The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings March 13, 2020 Is there a difference between progressive and traditional teachers?   In a ninth-grade literature class that I happened to co-teach many years ago, I was introduced to the book, Freedom Writers Diary and the film based on the book. In some ways, the story is similar to the story of…

Bird Droppings March 12, 2020 Teaching and life are simply feeding wolves   As I opened my computer this morning a virus leads the news stories. A year ago, the numerous news stories and jokes were addressing the college guidance company that was busted for getting wealthy kids into college for money. Today we are…

Bird Droppings March 11, 2020 Our teaching can make a difference every day   I was looking through data yesterday as I sat through a special education training session. This is an interesting situation. I was reviewing data from a recent benchmark test in biology. An extremely poorly made and designed test that students know…

Bird Droppings March 10, 2020     In light of watching current news and political turmoil I recalled a trip to the Atlanta Zoo. I was approached as I walked up the hill at the Zoo by an elderly man. I had never met this man previously and hope to never meet again. He saw…

Bird Droppings March 9, 2020 Can we teach again a love of learning   This has been a perplexing time of my life. I recall an event, a car wreck in which a young man was killed and his passenger who was a good friend of my youngest son was severely injured. My thoughts rambled…

Bird Droppings March 8, 2020 Religion is what you make of it   “A poor devotee points to the sky and says, ‘God is up there.’ An average devotee says, ‘God dwells in the heart as the Inner Master.’ The best devotee says, ‘God alone is and everything I perceive is a form of God.’”…

Bird Droppings March 6, 2020 The inability of surmounting learning difficulties   It has been a few months since my surgical procedure to repair my Achilles tendon. I have been extremely occupied with school lately testing and IEP’s. I had forgotten that two years or so ago I had four surgeries over about eight weeks.…

Bird Droppings March 5, 2020 Seeking perfection in a world full of mud “I have found there are those who can write and speak fluently and yet do not have anything to say and then there are those who have something to say who may not be so fluent. The big question is who do,…

Bird Droppings March 4, 2020 Teachers! We should always be near the edge.   I remember taking groups hiking in North Georgia and always there is that one person who has to be at the edge of a gorge or edge of the trail dropping two hundred feet down looking over and nearly falling. A…

Bird Droppings March 4, 2020 We need LOVE   Sometimes we so easily use the word love. It gets used daily by many folks and yet do we truly have any conception of what it is we speak. I was just in a conversation and the word love came up, I responded how we each…