Sam Harrelson

Mimi has a huge thank you note coming her way!

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Droooool...

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My "Contact Me" board in my 8th Grade Science class makes me laugh a
little. Interesting times we live in...

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Pictures don't do this place justice. Holy Moly!

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She loved watching the cheerleaders practice!

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Just need my lab tables now...

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Trinitite sample from Trinity Site in NM

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I still vacillate greatly on the issue of eBooks. My concern has less (and less) to do with the experience of reading. I greatly enjoy reading on my Kindle DX or iPad or iPhone or my netbook or most anything. I'm much more concerned about the long-term ramifications of DRM and content-lock-down (or editing) by corporations looking to monetize the reading experience even further. Great post on the LibraryThing blog hashing out the same concerns...

Ebooks get better, print not. | Off-topic | LibraryThing: "But I question how publishers and authors will respond when piracy assumes music-industry levels, and then worse. One solution would be a return to the physical. Another would be the imposition of ever harsher DRM. But the most likely result is that the book industry can't solve the problem, and we will gradually lose the 'middle' of the author community--the majority of authors who who aren't Steven King (who could live on non-book revenue), but aren't doing it just for the fun either."

I feel that we're at a major fork in the road. Of course eBooks will continue to gain popularity and adoption in this decade and will shortly outpace "real" books as the preferred mode of reading by the public (and in American schools). However, I hope we don't trade in rights for ease.

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So this year, I'm getting the magnetic/cermaic surface Eno Board in my classroom... I'm no Miss Bailey, but I wonder how well this will work for my 8th Grade Physical Science group...especially since we study magnetism :) I've honestly never been a huge fan of the "smart board" movement (unlike smart phones). I miss my chalkboards at Hammond every day. However, I hope to use the board for more than just a projector screen. Since we do a good deal of chemical balancing, compound drawings, force vectors, etc I'm sure I'll put it to good use. Plus, when I saw the bit on electrical circuits in the demo, that made my day. We spend a good amount of time on circuit diagrams and programming breadboards. Of course it is better to actually have to install capacitors and insulators, but this should be a good aid in approaching such material. Should be fun to find out!

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Read the whole thing, it's worth the 4 minutes...

The Smart Set: The Metaphysics of Cutting Grass - August 5, 2010: "Perhaps I yearn too much to hear my echo in the world. Yes, occasionally, I do hear from a former student, several years out, that something I said or did has assumed some meaning in their lives. And certainly I understand that students are with me only for 50 minutes three times a week, and that the results of instruction oftentimes reveal their value only in the fullness of time. Still, I find it troubling when, over the course of a semester, I see no palpable impact; I begin to doubt myself, feel vaguely fraudulent. Thus the satisfaction I find in cutting grass: When I’ve finished, I can see, clearly see, a genuine accomplishment, a consequence of my contact, a change in the physical, ‘out there,’ external reality wrought by my expended effort."

Selfishly, I'll say exactly.

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Balanced and insightful views from a source I deeply trust:

A Review of Verizon and Google's Net Neutrality Proposal | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Oddly enough, I'm back on a couple of Google apps like Calendar because Anna wanted to re-establish our calendar sharing there (and my iCal import wasn't working well enough for her). Marriage > Principles, I reckon. Plus the new GMail interface is pretty and my students all use my Google Voice number and it works so well and Google Reader is so much better than anything else and I can edit Google Docs on my iPad... ah, stupid entrapment.

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I love Apple and I agree with Steve Jobs when he says his devices (like the iPad) are revolutionary. However, this thing could be really revolutionary in schools for a number of reasons. Of course it's just a tool, but it's a tool that solves a couple of problems that we've been hashing over in our little bubble of education for a while.

Introducing The NEW Sharpie LIQUID PENCIL | Sharpie Markers Official Blog

The end of pencil sharpeners?? I for one welcome our new liquid graphite tools.

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Socrates famously rejected the supposed importance of the written word(1) in the Phaedrus. I wonder what he would have had to say about blogs and twitter? David Weinberger has a post on a book which I've just put on my Wish List, The Coming of the Book. Looks fascinating from the quotes he's published:

Joho the Blog » [2b2k] Books: The early years: "I’m reading The Coming of the Book, by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin (1958), who explain arrival of printed books with an impressive attention to fact-based detail. Amazing scholarship."

Maybe Socrates was right, after all. In any case, one of the main reasons I'm not using a textbook this year is because of the "institutionalization" of science-as-a-method that results from a rigidly composed amalgamation of information (2). Instead, I want my students to realize that science is not institutionalized or something done by professionals with post-docs. Instead, it's sometimes messy and often times can be done in our garages or backyards or bedrooms. I only have a few months of proper class-time with these 13 and 14 year olds(3). I don't want to spend precious moments of 43 minute class times having them memorize bold words in the name of standards. As Socrates observed in the Phaedrus: "And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.” Regardless, I still love my books (even the digital ones). -- 1 via Plato, of course 2 especially since I teach the wide ranging topic of physical science... basic chemistry and physics wrapped in one course like yin-yang. 3 Yet another reason I love the availability factor of email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc as I've actually done more quality "teaching" via text messages and FB wall posts compared to class lectures!

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Huh?

Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered « OOO: "Digg.com is the powerhouse of social media websites. It is ranked 50th among US websites by Alexa (117th in the world), by far the most influential social media site."

"Maybe not so much" as my daughter would say. Just had to share that gleaming nugget from a post full of misguided righteous indignation over a common occurrence on the "social" web. I've never gotten much into the crazy world of online politickin' despite my activity in our precinct (currently serving as Vice-Chair, former Chair). Seems to me that instead of politics and religion, we should be uncomfortable when "social media" and politics start getting intertwined. /rant

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Still kicking off the cobwebs at Thining.FM but getting there:

Thinking Baptists 11: Jesus and Religion « Thinking.FM

Should be up and going full steam (with a live stream) within the week. It's incredibly fun to relaunch this "thing" as I can think of no other way to quantify this enterprise. Stay tuned :)

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We Can Haz YouTube:

YouTube - SpartanburgDaySchool's Channel

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Many bits have been spilled explaining why the new OmniFocus for iPad app is amazing. I won't go into a full product review, but it is a great piece of software to help you organize:

OmniFocus for iPad - Products - The Omni Group

I've been a longtime user of OmniFocus on the Mac desktop (since the beta days... Dec 2007) and then OmniFocus for the iPhone. I've used both heavily over the years and couldn't wait to see what the Omni folks did with their iPad iteration. One of the aspects of having OmniFocus move from my Mac to my iPhone was the syncing capability via Apple's MobileMe service. I've never had a problem with the syncing of info, so I'm also intrigued by the new (still in beta) OmniSync that ships with the iPad app and ties together all the OmniFocus versions (which the MobileMe sync can still do as well). I've switched to using OmniSync, so hopefully all goes well there. Fascinating to see a company like Omni develop an app-centric cloud instead of relying on Apple. So, two thumbs up. Thanks for keeping me organized (or attempting to) over the years, Omni Group.

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