Sam Harrelson - Sam's Personal Stream of Life

Sam's Personal Stream of Life

Sam Harrelson currently lives in Asheville, NC and is a Middle School Science and Robotics Teacher at Spartanburg Day School in Spartanburg, SC.

You can find out more about what Sam and his students are doing in the classroom at http://griffinscience.com.

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March 11, 2010

Sick

I slept for 16 hours yesterday and I still feel exhausted.

However, that's because it's the last period of the day at school, which happens to be my planning period.

You don't realize how much energy you pour into being a teacher until the day is over and the classroom is empty except the reverberating echoes of student voices.

Funny thing is, I wouldn't be doing anything else. This is my dream job and I live for every second in the classroom... especially those that exist on the thin line between delirium and academic enchantment.

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March 9, 2010

Spartanburg Day School JV Girls Vs St Joes #sdssports

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March 7, 2010

Of Algebra and Alice

The Mad Hatter and the March Hare champion the mathematics of William Rowan Hamilton, one of the great innovators in Victorian algebra. Hamilton decided that manipulations of numbers like adding and subtracting should be thought of as steps in what he called “pure time.” This was a Kantian notion that had more to do with sequence than with real time, and it seems to have captivated Dodgson. In the title of Chapter 7, “A Mad Tea-Party,” we should read tea-party as t-party, with t being the mathematical symbol for time.

via nytimes.com

Have to show this to my 8th graders currently taking Algebra...

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March 7, 2010

Would a Lava Lamp Work on Jupiter?

Would a Lava Lamp work in a high-gravity environment such as Jupiter? Would the wax still rise to the surface? Would the blobs be smaller and faster? With broad disagreement on the answers, I built a large centrifuge to find out.

via neil.fraser.name

I love that he calculates the G's using a Nexus One.

Yay Science.

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March 6, 2010

Why I Do Not Like Blog Comments

The person of more classical disposition does not believe this. On the contrary, he believes that there are some things that are much better not expressed at all. He counterbalances his belief in the value of freedom of opinion with that in the value of freedom from opinion. He believes that rage will not decrease with its habitual expression, but rather increase with it.

via newenglishreview.org

Here is a thoughtful piece on why blog commenting (and internet immediacy especially in the age of the "live web") might not be the best course of action for human response.

After all, we are an animal that has survived millennia because of our ability to soak up facts, details and information before making a response. There's something to be learned from our past steps.

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March 6, 2010

"Oh, Glaucon!"

I should be grading papers and writing student comments, but I'm
sifting through my ancient languages texts from my time at Wofford
College instead.

I came across this seemingly trivial letter from around 1999 when I
was the only person foolish enough to be taking Prof Mount's Attic
Greek 4 class.

We met over lunch a couple of times a week and read / discussed
obscure Greek texts from the period before Alexander. Lots of Plato,
Arschylus and Euripides.

I can't believe I got credit for such an experience.

Anyway, this note brought back memories of long nights struggling over
Hesiod (before the age when you could just google translations... Not
that I would have anyway) and involved conversations between a wise
Glaucon and a young fool.

Here's to the persistence of memory.

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March 6, 2010