Pedagogical Power of Pigs

Here on my blog, I write a lot about my school skinny pigs. I don't know of any other school that houses hairless guinea pigs as semi-permanent residents. Alvin and Simon, our current creatures, garner a lot of attention from students and visitors. I wanted to mention a couple of recent lessons that involved our pets  (and reassure readers that animal safety and security is taken into consideration).

Skinny Pig Slide

The Grade 5s have been building slides as part of their STEAM / STEM Lab use. When chatting with their homeroom teacher, the amazing Brenda Kim, we contemplated the idea of having the skinny pigs try out some of the slides. Brenda and her students narrowed it down to three contenders and last Tuesday, we all gathered in the school library learning commons to see how the skinny pigs would react to the builds.

I realized that the students' initial dreams would have to be modified. Our skinny pigs are neither adventurous nor brave, so it would be ill-advised if they were to be placed at the top of the slide and pushed or prodded down the ramp. (Alvin and Simon don't even know how to jump out of their cage bottom when I'm cleaning their cage and take off the top!) I didn't want the skinny pigs to have a heart attack and die in front of the children. Instead, we gently suggested we see if the skinny pigs could be coaxed up the slides with food.

Brenda was also very aware of keeping the animals free from harm. She had to reduce the number of slides we used from three to two, because one group's slide had too drastic of a drop and the bindings were too insecure. We also put a barrier of boxes around each slide so that the students wouldn't crowd too closely around the skinny pigs.

The students loved watching the skinny pigs explore the slides, and they were delighted when they saw the pigs attempt to climb up the slide to snag their vegetables.

Pet Club

I started a Pet Club this year, partly because of the huge interest in the skinny pigs and partly because I need help taking care of them! (In addition to them, our Specialist Teacher PLC focus is about using clubs and teams as a way of addressing student social-emotional needs.) There are several teams of students from Grades 3-5 that are responsible, for two week chunks, for checking in on the skinny pigs. They need to change their food and water, and let me know when it's time to change their bedding. The students have these badges they are supposed to keep and bring back at the end of their two-week duty time, although I've noticed they have been "forgetting" to return them.

Taking care of a pet activates a lot of "soft skills" as well as numeracy and literacy skills. The students have to:

• estimate how much to fill the food bowl and water bottle
• observe, using multiple senses (sight, smell), and determine the level of cleanliness of the cage
• communicate with their fellow pet club members about when it is time to meet after school to clean the cage
• measure how much bedding needs to be put in the cage bottom
• determine when it is a good time to check on the skinny pigs (time management)

Group 3 in particular have been extremely attentive and they have made efforts to communicate amongst themselves about their responsibilities. Here are some of them as they feed the pigs.

Here's a photo of Group 2 as they helped clean the cage. (Don't worry - I am the only one that handles the poo. The students wash their hands after petting the skinny pigs, and they only touch the clean bedding.)

We have future plans for the Pet Club to get visitors with dogs to come to the school, to talk to us about how to interact with dogs we see in the community. We'll see how busy it gets in the new year, with my new athletic club (more on that in a future blog post) and the Forest of Reading program demands. The students are doing very well with the animals and I am proud of their efforts. I also notice how the skinny pigs are the first place that the students I see for ESL head to when they enter the library. I also hear them saying "pigs" and using English words related to them.

Having said all this, I have come to the realization that it is highly unlikely that I will be getting a dog as part of my retirement. I've never owned a dog and at one point, I considered it as a good project to keep me busy and active when I would eventually stop teaching. I even got to the stage of researching breeds, since my son is allergic. However, the more I seriously debate it in my head, sadly the more I'm convinced that skinny pigs are the biggest kind of pet I'm meant to have. 

Reasons?

•  the cost (today I spent $150 at the pet store on skinny pig supplies; I'd be spending a lot more on a dog and sticker shock is real)
•  the training (my pigs are a bit skittish and that's because I don't handle them as frequently or train them as thoroughly to be used to being held; dogs would take a lot more training and I have no experience)
• the attention (I needed to start Pet Club because I'm so busy doing other things that sometimes I forget to check on the animals; I wouldn't want to neglect a dog, which would need much more focus)
• the individual responsibility (when the skinny pigs are in my house, it's my husband that takes care of them more than I do; he's not a "pet person" and it would be unfair to inflict extra chores on him)
• my tolerance levels for mess or destruction (I don't want my Fluevogs chewed up, and although I can handle skinny pig pee and poo, I'm not sure how I'd do with dog vomit or feces)

I'd love to be proven wrong on this point, but at this point, it looks like it'll just be the pigs for me, my school, and home.