Dangling Lizard

How is it that little boys can't even feel it when they are being bitten by a lizard? I had a 6 year old walk into my classroom this afternoon with a beautiful lizard dangling from his finger. He was so excited telling us all, "Look what I caught!" Um, I didn't know how to break it to him but from where I stood the lizard had caught him, not the other way around. We quickly got them uncaught from each other and looked closely at the beauty of this creature.

Class pet! We scrambled around to find something fitting to house the lizard as the other kiddos gathered rocks, grass, and twigs. I just loved the conversation about what was essential for the lizard to have in his new environment. We went online and identified the kind of lizard we were dealing with. Our new pet is a blue tailed skink. It also told us everything we needed to know about his diet, habitat, and other vital information.

I just love when learning happens in a relevant way for kids. They were reading and going to websites because it was their interest and enthusiasm that spurred them. Our school is becoming a Project Based Learning Environment. PBL is something that special ed has been doing for years. Thankfully, we were never tied to curriculum, just IEPs and standards. But we have always had the freedom to approach learning anyway we felt would get us to the results.

Next year, I will be tackling the district behavior program which for me is going back to my passion. I love those kids who need more love and attention than the rest. Most are high academically but for whatever reason can't perform in a regular classroom environment. This should be an exciting adventure maybe we will take our skink with us.

In Him,
Joyful
4-21-11