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I have found a spiritual side to teaching.
Bird Droppings April 2, 2026I have found a spiritual side to teaching. “Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it’s never living apart from one’s self. Not about absence of other people – it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others.” Parker Palmer Dr. Parker…
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I was listening to the stillness of a morning, the sunrise, and sometimes we needed a window and not a mirror.
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Keeping the stories going, remembering a dear friend
Bird Droppings March 16, 2026Keeping 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, hosted by Piedmont College for graduate students and teachers already in the classroom in Mountain City, Georgia. This course was an elective graduate class…
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Bird Droppings March 12, 2026Passion: Can it be rekindled in teachers? The past few days have been most interesting. I have been struggling with a blood pressure issue from a new medication, and I hope to have that resolved. Yesterday, the thought crossed my mind: why do students want to be in my classroom? Over…
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Is there a difference between progressive and traditional teachers?
Bird Droppings March 5, 2026Is there a difference between progressive and traditional teachers? In a ninth-grade literature class I co-taught many years ago, I was introduced to the book Freedom Writers Diary and the film based on it. In some ways, the story is similar to Foxfire. Erin Gruell, a first-year brand-new teacher at an…
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Our teaching can make a difference every day, pouring a gallon of information into a liter bottle.
Bird Droppings March 3, 2026Our teaching can make a difference every day, pouring a gallon of information into a liter bottle. I recall one day when I was looking through data while sitting through a special education training session. This is an interesting situation. I was reviewing data from a recent biology benchmark test. It…
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Where is the passion in our teachers?
Bird Droppings February 27, 2026Where is the passion in our teachers? Two events happened to me over the past two days. Yesterday I spent fifteen minutes talking with a friend who was retiring as principal of a school I hold dearly. In the course of the conversation, she said I miss teaching, maybe I will…
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I am pondering Dr. Carl G. Jung and “school reform.”I find the answer is simple: CARING.
Bird Droppings February 26, 2026I am pondering Dr. Carl G. Jung and “school reform.”I find the answer is simple: CARING. “If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” Carl G. Jung Over the…
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I ponder educational genocide as this administration tries to gut education and NCLB, norming children, only leaves the best (Depending on your perspective)
Bird Droppings February 19, 2026 I ponder educational genocide as this administration tries to gut education and NCLB, norming children, only leaves the best (Depending on your perspective) I left my Carhartt vest at the house as I went outside to chase a sunrise this morning. It was 60 degrees. I stopped along the way…
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The Power of Example goes beyond the curriculum and the classroom.
Bird Droppings February 18, 2026The Power of Example goes beyond the curriculum and the classroom. “We taught our children by both example and instruction, but with an emphasis on example, because all learning is a dead language to one who gets it second hand.” Kent Nerburn, The Wisdom of the Native Americans For nearly twenty-five…
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The daily meanderings of a teacher 