Learning to speak dog.

A few years ago I set up a few Google Alerts to keep myself up to date with new ideas, fashions, fads and articles in education and language learning.

Every day I receive a few links in my inbox, most of which I glance at and delete.

Sometimes, one will catch my eye and I will be intrigued.

Today I read "learning to speak canine" a fascinating article from petside by dog trainer, Victoria Schade, in which she tells us that understanding a dog's body language can help to translate its behaviour.

As a dog owner I already knew some of this stuff. But can I really tell how my dogs are feeling?

It got me thinking about my reactions to the behaviour and reactions of the children I teach and asking myself similar questions to those posed by Victoria:

Do I know my students well? Do I know them at all?

Is the yawning student bored? Is it me or the curriculum?

How can I keep the interest of my year 7 students into year 8?

Why do I expect year 12 students to be mature and sensible when they're still 16 years old?

Body language is definitely something I'd like to learn more about.

Although, I've no idea what I'm going to do with the kid with the wet nose who is always scratching himself.