The daily meanderings of a teacher

A journal from a teacher

Apathy is being there and never having really gone

Bird Droppings February 2, 2014 Apathy is being there and never having really gone “The problem isn’t materialism as such. Rather it is the underlying assumption that full satisfaction can arise from gratifying the senses alone. Unlike animals whose quest for happiness is restricted to survival and to the immediate gratification of sensory desires, we…

February 2, 2014
Reconciliation of trust

Bird Droppings January 31, 2014 Reconciliation of trust “It’s the examination of conscience. Unless you examine your conscience, you don’t know what you have to be sorry for and what to confess” Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., S.T.D., Ten Tips for Better Confessions, The Gift of Reconciliation Sort of difficult ending this shortened week with a vocabulary…

January 31, 2014
Sitting thinking of a circle

Bird Droppings January 30, 2014 Sitting thinking of a circle I missed the last rerun of a favorite miniseries, Into the West, and one of these days will find the DVD set. The movie starts and ends with a circle of stones with a line going east to west and one going north to south…

January 30, 2014
How do we know if we are still human?

Bird Droppings January 29, 2014 How do we know if we are still human? Perhaps it is from growing up in a situation where we were daily aware of special needs children and adults from the birth of my younger brother till his passing almost seventeen years ago. Those in my family have had connections…

January 29, 2014
Counting knuckles

Bird Droppings January 28, 2014 Counting knuckles On Monday a student asked what day of the month Friday would be and I responded January 31 and just as quick another said he thought it was the first. I said no it was the thirty first and he proceeded to count his knuckles, “a knuckle has…

January 28, 2014
Planning ahead

Bird Droppings January 27, 2014 Planning ahead “Ten percent of your life is made up of what happens to you and ninety percent is made up of how you react. Therefore we have no control over 10% of what happens to us. We do however have control over the other ninety percent and that is…

January 27, 2014
Can we define our own success?

Bird Droppings January 26, 2014 Can we define our own success? Friday in a teachable moment I drew upon my experiences and while discussing the phylum arthopoda and one of my favorites the black and yellow garden spider, Agriope aurantia, or writing spiders. I then proceeded to offer a Creek Indian view of early morning.…

January 26, 2014
I think we Should be examining the threads of life?

Bird Droppings January 24, 2014 I think we Should be examining the threads of life? “Man did not weave the web of life he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” Chief Seattle, 1854 It has been a few years since I read a National Geographic…

January 24, 2014
A wondering of the moment

Bird Droppings January 23, 2014 A wondering of the moment Nearly ten years ago I received this email from a dear friend. I met Frances when I was a new staff member at Loganville High School in 2001. Frances had been teaching English and had worked with our then principal at the time at a…

January 23, 2014
It is in all the words we find

Bird Droppings January 22, 2014 It is in all the words we find On days when my wife is out of town I can go out and take sunrise photos and wander about as I do with few time restrictions. This past weekend sunrises were very subdued and I was able to sit and watch…

January 22, 2014