Classes, Classes and More Classes

A day in the life of Jam.  January and February are my busiest class days in the library.  There are Chemistry research videos, World History research papers, Health glogs to research, and US History and Government classes to help with there papers as well.  All in all it is a busy two months for us in the library and means traveling to classrooms to teach, giving classes in the library, lots of grading works cited pages or annotated works cited.  But it's all good, because the goal is to teach students how to be savvy web users.

If it is a Jam day, he will come with me to class.  

Jam lying down looking up at me as I set up my computer for class.

 Usually, he is pretty interested in anything I have to do on the screen.  If there is a mouse involved, he will follow the mouse on the screen, which the kids find amusing.

Jam is sitting in front of the screen where a presentation is set to begin.

 Most of the time, though, Jam is not thoroughly impressed with my lectures.

Jam lying down and considering his kong.

 So he will think about playing with his kong.  Usually though, he takes another route.

Jam completely zonked out.

 He sleeps through my classes.

Jam and Christina in front of the reference books.

 Sometimes we have classes in the library because the kids will need actual books.  Amazing!  Or, they might need to make a copy of something.  Sometimes, the teacher just wants to get out of the classroom. 8-)

Jam at lunch with his friend, English teacher Caroline with her new baby Maggie.

 At lunch we usually go outside to the arboretum and eat, so I can take his coat off and let him relax.  Then we can practice his being calm and greeting people with a sit.  Here he is greeting Caroline's newborn.  Doing it this way is good for Jam because it gets him used to the area and he calms down pretty quickly.  His main problem is being to amped up to greet people.  So keeping him calm is key.  By having him know his surrounding, being calm, walking around and sniffing, when someone comes up and asks, he almost doesn't even realize what is going on.  Then I can get him in a down stay for petting.  It's when we are someplace else and the request comes and he is out of coat that I can't get him calm.  There is no time for him to calm down.

Trainer Jen Gerrity has given us some new techniques of walking away from the person and then back again to show him that we won't just let him act out with the person.  That he does need to calm down. We tried that with one person so far and it seemed to help quite a bit.  We will continue to use this new technique and see how it goes.

Maty and I are standing behind a sitting Jam in the library during the fashion show.

 Sometimes at lunch there are special events going on, such as the Style Club's fashion show.  Maty and I are the sponsor for the Style Club.  As you can see, Maty is much more stylish than I.  I mainly provide moral support!

Jam with Chemistry teacher Karene.

Sometimes I test Jam's separation anxiety by making him sit in the back of the classroom.  I did this with the chemistry classes.  He didn't like it very much.

Jam, in the car, is a tired pup!

By the end of the day, we are both tuckered out.  He has climbed stairs, walked hallways, managed doors, the switch command, sits, stays, downs, forwards, left left, right right, avoided food, greeted people, napped, been silly.

Time to go home.