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Hi Ashley, pets can be a tricky thing to implement in the classroom because, as you mentioned, distractions are guaranteed. However, numerous studies have shown that classroom pets can be beneficial for students and the learning environment. I would say that both setting clear expectations and helping students recognize that they are distracted would be your best bet. The students should know the rules for interacting with the pet, whether it’s a fish, a turtle, hamster, rabbit, etc. Students should also be taught how to catch themselves in their distractions and to self-regulate themselves to get back on task. I don’t have a pet in my own classroom, but in third grade my teacher brought us 4 turtles as class pets. She made the rules very clear, the pet monitors would be in charge of feeding the turtles, cleaning their aquarium, and taking them home for the weekend. Every week we would choose a new set of monitors. However, she also taught us to make a little note, on a post it or scrap paper, of whatever the turtles were doing that had caught our attention and to save it for later. This way, we were aware that we were distracted, aware of what distracted us, but she also recognized that it was something that we might have wanted to talk about and writing it down gave us the opportunity to remember the tidbit for later.
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