Having used an interteaching lesson plan for both Research Methods and Cognitive Development, and already asked students their perception of the instructional strategy, we’ve now been able to examine students results on a midterm exam. The midterm …

As part of our firm believe in iterative improvements to the classes we teach, my psychology colleague and I do regular surveys of the students we teach. For the first time, our survey this Quarter included a question about interteaching, which …

Students in our Social-Cognitive Psychology course had their second experience with interteaching (see first reflection), this time around Cognitive Development. For those unfamiliar with the instructional method, it involves four steps: students …

My colleague and class-roommate Yosup Joo was working at his desk while I began the second day on Perception in Social-Cognitive Psychology; he snapped a few pictures and shared them on Twitter, as well as a brief video. (My web-host is …

In my Ethnic Studies course, I’m interested in students thinking back over the content of each recently-concluded unit and reflecting on how it might have changed them. This is a recurring assignment with the exact same write-up each time:

Remember …

Over the summer, at one of the “curriculum Tuesdays” hosted by our Director of Professional Development, after reading about a course-ending assignment by Sue Frantz, we developed a shorter version to be completed every two weeks by students who have …

Introduction

I was introduced to the instructional strategy of interteaching by Rob McEntarffer:

Follow-up tweets[1] put me in touch with Raechel Soicher, a PhD student at Oregon state who’s used interteaching with her psychology classes. She was …

As it has for the past 8 or 9 years, the Office of Professional Development has sponsored Summer Tuesdays (initially these began as Tech Tuesdays and were organized by the Educational Technologist). These are simply informal gatherings in the …

Reading an article by Andrew Watson about the spacing effect in student study habits got me thinking about my own psychology classes and the degree to which I hope students leverage such a simple key to better learning, versus the degree to which I …

In the transition from analog to digital exams, I am thankful for the ease of statistical analysis. I have a number of questions about my own Final and with the built-in data collection provided by Canvas, I’m able to spend some time answering those …

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Embedded below are the slides that backed my presentation to faculty and staff of Loyola High School yesterday.

I had been invited to speak about the changes our Social Science department made to its course catalog. They were interested in the …

On the last day of my Ethnic Studies class this semester, when the plan was to review for the Final exam, I began the class with a tangentially-related exercise. The previous week Childish Gambino had released the music video This is America, and it …

I received a nice surprise in the mail: my first royalties check. Like that first paycheck for working seasonal retail, the pride I feel for a job done well is greater than the amount of the check.

Curious? Pick up a copy of Charting A New Course. :) …

I may know just enough Freudian psychology to recognize that this is probably projection, but I think all teachers get a little annoyed when they are observed  by a supervisor. I’m certainly not immune to that feeling. Even in my 20th year as a …

A colleague shared with me that her nephew would be coming to town, that he is a forensic psychologist, and that I could ask him to come speak to our psychology classes. After introductions, I offered the following suggestions:

We figure there are …

I was slightly nervous that the results of the annual teacher evaluation[1] would be lower than they have been in the recent past due to the implementation dip. Teaching two entirely new courses[2] last semester made for some interesting days when …

Last night I presented to two dozen members of the African American and Latino Parents Association (AALPA) on the school’s new Ethnic Studies course.

Dean Davis sharing her humanity and her humane approach. @eecastro shares the social science …

A kind email from the mother of an AP Psych 

I have been meaning to write you as Alessandro, over this past year, has consistently spoken about how awesomely challenging this class has been and how your teaching style makes the course work …