Professional Development Options for High School Psychology Teachers Part 2

One of the best experiences for professional development is the APA/Clark Workshop. Ask any of the hundreds of "graduates" from the workshop and they will tell you it was one of the most professionally rewarding experiences they have had.

This year, Amy Ramponi and Brad Wray will be the primary Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools TOPSS presenters. Below is the photo from 2018.

I encourage anyone who is the sole psychology teacher in their school to apply. This is especially true if you are from a traditionally underrepresented community. One of the goals for the APA in general, and TOPSS more specifically is to bring in more people to increase ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, age, geographic, disability/ability, sexual orientation, and belief system diversity.

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Professional Development Options for High School Psychology Teachers

The American Psychological Association (APA) and Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) has some excellent professional development for teachers. Here are but a few:

The stars on the map represents the various regional and state conferences that are held regularly. Grants from the APA are available to apply for to underwrite the costs of the conference and/or speakers. Personally, I have been to both the Northern California, Arizona, Indiana, and Chicagoland conferences in my career. They have all been excellent and I came away with multiple activities and resources from all of them. Best of all, I gained friends and a professional learning network.

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Teaching Psychology: Where Can I Find Help?

The great folks at the APA/TOPSS have created a wonderful list of online resources for psychology teachers called, "Teaching Psychology: Where Can I Find Help?" Highlights include information for regular psych, IB Psych, and AP Psychology; professional development; course development; PLNs; much more.

Check out the resources at the link above. Incredibly helpful for any teacher, not just teachers new to the profession or subject area.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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New APA Resources--The Canvas Course

AMAZING NEW RESOURCE--Thank you to Brad Wray and the Tech Strand at the Psychology Summit!!!!

TOPSS High School Psychology Course Template available in Canvas – From the technology and online learning strand. A giant thanks to Brad Wray in particular for creating and filming the linked video on the site, and for all his work editing and uploading the course. Feel free to watch the video and download the course – feedback is welcome!

“This teaching resource for high school psychology teachers includes many content specific, peer-reviewed resources, videos and formative assessments organized by the National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula. The entire course template is shareable and customizable and can be used in on-line or in-person psychology classes.”


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Request for Feedback on APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula

Request for Feedback on APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula 

The National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula Working Group invites feedback on the National Standards (APA, 2011) to inform the next revision of the policy document.

 All high school psychology teachers are invited to complete a short survey available online here by July 1, 2018.

The Working Group will review all submitted feedback this fall as it begins to revise the psychology standards. The current National Standards, which expire in August 2021, define learning benchmarks for the high school psychology course.





The standards are available online at http://www.apa.org/education/k12/national-standards.aspx. Questions can be sent to topss@apa.org.



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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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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Maria Vita is Amazing! AKA What to Buy for Your Psych Class

Fellow TOPSS Board Member Maria Vita is an amazing person. Over the past year, she has shared a Google Doc she put together highlighting with links some things you may want to purchase for your psychology classroom.

I leave you with her list:

The links in the doc are active, but not the ones below in the picture. Open the doc and check all of them out. She is pretty terrific.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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