The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings December 21, 2020 Waiting for a miracle I wrote this piece nearly ten years ago and it still has a place in my heart. Miracle is a word used often by people of faith. It is an explanation for things that happen with no apparent cause and or rationale. It seems we all…

Bird Droppings December 19, 2020Seeking perfection all the while mired in sterile mud It has been a quite a few years since my students were nonverbal. Back in the day as my youngest son will say, I worked in private and residential programs. My students were considered severe and profoundly mentally impaired. Other words were…

Bird Droppings December 18, 2020Can you give it one more try? “You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out, but you gotta suit up for them all.” Satchel Paige often attributed to J. Askenberg It is end of semester test time in most counties. When I was teaching, I would judge seasons…

Bird Droppings December 17, 2020It is the small pieces that seriously matter “Until you can clearly see each piece of the puzzle you will never be able to understand the whole.” Frank Bird, grandfather, teacher and ponderer I am sitting here on the last week before Christmas in Between Georgia a long way from my…

Bird Droppings December 16, 2020 Teaching is ninety nine percent example I walked out a few minutes ago to get a bit of solitude. That has been hard over the holidays this year. So, it is coming in tiny increments a few moments here and there. I sat on my back porch listening to a…

Bird Droppings December 15, 2020Where is the passion? I was sitting facing a rising sun thankful for a new day yesterday a few days past, the first sunlight in many mornings. It was ironic as I was sitting on an overturned five-gallon plastic bucket next to a small circle of smooth river rocks facing east,…

Bird Droppings December 14, 2020 Building Sandcastles drip by drip It was nearly twenty years ago when I was physically attending classes in graduate school nearly every day, just before switching to Internet classes and WebCT. This took some getting used to going to school and then going to teach school. I was teaching from…

Bird Droppings December 13, 2020Longing for the simplicity I was thinking back a few years around this time. My reading and writing were taking a beating with getting ready for the end of the semester, a trip to North Carolina for a new grandbaby, and driving my wife to and from work since she broke…

Bird Droppings December 12, 2020Is there topsoil left midst an erosion of soul? “To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.” Simone Weil “The need for roots,” I saw this idea earlier as I web surfed thinking and pondering this morning or perhaps as I was scrolling…

Bird Droppings December 11, 2020 It is about random acts of kindness I was a bit earlier than I planned to get started this morning. I got up this morning fixed breakfast and my wife’s lunch and sat down to watch the news. As soon as Pat left, I dozed off. It was close enough…