iggy seemed to ground and focus her in ways which were very beneficial to her ability to function successfully as a student.

Pets in the Classroom - Fish

In 1988, I wrote a grant for a 75 gallon fish tank for my 1st grade class in a Philadelphia public school.  Needless to say, the tank immediately became an object of great interest to the entire school, as it originally began as a salt water tank (note to self, salt water NEVER again!) .  After a couple of years, common sense prevailed and the tank reverted to a fresh water - and much more manageable - classroom endeavor.  Among the first fish in the tank were 4 small "silver dollars" and 2 small "sharks". 
The tank was a great success and, thanks to the maintenance guys and delayed feeders, the fish oversummered in the school quite nicely. 
In 1995, I learned about someone who was offering a 200 gallon fish tank for free.  Based on the success over the years of my 75 gallon tank, we set this monster up in the school library, where it still is fascinating students and visitors alike.  When I left that school in 1998 to become the Service Learning Specialist for the School District of Philadelphia, the silver dollars and the sharks went right into the 200 gallon tank.  On a recent visit back to the school, there was the fish tank bubbling away in the library and, lo and behold! the silvers and the sharks are still delighting students 17 years later.
It was very nice to see that a legacy began almost 20 years ago, a whole generation! -  is still helping to create a very nice environment in the school library.

Pets in the Classroom/Our Class Fish: Bubba and Richard Nixon

My 4th grade classroom fish tank was a 75 gallon monstrosity.  For a couple of years, there were only 2 fish in the tank: Bubba and Richard Nixon (Don't ask me, I have NO recollection as to why this was his name).  These fish were just 2 inherited goldfish that ended up in my tank.  I also inherited the rabbit and iguana that were part of that year's classroom menagerie.  Because of the tank's size these fish grew to great size (well, that and the roaches.  More on that later.).  Richard Nixon was a fantail who became so enormous that he lost his center of gravity and eventually swam upside down all the time.  Bubba was a  $.69 goldfish that grew to about 12" long.
As in many classrooms and particularly those that had pets, we had a healthy brown roach population.  We also had a rabbit (see "Rabbit Tales", elsewhere on the blog) in that class, so our supply of "little browns" was virtually unlimited.  My students and I came to see these little victims as a great boon to our classroom.  We were probably the only classroom in the country (the world?) that was happy and excited to have roaches!  You see, it turned out that to Bubba and to a lesser extent, Richard Nixon these roaches were the equivalent of t bone steak, truffles, and creme brulee all wrapped up in one.  Whenever a roach was deposited into the tank, Bubba would pounce, sharklike, on his prey so whenever we saw a roach (which was for better or worse, quite often), it was cause for great excitement, as we could see this primeval predator/prey dance unfold in the fishtank.  This indeed was a very strange and unique "circle of life" situation.
This flood of remembrance was vividly brought back to us by Lisa Fetscher Ebersole's comment in another part of this blog.  Lisa was a 10 year old in that class and came across the blog entry, "Rabbit Tales".  Today, Lisa is in her mid-20's and a wife and mother.  Such is the power of Pets in the Classroom that she still has vivid memories of the time she shared a classroom with Bubba, Richard Nixon, and the rabbit many years ago.      

Rabbit Tales - Pets in the Classroom

When I taught 4th grade at an inner city school in Philadelphia, my classroom was always filled (much to the consternation of our maintenance staff) with non-human life forms, i.e. pets.  One pet in particular stands out at this time; our rabbit, "Hoppy".  As with mammals in general, Hoppy needed a great deal of attention, and this suited one of my students, Katrina, just fine.  Katrina was from the "projects" and often came to school without breakfast.  Her personal hygiene and clothes were often uncared for and, surprise!, Katrina was often disruptive and sometimes violent.  Hoppy, on the other hand was one of the friendliest darn rabbits on the face of the Earth.  Katrina and Hoppy took an instant liking to each other.  At first, Katrina would just pet Hoppy through his cage and when he tickled her fingers the first time, she laughed happily in a way that I had not ever seen in this young, troubled girl.  As time went on, Katrina wanted to make sure Hoppy's cage was clean and that he was well fed, responsibilities I was only too happy to assign to her.  Almost seamlessly with the arrival of Hoppy, Katrina's behavior and even the quality of her classwork improved.  She became more cooperative and her attendance at school improved dramatically. 
The first time I noticed Hoppy was out of his cage and nowhere to be seen, I started to panic.  Where could he be?  Students, and especially Katrina, were able to take Hoppy out of the cage when they were done their work and pet him, give him exercise, etc.  Sometimes, Hoppy just sat on their desks like a stuffed animal.  So Hoppy was out of his cage, unannounced and without permission and nowhere in sight.  Then I noticed that as Katrina was doing her work at her desk, her attention was inordinately focused on the inside of her desk.  I walked up behind her and there was Hoppy, in Katrina's desk happily ensconced inside with her books, her Now n' Later wrappers, and her pencils. 
Katrina's story is the most pronounced example of why classroom pets, despite their ungodly mess and the care it takes to maintain them, are on the whole wonderful additions to any classroom.  For Katrina, it seemed as if Hoppy was the embodiment of everything that was lacking in her homelife and she responded accordingly.  I long ago lost track of Katrina but for that one shining year, with the help of a rabbit named Hoppy, Katrina was just a normal 10 year old in nameless classroom in some obscure corner of North Philadelphia.

Next Up: Bubba and Richard Nixon, the goldfish.

Iggy

I inherited Iggy the Iguana in 1993, as a 4th grade public school teacher in Philadelphia.  At that time, Iggy was about 4 inches long.  Thirteen years later, Iggy is almost 5 feet long and has been a classroom pet at 5 different schools from third to 12th grades.  Iggy has been the focus of many student projects and areas of study, from the native habitats and locales of iguanas, to the study of reptiles, to the nature of cold blooded animals.  Iggy has even received presents from 4th grade penpals in Japan!  In our experience though, the best thing about Iggy is that he is just there - big, green, and exotic.  It is even a loud raucous event when Iggy goes to the bathroom!  In our experience, classroom pets like Iggy have a beneficial effect on student behaviors and classroom climate, and help to create a good learning environment.  Year after year, we have observed students having difficulty academically and socially be transformed just by Iggy's presence as "their" classroom pet, especially when such students are given some responsibility for the pet's maintenance.
Currently, Iggy is working his scaly magic in a multi-purpose classroom and is seen (and cared for) on a regular basis by special needs students from k to 6th grade.
If you have any classroom pet stories, we'd love to hear from you!