The daily meanderings of a teacher

Tag: John W. Gardner

  • Sometimes we can offer a sigh of relief

    Bird Droppings November 10, 2011 Sometimes we can offer a sigh of relief “It is about learning not about teaching.” Dr. Max Thompson A semester is nearing the end and my daily journey for this semester will end. But it is a relief in some ways. While I have really enjoyed the classes, students and…

  • Teaching the unteachable child

    Bird Droppings September 14, 2011 Teaching the un-teachable 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 I was working…

  • Why do we fail?

    Bird Droppings August 30, 2011 Why do we fail? Many the time, I wonder why people stop learning. I see it in high school students and in college and graduate students. Almost as if a switch is thrown and poof no more learning I have reached my limit. I had a teacher approach before school…

  • Filtering into bottles

    Bird Droppings August 10, 2011 Filtering into bottles Starting back to school again today and sitting here on day one and thinking back. I remember how hard I was hit by the impact of No Child Left Behind so many years ago. I was testing or reading a test to students who within their IEP’s…

  • Filtering into bottles

    Morning Bird Droppings July 8, 2011 Filtering into bottles “The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs. Self-conceit often regards it as a sign of weakness to admit that a belief to which we have once committed ourselves…

  • Do we learn from a ripple or a wave?

    Bird Droppings July 5, 2011 Do we learn from a ripple or a wave? I spent most of the past few mornings digging and planting, transplanting and repotting various flowers and herbs in our yard. I had several one poor lemon verbena that had been hiding for about a month still in a seedling pot…

  • Are we going in the right direction?

    Bird Droppings March 30, 2011 Are we going in the right direction? “I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. I believe that the school must represent present life-life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in…