Learning With Animals

Previously I have discussed the classroom pet and the advantages/disadvantages but I feel that it is important to mention how interactions with animals are very important for education. Students need to become familiar with seeing and interacting with animal under controlled situations. This way students can lose fears about animals and come to understand that animals live for their own reasons not just to entertain people. Very often students can become upset when hamsters sleep during the day and do not play with the students. Learning that these animals live their way, nocturnally, and do not bend to people's wills is a good thing. All students should interact with animals to realize that animals are their own beings that exist for their own reasons.

Books and Pets Our Friends for Life

I found an interesting document from Arizona titled Books and Pets Our Friends for Life Arizona Reading Program Manual which is a reading program in collaboration with the Arizona humane society. The program is a collaboration also with the humanities council and libraries. The manual gives information on the running of the reading program in communities across Arizona. The set up of the manual is very useful in creating your own program with evaluation material, bibliographies of humane education books, and games for kids. It also give set up instructions including incentives and prizes for students. There are also areas to help plan for the success of your own individual program.

I personally think that it is great for educators and students to work together with reading and collaborating with the community. Bringing books to students and teaching about humane education is great. This gives me a great idea for using technology with this same format. Why not have a humane education ebook library so that this program really could be put in place for every child. This way if the children live in rural areas they can read the same books as their peers and work toward these educational goals together. Also having this program available with ebooks t can work in the classroom too. Finally as long as you are near a computer you can read the book. This way no one ever has to wait for a book to be returned especially if all the children are reading the same books.

In the News

In October 2006 a K-12 principal in Minnesota resigned after some parents were upset that he used a firearm to shoot orphaned kittens on school property. He killed the kittens because their mother had been caught in a trap on school grounds set by the principal. He did not want the kittens to suffer so he shot the animals after school when there would be no risk to students. Several students and parents were at the school and heard the shot. The principal may be charged with felony possession of a firearm on school property and reckless discharge of a firearm, a misdemeanor. The principal has since resigned his position.

This is a very interesting news item. With the killing of kittens and their mother, on school property, by the principal, and while students and parents were near enough to hear the shot. So which issue stands out most? The animals deaths? This Principals choices?

Article from USA Today

Movie Maker Sounds Easy Enough

I am working on a project involving Windows Movie Maker. I am currently working out the idea and the script but I wanted to share my excitement for the possibilities this software has. You can easily add pictures, animation, and sound to create digital movies mainly by dragging and dropping. This way any educator can work with this software and create a quality movie about any subject. History, math, science, and any other subject could be used with movie maker. It could also be used as a reward system if the class would like to make there own movies about the class after a year well done.

I plan on making a movie about choices. I think it would be good to show students how choices they make affect the entire world. I will show how their choices affect animals, people, the economy, and environment then I will empower them with new more sustainably choices at the end. My project this time will be for higher grade levels than my last. I am planning on making this film for middle school.

New Tech and New Styles of Teaching

Blpainte left a comment on the Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! post on Humane Education about technologies in the classroom. She was glad that other educators like these new technologies. Many educators have gotten into ruts where they use the same technologies and never change. Also many educators learn to fear these new technologies because they feel that either the technologies are to difficult for them to master or that the old way they have done things has always worked so why change? Personally I feel that multimedia is important for learning and it will help educators enjoy their job more by being able to play with these new technologies to help their students. These new technologies are helpful to animals by helping lesson animal uses in education with dissection alternatives, models of animal, and computer programs. With educators becoming more open to technology they will soon become more open to humane education as well.

Animals are Everywhere!

Currently I am in the process of making my own humane education eBook titled Animals are Everywhere! I got the idea for this eBook after reading Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! I personally feel that eBooks are great tools for the classroom and want to make an eBook that I can use in the classroom. The eBook has many levels of development. First I created a storyboard including pictures and text for each slide. Then I edited the content and started creating the pictures for the eBook. Once the pictures were completed and scanned I started working with Power Point. I put each picture with its corresponding slide. The I added text to each slide. The next step was to clean up each slide by cropping pictures, editing text, and placing all the items on the slides. All that is left is to create the audio of the text, add it to the slide, and time the slide to transition after the audio finishes.

The challenges of the project are often having the equipment to make the eBook and the proper organizational tools to get everything done. A storyboard is necessary to organize the construction of the eBook. Without a storyboard the book would have needed more revisions then necessary. This will definitely help educators in many areas organization is necessary to work with these technologies and with other aspects of school.

The eBook is working out wonderfully and is about animal habitats. The eBook I have created asks students to look at different animals, identify them, and in an interactive quiz show they learned what habitat the animals are from.

Oh the Audacity!!!

While making my own eBook with humane education themes I have been using many different tools and one of them is Audacity. Audacity is a free software that you can download and record audio files. It is really easy to use and edit with because of its cut and paste features. Really all you need is a computer, the free download, and a microphone (I got one for $8.00 and it works fine).

So I came up with a way to use Audacity in the classroom and involve animals in the lesson. This lesson would be for elementary students possible K-3. Each student would be assigned an animal. Any animal you see fit from the farm to the jungle or north pole. The child will do an art project of the animal coloring, painting, mosaic, etc. and that will be scanned into the computer and placed in a PowerPoint document as a slide. Then the child will be able to record what sound he/she thinks the animal makes using audacity. The the sound will be placed with the picture and the project will be viewed by the students. This is a fun activity that also has a great end product that other students, teachers, and parents will want to see.

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

One amazing web resource for educators is TumbleBooks which features many different eBooks with life learning lessons, great stories, and many books for many different age groups. One book I really enjoyed was Bugs, Bugs, Bugs written and illustrated by Bob Barner. The book is for pre-k through 1st grade students. There are two great things about this eBook with the first being the media used to present the material and the second being the material. The eBook has so many options to be used for beginning readers as a reward or to help them learn new words. It also has a great humane education message about bugs being fun and a part of nature that all people are included in instead of being scary or weird. I think this eBook is not only a beautiful and entertaining book but also a good tool to learn and become familiar with bugs at an early age.

Real World Experience

In the past I had the pleasure of going back to my second grade teacher and using her class for one of my humane education projects. I did an art lesson where the students made mosaic pictures by gluing colored paper squares to a white sheet of paper. The theme for the pictures was "What lives in a garden?" Before we got started I had the students tell me about the things that live in gardens. Some students said bugs, others talked about the plants like flowers or even corn, and others thought about animals like their dog or rabbits. The approach helped each student share ideas and make their own unique picture. Most of the pictures were very abstract which was nice but as they worked I went around the room assisting with glue spills, finding more colored paper, and hearing about what it is like to live in a garden. The students were able to show that they understood some of the everyday situations plants and animals go through and how they could help the plants and animals. Overall this lesson was one of the first ones I ever did that was more focused toward humane education and I feel it was very successful.

Animals in the Classroom

While searching the ERIC database I came across a wonderful article titled Animals in the Classroom: A Guide for Elementary and Secondary Educators by Elaine Birkholz and Peter Theran which discussed the different ways to integrate animals into eh curriculum that would foster learning, compassion, and be safe for animals. The article discusses which animals would be most useful in the classroom, how to care for them, and how to integrate them into the curriculum. The article goes over pets such as rabbits being difficult in the classroom to hamsters that are nocturnal to gold fish being sturdy adapters to the classroom environment. Another important fact for educators to become aware of is that there are laws in place in certain states regulating classroom pets including Florida. The article also touches on dissection and its alternatives and respect for life which is one of the underlying lessons when having a classroom pet.

I personally feel that if the right animal is in the classroom and it is integrated into the curriculum it will be beneficial to the students. I also think that this article is very useful to any educator who has considered having a classroom pet.

What do you think?

After posting about dissection technology I thought I would post some information about the Lynchburg College 2006 Governor's School for Math, Science, and Technology to get opinions about the use of technology at this school. The school is for gifted high school juniors and seniors in Virgina who stay the summer and take advanced courses in math, science, and technology. One of the science classes offered is called "Blood and Guts" which many students take because they are thinking about medicine as a career. To showcase the work of students the college put up a website showing gifted students with mutilated animals and with students pretending to eat animal intestines. Many different groups were appalled at this display including the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The following links are from the college's press release about the school, the blood and guts web page, PCRM's response to the web site, and the book The Use of Animals in Higher Education by Jonathan Balcombe.

Now it is time to read through the information and comment on what you think about the issues at Lynchburg College. I'll comment with my thoughts in a later post.

Lynchburg College 2006 Governor's School for Math, Science, and Technology.
Blood and Guts Web Page
PCRM Article 1
PCRM Article 2
The Use of Animals in Higher Education by Jonathan Balcombe

Diary of a Worm

Books are important instructional tools and media. Books also have many different messages that are sent to children through word choice, pictures, and the roles people and animals take within books. Because of this, humane education can be brought across to children through the books used in the classroom. I recently found a wonderful book titled Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. The book follows a young worms life at school, the dance, with his friend spider, and his interactions with humans. The important issues in the book are how the children can relate to the worm. The little worm wants to live his life, go to school, and have fun with friends and family. The lesson on the book can involve comprehension with printed materials but adding a discussion about what it is like to be a worm helps with empathy building.

One way to find books yourself that have humane education themes is to read the book and ask, "How are animals portrayed?" "After reading do you understand how another person feels?" "Is the environment valued in the book?" "Are the lessons taught about being kind to others, empathy, and about having a strong moral character?"

These are some of my favorite books with humane education themes:

Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin

Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

The Peace Book by Todd Parr

It's Okay to be Different by Todd Parr

Dissection Technology

Dissection in the classroom has been a hot button issue for students and instructors alike. A humane educator is against dissection in the classroom because of the cruelty to the animals being studied. Learning about life through death does not make much sense. Luckily for educators technology is available from many databases for use in schools. There are also options through teachkind.org to teach life sciences without dissection, information on why dissection is not an effective learning tool, and evidence that the animal dissection industry is not safe for schools to support.

Regina~ I think your blog is a fantastic idea. I checked out the website about Humane Education and agree wholeheartedly that we need to incorporate this kind of education into our classrooms. Especially today, it's essential that kids learn to be humane towards each other and also to animals. Like the website says, if kids can learn to be humane to innocent creatures that are unable to protect themselves, they will learn to be good, compassionate and kind citizens of this world. I also think it's so great, especially as a future teacher, that you can sign up to be sent free information about how to use this education in your classroom, and that the website offers free videos you can download and use in your classroom; another way to use technology in a useful and educational way. I was just wondering, how did you find this great website and also if you get sent their information, do you find it really helpful? Thanks!
~Meg

Teach Kind

There is a great website about HUMANE EDUCATION that got me started using the ideas of empathy, character building, and violence prevention in the classroom. This site allows you to sign up and receive free lesson plans and multimedia kits. There are also lots of video resources they give out which helps in the classroom to breakup the day with a video about animals, science, or social issues that follow the ideas of empathy and character building. The best thing of all is that you can watch the videos online, download lesson plans with printable materials, and it is all free. I highly recommend teachkind.org for any educator.

Welcome to Humane Education

This blog is for anyone who is interested in teaching. Humane education is an education centered around empathy for others including humans, animals, and the environment. The idea of humane education comes as a response to violence from young people. This violence often starts toward animals before it moves toward humans. Humane education is a easy way to combat violence in the classroom and help create caring students. As the weeks go by I will be sharing my experiences with humane education, resources available, and any other news on humane education related material.