Most of the classrooms at Ascher Silberstein Elementary School in Dallas ISD have desks. The ‘Critter Room’ has tanks and cages.
“Who wants to hold this one?” Principal Erika ‘Dr. Paz’ Pasieczny asked holding a snake. “You’re going to be very suavecito with him too, ok?”
The Critter Room came to be after Pasieczny noticed loose dogs running around the school campus.
“I thought that the best way to help the community would be to start helping the kids learn how to best care for their pets,” Pasieczny said. “So it started with one pet, and then two pets, and before I knew it, I had a classroom full of pets!”
The pets include snakes, a chameleon, parakeets, guinea pigs, a hedgehog, a bearded dragon, and more.
“The bearded dragon, it just makes me happy being around him,” 5th grader Aileen Salas said. “When he climbs up me, it just feels like a warm hug with no fur.”
The school’s 5th graders take care of the animals in the Critter Room.
This month, the school added a large chicken coop with a variety of chickens that lay eggs daily. There are also raised garden beds for students to learn how to grow flowers and food. It’s a rural oasis in a south Dallas urban school.
“It just makes well-rounded students,” Pasieczny said. “A lot of times our students, they’re learning curriculum, but they also need to learn practical application and these are skills they’re going to take with them their entire life.”
Pasieczny says the experience goes beyond traditional learning. It makes students excited to come to school.
“Kids that have emotional stress, or they’re just really angry or frustrated…or have high anxiety,” Pasieczny said. “The promise of coming and spending time with the animals really helps, so it’s also for social and emotional learning.”
