The daily meanderings of a teacher

Tag: Education

  • Education often draws from NOW.

    Bird Droppings October 21, 2024Education often draws from NOW. A few years ago, a teacher offered me a book on curriculum, or she said “Dumbing down of America” by Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld. It has been a few months since I picked this book off the shelf while reading various books at Barnes and Noble, as…

  • How we perceive is often the beginning of the discussion.

    Bird Droppings October 19, 2024How we perceive is often the beginning of the discussion. I had a thought this morning, and it’s depressing. We are basically training our new teachers in all the things that we, as older teachers, find wrong in education. It hit me as we are teaching all these new teachers how…

  • Teaching today is tying a knot with only one hand.

    Bird Droppings October 17, 2024Teaching today is tying a knot with only one hand. It was a Saturday morning a few years back, and no one else was up but me. I was about to go out and wander in the darkness for a bit and remembered the cast on my leg. I did stay…

  • Birddroppings October 14, 2024 Listening to a five-note flute and pondering at a Honda dealer I arise relatively early, even in retirement, on my days off from my part-time teaching. Each morning, I run up to my corner store for conversation and to stock up. I need a couple of Smart water bottles, sometimes the…

  • Looking for synchronous moments

    Birddroppings October 9, 2024 Looking for synchronous moments My first profound encounter with the idea of synchronicity was possibly at Mercer in one of my psychology classes, but I had forgotten about it, in all honesty. The school of psychology at Mercer was more Jungian than Freudian, even though experimental psychology and Skinner’s ideas seeped…

  • Doing what you love is not work, even if you are tired at the end of the day.

    Bird Droppings September 8, 2024Doing what you love is not work, even if you are tired at the end of the day. “To love what you do and feel that it matters, how could anything be more fun?” Katharine Graham I learn something daily as I wander the internet and read books I find along…

  • How capable do we need to be? Should the truth be more valid than a lie? An idea inspired by a student.

    Bird Droppings October 3, 2024 How capable do we need to be? Should the truth be more valid than a lie? An idea inspired by a student. I have listened to each of the debates and came away feeling how we could have gotten to this point. Most recently, one of the debaters was stopped…

  • Do we listen to what we say in our word salads?

    Birddroppings October 2, 2024 Do we listen to what we say in our word salads? “Before you speak, ask yourself, is it kind, is it necessary, and is it true, does it improve on the silence?” Hindu proverb So, I often speak first and clean up afterward, simply walking away quite generally, leaving whoever I…

  • Quietly listening to Hot Tuna and pondering the word inspiration.

    Bird Droppings September 30, 2024 Quietly listening to Hot Tuna and pondering the word inspiration. Every once in a while, I throw on Hot Tuna, an acoustic blues duo made up of former Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy. I highly recommend it when you get a moment to listen to them. A…

  • Why are we deliberately wrong in education so often?

    Bird Droppings September 29, 2024 Why are we deliberately wrong in education so often? I stopped playing the lottery unless Powerball is over 100 million. I will admit that I am pondering retiring with a Powerball jackpot of nearly three hundred million dollars. I might need to play my numbers. I would fund educational programs…