CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – A Charleston County teacher is using animals to remind her students they can find peace inside and outside of the classroom.
Jordan Adams is an elementary school counselor and says her job is to make sure her students enjoy coming to school every day. Adams has been the school counselor at Harbor View Elementary for 13 years. Adams says even though she plans her days ahead, she never knows what the day might bring. One of her big focuses for all of her students is social emotional learning.
She says it is important to help students understand complex emotions at an early age before they enter adulthood, which is where the social emotional learning Piggy Project all began.
It started when Adams’ son asked her for a guinea pig during COVID when social distancing was at an all-time high. As an avid animal lover, Adams gave her son the guinea pig Oreo. But she said she couldn’t help but feel the animal was lonely. By the time school began that August, Adams housed three guinea pigs and wanted to share them with the students.
“The school day is a long day,” Adams says. “The kids work really hard, and I want them to love school. They may not love everything about it, but they should enjoy coming to school for the most part. Even if they’re able to just visit with the guinea pigs, if that gets them to the school, it makes my day.”
Adams plans to have the guinea pigs as calming animals for the students as long as she can.
She says her guinea pigs eat quite often and she feeds them mostly hay as a snack. Through budgeting and planning to make sure the program continues, she needs help supplying the pigs with the constant nutrients they need.
Click here to become a Classroom Champion by donating to Adams’ Piggy Project through Donors Choose.
All donations to Donors Choose are tax-deductible. Donors Choose collects your money, then buys the items and sends them to the teacher. This ensures that your donation is used for our area teachers.
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