Author: CAITLIN ZOZAKIEWICZ

Sorry, it’s late! I have the notes, I just haven’t had time to sit down and type them!

First of all, I am SO disappointed I missed the neuron/silly string demonstration.  Thanks Jess for videoing the event and I am looking forward to reading the other TA’s reactions!

I wanted to give you kudos for using mnemonic devices while you were talking about parts of the brain.  You also presented each part of the brain in a few different ways and provided a few different triggers for helping them understand and remember all of the parts. 

I am consistently impressed with the topics and examples you choose to explain the ideas of psychology.  Psychology is an interesting thing to study any way and it can be so applicable to life.  But some professors just don’t pick exciting examples or examples that are applicable to our lives.  The ways you portray the psychology topics keep the students attention and keeping them engaged.  Humor can be so important in a lecture.  I have never really thought about it, but the classes I have always enjoyed the most are the ones that we are able to laugh in.  Humor is extremely effective in keeping the students engaged and even helping them remember the topics.  I would be much more likely to remember a silly or funny example than an example that is straight forward and dryly delivered. 

I always feel that we are being distracting when we do the attendance.  However, the students had the routine DOWN today.  To use Dr. G’s word, I think they’ve habituated to us, I just haven’t quite habituated to them yet!

I also noticed that you were still favoring the left side 🙂

There were a lot of examples used in today’s lecture on research.  The examples were on varying topics and had the students partcipate in varying ways.  I think that because of this variance, the students kept their focus and remained engaged.  Personally, I’m not sure what the point of too many examples would be.  It is always a beneficial way to check your understanding of a topic and can help you to realize things you hadn’t thought of prior to that example.  Not all of the students got the group activity correct.  So clearly there was some confusion on applying what had been discussed that day.  I think if you had 100 percent understanding then there may have been enough examples.  Applications and examples can also be beneficial ways to review a topic later on. 

Two more things:

Online Connections:

I plan on emailing my pod once a week.  I’m going to send them reminders of study tables and review session times.  I think it will be a way to keep encouraging participation.   However, I don’t want to bombard the students with emails, I think there could be a point where they may get annoyed with the emails.   The discussion boards on D2L can really provide an outlet for students who want to debate topics in psychology, discuss research, etc.  We could also set up a separate part of the discussion board for questions specifically relating to the class or the tests/materials.  I think the Facebook group is a good idea.  As people join, we can put faces with names and so can fellow classmates.  I think that the online connections will help bring the class together.  It will be especially helpful to students who are shy and less outgoing.  It has also become an outlet for those with a little more to say. 

Blogs:

I have really liked using the blogs.  I like being able to see what the other TA’s have going on in their heads and their reactions to the experiences.  I also really like being able to see Dr. G’s reactions and thoughts on the class.

I think that overall the TA’s had a very successful class period.  We worked well together and were able to discuss what was going on and make decisions together.  So kudos to everyone for that!

We weren’t exactly sure how we should handle the questions…during our meeting Dr. Gurung had said we could leave them up for the entire class period.  I thought that that might be distracting to the students.  We also ended up getting the questions on both projectors because the students in the back couldn’t see.  We put the questions up at the beginning of class and then put them back up for a little bit during the movie.  I think that this ended up being a distraction.  At this point, we had both projectors up and it was really bright.  We left the q’s up for a little bit and then shut the projectors back off until the end of the class.  We then put the questions back up and asked them to finish their cards.  I think we should have either left a projector on the whole time or waited until the end of the movie.  I feel like it just would have flowed better.

The students were really engaged in the movie.  At the end of class, Mandy asked how many of them had seen it and most had.  For that many of the students having seen the movie they stayed really focused.  They were reacting to the movie a lot as well.  I had forgotten that Sodexho is featured in the movie and I think most of them had too because the all got a kick out of that! 

I think this is an excellent movie to show as part of this class.  It can be used to discuss many topics valid to psychology and can really help to connect psychology to life.

The class on Tuesday included  some very key lessons on expectations for this class.  I thought the mini-study review session was and excellent way to begin class.  It not only reviewed what had been covered so far but aslo explained what sort of information would be on a test.  I think that it was effective for Dr. Gurung to label that set as such because it made clear what this portion of class would be preparing you for.  I also thought it was nice to have study tips not only coming from the professor but from the TA’s as well.  Some students may feel that the professor has been away from studying for such too long of a time and are distanced from remembering what it is like to study.  The TA’s can provide a connection there that the professor might not be able to. 

I’m glad that Dr. Gurung shared the general consensus from the notecards with the class.  This can allow students to feel connected with each other (especially in such a large class).  I also thought was nice of Dr. Gurung to reinforce that the concerns they have are the same ones he has for them and for the class.  This shows that he is actively thinking about their needs and working to minimize their concerns.

Today, I sat in the front of the room, facing the students.  I was a little worried about being up there but it was not bad at all!  It was actually really fun to observe the students.  I wish that I could lip read and see what they are whispering about!  I was impressed by the focus and attentiveness that the students remained to have until the end of class.  This may have been beacues it was still only the second day, but I thought there would definitely be more of a loss of focus.  Even though it was only the second day, there were quite a few empty chairs. 

Dr. Gurung began the class discussion by bringing the concepts about bias that were discussed in the first class back to the table.  I think that this technique reinforces how important that topic is and creates an expectation for the students to understand and remember that information.  He also had the same slide from the first day with the Chapter One Questions.  Reflecting on topics from the last class and bringing up those same questions are a nice way to tranisition into the days discussions.  Displaying those questions and answering them during class helps the professor gauge if the students understand the readings.  It can also serve a check for all of the students to make sure they are getting the right information from the readings. 

During our meeting last week it was brought up that if Dr. Gurung moves around the room it will help cut down on texting.  I did notice that when he moved to the top of the stairs he invariably lost part of his field of vision.  I did notice a specific instance in which he missed a hand that was raised to answer a question.  I think it’s important to move around, it keeps the students alert and engaged.  You just have to be aware of the vision you loose when moving.  I know there is really no way around that, especially in that class room.  The students in the front did not turn their heads or bodies to follow the professor either. 

I thought the demonstration on introspection was extremely beneficial.  It got a lot of students involved and created some movement in the room.  It was a fun activity that really engrossed the students.  It made the point very clear and helped to explain that point in a different way.  It is really important to explain topics in a variety of ways because we don’t all learn the same.  Dr. Gurung does a nice job of explaining things from different angles, using a variety of examples, and different activities to explain and apply the concepts.