The daily meanderings of a teacher

Tag: Life

  • Trying to find a way back to normal, or is it abnormal? Is your child a hippie?

    Bird Droppings June 23, 2026 Trying to find a way back to normal, or is it abnormal? Is your child a hippie? “Your son or daughter may be flashing warning signals that he or she will soon drop out of society and join the “hippie” movement. If you know what to look for, you may be…

  • Isn’t friendship a rather simple concept? Why do I find it so hard to ponder?

    Bird Droppings June 17, 2026Isn’t friendship a rather simple concept? Why do I find it so hard to ponder? Recently, I had the mother of three former students tell me how much her sons and daughter thought of me while I was coming into my favorite store, Kroger. So here I am, sitting at the…

  • Who would have thought of a buffalo snort in the dark?

    Bird Droppings June 14, 2026Who would have thought of a buffalo snort in the dark? “Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to…

  • Grandparenting/Teaching is telling our students and grandchildren the stories so they can tell them to their grandchildren.

    Bird Droppings June 13, 2026 Grandparenting/Teaching is telling our students and grandchildren the stories so they can tell them to their grandchildren. I have been reading a significant amount of material on testing, of all things, and how to design an assessment. Over the years, I have always come back to portfolios as one of…

  • What does it take for that light bulb to go on?

    Bird Droppings June 11, 2026What does it take for that light bulb to go on? It has been nearly twenty years since my doctoral cohort at Georgia Southern ended, and we began the journey on our own. For a couple of semesters, I was a member of a new cohort at Piedmont College and wandering…

  • Walking and listening among the Cotton Woods

    Bird Droppings June 8. 2026 Walking and listening among the Cotton Woods I walked outside earlier, as I do many mornings, listening, observing, trying to understand this reality I am walking about within. The sky was brilliant this morning, with a slight haze settling over the lake and the cornfield and a few visible clouds.…

  • Can we use the word sacred truthfully?

    Bird Droppings June 6, 2026Can we use the word sacred truthfully? “Teachers who do not take their own education seriously, who do not study, who make little effort to keep abreast of events have no moral authority to coordinate the activities of the classroom.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom I have been a student and…

  • The impact of synchronicity, or perhaps you could say, in my life, the saga of synchronicity

    Bird Droppings June 4, 2026The impact of synchronicity, or perhaps you could say, in my life, the saga of synchronicity Today in my morning sojourn looking for a sunrise, I drove by a spot I have passed by 5,000 times at least and never noticed. Alongside a red barn, a red wheelbarrow with petunias in…

  • Don’t crossword puzzles take some time?

    Bird Droppings June 3, 2026Don’t crossword puzzles take some time? Towards the end of teaching my last college history class, one of my students was working on an assignment and had to define “bias”. She was unsure which definition was correct and asked for my opinion. I explained that historical bias is that of the…

  • Are we missing Creativity?

    Bird Droppings June 2, 2026 Are we missing Creativity? Today was another quiet morning; as I wandered out and about, birds hiding from view were already calling—the crickets and frogs, as always, a beautiful chorus for the morning awakening. Yesterday, several tree frogs visited our back porch, hiding under pots and a baseball cap. The…