Top Posts of 2017

As we near the end of the calendar year (but not the school year), let's take a look back at the top posts of 2017. In no particular order, here are the posts with the most page hits:

13 Reasons Why--remember when this was a huge issue? Teen suicide and its prevention still is, but I posted a couple of blogs examining the show and added some commentary.

13 Reasons Why: Being a Teen, Bullying, Rape, and Suicide

Follow Up post

Hyperdocs Folder for Myers 2e

Thinking Critically About Cell Phones

The 2017 Summer Reading List

Stress and Music Assignment

Blended Learning Posts

Part 1

Part 2 on Hyperdocs

Part 3-adjusting

Ultimate Portable Brain Model

Jen Schlicht FRQ training activity

Dr. Joe Swope and his amazing website

The Badges Top 20 Principles Program by the APA

Effect of Marijuana on the Brain

Hyperdoc for Emotions and Stress

Michael Britt wrote a wonderful book to help us recreate classic experiments in the classroom

Oh, and we surpassed three million views of our posts. Kinda cool if you ask me. :)

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Mental Health and the Internet

Quick post with an infographic. The chart is so large, there is no way to display it properly here, but here is a small version. Click the link above for a great shot of the details.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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PsychSessions: Podcast

Back in October, the first of nine episodes of the PsychSessions podcast came out. At the time, I was coaching and had no time to listen. I was able to listen to two of the episodes this week and am impressed. Perhaps I am biased because I know the people interviewing and being interviewed, but I found the discussions with Randy Ernst and Elizabeth Yost Hammer engaging, entertaining, and educational. The interviews are informal and examine educational and psychological topics as well as delve into the personal experiences of the interviewees. For me, those are the most fascinating parts--they share stories about the histories of organizations they've been a huge part of and their own lives.

Psychsessions has a website for the podcast here.
Link for Apple Podcast

From the website:

This podcast, co-hosted by Garth Neufeld and Eric Landrum, is about the teaching of psychology. We leverage our connections with top psychology educators as well as up-and-coming superstars to have deep conversations about what it means to be a teacher of psychology. Of course we veer away from the teaching conversation from time to time to hear about origin stories and the personal perspectives of our guests.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Quizlet and MATOP Resources

This information has been published before but is worth repeating. The teachers from the Milwaukee Area Teachers of Psychology have produced some amazing resources that we all can access.

Go to this link at Quizlet. It has links to several sets of vocabulary for numerous textbooks--use one or more that applies to you. Quizlet as a tool is quite flexible and helpful for students who use it for studying. Create your own study sets, copy the MATOP sets to your account in order to share with your students. Your students will be very thankful.

Create your own account.

Be sure to find your own text at the link. Copy the sets to your own accounts. This way you can create your own classes for your students to use. My students find these resources to be incredibly valuable.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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The Five-Sided Flashcard

Recently, Dr. Linda Woolf shared an idea I was unfamiliar with, so I looked it up.

Dr. Mitch Handelsman, "The Ethical Professor," wrote about the five-sided flashcard in a post for Psychology today.

The short version is that these are the five sides:

1. term or concept
2. definition
3. example, picture, or story
4. similarities to other terms or concepts
5. differences from other terms or concepts

In short, this is a handy way to think about effortful processing or deep processing, depending on which term you prefer (unless I can be corrected). Try it out and see if it can help your students become better learners.



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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APA Psych Learning Curve

Psych Learning Curve: one of the reasons I am thankful.

Less than a year ago, I was attending my first APA Consolidated Board Meeting in Washington, D.C. This is one of the perks/challenges of serving on the TOPSS Board. It's volunteer, but rewarding work.

I was able to meet quite a few wonderful people, but this post is about two of them, Hunter Clary and Amanda Macchi, two of the social media folks at the APA Education Directorate.  They run the @apaeducation Twitter account.

The real reason for this post is not any of the above. The purpose is to extoll the virtues of the newsletter and blog Hunter and Amanda put together called Psych Learning Curve.

As you can see from the screen cap from the site, there are a variety of topics that are curated and shared each week from K-12 education to undergraduate and graduate school. Students are even included. The team does some great research to update this site regularly.

In short, if you are short on time and want to get the best information out there on both education and psychology, do check out this resource. You will be thankful. Join TOPSS today to help support this exceptional resource.


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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NCSS 2017 Debrief

When most psychology teachers think about the National Council for the Social Studies, one does not think psychology, but rather history, civics, geography, and economics. But psychology was well-represented.

However, thanks to the work of the NCSS Psychology Community (Daria Schaffeld, Sejal Schullo, Joe Geiger, and Jen Schlict), there was a tremendous lineup of psychology presentations including Charlie Blair-Broeker, Randy Ernst, Rob McEntarffer, Chuck Schallhorn and Eric Castro, Amy Fineburg, and more. This link gives a more detailed look at the psych offerings.

I personally was able to view only a small number of presentations, but the ones I attended were fantastic. I was able to take away at least one new thing from each presenter to use in my classroom right away. Short version--it was totally worth it. I finally was able to meet people I had known online for years. The city was beautiful and the restaurants served tasty food.

I was also amazed by the vendor hall. A few that I recall are:

• Perfection Learning with the AMSCO review books
• Worth/Macmillan with the Myers' for AP and the Intro book by Blair-Broeker and Ernst
• The Zinn Educational Project
• POV (documentary series)
• At least six educational travel booths
• the DBQ project
• Teachers Discovery
• Big History Project with David Christian (he was there)
• C-Span
• Rand McNally
• Social Studies School Service
• Several Econ Booths
• Several Civics Booths
• At least one civics podcast
• StoryCorps
• and many more

I got way too much swag and samples--it will take all week to go through it all.

You can find tweets about the conference with the hashtag #NCSS2017.

Plan ahead for next year's conference in Chicago November 30-December 2, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency. Mark your calendars now! Also be on the lookout for dates for proposal submissions--I was a reviewer of them in the spring of 2017 for this conference.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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APA General Psychology Summit Steering Committee Members Announced

The following announcement comes from the American Psychological Association, the lead organization of which TOPSS is a part. Our very own TOPSS President, Kristin Whitlock is a part of this committee. If you have thoughts on the upcoming summit, please visit the link below.

The APA Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) has appointed eight members to serve on a new Steering Committee to plan a working conference on introductory psychology. Under the leadership of co-chairs, Regan A. R. Gurung, PhD (University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, WI) and Garth Neufeld, MA (Cascadia College, WA), the members of the Steering Committee include representatives from the high school, associate, and baccalaureate levels: Bill Altman, PhD (SUNY Broome College, NY); Melissa Beers, PhD (Ohio State University, OH); Bridgette Hard, PhD (Duke University, NC); Jennifer Thompson, PhD (University of Maryland University College, MD); Kristin Whitlock, MEd (Davis High School, UT); and Katherine Wickes, PhD (Blinn College, TX). 

To begin the planning process, the steering committee will be developing a proposal that will articulate the need for an APA General Psychology Summit. The steering committee will identify major issues and concerns related to the teaching and learning of introductory psychology. The steering committee will also be considering possible formats for the summit, the desired outcomes, and strategies to maximize its impact. To gather input from various stakeholders across the discipline, the steering committee invites feedback from interested groups and individuals about the important issues that need to be addressed at a working conference on introductory psychology. 

Please go to the survey at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/4007831/Working-Conference-Introductory-Psychology to share your feedback before the end of the day on December 6, 2017.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Hidden Brain: Eyes Wide Open

Just wanted to share two recent episodes of Hidden Brain, an NPR podcast hosted by Shankar Vendantam.

Two episodes from early November 2017 are wonderful overviews about sleep and insomnia including an interview with the infamous Randy Gardner, the record-holder for going without sleep. Though unaffected at the time, Gardner now suffers from severe insomnia.

For students and teachers wishing to learn more about the biology and purpose of sleep, these two episodes are excellent

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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3 Millions Views-A Past and a Future

As of this morning, our THSP blog has nearly three million page (2.97m) views since 2009 when we began. That number is unfathomable to this particular blogger. In the spring of 2009, Kent Korek, Steve Jones, and Chuck Schallhorn wanted to find a way to bring high school teachers together and to share quality materials. We had been using a drive with files (pre-Google drive sharing) that people could join and download.

When we began, we were simply trying to centralize the excellent and vetted resources we knew of or created. Kent began his five-times a week "Midnight Postings" as Chuck and Steve attempted to keep up. In the eight years, we all have gone on to other things with the blog no longer being as high a priority in our lives.

Each of us has so many resources in our respective files that could/should be posted, but there is not enough time. Other resources including the upcoming collection coming from TOPSS is a reason to rejoice in our sharing. The Facebook group has grown to over 3000 teachers. There are an estimated 8000-10000 psychology teachers in the US alone. How can we get them all together and sharing quality, pedagogically sound resources and activities? What role will this blog play in bringing psychology teachers together?

While those other sources exist, we will continue posting content and pedagogy here. We will happily share our ideas and our experiences. The future is never certain, but we will attempt to keep bringing quality resources and thoughtful posts about teaching.

Two reminders:
1) this link is to the Google Drive that we have created--all materials are vetted.

2) Using the labels in the left column, you can search our blog by AP unit-a handy tool for planning.

In addition to everyone who has utilized our blog, we'd like to thank everyone who has regularly or guest posted. You all are awesome people! We look forward to many more guest writing and sharing their expertise.

Yours in psychology teaching excellence,

Chuck

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Infographic on Trends in Psychology

Link for .pdf file of this poster

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Professional Development Resources and Regional Networks

Where can you get some quality professional for your psychology background? Look no further than what we have put together at the American Psychological Association/TOPSS.

If there is nothing in your state, find the link to create your own group and make something happen! The APA/TOPSS has some excellent resources to get you started.

Teaching Toolkit from APA/TOPSS

Check it out!

http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/state-local-groups.aspx

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Drew Appleby--What Can You Do With a Psych Major? Updated Resource

Dr. Drew Appleby has done it again. He has created this amazing chart showing the careers one can obtain with various degrees. This link has the original poster to print.

The larger, multi-page document with multiple links per career is available at http://www.teachpsych.org/resources/Documents/otrp/resources/An%20Online%20Vocational-Exploration%20Resource%20for%20High%20School%20Psychology%20Students%20(Poster).pptx

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Hyperdocs for Myers for AP, 2nd Edition

Hi All.

I posted last spring some of the hyperdocs I had created for the Myers for AP text. I have been creating more as this year has progressed. I thought I would just share the folder rather than specific links. It just seemed easier.

As I am posting this, I am working on the Sensation and Perception Unit. Just finished Module 16.  I still need to make some title edits for better organization, but you get the idea.

Link for Google Drive Folder to access and MAKE COPIES of the documents--you will almost certainly want to make edits--additions and subtractions. I will not be granting anyone access to edit, so don't even bother asking--lol. Your request will be ignored--make a copy to edit.

Enjoy and I hope they help you out.

Chuck

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Hello Everyone!




Eric Landrum and Garth Neufeld have been busy at work on a Podcast called, "Psych Sessions:  Conversations about Teaching N' Stuff", where they interview teachers of psychology.  There are some WONDERFUL folks that I can't wait to hear from!  The podcast is available on iTunes (search for 'psychsessions' within podcasts at the store OR download directly at http://psychsessionspodcast.libsyn.com/website).  Check it out!

Kristin Whitlock

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APA/TOPSS Membership-Teaching of Psychology in Secondary Schools

The Teaching of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) is an amazing organization that is a part of the American Psychological Association. Member benefits include connections to other psychology teachers around the world, the national standards, lesson plans for all the psychology units, professional development resources, and so much more.

The photo taken this past summer was of the participants of the APA Psychology Summit designed to examine the current state of affairs of teaching high school psychology and making choices about which directions we wanted the field to go into the future. Hint: the science of psychology was a huge portion.

In any case, join us in making the future of psychology even better by joining TOPSS. You can access everything at the link below. Join now and you get three extra months of membership.

http://www.apa.org/membership/hs-teacher/index.aspx

There are also many opportunities for leadership for those interested.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Exact Directions Challenge

This challenge by a father to his kids to give exact instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich are hysterical, enjoyable, educational, and a great example of the power of details for operational definitions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDA3_5982h8


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Psych Files: A Brief Survey

Hi Everyone,

Michael Britt over at the Psych Files is a friend of the blog. As you may know, he has been working for free for psychology teachers and students around the world for more than a decade. Recently, that has become unsustainable for him. He has added advertising to his blogs and podcasts. In the interest of helping to keep his efforts going, he is requesting the responses of you and your students. The survey takes less than five minutes. Thank you for your help.

http://podcastlistener.com/files


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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APA TOPSS Charles T. Blair-Broeker Excellence in Teaching Awards

APA TOPSS Charles T. Blair-Broeker Excellence in Teaching Awards

The American Psychological Association (APA) Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) Charles T. Blair-Broeker Excellence in Teaching Awards recognize outstanding teachers in psychology. There will be up to three annual awards.

Winners will receive a framed certificate, engraved award, cash prize of $500, and a free TOPSS membership or renewal for the 2019 membership year. Additionally, Worth Publishers is generously donating a $500 credit to Bedford Freeman & Worth Publishers and a copy of the “High School Psychology Video Anthology DVD” to each of the winning teachers.  For additional details and the nomination process, please see http://www.apa.org/about/awards/teaching-excellence.aspx.  

The nomination deadline is February 15, 2018.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Smartphones: Let's think critically!

Several people recommended this Atlantic article by Jean Twenge to me recently (link below). The author makes a compelling, and frightening, argument about the impact of smartphones on our students.

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? 

Psychologist Sara Rose Cavanagh wrote a response in Psychology Today, arguing that Twenge doesn't have evidence to back up her claims in the Atlantic article:

No, Smartphones are NOT Destroying a Generation

Psychology teachers might be able to use these two articles as part of a useful critical thinking lesson: what can we "know" based on a lot of correlational evidence? What can't we know? What conclusions should we draw about important issues when all we can get is correlational evidence?


posted by Rob McEntarffer

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Radio West:  The Hidden Brain        

Hello Everyone!

Radio West is a program produced by KUER (our local NPR affiliate) that delves into many topics that help the public understand how the world works.  The host, Doug Fabrizio, does an excellent job interviewing interesting characters and delving into topics relevant to the teaching of Psychology.  Check out this interview with NPR's Shankar Vedantam who is the host of the podcast the Hidden Brain.  In this program, the conversation centers on how our behavior is oftentimes influenced by unconscious forces. You'll be hooked!


http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/hidden-brain-0


Best!


Kristin Whitlock

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UTOPSS Fall Conference

The UTAH-Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools Fall Conference is just around the corner!  We have a FABULOUS line-up of guests!

Friday, September 29, 2017

8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Westminster College, Salt Lake City Utah

Presentations:

*Tiffany Karns, Rowlett High School, Rowlett TX

“It’s Not Just What We Teach, But Also Who We Teach

Making it Personal: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Brain Development”

 

*Dr. Susan Manville, Westminster College

"Teaching At The Intersection of Psychology & Health"

*APA Summit on High School Psychology Education: Exciting directions for Introductory Psychology

Julie Gowans, Payson High School

Annette Nielsen, Woods Cross High School

Tomee Pace, Mountain High School

Dan Rozanas, Alta High School

Kristin Whitlock, Davis High School

*Participant Idea Share

*Break-out sessions

AP Psychology: Jonathan Lungreen (Tooele High School)

Introductory Psychology: Erik Bayles (Utah Valley University & Pleasant Grove High School)

Sports Psychology: Bart Thompson (Salem Hills High School)

Registration is $50.00 and is due September 22, 2017

Go to: 

https://www.westminstercollege.edu/about/academic-schools/undergraduate-schools/school-of-arts-and-sciences/psychology-department/utopss-conference#0

I hope you can join us!

Kristin Whitlock

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. address, APA convention, 1967

Did you know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the APA convention in 1967? I didn't! This blog post about his talk might be a very useful (and timely) post to use with your students.

Answering MLK Jr.’s Wake-Up Call

Here is the full text of his speech at the APA convention:

King's challenge to the nation's social scientists

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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September psychology workshop in the St. Louis area

I am happy to share this announcement:

Fall 2017

STLTOPSS Workshop

St. Louis Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools

Partially funded by a generous grant from the

APA High School Psychology Teacher Network Grant

Wednesday September 13 , 2017

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

 

Where: Education Plus

1460 Craig Rd

St Louis, MO 63146

Bring your Own: Side Dish or Dessert and Best Practices to Share!

Sandwiches and Mostaccioli from Psghetti’s

Agenda:

College Psychology Student Panel

Book Club

Planning for Spring Meeting

Sharing of Best Practices

Registration:

Please email Jennifer Flores or Melody Barger if you would like to attend

Jennifer Flores – Jennifer.Flores@fhsdschools.org

Melody Barger – mbarger@parkwayschools.net

Sign up to bring something at: 

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4baea72ca5fc1-psychology

--posted by Steve

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How stressed are your students?

I've been reading quite a bit lately about high school students and stress (especially students in AP and IB programs). I'm also talking with my daughter (10th grade, IB program) about stress (not very successfully) and it's making me wonder about the connections between high school psychology and student stress.

This topic "fits" most obviously in a "Health and Stress" unit, but I'm not sure how many of us teach a chapter like that? It could belong in the Motivation and Emotion unit too? Or maybe just Bio Psychology? I've talked with many high school psych teachers about how the Cognition unit can help students figure out how to study and how to "learn how to learn." I wonder if there might be similar and equally important lessons from our psychology content about how to FEEL about learning (and trying, and failing, and succeeding, and how to handle the emotional components of learning).

I don't have many great resources to share about this yet, and I'd love to hear from you all. Here's a good (I think) article from Psychology Today - might be a place to start?

A Back to School Stress-Management Toolkit for Teens

(Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/firesam/5242760927 - labelled for reuse) 



posted by Rob McEntarffer

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Excellence In Psychology Instruction Conference (EPIC)

Saturday, October 7 has a fantastic conference for anyone in the Midwest if you can make it to Green Bay, WI. Details here.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Announcing the Third Excellence In Psychology Instructposted

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