The daily meanderings of a teacher

Tag: Teaching

  • A confession of sorts, some will understand. Doing what you love is not work, even if you are tired at the end of the day.

    Bird Droppings February 9, 2026 A confession of sorts, some will understand. Doing what you love is not work, even if you are tired at the end of the day. “To love what you do and feel it matters, how could anything be more fun?” Katharine Graham I learn something daily as I wander the…

  • Quietly listening to Bob Dylan and pondering the word inspiration.

    Bird Droppings March 7, 2025Quietly listening to Bob Dylan and pondering the word inspiration. My mind wandered back fifteen years or more to a county-wide teacher kick-off meeting. I thought back to another time, 2020, when many teachers were still monitoring lessons from computers, not in the classroom. Many communities banned gatherings of fifty or…

  • Bird Droppings January 31, 2026 Whenever I get around teachers, I end up pondering Dr. Carl G. Jung and “school reform.” 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…

  • Trying to understand giving thanks, war, and Teaching and heart

    Bird Droppings January 22, 2026Trying to understand giving thanks, war, and Teaching and heart I seldom have a difficult time sleeping. I crashed the other night after a long day of cleaning up after my grandkids and a long week getting stitches out and closure on my surgery, and trying to keep up with my…

  • Learning and teaching are not the same, yet they intertwine.

    Bird Droppings January 14, 2026Learning and teaching are not the same, yet they intertwine. “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.” Dr. Mortimer J. Adler Dr. Adler founded the Center for the Study of…

  • Our perceptions vary greatly about life

    Bird Droppings January 11, 2026 Our perceptions vary greatly about life “Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.” Irving Berlin Over twenty-five years ago, I was waiting to return to teaching after nearly twenty-three years in the publishing business. I was anxious. I had gone by the high…

  • Looking in a different direction to start the morning

    Bird Droppings January 8, 2025Looking in a different direction to start the morning “Beginnings start in the east – from where the sun rises, we begin a new dawn. Each day is a good new day with a fresh beginning, a new start. East is the direction of the physical body and newness, including children…

  • Passion for learning: Can it be rekindled?

    Bird Droppings January 5, 2025Passion for learning: Can it be rekindled? April 4, 1968, I was a freshman at West Chester State, now University. I was not seriously politically active, and I would say naïve. I do recall the news stories and the tension that followed. I grew up in a town where the people…

  • Pondering and wondering are such powerful tools.

    Bird Droppings December 30, 2025 Pondering and wondering are such powerful tools. Several years back, we started a school-wide vocabulary word of the week. I was reminded of this as I looked through my various files for quotes. About eight years ago, as the day wound down, an email from the head of the English…

  • Teachers need to consult their hearts more

    Bird Droppings December 29, 2025 Teachers need to consult their hearts more I was amazed when I walked out this morning to the car. It was 58 degrees, and a few frogs were still chirping away. I was going through some research material and pulled out a little book. It has been several years since…