This is Karine Ribeiro. She teaches English at a high school in Brazil.
But earlier this week, her students got a surprise lesson on something else entirely.
Ribeiro taught them what it looks like to be kind.
On Tuesday, Ribeiro was walking into the classroom where her students were assembled when she noticed a random dog was in there, too. Assuming the dog hadn’t joined the class to learn a new language, she asked her students if the pup belonged to any of them.
“They answered, ‘No,’” Ribeiro told The Dodo. “When I saw her, looking lost, my dog-mom instinct kicked in.”
Rather than expel the class-crashing pup, Ribeiro did quite the opposite.
To comfort the little dog, she scooped her up into her arms. Then, she started in on the day’s lesson, hardly missing a beat.
“I thought, ‘What if this was one of my dogs?!’ I would like her to be embraced!” Ribeiro said. “She was very quiet, looking like she was loving the situation.”
One of Ribeiro’s students snapped these photos of their teacher and pup to share with her later on.
After class, Ribeiro was able to solve the mystery surrounding where the dog had come from. Turns out, she’d accompanied a student from another class to school that day, but had wandered into the wrong room. Soon, she and her rightful owner were reunited.
While the day that puppy joined their class will no doubt be remembered by Ribeiro’s students as a funny memory from school, she hopes it might live on as something more impactful, too.
“I adopted two dogs who lived on the street as soon as I moved here,” Ribeiro said. “I always like to teach that we should show care, empathy and respect for pets, especially homeless ones.”