The year I got my pug, Maggie, I brought in a bunch of photos of her to put in my classroom.  Just seeing her sweet face cheered up my day.  I figured that maybe some of my students would feel the same way, so I decided to invite them to bring in photos of their pets. That's when the infamous "Pet Wall" was born, and it's been going strong ever since!
      Each year, the students bring in a photo of their dog, cat, fish, hamster, or any other pet, and add it to the wall.  The photos stay up all year long, and I even keep them up from one year to the next.  The kids just love looking at the pictures!  Sometimes they'll notice an old student of mine who is up on the wall that they know, and it brings a smile to their face.  Often I have a sibling of a new student, so when they arrive in my room, there is already a picture of their pet on the wall-they love that!
     Last year, I had a student bring in a picture of a dog.  I could tell that the picture came from the internet, yet I heard her telling the other students that it was a photo she took of her dog.  I spoke with her later and she told me that it really wasn't her dog, but that she wanted a dog so badly that she pretended that it was hers.  This opened up the door for the two of us to have an amazing conversation, and I told her that if the picture of this dog made her happy, then she should put it up on the wall, but I also encouraged her to tell the class the truth (with me by her side).  She was so brave as she spoke with her classmates, and they, in turn, were empathetic to her deep desire for a dog, and they seemed to understand how she was feeling.  The class also appreciated her honesty and they knew how hard it was for her to admit that she had been lying.  That picture remains on my wall today, and it reminds me of the valuable lessons we all learned that day.
     The Pet Wall- it's such a simple thing, yet it brings so much pleasure!