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In a world of data, can we still use intuition?
Bird Droppings June 2, 2025In a world of data, can we still use intuition? Two years ago, I spent the better part of the week either sitting on or walking on the beach at Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Whenever my wife and I go, we ensure we see the sunrise every morning. It was supposed…
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Constructivism, Montessori, Piaget, Vygotsky, Dewey, and others
Bird Droppings May 31, 2025 Constructivism, Montessori, Piaget, Vygotsky, Dewey, and others Friday, five years ago, I had a heart pacemaker installed. It will be charged for eight to ten years, and I feel considerably better. My heart rate had been going as low as thirty-six and fluctuating throughout the day. I was constantly fatigued…
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Teaching and or 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu
Bird Droppings June 16, 2022Teaching and or 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu After returning from taking pictures, I walked into the house after running a few errands and sat down to write. I will assume retirement will not be as tense and hectic as my first day teaching high school on September…
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Keeping the stories going, remembering a dear friend
Bird Droppings May 29, 2025Keeping the stories going, remembering a dear friend For years, I would visit, take photos, and offer my two cents at the Foxfire Approach to Teaching Course, hosted by Piedmont College for graduate students and teachers already in Mountain City, Georgia, classroom. This course was an elective graduate class in Piedmont…
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Why should we do more?
Bird Droppings May 28, 2025Why should we do more? “Choices are sacred to life’s journey. They lie along the path that all of us must follow for ourselves. An important Cherokee lesson is that if you involve yourself in any decision, you also experience the consequences of that decision.” Dr. J.T. Garrett, Meditations with the…
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Bird Droppings May 26, 2025 My two dads are always on my mind and in my heart I was standing outside on this moonless night, gazing at the clouds sliding quietly in the night. A chorus of tree frogs and crickets kept me company in the dark. It’s coming up to summer, and the ambient…
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Is the curriculum sacred?
Bird Droppings May 26, 2025Is the curriculum sacred? Today is Memorial Day, and we honor our fathers, grandfathers, mothers, and grandmothers who have served our country. As I drove around this morning, I pondered my dad and his stories of World War II. He was a medic on an LSM in the South Pacific and…
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Bird Droppings May 24, 2025 To die a happy death: I taught high school for nearly twenty years, and after summer break, another year ahead, hopefully doing some part-time work. I am starting my writing day a bit later than normal since we had grandbabies over and I am plum tuckered out. Over the past…
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Individuality can be a lonely journey for some of us, a lifelong pathway.
Bird Droppings May 23, 2025Individuality can be a lonely journey for some of us, a lifelong pathway. It was fifteen years ago that I walked out about 1:30 AM this morning, taking our westie for her constitutional, and off in the pines that are within a hundred feet of our house, several hundred acres of…
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Cultivating the inner self
Bird Droppings May 22, 2025Cultivating the inner self “If people find no room in their lives to pray or to meditate, to reflect deeply on why they have been created and what they must do with their lives, and to listen with all of their being to the guidance of the universe, then these people…
The daily meanderings of a teacher 