The kids in Teresa Owens' class don't do a lot of running and jumping. But that doesn't mean they don't have their own brand of fun.
Owens teaches special education at Kalifornsky Beach Elementary. The five students assigned to her intensive needs class have a range of disabilities, both physical and mental. Some come to class in wheelchairs and move only with the help of teachers and aides. Some stare toward the ceiling, displaying varying degrees of autism and often ignoring other people.
But on days when Owens' special friends attend class, even the most wandering eyes brighten a little.
"He says Nellie and Maggie, but he still won't say Teresa or Mrs. Owens," the teacher confesses as a student walks down the hallway with one of the canine visitors.
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Special education teacher Teresa Owens helps Jon Murphy walk Maggie through the halls of Kalifornsky Beach Elementary School on Tuesday. Maggie, one of Owensą two specially trained golden retrievers, is a familiar face in the school, helping in the intensive needs classes, as well as reading programs.
Photo by Jenni Dillon
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Nellie and Maggie are Owen's golden retrievers -- and an increasingly visible part of the K-Beach community.
The dogs spend most of the day in Owens' classroom, socializing with her students.
"In this classroom, they are motivating, a comfort. They're sensory stimulation for kids that have more intensive physical needs," Owens said.
The warmth, softness and movement offer the students physical interaction they sometimes lack.
"It gives them a sensation they may never experience," Owens said. "We have a lot of medically fragile kids, a lot of kids in wheelchairs. In a small way in our classroom, they get that interaction that a lot of kids get and take for granted."
The dogs also can serve as a form of equipment. In addition to the specialized chairs, floor mats and bean bags that litter the classroom, the dogs also can be used to help position students with mobility disabilities.
For example, Jonathan Johnson, left to his own devices, will crawl across the room on his belly. But under Owens' watchful eye, Johnson can stand up holding onto Maggie.
Sky Brooks doesn't stand, but Owens' will often lay the boy beside cuddly Nellie to let him feel the dog's rhythmic heartbeat and breath.
The dogs also serve as motivation for the students. When the children are reluctant to try something new, time with the dogs is an excellent reward.
"The kids love them. With students with very, very limited movement, we get smiles and laughs when they're kissed on by the dogs," Owens said. "It's amazing to see kids who didn't talk or relate to people talking to animals."
But even with all they do in the special needs classroom, the dogs' services don't stop at Owens' door. In fact, Owens said, they are playing a larger role in the school all the time.
For example, Nellie and Maggie are integral parts of the school's Title 1 program. The remedial math and reading teachers often borrow the dogs as a reward for their students.
Other teachers use the dogs to help calm their classes. One fifth-grade teacher, Owens said, likes to bring the dogs into her classroom after lunch when she reads aloud to her class.
In part, the dogs' presence is a reward to the class for calming down in the boisterous afternoon hours. The dogs also help calm overly active children by providing an energy outlet.
"The kids who are real wiggly can pet them and keep their hands moving, but still concentrate and pay attention," Owens said.
The dogs also are important to the reading program at the school. Students who need extra help or who are afraid to read aloud in front of their peers can use the dogs as practice.
"(The dogs) love the attention, the voice talking to them, being petted," Owens said. "And they're not going to laugh or make jokes or get bored."
Some students, such as Brooke Ansotegui and Alea Perkovich, fourth-graders in Connie Tobin's class, stop by to read just for fun.
"These little girls come in almost every day," Owens said. "They take their recess to come here and read with us, to the dogs and to the students."
"I love to read and I just like coming in here and reading to them and playing with them and stuff," Brooke said.
Alea agreed.
"I love to read also," she said. "And these are really sweet kids. If they have to be in here and do work and stuff, maybe they should have a lot of fun, too."
And then there are the lessons about pets in general. Throughout the day, students from various parts of the school stop by Owens' room to walk and groom the dogs.
"It teaches appreciation for animals, how to care for them," Owens said.
Students learn safe ways to approach people with dogs, how to walk dogs on leashes and how to brush and pet dogs properly.
And these programs are just the beginning, Owens said.
Owens -- and Nellie and Maggie -- joined the K-Beach staff this fall, but all three have been involved with special education most of their lives.
Owens began working with people with disabilities when she was in high school and has been teaching for 18 years.
She was teaching adaptive physical education in Kotzebue when she got Nellie and Maggie, now 4 and 5, respectively.
When the dogs were puppies, she started bringing them for school for walking field trips and outdoor activities -- and things grew from there.
But as many services as the dogs provide at the school, Owens pointed out that not all animals are suited for the classroom.
Nellie and Maggie were both bred as therapeutic dogs. Their breeding makes them especially calm, even for golden retrievers, Owens said.
They also have been through the Pet Partners program sponsored by the Delta Society, which trained them as animal assisted therapy dogs. Owens said that peninsula pet owners who are interested in training their dogs for therapeutic activities should contact the Delta Society for more information before introducing the animals to groups of people.
In addition, Nellie and Maggie have passed a series of puppy obedience classes and taken the Canine Good Citizen test. And, they have spent most of their lives being socialized for the classroom.
"At times, they're stepped on or their tails are yanked and they don't really respond," Owens said.
As she thumbed through a photo album last week, Owens recalled the many programs the dogs worked with in Kotzebue and talked about programs she'd like to set up here.
Most of the programs were similar to the ones now growing at K-Beach. Nearly 160 of the Kotzebue school's 500 students participated in the dog walking program. Remedial reading students read stories to the animals, and Nellie and Maggie worked with intensive needs students, including one who suffered grand mal seizures.
"Nellie could sense when he was going to have one," Owens said. The dog would nudge the boy to sit down and then lay with him through the seizure and until he woke up.
In Kotzebue, the dogs also were part of an incentive program to improve attendance and punctuality. Kids who showed up to school on time, regularly, were allowed to spend time with the animals. And it worked, Owens said.
The dogs also worked with the counseling department, helping upset students open up.
One day, Owens recalled, a girl whose grandfather had died was crying and refused to talk to anyone. Owens offered Maggie to the counselor to help. Telling the crying child that the dog really needed to be brushed, the counselor turned away and pretended to work at her computer.
"She told (Maggie) all about her Tata (grandfather), and after about a half an hour, she stood up and said she was ready to go back to class," Owens said.
Owens said that attendance isn't a problem at K-Beach, but that she has offered the dogs to the counselors there. She also said the dogs will be involved wherever a need arises.
"It's been so successful. Every time I move to a new district, I find a way (to bring the dogs in)," Owens said. "The support from this school has been phenomenal. The principal (Sylvia Reynolds) is extremely supportive and the teachers are very, very supportive.
"So many amazing things happen with a program like this. It's amazing to me that it can be that simple."
