I’m excited to be joining the faculty of Carolina Day School this summer.

I’m going back to my roots and teaching English and Social Studies in their 7th grade program. What’s unique and intriguing to me about the course of study at Carolina Day is that the Middle School starts with a 6th grade study of Asheville and Western North Carolina histories and literatures which expands to American histories and literatures in the 7th and finally world histories and literatures in the 8th.

So, I’m excited to tackle 7th Language Arts/Literatures and American Studies moving ahead (just have to figure out how to incorporate squirrels, of course).

For the “identity” of the class (aka GriffinScience or SkyhawkScience before), I’m strongly leaning towards using the StudiesLab (@studieslab) brand and Tumblr as the platform because of its many advantages in terms of sharing and mobile use. I’m thinking due to the broad range and scope of the class, StudiesLab would be a good fit.

So, here’s to the next adventure!

The measurement determines the outcome (works with particle physics AND student assessment)…

Quantum magic trick shows reality is what you make it – physics-math – 22 June 2011 – New Scientist: “They found that the resulting statistics could only be explained if the combination of properties that was tested was affecting the value of the property being measured. “There is no sense in assuming that what we do not measure about a system has [an independent] reality,” Zeilinger concludes.”

Last week I resigned from Spartanburg Day School (more on that here). This week, I start my Robotics Camp there with 18 5th-9th graders. I’ve been looking forward to this camp for a long while as it’s a week of pure geekery and learning (for me too) as we play with and explore robots. What’s not to love?

However, it’s a little bittersweet to have camp this week. I’ve had many emails from people asking me why I’d leave a school that I love and students that drove me to wake up at 4:30 in the morning year after year.

My best guess at being able to describe all those reasons lie somewhere between the Think Different video in that link above and Le Guin’s famous piece which has haunted my own path since I first encountered it in the Presidential Seminar my senior year at Wofford College…

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

There’s a beauty to not knowing, to taking leaps off of bounded planks and to ponder what molecules and compounds might be there to either catch us or soften The Fall. There’s something mystical about leaps of faith and the challenge of being authentic to one’s self and one’s principle. It’s not for everyone (I can’t imagine a world where we’re all chasing the horizon as much as I’d like to try).

However, I seem to know where I’m going. Lord, hear my prayer.

Great read on the coming decade’s competition between Apple’s and Google’s visions of the cloud…

Minimal Mac | The Data Is The Computer: “To Google, as to John Gage ten years ago, the network is still the computer. To Apple, your data is. And this difference will define an era.”

I’ll side with the (Apple) seeds of the cloud.

Last December, I killed my @samharrelson Twitter account. It was a philosophical move (you can read it all here).

It was a tough call. I had over 5,000 followers and was a major early fan of Twitter (joined in mid 2006 and had something like 20,000 tweets).

I thought it was time, but I was wrong.

I’ve greatly regretted that move and have longed to have the @samharrelson name (and that account) back. So, I settled with @samBharrelson for a while, but that was… well, janky.

Randomly, I tried changing my username to the old @samharrelson handle in the Twitter settings one more time tonight.

Guess what? It worked…

Sam Harrelson (samharrelson) on Twitter

That makes me happy.

Good to be @samharrelson again.

Yay.

As I spend the summer building curriculum for my 8th Grade Physical Science class, 8th Grade Robotics program and now 6th Grade Earth Sciences class, I’m keeping these couple of sentences in the front of my head…

June 6, 2011 | Letters | Chemical & Engineering News: “I think the problem is that most science teachers don’t really try to promote scientific literacy. Their primary goal, which is quite different, is to prepare the student for a career in their science. “

Head over and read the entire comment, it really is worth your time and few seconds of pondering.

So where to start?

The 8th Grade Physical Science class (aka GriffinScience) is an always-evolving work of love for me. I first started teaching the course while at Hammond School in Columbia, SC and actually created a class blog in 2003 to augment the class. Little did I realize that blog idea would go on to dominate the flavor of the class as it has evolved over the years. Now at Spartanburg Day, I feel like I can finally go out on leaps (like having a “post-grades classroom“) given that I’m fairly comfortable with the ebb and flow of the course. However, every year brings a different set of learners with individual interests and needs, and I can’t wait to see where we go since the class will be have a much stronger problem-based learning “structure”.

The Robotics program is coming into its own identity this year with an entirely new space we’re calling the Robotics and Design (RAD) Lab. The class will be a full year long program, but I want the feel of the experience to be more akin to a working studio… so, students will see me working on something they can chip in and help with or they can follow their own pursuits or interests on collaborative or solo builds and research. Of course, we’ll be studying programming languages, the history and future of robotics, implications for society (reading Robopocalypse now… wow, great book) and design considerations to round out their literacies portfolios. I’m excited to see how the new space literally opens up this class/program.

Finally, I’ll also be taking on 6th Grade (Earth?) Science next year for the first time. Traditionally, the class has been something of a combination of Geology, Weather, Tectonics, Forces and Astronomy (or something like that). It’s a very amorphous course. I’m thinking of taking the problem-based learning model and applying it in a appropriate way to this class and have us participate with something like the Public Laboratory or a similar group. With the stress on mapping, weather, mechanics and long-term involvement, it seems like this might be a good fit. I’m grateful to teach the course, but I also wonder if this group needs its own identity along the GriffinScience / GriffinRobotics (and now GriffinGlobe for 8th World Cultures) style of branding. GriffinExplorers? Little cheesy? Working on it. Hm.

Regardless, it’s going to be a busy but amazing year of studies. My main goal will be to promote scientific literacies in authentic and meaningful ways that both grab the students’ attention and interest and fosters their own creative voices and encourages them to dig deeper and feel as active participants.

We’ll see!

The now-empty-but-new Spartanburg Day School Research and Design Lab I’m constructing over the summer…

And my inspiration from 2003 when the iPod was still relatively new and we didn’t yet understand the halo effect…

The Guts of a New Machine – The New York Times: “Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s C.E.O. ”People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

So very good.

Great to see two of my favorite books on the Summer Reading List for incoming 8th Graders at my little kingdom of the just:

Science Fiction:

The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (fantasy)

Little Brother – Cory Doctorow

Might have to go re-read those myself!

Here’s my classroom for Physical Science next year (first thing to go will be those rows of desks replaced by beautiful empty space in the front of the room and the lab tables in the rear)…

Here’s my classroom for what I’m calling the Robotics and Design (RAD… get it?) Lab…

And here’s the Middle School (formally Upper School) Chemical Storage for next year…

I like having “distractions” in my classroom(s) and teaching spaces. I do not like to have rows of desks with straight lines so that kids know their place and have no ability to help create the learning environment around them.

So, I was particularly astonished by this Q&A post on the National Science Teacher Association’s blog and the resulting answer:

I’m having some classroom management problems in my middle school science classes. I think the classroom itself provides many distractions and contributes to the problem. My middle-school students sit at lab tables, facing each other. Their chairs spin, they are able to open the drawers and put trash in, they can turn on the sinks, and they can stuff things “down the drain. How can I train these kids to sit in a chair and not play with the sinks or cabinets?

The set up sounds very familiar to the set up we’ll have in the lab next year and what I’ve done over the years with lab tables but the teaching styles are completely different evidently. That’s fine. I know I teach differently than most (which is out of necessity since we’re all individuals). However, the answer from “Ms Mentor” was what set me off:

The key is to channel their energy and remove temptations for disruptive or destructive behavior (as you’re thinking). Are there valves at the tables to turn off the water (like on a sink at home)or a master valve for the room? If so, turn off the water except on days it’s necessary. To keep kids from putting trash in the sink, cover the sink with a small board. Attach the cover to the table with a fabric hook-and-loop fastener, so that it can be removed for labs (and you’ll hear the skritch sound if a student tries to remove it!). This obviously works only if the water is turned off. It also provides a bit more room on the table for students to work.

Can you trade in the swivel stools for rigid ones (or adjust something underneath to keep them from revolving)? The students will still rock on them, but at least they won’t be making you dizzy. Your bulletin boards should have items related to the unit, so when students are looking at them, they’ll still be focused on science.

Emphasis is mine there.

Turning off water valves and duct taping cabinet doors shut seems to be a very difficult way to teach science to 7th and 8th graders in my experience. I cannot imagine having a positive and constructive (and creative) learning environment if I’ve set the Threat Level to Orange at the outset.

Instead, why not encourage responsible (and creative/educational) usage of classroom supplies or utilities by good modeling, constructive labs and an overall awareness of expectations. Of course there will be trespasses on the social contract at times, but those are for classroom management interventions.

I’ll stick to trust and respect and responsibility in my Middle School lab instead of locks and preventative non-proliferation treaties.

Best thing you’ll watch all summer…

Aaron O’Connell: Making sense of a visible quantum object | Video on TED.com: “In a breakthrough experiment, Aaron O’Connell has blurred that distinction by creating an object that is visible to the unaided eye, but provably in two places at the same time. In this talk he suggests an intriguing way of thinking about the result.”

Prepare to have your mind blown in the last 30 seconds.

That, folks, is why I teach science.