Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for September 21, 2006 CAN YOU SAY "RUFF"?

I don't know if this stuff is "cute" or "scary"?

They spend "thousands" to train the dog...a couple of bucks to train the teacher..."not to mess up the dog"...

Gotta a question...who's butt gets fired if the sweet little darlings don't make AYP...the one that walks on two legs or the one that walks on four legs?

From the Tucson Citizen...

Canine's 'personality' brings out best in children

Konstantinos Kalaitzidis
Tucson Citizen

Mr. T is a different kind of "speech therapist."

He walks on all fours, is very hairy and has a cold, wet nose.

And when he enters a classroom, kids run and hug him, just like the preschoolers at Cottonwood Elementary School did on Wednesday.

He's so popular that when Mike Bloker, the real Vail Unified School District speech and language therapist, walks into the room, he's ignored.

But Bloker doesn't mind.

Bloker, 60, is using his canine companion to help children overcome speech and language problems.

"This dog brings out the best in people," Bloker said. "A little girl in a class could not say a word, but working with the dog, things changed. We walked in and she jumped up and said, 'Mr. T, here,' then pointed at herself (and) signed the word for more. And that was the first time we got more than one word out of her."

Teachers have also seen wonderful results.

"I have witnessed him (Mr. T) bring words out of kids that never talked," said Kim Bakarich, 27, a Vail preschool teacher. "The children interact a lot more, especially those that are reserved. He brings out their personality."

Kim Clark, 39, also a preschool teacher, said, "The children want to be here when they know that he is going to be here. There are some kids that are afraid of dogs, but not of Mr. T because of his personality."

Bloker, a full-time speech and language teacher at Vail, came up with the idea of using a canine companion to help him in teaching during a conference in New Mexico last year.

"I had attended a conference in New Mexico on speech therapy, and it was there that the thought of using dogs came up," Bloker said.

He came in contact with Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit organization based in California.

In May, Bloker went for a two-week training session in Oceanside, Calif.

"It was very intensive training," Bloker said. "They trained us so we would not mess up the dog."

CCI trained Mr. T. (whose real name is Terren), a mixed breed golden retriever and Labrador retriever.

"He will respond on command, making children talk to him and give him commands," Bloker said. "This is the greatest thing. I would love to see this program expanded. We can certainly have more service dogs."

Bloker said it cost him $100 to adopt Mr. T, even though it cost several thousand dollars to train him.

"I have always been interested in service work. Both me and my wife Paula (a teacher in the Vail School District's Desert Sky Middle School) were in the Peace Corps," Bloker said.