Author: JESSICA HOPP

Review Session in the evening:

                Trudi and I were in charge of the review session in the evening before the exam, so to prepare ourselves we decided to meet two hours before the review session. When I printed the review slides and saved the slides, I assumed the answers were highlighted or on the last page. To my surprise the answers weren’t posted but I didn’t fret because that is why Trudi and I were meeting two hours before the exam, in case something like this would happen.  Fortunately for Trudi and I received a call from one of the TAs saying that they had sent an email to us, with the answers to the review slide show… YAY! We were happy to have the totally correct answers and surprised that the questions we had answers for so far were correct. We continued to prepare for us review session and settle some of those pesky nerves.

Show Time: Review Session:

                Trudi and I were amazed to have seen 44 students sitting in the review room ready to review (and there were a few late comers)! I was not too nervous at this point because my first fear was having zero to five students show up for the review. I was happy to see so many students and I was excited to get the show started. I had about 10 mardi gras beads (appropriate for the holiday) to pass out to those who answer questions correctly or ask questions during the hour spent for review. I told the group that I would hand out the beads randomly to avoid running out of beads and conditioning the group to an answer = beads treatment. Trudi and I can both say that the beads were a hit and the group was very good about answering and asking questions and also discussion of topics. The hour long session was successful and throughout the time, Trudi and I would ask, “So with a show of hands, who feels like they are more prepared for this exam” or “who feels 5 times smarter than earlier in the session?” We saw hands and felt the confidence. I was worried about smart comments and complaints about the review session, fortunately I did not hear of any and we even had a small group stay after for more, one on one help. Without a doubt, I would continue the review sessions for future exams.

Exam Day:

                I can say that I felt some nerves from the students but in the end, “it wasn’t so bad after all.” Before the exam my roommate had told me of some bizarre cheating methods some of her classmates use in her Anatomy class: Girls will write a cheat sheet and slip the sheet between their cleavage and wear a low top during the exam, so they can just look down and feel secure that they would not be confronted for looking down their shirts. Also, for the boys, taping answers to the review sheet, to the underside of the bill on their hats… all they have to do is look up without much movement. I can say that I was keeping an eye out for this behavior during our exam, but I did not catch anything. I am glad and yet saddened, that Katie had caught a cheater and had the attention to find such guilty behavior. Unfortunate to have a cheater on the first exam in an Intro. class but at least we caught the guy early and hopefully discouraged him from making the same mistake.

Going over the exam:

                I think it was very important for us to go over the science behind the exam with the class the next day. It was important for us to stress the importance of reading the chapters for there were questions on the exam that solely relied on the material from their reading.  Hopefully this message will hit home for the students… READ! On the topic of reading; reading some of the exam comments out loud to the class showed the class that we for one read their comments and care enough about the class concerns.

Post Exam – Student Visits:

                I know that I am always one of the few students who takes her exam problems to a Professor or TA and I had three students visit me. The three all came with me with the same concern, testing anxiety and how will this affect my overall grade? Starting out I asked if the student had any questions (any at all) or a place where they wanted to start on the exam, none really didn’t know where to start so I took the lead. I  started off by highlighting the tricky questions on the exam, the reading emphasis questions, the throw out questions, and the confusing questions (all based on my judgments and problems students had brought up to me after the exam. I look to see if these students got any of these focus questions wrong, and if so, I would walk through the problem with them. For example, if the question was a reading focus question I would point that out and suggest tips to help the student retain more from their reading. If the question was tricky, I would ask the student to tell me what the question was asking and what their thinking process was for the question; usually the student would get stumped on two potential answers and from there I would have them tell me, why those answers? Which seems to make more sense? If they totally did not know, I would point out the best answer and explain why. Then I would suggest the “chunking method” (take topic info from lecture, notes, and reading and ‘chunk’ the info together and see the connections between each source) to use during studying.  Most of the students admitted that they didn’t focus on the reading and that they felt like they were prepared after they attended the review session but come exam time, they were in fact not prepared. Two of these students were really nervous and expressed testing anxiety issues over this exam. For these students, I pin pointed their anxieties with their help and for these two, these students feel overwhelmed with the time and blindly go through the exam. I suggested some relaxing methods I use for exams and breathing tips (tends to work for me, I relax more and increase my attention through focused breathing). Whether it will be used or work for them, I am not sure but that’s all the advice I could give other than the, “Get tested or talk to the professor for accommodations.”

**** SUGGESTIONS****

                Very random idea I gained while listening to a conversation my boyfriend and I were having once: Add totally funny, humorous, silly questions in the beginning, middle, and near the end of the exam. This way, students who tense up during an exam can have a chance to laugh and relax when reading these ridiculous questions. It always worked for me; I went back and compared exams that used this method to those that didn’t and I fared better on the exams with comical questions (I compared Middle Childhood and Adolescence to Adulthood and Aging exams… both had similar interest and exam set-up). Even if you add 3 questions to the exam (3 out of 50 questions are comic relief) I think this would be something that can help and see if it does help. LET’S EXPERIMENT!

                Another Suggestion: I would like to have at least 5 questions during the review session that mock questions the students would find on the exam (mock meaning completely worded like questions on the exam). The Jeopardy review is entertaining but I think it would help the students (especially during the first review session) to see what type of questions they should expect on the exam. Some students complained that they knew the answers to the review stuff but the exam questions were a different ballgame, so why can’t we give them a preview? I think it may help and give the students a fighting chance when studying for exams.

Cutting Down on Texting:

                What an annoying and very distracting habit! Probably one of the things that I find most irritating and that is probably one of my faults; I react strongly to texting in class which may be disrupting in hindsight. So, in hopes to cut down on this poor habit, I decided to take the perch behind class and stare down into what I call, “Texter Alley.” The first students I asked to put their phones away were two girls who ten minutes into lecture, didn’t have the notebooks open! After I asked them to put their phones away they definitely started taking notes and from my observation of their notebook pages, it was the second time they took notes (and it was the FOURTH week of class)! Trudi took to the top of the isle and we both got into the habit of encouraging other students to tell their peers to stop texting. Hopefully this tactic will introduce some peer policing. Not sure if this was intentional or known, but when Dr. Gurung chose the two guys to act out the brain demo, that was seriously in the heart of “Texter Alley.” Immediately all texting in that region stopped which was awesome!

And the Brain, Brain, Brain:

                The brain labels and functions is not that all easy to learn and with all the texting going on, how can it be learned for those individuals?! Okay, I promise I am done with the text talk from here on. Like I said the topic of brain function and parts can be pretty dry and dull material but that is not the case for our class. The use of the nerf brain was a great visual learning tool and specifically, using its nerf properties to squeeze the brain down to an animal’s size and then releasing the nerf brain and let it slowly evolve into the fore brain, creating the human brain. Good visual of how that part evolved and its reasoning behind the evolved lobe. I thought the Neuron Activity went very well (despite Josh’s anxiety and nerves) and flowed smoothly. The terms posted on the slide on the overhead helped the students out a lot when defining the different components of the neuron. The video recording worked well in addition to the success of the in-class neuron activity.

Group Engagement number three:

                A nice smooth transition from learning the material to using and applying that learned material.  I think the numbering off went more smoothly and quickly than the last group activity. While I was walking around, I heard a lot of discussion and cooperation amongst the groups. It seems like from here on out, the group activities will form and work together more quickly than the first two. The students must have caught onto the idea of forming the group quickly in order to have more time to accomplish the group work.

Brain Exercise follow-up:

                A brilliant idea to do a follow-up on the previous day’s Neuron Activity for the students will, understand what they were to get out of it and learn more specific information about the process. The follow-up showed how many parts of the neuron and the brain cooperatively work together to do one simple function. There was a lot of information and examples explaining how the sensory system feed information to our brain. The brain is not all that simple and it is crucial to go over the key things to remember about the brain and its functions. I’m sure a lot of the students feel quite overwhelmed with all the brain structure and material so they for one will appreciate.

Nice connection with Attraction:

                I really enjoyed all the animal kingdom-mate attraction examples. I felt as if all those examples made the connections nicely for the students. Seems like all the mates that have the most sensory appeal are the most likely to find a mate.  What about humans? It doesn’t vary across cultures- this was interesting to me because I know some tribes and bands were they find breasts not to be attractive or idolized like they are in our culture. These bands and tribes see women’s breast everyday (due to their dress) therefore they are just as attractive as arms or necks. So what does determine attraction? -Media. Really interest, thought provoking, and overall great questions with this material.  In the end, it is up to the babies to determine attraction – this is just wild stuff!

Tuesday at the FYE Conference:

                My confusion with what week we are into is partly because of my absence for the beginning of week three. As all of the G-Team knows, I attended the National First Year Experience Conference in Orlando, Florida. As everyone else knows, I have seriously the most WONDERFUL time and most ENLIGHTENING experience at this conference. Throughout my work with UWGB First Year Program and a seminar peer mentor, I have learned a lot about the particular integration issues this first-year group experiences at college and I have went through that process as a freshman. I had a terrible time integrating in the social and academic aspects of college. Thanks to my seminar class, I had people to talk to, and a great professor to communicate with. Because of my rough start and so-far successful undergraduate career, I feel like I know the struggles and I know how important it is to get on the right track within the first semester. I feel as if I am finding something I am passionate about and can see myself doing in regards to vocational choice. This is exciting because for a long time I felt overwhelmed with the possible choices and felt as if I wouldn’t find something before I graduate and apply to a Graduate Program. I am going to continue down the Student Affairs path and I would like to look into the Emerging Adulthood or Student Integration options. 

Ideas for Facebook:

                While I was at the conference I found a great program that would give me information in benefit of our Introduction to Psychology class. The program was called, “Five Ways to use Social Networking Websites to Increase First-Year Student Engagement.” I can send the handout to all of the G-Team and that way, everyone can see all the possibilities of Facebook! I do feel like our group is going well and is growing well! Although D2L has some of the same tools Facebook has (i.e., discussion panel, ability to post links, contact, ect.) Facebook may benefit in the realm of viewings meaning, more students may check their Facebook more than they check the D2L.  Anyhow, here are some of my ideas:

·         Encourage some of the students leading discussion on D2L to post some discussion on the Facebook group.

·         Post more interesting links on the Facebook group and mention the new links in class.

·         Advertise the Facebook group more in class possibly.

·         Post the Class pictures on Facebook (that way students can have fun tagging one another and it is just another way to view the photos). The photos can be private so that only group members can view the photos.

·         Post some videos: One student has done well doing so, and we have just uploaded the Brain Neuron activity video; let’s see if we can find more activities we can record in class. Students tend to enjoy watching videos and they can learn while doing so.

·         See if there is a unit that can use Facebook as an example or have students find examples of, let’s say, conformity or other social psych. Implications on Facebook. It can be a fun activity that can get students to think about the class material and then find a real example relevant to them.

 

I think that is all I have for now… I forgot my paper list full of Facebook ideas at my apartment, so expect more ideas!

Thursday February 12^th’s class:

        Well, I am back from the tropics and I feel overwhelmed! I felt a tad lost because I missed Tuesday’s class and it was hard to get back into class mode after my enlightening vacation. I have noticed a lot of class side conversations which are distracting! The TAs did well policing these chatty Cathys  and I know that I was aiming to have students be the ones to tell the person sitting next to them to stop talking. I encouraged this policing by asking the students on the ends to pass the message of, “Please stop talking,” down to the parties that were talking. I hope this creates a sense of authority in these students and hope they feel more comfortable in telling the chatters to quit what they are doing. I felt like that class was very interested in the Attraction and smell portion of the class. A lot of students had asked good questions that reflected a thought process on how the study  was conducted – AWESOME! We are creating little Researchers!

Retouching the Chewy Case:

            Knowing from past experience, I understand how important it is for us take go back to the in-class exercise and explain what we were looking for. This gives the class an opportunity to fully understand what the main objective was for this exercise and how to perform better on the next exercise. I feel as if it is better to show the students how to apply the material from the actual source (i.e., the professor) because that way, the students can better understand the concepts taught in class.

Main Concerns the Class has:

            As a student, I always enjoyed looking at the stats of my class and this is the reason why I love D2L so  much is because of the little stats tab on each assignment; I love to see how well I am doing compared to the class. This may sound potentially selfish and bad but I feel like it is important to show students these types of progress checks so they can feel better about their progress and keep up doing good work, or they can see that they need to improve their homework strategies. Anyhow back to class: I really liked how we took the time to put up visuals of the class’ percentages of how they are doing/feeling because it is a great tool and an aid for the class. A lot of students will be able to know that they are not the only one feeling concerned about “showing up late for class,” (by the way, which the G-Team is doing a great job in policing this area)  or “grades.” Even the reading of the silly card was a good example for it shows; 1.) The professor took time in reading through all of the cards and 2.) All the concerns were considered meaning, no question were deemed “stupid” or kicked out of the pile.

Study Tips from the TAs:

            The class concerns was a nice opening for the Study tips from the TA’s, it all meshed nicely. Being asked to give tips on how to study to the class was kind of alerting for me because that meant two things. 1.) I would have to talk in front of class and give helpful tips and 2.) I had to compress everything that I would say on this topic into like 5 minutes tops. I could always go on and on talking about insignificant things but luckily, (this time) I stayed focus on giving information solely on the study tips. Hopefully the class will heed these tips.

Psych as a Science:

            The current topics that were used as examples kept the class focused. The current, real world examples displayed the many fields of psych and how they are applied every day. These examples showed how today’s current concerns can be helped through the many branches of psychology. Of course with all of the claims made in everyday readings, this question has to come to mind: is this research or study legit? Rethinking and questioning the logic made in these research claims is an important skill for anyone person to have. The true of false segment was a great way to engage the class on topics of interest. All the research examples were a nice follow up on the Scientific Theory. The whole baseline behind Psych as a Science:  Be a Social Scientist and ask, “Show me the data!” This was a good message to take home as a student; educate yourself and evaluate the data.

Observations:

            My observation I had in class was that every time a student was called on or had a student’s name called, they would smile. I thought that this was very cool.

I know it is a good thing to have the class seem or better yet, be excited but can there be too much excitement? I know that we had a couple of students blurt out during class and the situation was controlled but is this going to be a distracting for the entire class? How do we control these outbursts? Do we need to? Lately it really hasn’t been the issue and I know that if these outbursts become an issue, it can be easily solved through a chat with the student and explaining the concerns with the outbursts. For now, I do believe it is under control.

Another issue I had is in regards to the walk-in visitors; should we close the second floor doors to discourage these visitors and lessen people leaving for the restroom?

The struggle!

            This second day of the first week was a struggle for me; a struggle in the sense that I have felt the intensity of this enormous class.  I am not necessarily overwhelmed with this feeling; I am more or less intrigued to be experiencing such a struggle. I struggle to find the optimal level of focus for this particular class. I have duties to assume being one of six TAs and yet I seem to struggle with finding that particular role. I found myself sitting in class, looking around, and thinking, “Who are all these students?” As a Peer Mentor, I was able to recall a name for every face I saw after the first week, while they were watching me and my actions. In this introductory course I feel as if I am a new person in a new country. I miss my community but I do realize that there is a new community to be built. This is the time for me to go out and meet some neighbors and experience a culture different from what I know.

Class introduction to the History (and application) of Psychology:

            After these thoughts soon exited my mind, I started to descend back to Rose Hall 250. The class was yet again, intrigued, engaged, and having complete focus with the content at hand. They really enjoyed the “connect the dots” game between Dr. Gurung and Wolf (yet another cleverly well-done in-class exercise). The class was focused during the entirety of the class despite the content being on the history of psychology which can be rather dry. With having such a lecture, facilitating any kind of active learning or discussion can be very difficult. The “Teaching Tips” can only serve as a handbook in educating the reader about the techniques and strategies of active learning but, it is not until you are in the class environment do you see these tips and techniques play out. You can read about the ideal techniques you want to use in order to facilitate group discussion and about the problems at hand, but you cannot always guarantee the goals will be met. My past experiences with group discussion have never been too favorable and my experience with this class today, I could not see going any better. As soon as the phrase was mentioned, “Get into groups of 3-5,” I assumed there would be immediate chaos of people sitting, standing, talking, walking, finding, and complaining about not being a part of a group. This class seemed to have done well with this perceived simple task and took on the challenge at hand. As I was walking around, observing, and listening to the groups around me, I saw the miraculous connection of the class material to the group work problem, and the applications of the content. It was truly exciting to see the groups working together, discussing the different fields and their applications to this particular problem. The students remained focus at the task at hand up until it was time to hand in their work. The entire process just went so smoothly and without complete silence or chaos.

Devil’s Advocate:

            I am going to assume a rather, “darker” perspective for a few sentences here so, bear with me please. I respected the first group work assignment and enjoyed how well the experience was but I did not find it favorable of finding out about the group work just as the students were being asked to complete it. I would have liked to have had the time to see the assignment ahead of time in order to understand the task in-side and out. I felt as if I knew what the assignment was looking for and testing with the method used in class but I feel like I could have been utilized more as a source had I known what the assignment was ahead of time. I was able to answer the questions that were being asked by the students, I felt as if I could have been the one asking the group questions and facilitating the connection between the case problem and class material. I trust that the students were able to make a connection on their own but I would have liked to have them think more in depth about the connections through more application of the material. My opinion could very well be something that is not recommended, expected, or wanted of me to do and that is understandable. I know that sometimes I can get carried away and analyze my role and expectations on an unnecessary level. If this happens, I asked to be brought back down and put back into line.

Making Connections:

            Overall it was another successful and proud day and week of class; ended on a good note. I enjoyed the students during, before, and after class. I was excited to have a student feel a connection with me on the second day of class and I was happy to engage and encourage such communication with this particular student. I want to apologize for getting caught up in the conversation and I know we as a team understand the importance of this vital communication between fronts but, I did miss out what was happening after class with the Team. I missed out on the explanations of the work to be done for the weekend and I cannot help but feel as if I had dropped the ball. I understood the fact that I could have been easily caught up through an email but I still felt out of the loop until that email was reached to me. If this situation occurred again, I of course would continue the conversation with the student but had I know that I was missing out on information, I would have shorten the conversation and joined the team huddle. It is a rough situation in the means of finding a good balance but at that point, I felt as if I made the right choice in continuing the conversation with the student and being caught up later (right?).