The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings October 3, 2017 Is the seat of the soul in the heart or mind?   I believe I was prepared from childhood to discuss this topic. It has been many years since my first introduction to Native Peoples. I was three or four years old when I first remember my father’s stories of…

Bird Droppings September 30, 2017 Can we find learning in the Kalahari Desert?   I was walking about the yard and along the side of our nearby dirt road taking pictures of wildflowers and grasshoppers among other things that I find as ponder. I spent several minutes trying to photograph a seed from a broom…

Bird Droppings September 29, 2017 Who else would have thought of a buffalo snort in the dark?   “Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing…

Bird Droppings September 28, 2016 Why not continue the Journey? “So I’d much rather get across the concept of freedom. It’s what’s important to Indian children. The only way you can be free is to know is that you are worthwhile as a distinct human being. Otherwise you become what the colonizers have designed, and…

Bird Droppings September 27, 2017 Hearing and listening are critical   “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” Epictetus   A simple analogy yet we far too often do not understand that statement and perhaps it is because we have more jaw muscle than…

September 26, 2017 Do we need a bit more soul?   “Soul is different from spirit; the deep soul is the way we live every day, our longings and our fears.” Thomas Moore   It has been nearly twenty years since I first read The Care of the Soul, by Thomas Moore. I picked up…

September 22, 2017 Answers are on the opposite end of questions   “In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tarawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast and that from them, and…

Bird Droppings September 21, 2017 It takes more than one strand to make a rope, in life and in education.   “You cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known as Brotherhood, however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it.” Faith Baldwin   Every day as I talked…

Bird Droppings September 20, 2017 Why we are not succeeding?   Very early this morning I walked out into the chill although not quite as cold as yesterday a few crickets and tree frogs greeted me as I took our dog for her morning reverie. The sky was clear as a bell stars blazing away…

Bird Droppings September 19, 2017  Overcoming learning difficulties   “There are two ways of meeting difficulties. You alter the difficulties or you alter          yourself to meet them.” Phyllis Bottome   I had been working on an IEP or should say finalizing one before a meeting. The student has a reading comprehension deficit.  I was…