AP Exam Review - Sensation and Perception

By: Kimberly on 6:00 PM

Review season for the AP exam can get so monotonous, that I wanted to create a review that kind of changes is up.  My Sensation and Perception Review  asks students to create a mnemonic device to help remember information for two of six topics in the Sensation and Perception unit.  The teacher can then compile and share the best mnemonic devices for each subject with the entire class.

This worked really well in my class, because it created a long-term way for students to remember the topics.  It was also a great review for the learning unit, as they studied mnemonic devices in that chapter as a way to aid in the retrieval of information.  My students said this was a really helpful activity for them.  

From April 10th through April 13th, I will be offering this lesson 20% off in preparation for review season.  Enjoy!  

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How To Keep Your Students Healthy for Exams- Take a Break!

By: Kimberly on 1:14 PM

I was always extremely nervous when taking attendance during final exams.  My school often called teachers up throughout the summer to grade the tests of students who had been sick during exams.  There was nothing worse than getting a phone call on July 12th that Jimmy took his final and wanted it graded IMMEDIATELY!

So how can we keep our kiddos healthy and able to take their exams when they're supposed to?  Try a hug break!

Recent research suggests that hugs can offer a "stress-buffering effect."  The more we are hugged, the better our immune system is capable of fighting off infections.  Even more interesting, the wider our social network, the longer we are expected to live and fight off disease.  

Testing really has become a "season" of school for our high-achieving AP students.  Between AP tests, state standardized tests, and final exams, our students can take 10-15 major exams in a span of a few weeks.  Encourage them to take a break from the books, hang out with friends, and ask for a hug when they need it.  

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Using Infographics in the AP Psychology Classroom

By: Kimberly on 11:00 AM

Good Morning!

I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately.  There are some beautiful infographics on there for psychology!  It got me wondering: how are these infographics created?  They must be meticulously crafted by graphic designers, right?  After a little research, I realized I was totally wrong!

Piktochart.com is a website where anyone can create infographics for free.  They offer ten free themes to start with, or you can start from scratch.  I made this small infographic in less than an hour.

If you would like to download a higher resolution version of this infographic, click here. 

Overall it was a fairly intuitive site.  I had a little trouble with formatting here and there, but I was impressed with the selection of fonts, templates, and graphics available to users to free.  It doesn't look like some of the polished inforgraphics I've seen, but for a classroom project I think it would be great!

I have in mind a lesson where students are assigned one of the major units for the AP Psychology exam, and then they each create an infographic that includes the key information that their peers need to remember from that section for the test.  Then a quick email to their classmates gives everyone a visual study guide that they could save to their phones!  

What do you think?  And if your students need a quick refresher on operational definitions before the exam, check out my free Operational Definitions Assignment.  

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Operational Definitions Freebie!

By: Kimberly on 9:29 PM

Hello to all readers!  

I am finally getting around to starting a blog for AP psychology teachers, and I am so excited!  I was a psychology major at Texas A&M, and have had a passion for psychology from my first psych class my sophomore year.  Finally, in my eighth year of teaching, I earned the AP Psychology position at my school.  It was my favorite year of teaching by far.

I am staying home right now with my 1 year old son, and wouldn't trade our time together for the world.  But I do sometimes miss the industrial feeling I felt while working outside of the home.  I loved creating lessons and the accomplished feeling when I made something that I knew my students would respond to.  About a month ago, I decided to start creating lessons and attempting to sell them on Teachers Pay Teachers.  It allows me to feel productive and more like an adult during my son's nap time.  And honestly, I feel like I'm creating better lessons than I did when I was actively teaching!  There were so many pressures from administration, grading deadlines, etc. when I was teaching, and now that I am at home I feel like I can actually sit and concentrate on creating activities with far more focus than I could when I was in the classroom.  Now that I'm out of the rat race, I can actually enjoy creating lessons.  

Click here to download the lesson!

To kick off the blog, I'm offering a FREE activity on operational definitions.  Man, did my students struggle with operational definitions!  This assignment starts with a clear explanation and example of operation definitions in simple language, and then asks students to create an operational definition in ten scenarios.  The scenarios ask students to think of operational definitions for abstract concepts such as guilt, anger, and love.

Please enjoy this freebie, and check back soon for a free AP Psychology sub lesson, as well as other helpful links, news, and resources for the AP classroom.      

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