New for AP/Regular Psychology Teachers--Resources Galore

The following is a combination post with new material from Chuck and reminders from Steve

Updated resources for teachers new to high school psychologyWelcome new psychology teacher! Congratulate yourself on finding/stumbling on/being forced to teach the best class in high school!

There is an abundance of materials out there so you don't have to reinvent the wheel your first year (although you should feel free to after that). Here are some of the best resources to start with:

1) TOPSS stands for Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools and is part of the American Psychological Association. Join TOPSS and you become an affiliate member of the APA at a fraction of the cost that other professionals pay, only $50 per year.
*NEW* In 2011 teachers on the TOPSS board created a manual for new high school psychology teachers. This was written by high school psychology teachers who have "been there" with few resources and little help among your building colleagues. Be sure to check this out!
TOPSS has lesson plans for every unit of the high school psych course and is in the process of revising older units so that the lesson plans remain vital and useful. They're created by high school teachers and are edited by psych professors. There's also a quarterly newsletter, the Psychology Teachers Network, and an annual workshop for high school teachers at Clark University. Finally, and maybe most importantly, the APA and TOPSS have created the National Standards for High School Psychology. The first version of standards was created in 2005 and the newest version of the standards was released in 2011. (Full disclosure: I'm currently chair of the TOPSS Board.)

2) The College Board. Even if you don't teach AP Psychology this is a great resource -- and if you do, it's terrific! Here are some pages to start with.
a) The AP Psych home pageb) The course description (aka the Acorn Book, in PDF; updated Fall 2013)
c) The AP Psych teachers guide -- written by THSP's own Kristin Whitlock, this thing is a beauty and a GREAT place to get started if you're new to the course (also in PDF)
d) Old AP Psych exam questionse) AP Psych store - you may want to buy the 2004 and 2007 released exam multiple choice questions at some point
f) *NEW* If you are an AP Psych teacher, be sure to join the online AP Psychology Community.

3) *NEW* Twitter! You will be amazed at all the valuable resources that are at your fingertips via Twitter. Many high school psychology teachers (like myself) consider my colleagues on Twitter to be an extremely valuable part of their personal learning community, and often share ideas and resources with each other. In the past couple of years #psychat has become a great way to share information as well - see this post for more information.
Other teachers are also using Twitter as a way to interact with their students online in many ways, such as commenting on news articles, sharing new sites and even homework reminders. In 2015-2016, the group will be tweeting the First Wednesday of each month at 8PM EST, 7PM CST, 5PM PST

4) Teaching psychology activity books. These were compiled by Ludy Benjamin et. al. and have a wide variety of activities for intro psych courses. Some are hits and some are misses (in my opinion) so you might want to buy one and see what you think. Here are several to try.

5) Forty Studies that Changed Psychology. An excellent overview that will be invaluable to you if you're just getting started, and is often used by many AP Psych teachers during the year or as a summer  assignment.

6) The publisher of your textbook. Find out what book you'll be using, then contact the publisher and get in touch with the high school representative for psychology. They are usually very helpful and can give you an idea of what might be available for you for free. A great tip from Michael Donner on the AP Psych list is to contact a publisher of another psychology textbook and see if you can get an exam copy of that book (or even find a used copy online). A second book can be very helpful for helping you come up with alternate examples or explanations for your students.

7) The National Council for the Social Studies Psychology Community. This group is part of NCSS and helps psychology teachers in many ways, including annual presentations at the NCSS conference, newsletters and more. You can e-mail chair Daria Schaffeld at daria.schaffeld AT d214.org to get a copy of the latest newsletter and to find out more. Also, consider attending the annual NCSS Conference to hear great presentations.

8) Your fellow teachers! If you know others in your district or region who teach psych, contact them and ask for help. Most psychology teachers are still the only ones in their school, so getting in touch with folks who are nearby and are willing to share can be immensely helpful. Or join an e-mail list for psychology teachers such as Psych-News, TIPS or PsychTeacher (see a full list here) and make connections all over the world!

9) A final rec and plug: this Teaching High School Psychology blog which is run by Kent Korek, Chuck Schallhorn, Rob McEntarffer, Nancy Diehl, Kristin Whitlock, and Steve Jones. It's a site for us to share with our fellow teachers the things that we like, find interesting, have questions about, etc. Follow us via e-mail so you are notified every time we post something new, in your RSS reader or just bookmark us and visit when you can. You can also follow me (Steve) on Twitter at @highschoolpsych.

10) Brain Games, the video series from National Geographic is outstanding for psychology and neuroscience demonstrations. In fact, it has overtaken many of our in-class demos both in terms of quality and quantity.  You can purchase the DVDs online at Amazon.com or stream a couple seasons on Netflix. For content guides for all five seasons, click here.

11) Chuck Schallhorn has a YouTube Channel that can help out with some of the more complex ideas for the students at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOG05VwbujNwGUX5UA0zcXQ

12) Chuck also has an entire online AP course in video format @ https://www.educator.com/psychology/ap-psychology/schallhorn/  It costs money, but if you are desperate, this should help out

13) We have a THSP Psychology folder on Google docs that has many resources for each unit. These activities have been vetted and are appropriate and quality lessonshttps://drive.google.com/open?id=0B28t_LsPkwHefnRSTU5aWVFQVHo3MVBSZEEzTHczTXpPT09EMzVOLXhsdVBVRmdNTmRNUms**test out this link and make sure you can get inside each folder. Contact Chuck if there are any issues with the link.

14) When planning a new unit, check out this blog at http://teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/ and do a unit search for videos and assignments that we have. You can do this by checking out the list of units in the left-hand column of the blog. There are hundreds of ideas and resources we have posted throughout the years.
One final bit of advice: Psychology is a science. It doesn't matter what your background is as long as you're willing to embrace the scientific perspective and run with it. Have fun and enjoy teaching psychology!

15) APA Division 2-The Society for the Teaching of Psychology. They have an amazing set of resources on their OTRP website.

16) Check a later post in which Rob will take a look at the videos of Joseph Swope.

17) Check a later post in which Chuck adds Crash Course Psychology video guides.

If there are any resources we missed, please leave them in the comments.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn and Steve Jones

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AP Psych Course Online at Educator.com

During the summer of 2013, I had the chance to put much of my efforts into creating an online
version of my AP Psychology course for Educator.com.  They had found my youtube ap psych review videos and I interviewed for the chance to teach the course for them.  The link for the course is here: http://www.educator.com/learn/psychology/ap-psychology/schallhorn/

I prepped in May, June, and July and went to Los Angeles for two weeks to film the course.  The perfectionist in me wanted to be able to do so much more (but I lacked the graphics budget of National Geographic, the History Channel and PBS), but I was able to go over every part of the AP Psych course outline and explain everything.  There are nearly 40 hours of content.  I also went through the 1999 exam, both multiple choice and FRQ and gave test taking tips.

I included lots of examples and spent more time on the more difficult subjects that our students find challenging.  Additionally, for those who subscribe, there are sections for each lesson where questions can be asked and I will be responding to student questions there.  The course is divided into 68 different lectures--I tried to demarcate specific aspects of the content and make the lectures shorter (I have issues with adding lots of examples and connections).

As you can imagine, I was not able to use many of the tools we normally would have, the PowerPoints and the videos,  but I was able to add some links.  I had to get creative and create some of my own graphics.  All in all, it was a great experience getting to create this course and put it together.  I am looking forward to interacting with the teachers and students who choose to use the course.

What I really like about the site is that once you have a subscription, you can access any of the courses they have--it's an amazing set of resources--I plan to take some time to watch some of the other AP courses myself.  Very cool.  Thank you to Eric Hung, founder of Educator.com and to the wonderful producer/editor I worked with, Tiffany Lin.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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AP Workshop Review from San Mateo, CA 2/5/2011

I was part of a great group of attendees, both new and experience who had the opportunity to learn from the expertise of Don Leach (George Washington HS, San Francisco, CA) today at Aragon High School in San Mateo, CA for a College Board AP Day-long Training Session.  Our local host teacher was Carlo Corti who welcomed us and said some very nice words about our resources on the blog.  Thanks Carlo :-)

Of course, since the training was sponsored by the College Board and was much about preparing for the AP exam, Don took us through some unique and innovative ways to both prepare our students for the exam as well as cover the content.  I live much of my life in my head.  Don demonstrated and involved the group in a series of activities that allow us to assist the students in learning using some great mnemonics and activities that I would never have thought of or used prior to today.  Even after 24 years of teaching, there is still so much more to learn.  Although he supplied all his information on a CD, I took about 8 pages of notes.  Don's presentation was excellent and he will also be teaching three week-long summer workshops.  If you can, attend one--you will be well instructed and have a fun time.  Your students will be the better for it.

In the weeks to come, I'll be sharing a few of the very cool mnemonics and learning techniques that Don shared.  Kudos to the man who has been teaching for over 40 years and still has a big grin on his face.


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Review Tips for the AP Exam--CDS Version

I imagine AP review in on many of our minds--so much so for me that I posted a blog today for my kids.


Below is my blog post for my AP students. It includes many links and options they have for doing their review. In class, I recommend that they do what works best for their own brain. I also have a review assignment that jigsaw with each other.




Buenos Suertes!

("Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." -Seneca)

=====================






Good Day Everyone! You've got several options for reviewing for your AP test.
First is your review assignment--work on that

1. Read/re-read your textbook


2. Come to class every block and work on FRQs with us


3. Go over your previous exams and quizzes you've received back


4. Use the questions/review documents in your workbook


5. Use the review readings and practice quizzes and tests in your review books (Barron's or Princeton)


6. Use the review materials by your classmates (once they are done and online)


7. Use the Sparknotes review site: http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/ap/


8. Use the text online resources: Coon and Mitter Online Resources to Use for Review


9. Use the Glossary of Terms from Psychology Matters


10. If you like using videos for part of your review, please see this site: http://www.psychexchange.co.uk/videos/


11. Come to the Saturday and Sunday review sessions to examine and discuss concepts from the course


12. Some excellent review sites that will help you if you use them correctly. http://quizlet.com/ --search for ap psychology terms
    http://www.course-notes.org/Psychology
    http://appsychology.com/
    http://home.mindspring.com/~j-squared/apreviewsite/index.html http://academics.tjhsst.edu/psych/oldPsych/
    http://www.bubbabrain.com/bbsr.php http://www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/nrocdemos.html http://twoulfemac.googlepages.com/appsych


13. Go to the ETS site for taking the GRE exam--download their .pdf file with over 200 review questions--

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"AP and the Cost of College"

In response to numerous requests from teachers and school administrators for information on how the Advanced Placement (AP) program can help students with the high cost of college, the College Board has recently published the "AP and the Cost of College" information sheet. This one page document details a number of ways how taking AP courses in high school can significantly defray the cost of a college education.

The information sheet is in a PDF format and can easily be printed, emailed to prospective parents or placed on your website. To go to the College Board website for the information sheet, simply click here or on the document to the right.

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