BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I'm a Kindergarten teacher in FL and a first time BTS owner as of August this year. I bought Scooter from Zach to be my class pet, and thanks to your support/advice on this site Scoot is doing great!
A little about Scooter as a class pet (my last thread a lot of people were talking about how cool it would be to have a reptile as a class pet)
On curriculum night when I first met the parents of my soon to be students I introduced Scooter, and the next day at open house about 10 parents told me they spent the rest of their evening after curriculum night researching/looking at photos of BTS. He created such an excitement for my students to come to school! If you asked my students what their favorite part of school is, they will all say "Scooter". When we come back from recess Scooter is almost always out and about, and it creates such a buz in the classroom when the kids see him being silly. We have been at school for almost 10 weeks now and I have just started to let the kids touch/hold him.
I'm going to try and upload some photos to show you just how well this li'l guy has adjusted to Kindergarten. Enjoy

That's so neat! My mother and I have been on the lookout for another blue tongue skink for her classroom too.

Wow - that is so great to hear! Thanks for the update and please post pictures if you get a chance. What a great way to responsibly teach kids about reptiles.

Edit to add - as I was writing this, you were posting pictures! They look gorgeous, he looks like the perfect little classroom character.

He is such a li'l stinker, the one vertical picture he is literally climbing down upside-down between the wall and shelf. Love that li'l guy.

Wow great photos, and what a great story! It is so awesome when kids can learn about things through real life experience! We homeschool our 2 boys and I try to give them as many hands on/life experiences as possible.

i love the pic of him reading the book
what a fun class pet!

I loooove all of the classroom photos of Scooter! It looks (and sounds) like he gets a lot of stimulation and really enjoys it! The shot of him on your desk is my fav.

I am also a teacher and my pets frequently visit school. Amazing how you can use them to support your curriculum. I think if more teachers had pets in their classrooms that kids would be better versed in empathy and responsibility too.

Never had a class pet... It does become a distraction as you become older. Especially animals that make noises.Luckily blueys are not that and it's kindergarten not highschool.

When I was deciding on a class pet, I knew I wanted something exotic. I first looked at chinchillas but they are high maintenance and some have told me they can smell in a classroom (kinda like having a rabbit or hamster) AND they apparently like to chew on stuff -even walls- and I would lose my head if my class pet chewed a hole in our new building.javascript:emoticon(':sweat:') haha.
Then I looked at a hedgehog or maybe a gecko. I was worried a gecko would get squashed with li'l 5 year olds handling it so that was a no. Then I realized they are both nocturnal animals, and the kids wouldn't be able to truly enjoy their pet if it's sleepy all day. javascript:emoticon(':sleepy:')
A BTS makes the PERFECT class pet: Quiet, Low maintenance, No oder, No dander, Hardy (easy to handle) and overall cool!
Monitor Lizard, I agree that a noisy pet would be bad and they are pretty distracting, ESPECIALLY for little ones. High school requires a lot more concentration and focus than a kindergarten classroom though. So distractions are quite common in my class, even without a lizard around

You notice how others do not post on there babys updates (other than mel) no one else really does often?

EDIT:
No breeders post on the babys they've bred when there new owners post about them in there new homes,that i've seen other than mel and one other (I think).

phaemas wrote:You notice how others do not post on there babys updates (other than mel) no one else really does often?

I don't understand what you mean - sorry, can you explain that better? People don't post updates of their skinks or people don't post on threads where people show baby photos?

It sounds like phaemas expects all breeders to comment on every thread that contains the babies they produced.

phaemas wrote:You notice how others do not post on there babys updates (other than mel) no one else really does often?

EDIT:
No breeders post on the babys they've bred when there new owners post about them in there new homes,that i've seen other than mel and one other (I think).

Not all breeders are members of the forum. Example, the people who "bred" your skinks are not posting on your threads?

Also, some people do have lives outside of the forum (obviously I am not one of those people ). I would never expect a breeder of my skinks to comment on my pictures. If they said they wanted to receive updates, then I would take the initiative to send them a personal message with updates.

On the other hand, the breeder who I got my Bouvier from asked (and even required it in the contract) that I send periodic updates on her. I did for the first couple years, but after she stopped responding, I figured it was a waste of my time. So if you ask for updates, you should be respectful enough to comment.