Psych - Today we did a whole schwack of stuff! We did the Nervous system/Endocrine system quiz, did a reaction time experiment with texting, talked about distracted driving, and began our emotions mini-unit. Tomorrow we will be watching Inside Out through an emotional psychology lens.

CALM - last day in class to work on resumes/cover letters/references.

ELL 2 - Please finish the questions up to Chapter 8 in Stone Fox. We will be finishing the story tomorrow (bring a tissue!)

ELL 3 - Come prepared to learn tomorrow! (as always)

ELL 4 - Finish questions up to Chapter 7 tonight

Tomorrow is the Winter Assembly and Ugly Sweater Day! See you tomorrow :)

Hope everyone had a restful weekend!

Psych 20 - today we looked at the Endocrine system, and compared it with the nervous system. Wednesday we have a small quiz on these two systems plus the brain. Know your neuron!

CALM - today we had Take Charge as our guest speaker and tomorrow we have the Louise Dean centre.

ELL 4 - Please read the rest of Chapter 6 of The Outsiders for tomorrow.

ELL 3 - Those of you who stayed in the classroom - you must finish your Ch 16-20 questions for tomorrow.

ELL 2 - No homework - you are lucky!

Happy Monday :)

Psychology - we spent the period in the computer lab doing research on the brain. Tomorrow we get into concussions and their implications on behaviour.

CALM - CSH was here again today - tomorrow is the last day!

ELL 2/3/4 - you all have quizzes on Friday.
ELL 4 will get a bit more time on your Outsiders scripts. Please reread Chapter 5 if you don't understand!

Have a happy Wednesday :)

Psychology - today we went over the nervous system and neurons, and did a class demonstration of how neurons fire (action potential). Then we made neurons out of play-doh! You will have some time to work on them on Thursday. Tomorrow we are in rm 212 doing some research on the brain.

CALM - Calgary Sexual Health was in today, and tomorrow and Thursday as well.

ELL 4 - please finish Chapter 4 of The Outsiders for tomorrow!
 You have a Chapter 1-5 quiz on Friday.

Psychology - The link for the video we watched in class today:

http://skywalker.lcaat.ca/watch_video.php?v=SNAY7G95XMHX

Your learning log for this week should be on the video - I am also collecting film questions we did today in class.

CALM - Calgary Sexual Health Centre is in M-Thurs this week. If you want to participate tomorrow and didn't get to today, you NEED to have your consent forms in by tomorrow morning.

ELL 4 - Please have Chapter 3 of the Outsiders (questions) done by tomorrow.

ELL 2 - We will be working on Chapter 4 of Stone Fox tomorrow with a money lesson.

ELL 3 - Please finish reading Chapter 9 of Holes - we begin our literature circles tomorrow.

Have a good Monday!

Some due dates:

Psychology - Project and mini booklet (and I mean mini!) due on Monday
ELL 2 - Read Stone Fox chapter 4 by Monday
ELL 3 - Finish Chapter 1-5 questions by Monday
ELL 4 - Outsiders booklet Chapter 1-2 due Monday AND read Chapter 3 for Monday. Small comprehension quiz on Monday.

Have a safe long long weekend!

Psych 20 - we began our mini unit on intelligence - we looked at different theories of intelligence, multiple intelligence, and emotional intelligence, followed by a role-play game on EQ.

CALM - our guest speaker didn't show up, so we went to the lab for a resume writing session.

ELL 4 - we finished reading Chapter 2 of The Outsiders, and you started your questions for it.

ELL 3 - we discussed midterm written responses, and you began Chapters 1-5 of Holes

ELL 2 - we read Chapter 2 and 3 of Stone Fox and you started on your questions.

Back in action! I was having some trouble with some plug-in on this site but it seems to have resolved itself.

Psych - we had our unit test today. We start intelligence on Monday. It will be a quick unit, and we have a presentation on November 30, so keep that in mind.

CALM - 3 guest speakers back to back next week.

ELL 2/3/4 - No homework except for ELL 4 - please have your character sketch from The Outsiders completed today. We had a Kahoot afternoon, between Ch 1 review of The Outsiders, to verb practice.

Next week is only three days due to Grade 9 tours and a PD day.

Happy weekend!

Shortened week this week!
Psychology - we finished up Piaget and started Freud's psychosexual stages. On Monday we will be looking at Kohlberg's moral development.

CALM - Monday and Tuesday are guest speakers.

ELL 4 - We finished the midterm part A and B and will spend some time discussing the questions on Monday, as well as getting into The Outsiders.

ELL 2 - We will be starting Stone Fox this week, and finishing our past tense verb work.

ELL 3 - You have your reading comprehension midterm on Monday,  and we will start our novel this week as well.

Psychology - We discussed the questions from the documentary "Babies" and started learning about Piaget and Vygotsky. We watched some cute videos that show kids working with Piagetian tasks - egocentrism, conservation, and object permanence (well, not a kid, but Stewie from Family Guy)

We started creating our own preschools based on our knowledge of child development. I look forward to hearing about them tomorrow!

CALM - continued working on the dating project - we have a guest speaker tomorrow so please come ready to listen and participate.

ELL 2- you wrote your midterm today. Please have your past simple verb work in tomorrow!

ELL 3 - we discussed the personal response to text assignment, which you are doing tomorrow. We also went through our practice questions.

ELL 4 - you wrote your reading comprehension part of your exam. Tomorrow is personal response.

Psychology - today we began lifespan development and did a powerpoint lecture about babies. Please read over your ppt notes in advance of tomorrow's documentary ("Babies")

CALM - we had a guest speaker from YVC today. Please have your guest speaker evaluation completed by tomorrow (it should have been in today!)

ELL 2/3 - We did a whole class activity today with similes, metaphors and personification. We listened to Katy Perry's "Firework" and looked at figurative language.

ELL 4 - we did a similar lesson to 2/3 and made posters with examples of more types of figurative language:
alliteration, hyperbole, metaphor, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile

Psych - We did a ppt on Humanistic and trait theories of personality and then you got to analyze handwriting!

CALM - We watched Pay it Forward today and will continue on with it tomorrow.

ELL 4 - Presentations started today and will wrap up tomorrow

ELL 2 - You started a creative writing piece on "Wolf"

ELL 3 - Your Dr. Heidegger's Experiment questions are due tomorrow.

Psychology and CALM - we went to watch Ms. Taylor's class' performance of "Defined," written and directed by a high school student!

Psych - please finish your personality test sheet tonight, and go right to the library tomorrow morning.

CALM - please come to the library immediately after the Remembrance Day service tomorrow.

ELL 2/3 - We did Remembrance Day lessons today. Please have your booklet finished by tomorrow. We will be looking at "In Flanders Fields" tomorrow.

ELL 4 - We went over how to write a personal response today. You will need it for next week on your midterm. Tomorrow and Thursday are devoted to The Outsiders presentations.

Happy Monday!

Hey everyone!
Super busy week - I am sorry for the lack of updating the last few days. I am on my first week of teaching 4/4 periods and am still adjusting to the new schedule. I'm back in the groove so we should be good to go now :)

Psychology - We looked at Freud's Id, Ego and Superego yesterday with the animated Cat in the Hat. That was fun! Today we made our own Rorschach ink blots and analyzed each other's personalities.

We are watching the drama performance "Defined" on Monday.

CALM - We are also watching Defined on Monday. We will have hardly any time for computers on Tuesday with the Remembrance Day service, so please work on them over the weekend. All remaining autobiography presentations will happen on Monday as well!

ELL 2/3/4 You each did a vocab or grammar quiz today and we all played Taboo. That was fun!

Have a fantastic weekend.

Psych - We finished with research methods today, and will be having a quiz tomorrow (short quiz, identify the variables, and choose which research method it used.
Tomorrow we start to talk about ethics, and we will be doing a fun "gallery walk" to discover some verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry unethical experiments!

CALM - we present autobiographies tomorrow. Come to class ready to listen and speak!

ELL 4 - we started a 1960's online scavenger hunt in preparation for reading The Outsiders

ELL 2 - you continued to read "Wolf" by Jack London

ELL 3 - you continued to read "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Psychology - We started term two today with Personal Psychology.
We discussed research methods. Please do the crossword puzzle page at the end of your booklet for tomorrow. We will be discussing the experimental method tomorrow. You have a quiz on Wednesday on methods of study and variables.

CALM - We met today for the first time! We did a get-to-know-you activity. Your first assignment starts tomorrow. We meet on the main floor in the library.

ELL 3 - You will have time in class tomorrow to read "Dr Heidegger's Experiment" and finish part one.

ELL 2 - Your Part One of Jack London's "Wolf" is due tomorrow.

ELL 4 - We worked on capitalization and commas today. Please complete "Lesson 59" on commas by tomorrow. We will be going to the library to work on our The Outsiders 1960's scavenger hunt.

Phew - that's a lot of writing. So many classes! Enjoy your Monday night.

Psychology - today we looked at Erikson and Marcia's theories of identity crisis in adolescence. You took  a self-survey and found out what state best describes your identity.

New term starts on Monday! We are now finished General Psychology. Please have your projects handed in on Monday at the beginning of the period if you want that optional mark!

ELL 4 - We watched/listened to "The Tell-Tale Heart" and did reading comprehension/grammar on it. No homework this weekend, but book report #2 is due on Nov 19 so always a good idea to keep working on that.

ELL 2 - Your pumpkin carving expository paragraph was due today at the end of class.

ELL 3 - Your Stephen King booklet was due today at the end of class.

Have a great Halloween weekend everyone! Remember, parent-teacher interviews are tonight from 5-8 and tomorrow from 9-12.

Psych 20 - Please check your marks on Homelogic. I have finished re-entering (phew) everything that was handed back on Monday. If you handed work into me and got it back this week, please see me as I may not have been able to input your mark.

Today we talked about cliques, conformity, bullying, and the bystander effect. Andrew suggested we watch "On This Day" by Shane Koyczan and I am so glad we did!

We played the culture game and it was really funny to watch you interact with each other :)

ELL - great pumpkins! They look amazing. Tomorrow ELL 3 is finishing up Stephen King, and ELL 2 and 4 will be working on an expository written work.

Wear your costumes tomorrow!

See you then :)

Psych 20 - Today I introduced a new project for you.....it is OPTIONAL! So, if you are looking to boost your grade, you can choose to do it.
It's a mixed media art project about the teenage brain, and more specifically, the misconceptions vs reality of what it is like to be a teenager. I have a handout in class if you missed today - it is self-assessed and due Monday, no extensions.

We also went down to the first term art show to get some inspiration!

We watched The Nature of Things "Surviving :) The Teenage Brain"
You can watch that here:
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/surviving-the-teenage-brain

ELL 2/3/4 - Your book report due date is November 19.

ELL 3 - Your Stephen King booklet will be due on Thursday at the end of class.
ELL 2 - Your Halloween reading is due tomorrow.
ELL 4 - You were lucky and didn't have homework tonight :)

See you all at the pumpkin carving tomorrow!

Psych 20 - Today we talked about cognitive dissonance and watched a short clip from a Leon Festinger experiment that was narrated by Philip Zimbardo. We did a little thought experiment where you imagined that you found out that your father was committing credit card fraud in order to buy jewellery for your mom, but that she was so happy when she got the jewellery. We looked at the four ways in which we try to alleviate cognitive dissonance and tried to apply those techniques to new scenarios.

We also talked about stress reducing methods and watched a video called XS Stress: Teens Take Control while you coloured in on your stress-relieving colouring page.

Psych 20 - You have homework for the weekend - the defense mechanisms handout. Please have it done by Monday. Today we did skits/scripts in class where you had to guess which defence mechanism was at play.

There will be NO learning log due for next week. That would be cruel and unusual punishment to do that to you on Halloween Havoc day.

ELL 4 - Please do a rough outline of your persuasive letter using all the techniques we discussed in class - emotional appeal, appeal to authority, strong transition words.

ELL 2/3 - One more group to present on Monday.

Both ELL classes - we will begin our Halloween mini-unit on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Psychology - we did a powerpoint on "What is Stress?" then did a worksheet in groups of types of conflict (approach-approach, approach-avoidance, approach-avoidance, and double approach-avoidance)

Then we watched this amazing video! Powerful stuff. I challenge you to make a change in your life regarding stress.

ELL 2/3 - Presentations today and we will finish them tomorrow. Please be ready! And don't read off the slides!

ELL 4 - No quiz tomorrow - we are moving along with our persuasive writing, and hopefully getting into the Most Dangerous Game writing assignment.

All my classes - I have a bad migraine today and called in a substitute teacher. I'm super sorry to those students who were coming in after class today to write their quizzes - we will have to postpone.

It'll be a bit more of a work period than usual, so enjoy the time, and be nice for your teacher!

We'll pick up with everything tomorrow. Psych students - please read your stress booklet and be ready to move on tomorrow onto defence mechanisms.

ELL 2/3 - your presentations are tomorrow! Please be prepared.

ELL 4 - last day of Most Dangerous Game writing tomorrow - please be prepared with some ideas about how Rainsford can convince Zaroff not to hunt him! You will be writing a persuasive letter.

Psych 20 - I think you really got into the activity today! We played a game called "On the Run" where you had to communicate in a larger group with key pieces of disjointed information to put some details in order.
Questions to answer over the night:
1. Did you experience any conflict during the game? Why or why not?
2. What did your team do well?
3. What could you have done differently?
4. What made listening easier?
And for those teams who won:
5. What did the success feel like when you finally got the answer?

Ms. Chapman-Brown came into our class today after I gave her the feedback you gave me on quiet spaces in the school. You were a bit quiet today! Please don't be shy. This feedback is SO important to make improvements in the school. You can slip me a piece of paper with your suggestions and I can get it to her, or you can email her directly.
Thing change and improve because of YOU. Please embrace this :)

Nice end to a short week!

Today in Psychology we looked at Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating Disorder, touching a bit on Body Dysmorphia Disorder. We looked at social pressures to achieve a certain body image, and how those are reinforced by the media. We made a great class poster using magazine collage to convey mixed messages in the media in terms of diet, exercise, gender roles, and body image.

Your quiz will be on Monday. Things to study:
*All disorders outlined in the booklet that you researched
*Your booklets on disorders
*Disorders discussed in class
Nothing surprising. Just a general overview of the disorders we focused on.

ELL 2/3 - Your research (one document) on your Canadian city and NHL team is due on Monday at the beginning of class. We discussed communication methods today for how to contact each other. You may need to work on it over the weekend if you didn't complete it in the lab this week.

ELL 4 - We had a quiz on The Most Dangerous Game today. On Monday we will begin our persuasive letter writing assignment for the story and then we are moving on!

Have an excellent weekend!

Psych - We had a guest speaker today, Jennifer Raymond from Purple Couch Psychology. She was awesome! If you needed to contact her, please visit purplecouchpsychology.com. She helped give us a great understanding about anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. If you have any questions about her presentation, please forward them to me via email or in person and I can get you the answers you need :)
Your quiz is moved till Monday because I am so awesome.

ELL - Level 2/3 started working on a research project on Canadian cities, in particular the ones that have NHL teams! You are acting as tourism ambassadors for the NHL and will be preparing a presentation to encourage travellers to visit your city.

Level 4 - we worked on subject-verb agreement, The Most Dangerous Game, and talked about the book reports. Plagiarism is NEVER acceptable. I will be talking with students individually to discuss why their book reports got the marks they did.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Hope your weekend was restful and full of delicious food! Mine sure was.

Psychology - we watched "A Beautiful Mind" today and we will continue on this week. Tomorrow we have  a guest speaker who brings to us experience in treating people with Obsessive Compulsive disorder.
You will be having a quiz on mental illness on Friday.
You will NOT have a learning log due this week. Because I am so nice ;)

ELL - book reports due today! Also, we went to the library to get new books. Ms. Koch and Ms. Nevison showed you the best places to get books for ELL reading.

I think it's time to take a step back from literature for a brief bit and do some grammar practice. Your writing shows me we need to go over verb tenses. We will work on that this week and finish up our short stories in each class.

All my classes had a substitute today as I helped mark our schoolwide ELL tests.
I hope you  had a productive day of learning and research!

A couple of announcements (that I will go over with you in class tomorrow)

Psych 20 - your mental illnesses chart is due on Tuesday.
Your projects are due next Friday.

ELLs- All levels have book reports due on Tuesday. I hope you have used your time well and aren't scrambling over the holiday weekend! We will get to meet with Ms. Koch next week and learn about where to find new reading in the library - we have a whole ELL section that I can't wait to show you!

I will see you tomorrow for our shortened classes.

Mrs. S

Psych 20 - we watched the video "The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive" part 1 today. Keep in mind that although the terminology "manic depressive" is outdated, the symptoms and impact are still consistent with what we call Bipolar Disorder today.

Tomorrow we will be meeting in class, and then you will have computer lab time tomorrow and iPads on Thursday to work on the illnesses chart and your project, to be discussed tomorrow in class.

ELL 4 - You read "The Most Dangerous Game" today. We will continue with it tomorrow.

ELL 2/3 - you read "The Hockey Sweater" today. We will continue with it tomorrow, and your vocabulary is due tomorrow.

Psychology 20 - We listened to "The Secret History of Thoughts" on the Invisibilia podcast. Those who were in class today answered questions about it. http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia

We begin behaviour disorders next week!

The man in the second part of the podcast is Martin Pistorius and his story is quite remarkable. You can find out more information about him at http://martinpistorius.com/

ELL 4 - Your "To Build A Fire" written assignments are due on Monday.

Many of you have been asking me about the experience I shared with you in class about the escape room. We did the pirate themed room and it was awesome! Our group escaped in 50 minutes with 8 people. Can you beat that?

Check it out at https://www.thelockedroom.ca/

Psych 20- today we finished Bloom's Taxonomy work, and I loved your creative ideas! Tomorrow we are listening to a fascinating podcast about violent thoughts. It's a great lead in to our new unit on mental disorders next week.

ELL- All levels have a vocab zquiz tomorrow. Study up!

Psychology 20 - Please view the Ted Talk "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" and hand in the corresponding question sheet for tomorrow.

Do you want to exercise your creativity? Try this activity out!

“o improve your ability to mentally connect the dots, try this activity. Get a stopwatch or timer, three pieces of paper and a pencil or pen. Set the timer for three minutes and then write down all the uses for a soup can that you can imagine. Use the whole three minutes. For the next three minutes, jot down all the white edible things you can think of. Lastly, on your third sheet of paper, spend three minutes noting what might happen if humans had three arms instead of two. On other days, practice thinking of new uses for household objects such as a paper clip or chair, and considering the consequences of other weird changes to the human body . Now consider a social scenario that bothers you. Perhaps one of your co-workers talks to you so much that you can't get your work done, or your neighbor complains about your dog's barking. Or perhaps your child throws tantrums whenever you do homework together. Set the timer for three minutes and write down as many ways to solve this problem as you can think of, without judging the quality of the solutions. Look over your list. Are there surprises? Sift out the silly ideas, holding on to the gems. Spend at least 15 minutes daily, or whenever you can, thinking in this "divergent" way about a practical problem in your life.

Psych 20 - Your test marks are posted! If you wrote your test in the learning centre you will have to wait another day - sorry! The class average was a 68.8% which surprised me. The test data I received by examining which questions you got wrong showed me that you are not applying your knowledge to new situations. Psychology is all about applications - you can memorize a definition but you need to be able to apply meaning to it and how it works in real life. This is an encoding issue! Please write down EXAMPLES of every term we go over in class so you can easily generalize it to new and novel situations.

We did the lateral thinking test, which will lead us into tomorrow's mini unit on thinking. We will be starting behaviour disorders by Friday or next Monday at the latest.

ELL 2 - Your menus are due tomorrow! Please read the feedback I gave you on your writing assignments.

ELL 3 - Your campaign posters are due tomorrow! Please read the feedback I gave you on your writing assignments.

ELL 4 - We watched the film "To Build A Fire" today and we will be finishing up the short story activities this week. Your reading comprehension questions were due today. In case you missed it:

Psychology 20 test review

Today we used Kahoot! to review for your test on Monday. It was awesome! Congrats to team Wildcats for winning the pumpkin spice donut. What kind of reinforcement was I using? Give me your answer in the comments for a chance to win a prize next week :)
If you want to do an at-home review: I think this should work. I haven't tried it at home. Maybe call your friends and organize a review battle?

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/94c15bb1-a070-4ab6-a38b-941efab106d8


Areas to concentrate on:

Classical Conditioning - how to distinguish between NS, UCR, UCS, CR, CS
Generalization/Discrimination
Exinction/Spontaneous Recovery
Acquisition
taste aversions
phobias
behaviourism and theorists

Operant conditioning - major theorists and experiments
reinforcement - positive and negative
schedules of reinforcement
reinforcers
punishment - positive and negative
shaping
dog training (the Bark article)
escape/avoidance conditioning
primary and secondary reinforcers
token economy
aversive control
disadvantages of punishment

Cognitive learning
latent learning
cognitive mapping
learned helplessness

Social learning - major theorist and experiment
modeling
observational learning process
intrinsic motivation
social learning theory in real life

Memory
Three processes of memory
sensory memory - iconic and echoic
short term memory
long term memory
elaborative rehearsal
maintenance rehearsal
encoding - acoustic, visual, semantic
Three systems of memory (understand the flow chart)
implicit memory
explicit memory
procedural, declarative, episodic, semantic memory
mnemonic
interference
amnesia
mnemonics
schemas
confabulation
decay
priming

Also, concept of "false" memories
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory

Reminder, there is NO school tomorrow! Only for us teachers. We will be learning about how to be better teachers. Have a fantastic long weekend!

Tomorrow in Psychology we are doing a test review! It will be fun!

ELL - All levels have a vocal quiz tomorrow. We are all still continuing on our projects and questions.

I am enjoying catching up on some PVR and eating junk food......this destressed teacher is looking forward to seeing your happy faces tomorrow!

Psych 20 - reminder there is a unit test on Monday, Sept 28. I will NOT be collecting or marking your memory booklet but you are responsible for understanding the content inside! You will be tested on it.
Today we began learning about memory, and the encoding, storage and retrieval processes associated with it.
 Tomorrow we will learn about false memories and you will get some time to work on your project. We still need to discuss a due date, which we will do tomorrow.

ELL 4 - Your vocabulary words from "To Build A Fire" are:
conjecture
frail
menacing
apprehension
subdue
amber
monotonous
reiterate
pang
gingerly
singe
imperative
folly
boughs
treacherous
wistful

You will have a vocab quiz on Thursday. Please study!

ELL 2 - You have a vocab quiz on Thursday! Your food idioms work is due tomorrow!

ELL 3 - You have a vocab quiz on Thursday! Your questions about government and "Issues" are due tomorrow!

Have a fantastic Tuesday night :)

Psych 20 - we had library time today to work on your "design your own" prison or school project. we start memory tomorrow! Unit test on Monday, Sept 28.

ELL 4 - we read "To Build a Fire." Please look over vocab and reread tonight.

ELL 3 - we read the Canadian election article. Questions due tomorrow.

ELL 2 - we read and and watched a video about Canadian food and drink. Questions due tomorrow.

Psych 20 - Today we watched some children's programming and applied Social Learning Theory to it, particularly the observational learning method of attention-retention-reproduction-motivation. It was a fun class - I bet none of you thought you'd be watching kids cartoons in high school!

Monday we have computer time booked for our project. You will be designing your own school or prison using classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory. You will work either individually or in groups of up to three students, so maybe think over the weekend about who you would like to work with.

ELL 2 - You worked on a webquest today about Canadian symbols - please hand it in on Monday. Please read over the vocabulary list for next week.

ELL 3 - we discussed the Canadian election coming up. We read an article with lots of subject-specific words. Please highlight the article and find the definitions for any words you don't know and have that ready for Monday. Please read over the vocabulary list for next week.

ELL 4 - you survival group work is due on Monday. We will be starting "To Build A Fire" on Monday. Today we watched a Flocabulary video  on elements of a short story, and picked out symbolism from Pixar's La Luna.

Enjoy your weekend! :)

Psych 20 - today we worked on cognitive theory of learning, and social learning theory (and social cognitive)
We made cognitive maps and paid close attention to how our visual representations of our thoughts can vary so significantly from person to person, and how an individual's methodology tells something about their personality - very interesting!

We watched the famous Bobo Doll experiment, and saw how children can learn aggression just from observation.

We will apply these tenets tomorrow in a fun video activity

ELL 4 - we continued/finished the Survival group work, tasks 3 & 4. If you have not completed these, make arrangements to hand them in on Monday. (this means meeting outside of class!)

ELL 2/3 - We are finishing the writing assignments - Letter to a teacher,(L3) and narrative paragraph (L4). We will be moving on tomorrow.

Psych 20 Dog Training article

A helpful list if anyone is still confused about the difference between positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment, and schedules of reinforcement (fixed ratio, fixed interval, variable ratio, variable interval)
http://topix.teachpsych.org/w/page/36140077/Operant%20Conditioning%20in%20the%20Classroom

Tomorrow's homework is to read the following article and answer the questions below:

http://thebark.com/content/dog-training-operant-conditioning

 

1.Who first experimented with operant conditioning with cats? What kind of learning did they discover?

2.Describe some of the developments in learning research with:

a. Pigeons

b. Chickens

c. Dolphins

3.What are the techniques trainers use to train dogs to perform tasks?

 

4. How can you apply this learning to a household pet?

Apologies!

Apologies for not posting yesterday! As my psych class will understand, I explained that I was classically conditioned to write in the blog while I am sitting in my classroom. Some business took me into another room after school, and I neglected to remember the blog. Pavlov at play :)

Psych 20 - we looked at classical conditioning a bit more today, and you did some scenario based questions practicing identifying the NS, UCS, UCR, CS and CR. You did quite well! A few subtleties to remember for next time are seeing how the CS sometimes changes slightly, ie "the mention of the word tuna" instead of an actual tuna sandwich.

We started operant conditioning and we will spend all day tomorrow on it.

Your learning chapters are due on Monday, Sept 21.

ELL 4 - We took a departure from wilderness survival to talk about cultural survival. We discussed First Nations in Canada, and how European contact has altered their way of life. We started reading "Bringing Indigenous Languages Back to Life" and will continue it tomorrow.

Please read the feedback I gave you on Survival Task 1 and 2 for next class.

ELL 2/3
Level 2 is beginning to conduct an interview with a classmate about their experience coming to Canada, using "New Moves" as a guideline. Level 3 will be beginning writing a letter to a teacher with suggestions on how to make newcomers feel more comfortable at school.

If you want to rewatch the video, you can find it here;
http://settlement.org/ontario/education/elementary-and-secondary-school/help-your-child-succeed-in-school/new-moves-an-orientation-video-for-newcomer-students/

ELL 2/3 - we worked on homophones today, played a grammar game on the board where you choose the correct word, and did some practice questions. Please have your homophone work in on Monday!

ELL 4 - We continued working on the survival group task. Today you worked on creating pro/con lists for the survivors and decided who you would take with you.

We watched this video and you are to decide what items you would take on a survival mission.

Your parts of speech booklet is due on Monday!

Have a fantastic weekend!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - We voted as a class that we would watch the rest (10 minutes) on Monday and the question sheet would be due on Tuesday. Keep in mind you also have your instagram assignment due on Tuesday as well :) If you want to get a head start, you can view the movie at this link:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=one+flew+over+the+cuckoo%27s+nest+full+movie&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=D39CB5FE37F324F2727CD39CB5FE37F324F2727C

Assignment: (I can't figure out how to upload files!)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Film Study

Counterculture author Ken Kesey's best-selling novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is based on his experiences working in the psychiatric ward of a Veterans' Administration hospital. Kesey is motivated by the premise that the patients he sees don't really have mental illnesses; they simply behave in ways a rigid society is unwilling to accept. Themes deal with conformity vs nonconformity, confinement vs freedom,

Using some personality traits or behaviours,  describe the following characters: (14 mks)

Billy Bibbit	Candy	Cheswick	Chief Bromden	Dr. John Spivey	Fredrickson	Harding
Martini	Nurse Ratched	Rose	R.P McMurphy	Taber	Turkle	Washington

 

Describe how Nurse Ratched uses humiliation or degradation to treat her patients inhumanely: (5 mks)

 
 

 

Describe some of the treatments the hospital uses and what the intended purposes are. Are these still in use today? Why or why not? (8 mks)

 

 

Does this movie effectively remove stigmas of mental illness, or do they reinforce them? Explain (5 mks)

 


 

Choose one character and describe how each of the psychological approaches would attempt to explain their behaviour or motivation for their actions (you can speculate!) (3 mks each = 18 mks)

Character: ______________________________________________

 

Psychoanalytic
Cognitive
Behavioural
Humanistic
Biological
Sociocultural

Psych 20 - We started One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest today! We will finish it tomorrow. Your film study questions are due on Monday. Your FIRST Learning Log is due tomorrow! I can't wait to read them!

ELL 4 - We started our silent reading sessions - 15 minutes each day devoted to reading, and (hopefully) working toward your book report! Your first book report is due October 13.
We started our survival unit with a fun group activity, which we will be continuing on for the next few days.
Your parts of speech grammar workbook is due on Monday.

ELL 2 - You continued with your Parts of Speech grammar booklet - it is due tomorrow.

ELL 3 - We read "Who Reached the North Pole First?" about Admunsen and talked about the Northwest Passage. This booklet is due tomorrow.

See you tonight at the open  house!

High School Orientation tonight!

Please bring your family to see what you do all day!

6:30 PM - You and your family get to experience your day in an hour. You will be moving through your classes for 10 minute periods, beginning with PRIDE.

See you tonight :)

Psychology 20 - we did a mini questionnaire to see where everybody's values are in regards to psychological approaches, and then discussed the different approaches. We watched a little clip of Carl Rogers talking about his humanistic approach to get a better idea about how therapy could be so different between the approaches.

In class you got time to research who you want to profile in your "Man Crush Monday" or "Woman Crush Wednesday" Instagram assignment. This is due next Tuesday.

Your homework questions will be checked in class tomorrow.

Your learning log is due on Friday.

ELL - We discussed book reports, and expectations for them. ELL 2/3 got to check out books from the ELL library, and the ELL 4's are expected to bring novels into class with them starting TOMORROW! We will have reading time every day from now on.

First book report for each ELL class is due October 13.

Homelogic updated

Hello all,

Marks for Psych and ELL have been entered into Homelogic.

If you have never used Homelogic before, the address is:

https://sirswebapps.cbe.ab.ca/Homelogic/

Parents, you may access your child's grades and attendance records by registering at the above link.

Tuesday Bluesday

Welcome back after the long weekend! Did you have fun? I sure did - relaxing and fun :)

Psych 20 - You handed in your "Anybody's Son Will Do" questions which were due today. We looked at some questionable psychiatric treatments of the 19th and 20th century, which reminded some students of the movie "Sucker Punch" (Lobotomies and hydrotherapy, namely)

We discussed WHY we study psychology, and some of the early schools of thought involving psych - Wilhelm Wundt and William James to name a few. We watched a quick video summarizing these views.

We did a powerpoint presentation on the early psychologists, and you were assigned a two page assignment due on Thursday about introductory topics and psychological approaches.

ELL 2/3/4 - We watched a Flocabulary video on the parts of speech! We did a quick Powerpoint presentation on the parts of speech followed by a group activity.

ELL 2 - you are working on your grammar workbook
ELL 3 - you are reading about Marco Polo and thinking about the qualities you need to be an explorer
ELL 4 - you are working on parts of speech grammar

Sorry the classroom is so cold! We are working on fixing that. Feel free to help yourself to the tea in the classroom to keep your hands warm :)

It's Friday, y'all!

Psychology 20 - We watched "Anybody's Son Will Do" - a documentary by Gywnne Dyer. Please have your accompanying questions on the video and Maslow's hierarchy of needs finished by Tuesday. I will be collecting it for marks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_G2u1RrLOk

ELL 2/3/4
We did a mini art project on your culture and heritage. It is due on Tuesday.

Have a great long weekend!

Today we did lots of getting to know each other. The time really flew by!

Psych 20 - wow, we had so much to talk about in a shortened class. We did a pretest to gauge your knowledge about psychological issues (the answers were all false!). We explored many perspectives on an issue (cognitive, behavioural, biological, affective) from a psychological point of view, and then looked at sociocultural, economic and political factors as well. I asked you a preposterous question - "What if everyone lived to 150 years old?" and you began to examine in through those lenses.

We will pick that up on Monday when we talk about the history of psychology and the modern approaches.

Tomorrow we are looking at identity and basic human needs, and beginning to learn about Abraham Maslow.

ELL 2/3/4 - We also did some getting to know you activities, and the "Classmate Conversation Challenge" which you did so well on! I learned that we have students from every corner of the world in our classroom. We did a "Following Instructions" quiz (which was sort of sneaky) and you did a creative writing assignment so I can understand your writing level.

Tomorrow we will be working on a culture mini project.

Please remember to bring a book next week to read in class. Next week I will be explaining our monthly book reports, as well as explaining how our ELL library works.

Next week we break into separate ELL levels, and we get right into the "nitty gritty" of our course.

See you tomorrow for our shortened day!

Mrs. S

First day of classes

Welcome to all my Room 210 students!

Psych 20- today we went over the course outline and discussed what we will be talking about this semester. I also got you to fill out your "psychological intake" questionnaire to help me get to know you better. We will do a bit of group work tomorrow and figure out why on earth we study psychology!

ELL 2/3/4 - today we also went over the course outline and did a "get to know you" sheet. We also got to play some charades, two truths and a lie, and "baby I love you" drama game. We had a lot of laughs! Get ready to exercise your creativity tomorrow with some free writing to help me understand your writing proficiency.

See you tomorrow!

First day

Wow! What a day. It was so nice to meet all of my Pride class.

Please remember to bring in your demographic forms, consent to publish forms, and your school fees. If you haven't already and want to join a team (you should), pick up your Athletic Tryout Authorization forms in the main office.

Was your favourite part of the assembly when the staff sang along and danced to Uptown Funk? Of course it was ;)

See you all tomorrow!

TOMORROW!!!!

Wow, school is coming up fast. Looking forward to seeing the nervous, yet excited faces in the hallway.

It's going to be a great semester! We have so much fun planned in this classroom.

See you tomorrow :)

Summer vacation is coming to an end!

......and this means the beginning of school next week!

This summer has been full of friends, (too) hot weather, patios and sunshine. My husband and I have been riding on the Harley all over our city, and exploring the foothills.

Our daughter is now 1.5 and loves to run and play in the water, so we have tried out the splash parks in Valleyview, South Glenmore, Cranston and New Brighton. They are fantastic! What a great way to beat the heat.

This summer has gone by so fast, and I am busy writing away lesson plans and getting excited for the fun experiments we get to do in psych this semester. I am also looking forward to meeting my ELL students and helping them explore the Canadian culture.

See you next week :)