Teacher’s Pet

Our Mellie has loved virtual school for the past year. She loves to come and look for the students when she hears their voices. She is always early for school, and waits for the students to arrive.  

I just finished my last day teaching from home. I’m starting hybrid. Mellie is going to miss the children. She took an interest in virtual class right away. She would hear me (Misty) interacting with the class in our spare bedroom/virtual classroom and come down the hall and look for where the kids’ voices were coming from.  

The kids enjoy her.  They could hear her nails clickety-clacking down the hall to the classroom and the kids would say, “Here comes Mellie.” 

Mellie is a 15-year-old mix from Calvert Animal Rescue League. We adopted her when she was two. 

Mellie hears the kids and looks around for them but can’t figure out where they are, so she is content to lie down and listen to what’s going on. Once, Mellie made off with a math manipulative called a Unifix cube and slipped and fell in the process, the students were both concerned and amused by that.  

Mellie is older and has never been a very demonstrative dog but she knows when class is starting and always makes sure she arrives on time. She does get a bit animated when we play a “brain break” exercise video and the whole class is on their feet dancing around.  

Now that I’m going back to school, Mellie will be invited to make virtual appearances in class via Microsoft Teams from time to time. 

–Misty and Glenn Ellison, North Beach 

Misty is a first-grade teacher at Beach Elementary School in Chesapeake Beach