The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings June 13, 2023Life is making a quilt. Nearly sixteen years ago, my wife told me that my mother said this would be a joyous time as we celebrated my father’s life on a Sunday. She said we even have a snow cone machine, and I thought it gets hot in Georgia on an…

Bird Droppings June 9, 2023Teaching 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 June 8, 2023Wondering is a powerful tool. Several years back, we started a school-wide vocabulary of the week during the school year. I was reminded of this as I looked through my various files for quotes. About six years ago, as the day wound down, an email from the head of the English…

Bird Droppings June 7, 2023Can you be dreaming, imagining, thinking, ponderingand reflecting all in a few minutes? I drove to southeast Georgia nearly thirteen 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 June 5, 2023Keeping the stories going remembering a dear friend For years, I would visit, take photos and offer my two cents at the Foxfire Approach to Teaching Course by Piedmont College for graduate students and teachers already in the Mountain City, Georgia classroom. This course had been an elective graduate class of…

Bird Droppings June 3, 2023Trying 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 June 1, 2023Searching for a flower, the butterfly pea (Clitoria marina), or is it gone now Interestingly, I had two thoughts earlier in the week as I started the day that made me think of them. One I heard on the radio going to get some gas in my wife’s car from a…

Morning Bird Droppings May 31, 2023I am trying to regurgitate a previous day’s thought Nine years ago, my youngest son was in a level one trauma center and was to be moved to a rehab facility. It just hit me with all the news of how lucky we can be sometimes. After sitting down at…

Bird Droppings May 30, 2023 Being reborn is listening with the heart So often in life, we hear words, rationalize those utterances, develop an opinion, and then logically state a response. I returned to a conversation discussing existentialism with my granddaughter one night nearly eleven years ago as she cooed and babbled, trying her best…

Bird Droppings May 21, 2023 Is there a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln Perhaps some people are inherently grouchy in the scheme of things; by Lincoln’s view, they want to be grouchy. Sitting here pondering…