Is there a teacher to whom you owe a debt of gratitude for their belief in you and your capabilities?

That one teacher for me was Miss Lillian Biard when I attended school at the Navy base inThat one teacher for me was Miss Lillian Biard when I attended school at the Navy base in the Panama Canal Zone. She discovered I liked reading, and her love of teaching her students to read brought her and her students tremendous satisfaction. It was then that I decided to be a teacher like Miss Biard. the Panama Canal Zone. She discovered I liked reading, and her love of teaching her students to read brought her and her students tremendous satisfaction. It was then that I decided to be a teacher like Miss Biard.

After getting a degree in teaching, I discovered that my passion for working in inner-city Portland high schools was a dream come true. Although I had passed my student teaching with flying colors, I soon learned the importance of learning from my students. I set out to practice what I had learned from a book titled Teach Only Love by Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D. Rather than stand in front of a classroom full of students and That one teacher for me was Miss Lillian Biard when I attended school at the Navy base in the Panama Canal Zone. She discovered I liked reading, and her love of teaching her students to read brought her and her students tremendous satisfaction. It was then that I decided to be a teacher like Miss Biard.lecture on what I knew, I started practicing what I had learned from Teach Only Love. My goal became practicing having students leave my classroom knowing they had learned something of value. Rather than skip my classes, students clamored to be seated and ready to learn. (On most days.)

When I was offered a position as vice-principal in a high school located at the strictest juvenile corrections facility for boys in Oregon, I asked for a tour when students were in their classes. I soon realized that many of the boys had similar backgrounds to the ones I had in my classes in Portland. After two years of planning and assessing the different learning styles of the boys, I founded a program, Project POOCH -Positive Opportunities, Obvious Change with Hounds. Sometimes, that one teacher to whom you owe gratitude is a Dog.

Love Unleashed is the remarkable story of how abandoned shelter dogs teach incarcerated boys responsibility, patience, and compassion for all life.

A story about a dog and a boy will be posted on every month’s second and last Saturday

Although I had dogs as a child, I never had one until I met Sasha, a Project POOCH dog. She was a German shepherd mix turned into the Humane Society by her family. She sat in her kennel with her back to visitors, but I wanted to look at her anyway.

The boys were all smiling when I brought her back to campus. She was easy to train and liked the walks around campus; however, she escaped one day when she saw a squirrel running across campus to get to the deserted steam tunnel.

The kennel supervisor came to my office to say they needed help to get Sasha back. One of the many rules on campus is not to run, or security will think there is an escape in progress.

I looked out my office window and saw Sasha near the campus boundary line, so I sprinted to my car to get her since she was not responding to her name. I soon learned that many dogs like to go for car rides, and they will come if they hear their favorite car for fear they will be left behind. Sasha recognized the sound of my car and came running in hopes of a ride.

Sasha’s handler came to me at the end of the day to apologize for letting her get loose and asked if it would be hard to find her a home since she seemed to have a strong prey drive. I soon saw that the bThat one teacher for me was Miss Lillian Biard when I attended school at the Navy base in the Panama Canal Zone. She discovered I liked reading, and her love of teaching her students to read brought her and her students tremendous satisfaction. It was then that I decided to be a teacher like Miss Biard.oys in the program were getting discouraged because they had trained her, but no one was applying her. I took her home for the weekend to get her off campus for a while.

On Monday morning, I wrote the check and filled out the application to adopt Sasha.