The daily meanderings of a teacher

Category: The Foxfire Approach to Teaching

  • What about routines?

    Bird Droppings September 1, 2016 What about routines?   We are all creatures of habit and routines. It has been quite a few years ago that my wife called to me in the wee hours of the morning as I was starting to write, our youngest son was sick. A virus had struck hard but…

  • Can we find learning in the Kalahari Desert?

    Bird Droppings August 31, 2016 Can we find learning in the Kalahari Desert? Yesterday afternoon I was walking about the yard and along the side of our nearby dirt road taking pictures of wildflowers and grasshoppers among other things that I find as ponder. I spent several minutes trying to photograph a seed from a…

  • Who would have thought of a buffalo snort in the dark?

      Bird Droppings August 30, 2016 Who would have thought of a buffalo snort in the dark?               “Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for           the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible…

  • What does it take for the light bulb to go off?

    Bird Droppings August 29, 2016 What does it take for the light bulb to go off?   It has been nearly nine years since my doctoral cohort at Georgia Southern ended and we began the journey on our own. For a couple semesters I was a member of a new cohort at Piedmont College and…

  • How capable do we need to be?

    Bird Droppings August 28, 2016 How capable do we need to be?   What a contrast to only a few weeks ago as the sun was shining and the moon was full as I went out in the wee hours with a crystal clear sky. There was a gentle wind blowing, wind chimes ringing peacefully…

  • Checking the toes for mittens

    Bird Droppings August 27, 2016 Bird Droppings August 27, 2016 Checking the toes for mittens   It has been some time since one of my granddaughters was showing off her new hat and mittens. It was quite a sight clad in a t-shirt, diaper, mittens and ski cap that looked like a penguin she was…

  • Our perceptions vary greatly about life

    Bird Droppings August 26, 2016 Our perceptions vary greatly about life   “Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.” Irving Berlin   It was sixteen years ago I was waiting to go teach again after having spent nearly twenty three years in the publishing business. I was…

  • A community requires contributions of self

    Bird Droppings August 25, 2016 A community requires contributions of self   We have become a world of self-centered egotists which I know is a generalization of perhaps a bit too much. However in education building an educational school community has consistently been shown to improve schools effectiveness yet we always seem to turn in…

  • Definitely teaching can be successful

    Bird Droppings August 24, 2016 Definitely teaching can be successful   So as I do on many mornings when I get the time I walked out to a quiet corner of my back yard. Nestled in a patch of weeds and brush I laid claim to my quiet spot and look toward the east in…

  • Culture is far more than just a word

    Bird Droppings August 23, 2016 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…