EmmaRose loves animals! We are surrounded by them every where! Inside we have a cat and two guinea pigs. Outside we have about 10 sheep, a horse, and a couple of chickens. We even plan our vacations around animals – this year we went to Sea World in Orlando and had EmmaRose’s birthday at the Bronx Zoo.
When we got our piggies, I called them “rats” and had almost no love for them. But the darn critters grow on you. Soon them worm their way into your heart and become part of the family. Our daily celery meeting with the piggies has become a scheduled part of the afternoon:
So what do pets have to do with education? I learned this from my Colleen who teaches with VIP Kids (A remote ESL learning company). She routinely brings the piggies to her classes with young students and finds it helps them stay engaged. She tries it with our cat Boo, but he’s a scary cat and runs away.
I am finding if I feel there is going to be a lot of stress with my college students, I will bring a guinea pig to class. (This is something I have done in person too.) I have found that bringing a pet to my zoom class helps to level the stress level. It reduces my stress level too. In the first few minutes when people are getting into the Zoom session, things are getting set, and there is open discussion going on, I might have the camera set to Fred or Pepper chowing down on a carrot. I did this yesterday when I popped into class. Of course once we get to business Fred and Pepper go away and we get to physics. (Its good too because they are pooping machines if they have been out of their cage for too long.)
Last week I did it in a meeting with the students and the piggies just chilled watching the screen while the students talked. It was kind of eerie.
I see that people are doing this on twitter everywhere:
There has even been a Pet Tournament for the PER folks.
THE FINALS for #TheRealPetsOfPER!!
— PERC2020 (@perc2020) March 28, 2020
Family today: “Resting today but we are otherwise good.”
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