Bird Droppings June 17, 2015 Trying 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…

Bird Droppings June 16, 2015 What is the Sixteen Hour Syndrome and should embrace it or find a cure? I was teaching last night a college class and in the process played with a word that I saw online in a Martin Luther King Jr. quote a friend had posted. “A nation that will keep…

Bird Droppings June 15, 2015 I am always thinking about where I am going “Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path… this is what I must do; this is what I’ve got to have. This is who I am. It’s important to ask yourself, how am I useful to others?…

Bird Droppings June 13, 2015 I wonder what my favorite store is; Then again is it even important? Interesting two thoughts while similar struck me this morning as I started the day out. One I heard on the radio going to get some air in my wife’s tire in her car from a radio announcer…

Bird Droppings June 12, 2015 Teaching and or 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu I will be having my fifteenth first day of school at this high school. I will just assume it will not be as tense and hectic as my first on September 11, 2001. I began the day thinking back…

Bird Droppings June 11, 2015 A quick reflection this beautiful day, thinking of others and a dear friend “I think that empathy is important not only as a means of enhancing compassion, but I think that generally speaking when dealing with others on any level, if you are having difficulties, it’s extremely helpful to be…

Bird Droppings June 10, 2015 I am always searching for the ends of a bell-shaped curve I was reminded as former students came by at our last Open House of how we as teacher’s impact lives. Students are so much more than test scores and grades. So much more than content we teach. I was joking…

Bird Droppings June 9, 2015 Wondering is a powerful tool Several years back during the school year we started sort of a school-wide vocabulary of the week I was reminded of this as I was looking through my various files for quotes and such. About three years ago as the day wound down an email…

Bird Droppings June 7, 2015 Don’t cross word puzzles take some time? Towards the end of my last History class that I teach 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 in…

Bird Droppings June 6, 2015 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. Garrett, Meditations with…