New Knowledge or Revisiting the Basics

Having a puppy for one week has taught me a few things:

1) Having an indoor and an outdoor potty plan may prolong house training, but it's my most realistic option. I'm gone too long during the day to expect Max to only "do his business" outside, but when I'm home I would prefer he go outside. So far this is resulting in poop outside (except twice) and when outside is not an option pee inside on the house training pads (except three time). All of his accidents were results of me relaxing a little and veering away from training procedures.

2) Standing in the backyard, at 4:00am, saying "get busy" in your bathrobe while your dog poops is not embarrasing. I repeat, "Standing...."

3) At the end of the day, (come to think of it, at the beginning, in the middle, and all through the night too) he is a puppy.

This new knowledge is useful in the classroom too.

1) Always have an alternate strategy or plan (just in case) and every moment is a teachable moment (don't get caught up in the moment and loose sight of the bigger picture)

2) It's not about me, it's about my students. Do whatever it takes to teach.

3) Throughout the school day and all the hours before and after, they are children (middle school does not mean they have adult reasoning or thought processes).