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Ponderingerest is that even a word?
Bird Droppings September 2, 2025 Ponderingerest is that even a word? Coming up are some exciting days. One is an interesting yet solemn day marked by dark memories; twenty-four years ago, I started teaching again after a twenty-three-year layoff; thirty-six years ago, we brought a new baby home. So many memories are coming up this…
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It is about understanding
Bird Droppings August 31, 2025 It is about understanding I started back to school, and it has been a struggle getting a pace set for three classes and then doing an internship as well. One of my classes is a reading diagnostic class, and the subject of decoding, but not understanding, came up. I read…
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Being reborn so often takes a religious twist. I see it as listening with the heart.
Bird Droppings August 29, 2025 Being reborn so often takes a religious twist. I see it as listening with the heart. So often in life, we hear words, rationalize those utterances, develop an opinion, and then logically state a response. I returned to a conversation discussing existentialism with my granddaughter one night nearly eleven years…
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Teaching as improvisational art using learning as the palette
Bird Droppings August 28, 2025 Teaching as improvisational art using learning as the palette I wrote the basics of this article nearly sixteen years ago and thought of an artist friend, now a computer programmer, trying to define her art and searching for her meaning in life. My friend often reflected on her political views…
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Can we use the word sacred truthfully?
Bird Droppings August 27, 2025Can we use the word sacred truthfully? “Teachers who do not take their own education seriously, who do not study, who make little effort to keep abreast of events have no moral authority to coordinate the activities of the classroom.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom I have been a student and…
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Why do we have public education? So we can educate all our Children.
Bird Droppings August 23, 2025Why do we have public education? So we can educate all our Children. For all teachers, today is a day of action. Stand up for what you believe in. I read an article that references children simply as others yesterday. The way a profiteer looks at children is as entities, simply…
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Driving up a mountain takes effort
Bird Droppings August 22, 2025Driving up a mountain takes effort. I am looking forward to another trip to Black Rock Mountain in North Georgia, the site of the Foxfire Museum property and the former site of Piedmont College’s teacher’s class in The Foxfire Approach to teaching. My oldest son took the course as part of…
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What do teachers know?
Bird Droppings August 20, 2025What do teachers know? Teachers are one of the nation’s most important resources for providing the skills, values, and knowledge that prepare young people for productive citizenship – but more than this, to give sanctuary to their dreams and aspirations for a future of hope, dignity, and justice. It is indeed…
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Is it a paradox that sometimes small can be big?
Bird Droppings August 19, 2025Is it a paradox that sometimes small can be big? August has been a slow month for sunrises, with clouds and fog nearly every morning. Somehow, between the clouds and even in the fog, I have found images worthy of a photo. Finding the tiny pieces within our existence is a…
The daily meanderings of a teacher 