The daily meanderings of a teacher

Bird Droppings May 9, 2021Filling cracks in leaky pots Many thousands of years ago Buddha compared people to four kinds of clay vessels. Borrowing these words today as I am thinking to several days lost with the current pandemic. I have been disrupted from my normal routine of teaching, writing and doing things around the…

Bird Droppings May 7, 2021 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 in the scheme of things there are people who are inherently grouchy and or by Lincoln’s view they simply want to…

Bird Droppings May 6, 2021 Can we die a happy death? Perhaps it was the passing of my mother that pulled me to this idea. It may be the passing of so many former high school friends. It makes me wonder why I am writing about a specific topic although often it is something simply…

Bird Droppings May 5, 2021We should many times question our questions? Yesterday I was sitting in my computer area after a week or two of articles and innuendos about who and why Georgia students in high school and middle schools across the state do so poorly on certain mandatory tests. These are Georgia’s version of…

Bird Droppings May 4, 2021Being reborn is listening with the heart. So often in life we tend to hear words and then we rationalize those utterances, develop an opinion and then in some cases logically state a response. I got thinking back to a conversation sitting discussing existentialism with my granddaughter a few nights back,…

Bird Droppings May 3, 2021Occasionally we need to learn again about the Rock and the Smoke High school students always ask questions about religion. As we get into evolution especially in biology. Occasionally I get someone who wants to prove a point. A young lady brought in her father’s sermon on creation and how the…

Bird Droppings May 1, 2021Trooper, pondering, remembering and digesting the stories Forty nine years ago I was a student at Mercer University in Macon Georgia. I had moved south only a few months before from Pennsylvania. Macon was new to me and I will admit I was a bit naive at the time. In the…

Bird Droppings April 30, 2021Should we sharpen the machete or bring a shovel? I have been reflecting over the concept of critical pedagogy and in that reflection, I recall an incident nearly forty years ago that calls to mind my own interpretation and understanding of what we as teachers are all about. I purchased a…

Bird Droppings April 29, 2021It is not always all in a name On February 3, 2003, I officially started calling daily emailing and journaling Bird Droppings. I went back in my files and pulled up a few old thoughts and ideas. Along with my new name in 2003 some other bits and pieces as I…

Bird Droppings April 28, 2021A rock flower and song A journey begins with a step and apathy begins with turning your back and saying I don’t care. Before we left school for the virus last year I had my last IEP of the year. I recall my laptop was acting weirder than normal and all…