The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings January 9, 2018 Decontextualizing – Learning is a journey strewn with boulders   “In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give students a brick of information, followed by another brick, followed by another brick, until they are graduated, at…

Bird Droppings January 8, 2018 Walking and listening among the Cotton Woods   Since starting my breathing treatments for sleep apenea, I awake to vivid dreams on some nights. Today I walked outside briefly as I do listening, observing, trying to understand this reality I am walking about in. The sky was blanketed with clouds…

Bird Droppings January 5, 2018 Caring is a very precious commodity in life And some thoughts from Maxine Greene   As I am pondering my early hours today before getting my day started an article dealing with charter schools and how they exclude many students caught my attention. The air temperature is freezing outside and…

Bird Droppings January 3, 2018 Tripping on a grain of sand and naming your baby Bentley   I was so very close to starting this day with the title of Bentley, however as I thought further some might elude that to a rather pricey car. It was a post on Facebook from a former student…

Bird Droppings January 1, 2017 The fragility of life Mitakuye Oyasin      Hard to believe a year has passed. Early this morning I was awakened a bit early our dog and we both needed to take a potty break. Hearing what I thought was rain and a teenager I assume tearing out of our…

Bird Droppings December 31, 2017 Building Sandcastles drip by drip   It was nearly sixteen years ago when I was physically attending classes in graduate school nearly every day and 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…

Bird Droppings December 26, 2017 A chill in the air but not in the heart   For several days the now we have been at or below freezing in the early mornings which totally silences the crickets and tree frogs who need an ambient temperature a bit more warm maybe high fifties low sixties. So…

Bird Droppings December 24, 2017 How we perceive is often the beginning of the discussion   A dear friend brought up a conversation with a flat earth believer the other day. This person he had been talking with essentially disavowed science in many areas. My son offered is Mars visibly round from a telescope and…