The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings January 31, 2021Today is day one or so I am told Feeling old today now that I am working on my seventieth first year it is raining outside, my bones are aching. I remember nearly fifteen years ago as we got closer to the last day in our old house it was appropriately…

Bird Droppings January 30, 2021Reconciliation of trust “It’s the examination of conscience. Unless you examine your conscience, you don’t know what you have to be sorry for and what to confess” Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., S.T.D., Ten Tips for Better Confessions, The Gift of Reconciliation Sort of difficult ending the week with a vocabulary word and…

Bird Droppings January 29, 2021 Counting knuckles is that considered totally normal?  One of my students asked a few years back what day of the month the following Friday would be, and I responded January 30. Just as quick another said he thought it was the first. I said no it was the thirty first…

Bird Droppings January 28, 2021Gratitude is an action “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” Chief Seattle, 1854 A few months back on most mornings I was driving to…

Bird Droppings January 26, 2021 All in the words we choose to find Over the years I have been a fan of singer song writers. There are many I could list but one eluded me for some time, Tom Petty. I knew the name and I could tell you that was a heartbreaker song but…

Bird Droppings January 25, 2021 I am just sitting, pondering and thinking while wiping away a tear or two It was several years ago that I was outside early as a great horned owl was irritating our dog keeping her up. It seems it was more than one as around me several were calling back…

Bird Droppings January 24, 2021Taking small steps “Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great   ambitions.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow How many times are we told “take your time”? So often in life we are anxious to get the job finished or to get to the top today. We…

Bird Droppings January 23, 2021Why do we fail? Many times, I have wondered why people stop learning. I see it in high school students, in college and graduate students. Almost as if a switch is thrown and poof no more learning, I have reached my limit seems t be the mantra. I was reading today…

Bird Droppings January 22, 2021 Sailing off the edge and or thinking out of a box I was thinking back nearly twelve years when history was made as a new president was sworn in and as one of my students came into class and asked to start working on his assignments. I did not beg…

Bird Droppings January 21, 2021 Horses and Trains and learning It has been many years since I last rode on a train. I mean a serious train going more than the distance between concourses at an airport. Years ago, when I lived in the Philadelphia area, we all used mass transit to commute, to go…