As soon as I put him in his carrier tank, the pit in my stomach planted itself. He was going crazy. All I could hear was this little gecko bouncing off the walls. Maybe traveling with him isn't going to be the piece of cake I thought it would be?
Music off and the only sound in my car is a tiny reptile body smacking against plastic. Then silence. Was he dead? My heart stopped. At the light, I peaked under the t-shirt I had covering his carrier. The shock of seeing his tail detached from his body pulsed through me like lightening.
A little gecko background: It is quite common for crested geckos to "drop" their tales under stress. This is a survival adaption, where in the wild they can run while their tale, still wiggling, will distract the predator. So now I have a gecko and a tail, and a class of twenty students very excited to meet their new class pet. What was I going to do?
The only thing a teacher could do, "teachable moment"! Why do geckos drop their tails? Let's do some research. We spent Morning Meeting talking about crested geckos. I didn't know anything about them, but now I'm a crested gecko expert. After some research, we needed a name. The suggestions spanned from Bob to Tumbles to Wobbles. Then a student raised his hand to suggest Timber. I was in LOVE. The name had to be Timber. How am I going to make this vote sway my way? Good thing teaching second grade isn't the democracy I pretend is it, because his name was definitely not going to be Bob.
TIMBER is a constant source of writing inspiration for us. When teaching writer's workshop inspiration is everything! Even my "I don't know what to write" students have something to say about Timber. In fact, I have a million blog ideas because of Timber, but I'm going to save them for another day.
Click to read about what my students have to say about Timber!
Timber Posts
#TimbertheGecko
The only thing a teacher could do, "teachable moment"! Why do geckos drop their tails? Let's do some research. We spent Morning Meeting talking about crested geckos. I didn't know anything about them, but now I'm a crested gecko expert. After some research, we needed a name. The suggestions spanned from Bob to Tumbles to Wobbles. Then a student raised his hand to suggest Timber. I was in LOVE. The name had to be Timber. How am I going to make this vote sway my way? Good thing teaching second grade isn't the democracy I pretend is it, because his name was definitely not going to be Bob.
TIMBER is a constant source of writing inspiration for us. When teaching writer's workshop inspiration is everything! Even my "I don't know what to write" students have something to say about Timber. In fact, I have a million blog ideas because of Timber, but I'm going to save them for another day.
Click to read about what my students have to say about Timber!
Timber Posts
#TimbertheGecko
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