Monday, June 27, 2011

2011 Bellevue AP Psychology Workshop!


I am working with 24 wonderful current and future AP Psychology teachers at the 2011 15th Annual Pacific Northwest AP institute in Bellevue, WA! Tomorrow (Tuesday June 28th) one of the activities is looking through this blog as a resource. If any of you out there have suggestions, ideas, well-wishes, etc. for this group of teachers, please add them in the comments! I'll post an update in the comments after we do the blog activity.



posted by Rob McEntarffer

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

THSP goes to China

Okay, the whole blog isn't going to China, but I am! I am going with a group of about 25 North Carolina teachers who are traveling thanks to the Center for International Understanding, an organization that's part of the UNC system. Our focus is on how new technologies are emerging in China as well as looking at how technologies developed there in the past. Most importantly the Center thinks that sending teachers to the other side of the world will change the way they see the world and therefore how their students see the world - and at a time when teachers are getting bashed left and right, this is a pretty refreshing attitude.

For my part, I'm wearing two hats. First, as a civics and economics teacher, I'm hoping to learn more about how China's amazing "leap forward" in the past twenty years has changed and is changing the balanced of economic power in the world. But I'm also going as a psychology teacher who is fascinated with how China's policies are affecting its people. With such a massive shift of populations from rural to urban, how is the collectivist culture of China changing? What are the planned and unplanned effects of the one-child policy? And how is the education system the same or different as it's portrayed in the media?

So many questions and only 11 days! If you would like to keep up with me on my journey, please follow my new blog at http://mrjtochina.blogspot.com/ or feel free to comment below.

--posted by Steve

Monday, June 6, 2011

Teenagers and Sleep

A colleague shared this NPR story with me this morning.  It is a nice overview/background on teens and sleep issues.  The second story is a followup with experts responding to listener questions.



The Other Big Deficit: Many Teens Fall Short On Sleep

Sleep Experts Answer Your Questions On Teens And Shuteye



posted by Chuck Schallhorn