The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings June 11, 2024 Grandparenting/Teaching is telling our students and grandchildren the stories. I have been lazy lately. Actually, some of my grandchildren spent the weekend and wore me out. My youngest grandson is four, and he has started asking how and why questions. So often in preschool and kindergarten, children are made to…

Bird Droppings June 6, 2024This thought has crossed my mind lately. Are we experiencing genocide of learning? Lately, in the midst of my daily journal entries, it has been getting hectic. I am trying to finish my dissertation, an eighteen-year project. It has been a few years since the Foxfire teachers program was discontinued. I…

Bird Droppings June 5, 2024Don’t crossword puzzles take some time? Towards the end of my last history class that I taught in college, one of my students was working on a particular assignment and had to define bias. She was not sure which definition was correct and asked my opinion. I explained that in history,…

Bird Droppings June 3, 2024As teachers and leaners why should we do more? “Choices are sacred to life’s journey. They lie along the path that all of us must follow for ourselves. An important Cherokee lesson is that if you involve yourself in any decision, you also experience the consequences of that decision.” Dr. J.T.…

Bird Droppings June 2, 2024Do we, as teachers, build doors or walls? I enjoy arriving at school while the stars are still shining overhead; something about the darkness is peaceful for me. I can remember when my youngest rode to school with me; he was not quite as big a fan of mornings and pre-sunrises…

Bird Droppings May 31, 2024Learning and teaching are not the same and yet intertwine. “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.” Dr. Mortimer J. Adler Dr. Adler founded the Center for the Study of…

Bird Droppings May 30, 2024Teaching in a spiritual sense “Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it’s never living apart from oneself. Not about the absence of other people – it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others.” Parker Palmer Dr. Parker Palmer is an…

Bird Droppings May 29, 2024Can you be dreaming, imagining, thinking, ponderingAnd reflecting all in a few minutes? I drove to southeast Georgia nearly sixteen years ago to take my oral exams for my doctorate. This was a face-to-face follow-up with my committee of professors and, in turn, responding to my three written questions, which were…

Bird Droppings May 28, 2024Trying to teach an unteachable child “Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.” John F. Kennedy As I…

Bird Droppings May 27, 2024 A few words (81 quotes) from famous people on Education A number of years ago I went looking for quotes on education as I was writing one morning happened to be June 8, 2004. As I gathered these together, I thought to myself one day I will share these with…