The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings February 19, 2010 Pondering so many things on a Break Last night I read through numerous posts from an old graduate school online class site. We had a reading from a paper on a program that was developed in the mid 1980’s in California. The program with one teacher in one school was…

Bird Droppings February 17, 2010 Why do we have homework? For the past nine years I have avoided giving homework. Basically I did not like it when I was in high school and secondly if kids can not get it done in class it can wait till tomorrow. Far too often if it is not…

Bird Droppings February 15, 2010 How do we teach? I have been in graduate school now since 2002 and earned two degrees and a third on the way. I will admit an increase in salary was a significant factor although for my master’s degree it was for initial certification. As I started teaching and then…

Bird Droppings February 11, 2010 Greed could be our downfall “That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.” Henry David Thoreau We watch the news and heads of states and heads of companies fall midst the economic crisis. All the while wealth is disappearing I am told. I recall back in 2008 somewhere…

Bird Droppings February 8, 2010 Is it about content or context? “The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. The superficial explanation is that a government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated. Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external…

Bird Droppings February 5, 2010 The paradox of democracy “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead An interesting statement, from a great anthropologist, Mead observed mankind in both civilized and very primitive states. I find this statement striking…

Bird Droppings February 4, 2010 Writing as opposed to only sending a photo “Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” Aldus Huxley In 1965 I was introduced to this author in a tenth grade English Class. The book was Brave New World, written…

Bird Droppings February 3, 2010 Words or lack of words is wisdom “He believes profoundly in silence which is the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit.” Ohiyesa, Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, Santee Sioux Trained as a physician Dr. Charles Eastman was also a profound…

Bird Droppings February 2, 2010 Do you have Imagination? It has been just a few Saturdays back when I went by the high school to check on my menagerie and clean up a bit that as I went in I realized there was something going on in the gym. It turns out that the high…

Bird Droppings January 29, 2010 All in words we find “The farmer channels water to his land. The fletcher whittles his arrows. And the carpenter turns his wood. So the wise direct their mind.” Dhammapada Many years ago there was a folk song entitled, If I were a carpenter, as I read this passage this…