The daily meanderings of a teacher

Tag: Writing

  • Placing each puzzle piece one at a time: Every puzzle in life has a solution if can figure out the pieces.

    Bird Droppings July 15, 2026Placing each puzzle piece one at a time: Every puzzle in life has a solution if can figure out the pieces. “Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow How many times are we told, “take your time”? So often in…

  • Why not continue the Journey? Freire and Foxfire both start with F’s.

    Bird Droppings July 14, 2026Why not continue the Journey? Freire and Foxfire both start with F’s. “So I’d much rather get across the concept of freedom. It’s what’s important to Indian children. The only way you can be free is to know that you are worthwhile as a distinct human being. Otherwise you become what…

  • Can we find learning in the Kalahari Desert?

    Bird Droppings July 13, 2026 Can we find learning in the Kalahari Desert? While out driving this morning, I pulled over along the nearby dirt road, taking pictures of wildflowers and grasshoppers, among other things I find worth pondering. I spent several minutes trying to photograph a seed from a broom sage plant floating along…

  • High Stakes Testing and/or Inspection: Does it work?

    Bird Droppings July 12, 2026 High Stakes Testing and/or Inspection: Does it work? About twenty-four years ago, I recall we spent several months preparing for a peer review; it was called a GAPPS Review. About the same time, you throw in the Georgia High School Graduation retests, the PSAT, and the End of Course tests…

  • Can I teach myself, or am I even allowed?

    Bird Droppings July 11, 2026 Can I teach myself, or am I even allowed? “There is then, nothing final about a logical rendering of experience. Its value is not contained in itself; its significance is that of standpoint, outlook, and method. It intervenes between the more casual, tentative, and roundabout experiences of the past, and…

  • I wonder if you can get moon burn?

    Bird Droppings July 10, 2026 I wonder if you can get moon burn? Last night, after getting home from my grandson’s birthday dinner, I was listening to tree frogs begin their nightly chorus. As I stood outside, I noticed, high in the sky to the west, a smiling moon and knew it was going down…

  • Is it not an Emerson day?

    Bird Droppings July 7, 2026 Is it not an Emerson day? Last night I was extremely tired after not getting much sleep the previous night, yard work, graduate schoolwork, and cooking supper for everyone. About fourteen years ago, while I was sitting and writing, my wife called me to see the sunset, which was gorgeous.…

  • Should we look within to who we really are?

    Bird Droppings July 6, 2026 Should we look within to who we really are? Amazing what a day or two out of routine will do. I did not get on my computer and do anything of a writing sort the past two days, knowing that with the rest of the coming week, my next few…

  • All about how you feed the wolves

    Bird Droppings July 5, 2026All about how you feed the wolves I walked outside very early this morning to a sky filled with stars and wisps of clouds floating by. Crickets were almost together, chirping slowly in the cool morning. My morning started long before sunrise today, and the sounds I heard as I walked…

  • Is “Counting knuckles” a thing?

    Bird Droppings July 4, 2026Is “Counting knuckles” a thing? One Friday several years back, a student asked what day of the month next Friday would be.  I responded on January 30, and just as quickly as another said he thought it was the first. I said no, it was the thirty-first, and he proceeded to…