Tag: Standardized tests

  • Should we be examining the threads of life?

    Bird Droppings January 30, 2017 Should we be examining the threads of life?   “Man did not weave the web of life he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” Chief Seattle, 1854   It has been a few years since I read a National Geographic…

  • Finding a way to forgive

    Bird Droppings January 16, 2017 Finding a way to forgive   “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Mahatma Gandhi   It was a little over four years ago I spent the morning on a field tip of sorts for a graduate school class. We visited the MLK Jr. Memorial…

  • Decontextualizing – Learning is a journey strewn with boulders

    Bird Droppings January 9, 2017 Decontextualizing – Learning is a journey strewn with boulders   “In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give students a brick of information, followed by another brick, followed by another brick, until they are graduated, at…

  • Walking and listening among the Cotton Woods

    Bird Droppings January 8, 2017 Walking and listening among the Cotton Woods   Since starting my breathing treatments for sleep apenea, I awake to vivid dreams on some nights. Today I walked outside briefly as I do listening, observing, trying to understand this reality I am walking about in. The sky was sprinkled in clouds…

  • Should children be left behind?

    Bird Droppings December 23, 2016 Should children be left behind?               “I believe that our own experience instructs us that the secret of education lies in         respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It     is chosen and foreordained, and he only…

  • What is the Holy Grail in education?

    Bird Droppings December 1, 2016 What is the Holy Grail in education?   Teachers in Georgia High Schools on block schedule are scrambling this time of year getting ready for the semester End of Course milestones. Basically teachers have been told by administrators to prepare for the tests. Teachers are encouraged to be proactive and…

  • Trying to tie a knot with only one end

    Bird Droppings November 30, 2016 Trying to tie a knot with only one end   It is a Tuesday morning and no one else up but me and I am about to go out and wander in the darkness for a bit running to all night pharmacy for birthday cards. I have over the years…

  • Within the circle of life a new life coming

    Bird Droppings November 28, 2016 Within the circle of life a new life coming   Resurrection By Susan Thomas Underwood   The universe is energy in constant motion. There are ebbs and flows; Outcomes and income, And change…… Always change. The physical world reflects this motion In the cycles of life, There is spring and…

  • “Teach to where the learning will be not to where it is”

    Bird Droppings November 25, 2016 “Teach to where the learning will be not to where it is”   I had a relaxing week with family and sort of got my thoughts together as the days went by. Somewhere as what little rain dissipated and we had a more days of sunshine even though the temperatures…

  • Wisdom is not contagious?

    Bird Droppings September 9, 2016 Wisdom is not contagious? I was reading in a friend’s blog about the Harry Potter series. She was addressing religious beliefs in her blog and how so many adhere verbatim to holy texts. As I read her blog which is rather good the ending was rather interesting. Maybe in Harry…