The daily meanderings of a teacher

Author: birddroppings

  • Thinking about where I am going

    Bird Droppings September 11, 2010 Thinking about where I am going “Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path… this is what I must do; this is what I’ve got to have. This is who I am. It’s important to ask yourself, how am I useful to others? What do people…

  • Culture is far more than just a word

    Bird Droppings September 9, 2010 Culture is far more than just a word “Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and granting a space of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regardful of the rule that thought comes before speech. In the midst of sorrow, sickness, death or misfortune of…

  • Our wonderful world of paradox and confusion

    Bird Droppings September 8, 2010 Our wonderful world of paradox and confusion “What can we surmise about the likelihood of someone’s being caring and generous, loving and helpful, just from knowing that they are a believer? Virtually nothing, say psychologists, sociologists, and others who have studied that question for decades.” Alfie Kohn Yesterday in my…

  • Teaching can be successful

    Bird Droppings September 7, 2010 Teaching can be successful “The first object of any act of learning, over and beyond the pleasure it may give, is that it should serve us in the future. Learning should not only take us somewhere; it should allow us later to go further more easily.” Ted Sizer I received…

  • Why do we not consider people first?

    Bird Droppings September 4, 2010 Why do we not consider people first? You would think that with a three day weekend I could get caught up do some writing and perhaps even get a bit of work done for school but unforeseen events always seem to crop up. Saturday was predominantly family time and a…

  • Routines

    Bird Droppings September 3, 2010 Routines We are all creatures of habit and routines. It has been a few years ago that my wife called to me in the wee hours of the morning as I was starting to write, our son was sick. A virus had struck hard but non the less he was…

  • Progress and Success

    Bird Droppings September 2, 2010 Progress and Success “Most of the people we call successful are not twice as smart, or twice as able, as the rest of the field. Indeed, if they are only 10 percent more proficient, this is generally more than enough to give them a consistent edge.” Sydney J. Harris, Strictly…

  • Dreams

    Bird Droppings September 1, 2010 Dreams “You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.” Richard Bach It has been so many years since first experiencing Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Bach’s whimsical tale of a seagull who dreams of more than…

  • Wishing and wondering and waitiing

    Bird Droppings August 31, 2010 Wishing and wondering and waiting “Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves.” William Davenant It has been nearly four years since we moved last and found ourselves in this house. I wasn’t sure from where to start several ideas have been running through my thinking…

  • Please think about tomorrow

    Bird Droppings August 30, 2010 Please think about tomorrow I was sitting in my class room when one of my students asked would I sell an ear phone for a cell phone for twenty dollars. I responded probably not but I told them and directed them to the local Wal-Mart where they could buy one…