This project is a multi-faceted and dynamic project with many goals that are achievable with the massive amount of support this project has received! As a school community we recognize that students have many diverse social/emotional needs that must be met before we can expect them to excel academically. Our vision is to help students to meet their needs for communication, belonging, and self-esteem through the introduction of a therapy dog program. For this project, students who would most benefit from this program would be identified by committee. The group would be looking for students who face communication barriers due to trauma, a language barrier, or an educational issue. Afterwards, those targeted students would become part of a research group. They would complete research on the benefits, misconceptions, and requirements of adding such an asset to the school community. The purpose of this research would be to educate the group on proper research paper writing methods including finding valid sources and citing them. The second purpose of this research is to educate/prepare the school community for the addition of this program! Participating students would create a visual display as well as an informational video that would be shared over seesaw and teams, in addition to the paper they would be writing. Throughout this project students would be preparing and learning about this new endeavor while they educate their peers about it as well! Upon the therapy dog’s arrival, students would begin working with the dog and our school social worker as they work towards becoming more confident students!
