The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings March 16, 2010 Endeavor to persevere “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein How do you teach perseverance, that stick-to-itiveness that can be a part of the human experience? I watch many teachers flounder when students leave that realm of attention and then teachers…

Bird Droppings March 15, 2010 Searching for freedom “Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom and dignity. It is not enough, as communist systems have assumed, merely to provide people with food, shelter and clothing. Human nature needs to breathe the precious air of liberty.” His…

Bird Droppings March 12, 2010 The courage to teach “Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one’s inwardness, for better or for worse. As I teach, I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subjects, and our way of being together. The entanglements I experience in the classroom are often no…

Bird Droppings March 11, 2010 Wouldn’t it be great if we could script great teachers? As I watched the several various movies about teachers over the past few weeks it recently it hit me, wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow provide a package for teaching, write that perfect script anyone could follow and…

Bird Droppings March 10, 2010 Trying to raise a Flag Growing up as a child I recall the many stories my father would tell, stories of World War II, of Grandpa Niper, and my favorite stories of Native American warriors and chiefs. I am amused as my youngest son says back in the day. One…

Bird Droppings March 9, 2010 Having a heart “There are four bases of sympathy: charity, kind speech, doing a good turn, and treating all alike.” Buddha, From the Sayings of the Buddha Yesterday I worked with students expressing a news article in a visual form be that a drawing, power point, poster or any visual…

Bird Droppings March 8, 2010 Setting the example I received an email many months and many nights ago from a friend in Pa., referring to comments I had made, she borrowed from scripture and how a house should be built upon a solid base. She was talking about how we get children to learn to…

Bird Droppings March 7, 2010 Sometimes others see us Earlier in the day I was communicating with some friends in New York and the idea of example being the best teacher came up. So often the opposite can be said and example also can be the anti-teacher and children learn what perhaps they should not…

Bird Droppings March 5, 2010 Dropping a feather “If we consider the eagle feather with its light and dark colors, we could argue that ‘the dark colors are more beautiful and, therefore, naturally more valuable,’ or vice versa. Regardless of which colors are more beautiful, or necessary, or valuable, the truth is the bottom line:…

Bird Droppings March 4, 2010 Do we fail ourselves? “One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.” John W. Gardner A topic that continues to bother me is, why do new teachers after a semester stop being creative and imaginative and full of vitality. In…