The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings October 12, 2016 What is that piece you cannot teach teachers?   “Studies suggest that instructional and management processes are key to effectiveness, but many interview and survey responses about effective teaching emphasize the teacher’s affective characteristics, or social and emotional behaviors, more than pedagogical practice.” James H. Stronge, Qualities of Effective Teachers…

Bird Droppings October 7, 2016 “Teach to where the learning will be not to where it is”   It seems lately the pressure of old age has been weighing on my mind. Today is the first day in some time I felt pretty good it could be it’s a teachers work day no kids running…

Bird Droppings October 6, 2016 Seeing puzzle pieces by being patient   For nearly a week I have been dealing with some blood pressure issues basically feeling sleepy or napping much of the day. Walking upstairs has even been a burden on some days. I have been trying to get medications balanced out and some…

Bird Droppings October 5, 2016 Why are we deliberately trying to be wrong?   I will admit that on a previous Saturday night with a Powerball jackpot of only about one hundred fifty million dollars I was pondering retiring if I won. I think I would be if I won retiring to devote time to…

Bird Droppings October 4, 2016 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 October 3, 2016 Should children be left behind?   “I believe that our own experience instructs us that the secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained, and he only holds the key…

Bird Droppings September 30, 2016 Just an observation   I am that I am. I read that somewhere many years ago a simple definition of one’s self. As I look at its simplicity are we not all who we are? I grew up in a middle class family first in Pennsylvania and now Georgia. In…

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,…

Bird Droppings September 27, 2016 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   Each day as I talk…

Bird Droppings September 26, 2016 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…