AP Psychology

I liked the AP Psychology class blog because I felt like it helped me keep track of our lesson and where we are at. It’s also a pretty useful resource to go back to for review to see the focus points of the past chapters and such.

Maintaining a personal blog, however, wasn’t that helpful…at least for me. I felt like the reading assignments and slide show was sufficient enough to reinforce what we were taught in class.

Therefore, I feel like maybe next year the personal blogs should be less of a part of our lesson plan, but definitely keep up the AP Psychology class blog.

1. The AP Psychology Class Blog was very very very helpful in providing me with resources and activities. The class blog has all the resources needed and allows us to look at other people’s blogs. Also, we can access many websites through this class blog log. Therefore the AP Psychology Class Blog is essential in helping students throughout the AP Psychology course.
2. Maintaining a personal blog in psychology did help me learn to some extent. It kind of helped me review and learn some concepts. However how it really helped me was that I was able link this course with the outside world. Often times reading Psychology Today helped me realize how psychology is related to our daily lives.
3. I really think the AP Psychology Class Blog should be maintained. In some classes there is no class blog. Therefore it is hard to access other people’s websites and any updates. Also if there are any attachments, continuously sending it over email is much worse than simply uploading it on a class blog. Therefore I think the AP Psychology Class Blog is simply great. For the individual personal blog, I think commenting on other people’s blog is great, learning about what other people think. However maybe people should be required to comment on different people’s blogs, sometimes I simply commented on the same person. Also, extended readings and individual responses are quite helpful. I think this course incorporates the use of internet very well and helped me very much throughout the year.

1. The class blog was helpful to a large extent.I really liked the class blog because it had many interesting articles on the things we learned in class. The links to the Myers and Bernstein websites were very helpful for review before a test. What I liked most were the “Handy Hints” because it was a good review of the major topics we covered in a unit.

2. Personally, I felt the personal blog really didn’t help me learn much about the topics we covered in class. Occasionally I found an interesting article or two but otherwise it was helpful to a minimal extent.

3. I think the blog would be most effective after a socratic seminar by giving people a chance to say what they didn’t say during the class discussion. Otherwise, it’s just a tedious job to do and for me personally, I get more out of reading a textbook than blogging.

1. The Class is helpful to a large extent because the class plan outline helps me plan my study.

2. To a little extent did the personal blog help me since there are many limits on what I have to write. But reading some articles are interesting and relevant.

3. The expectations of our monthly blogs should be clearly written somewhere.

1. To what extent did you find the AP Psychology Class Blog helpful in managing the course, providing you with resources and explaining activities?
I think the AP Psychology Class Blog did help us to a LARGE extent because the class blog helped summarize the lessons, emphasized the important points, and helped keep the class together outside of the classroom. Also, with the handy hints posted- we could access the information in our own homes rather than to waste class time going over it. Also, with the different RSS feeds on the site, quick access to different blogs, and different review sites on the Class Blog, it was very convenient!

2. To what extent did maintaining a personal blog in psychology help you learn?
I think the personal blog helped me learn to SOME extent. The importance of the blogs slowly started to diminish as the year went on, and at the end, it became more of a hassle. But it did help me really dig deep and start reflecting on a lot of stuff- such as the movie, article entries, etc. And reading other personal blogs of classmates was really fun as well- and helped me get to know them better. It was a good experience being able to maintain my own blog and knowing that other people will read my thoughts was really fun. Overall, it did develop me as a student but as a PSYCHOLOGY student, I don’t think it really helped.

3. What suggestions do you have to further enhance the use of blogs for teaching and learning?
I think you should start placing stricter rules on the blogs. Because the blog logs are due at the end of the month, most of us end up writing our entries the night before. Maybe checking the blog entries once a week will help us really get into it. Also, perhaps a little more freedom on what to write would be great as well.

Blogs should definitely continue on next year!

1.) I found that the blog helped me manage the course, provide me with resources and explain activities to “some extent.” They blog always helped to know what was going on in the class and the objectives. Although it provided me with resources, I didn’t use them that much. As for the activities, it explained what we were doing cleary for the most part.

2.) Maintaining a personal blog in psychology helps me learn to “some extent.” Although some blogs did not further enhance my knowledge in psychology, others intruiged me into reading a couple articles and I actually gained more insight than I predicted I would with a couple of these assignments.

3.) To further enhance the use of blogs for teaching and learning I would make more blogs more opinionated. At least for me, I felt that the blogs in which i had to pick one side of the arguement taught me the most. First, you have to pick one side or the other. This allows you to gain more information and insight to the topic it is on. Also, you really want to learn the subject when debating because the pressure is on you when you know people are reading your blogs. You want them to give you positive comments and to possibly feed them information that they did not previously know.

1. AP Psychology Class Blog is very helpful. It allows us to access to many resources, such as Bernstein and Myer’s support material. They provide online quizzes that allows us to review for our tests. It really helped me review better than just reading textbooks. Also, it gave us access to other people’s blogs in order for us to know, understand, and think in different perspective. Moreover, it updated us with daily events and psychological debates; therefore, i think it really helped us a lot by providing various resources.
2. To some extent. Our personal blog is more of a reflection of class activities rather than blogging on new materials. Therefore, it is a good source for us to remember and to review what we have learned in the past. However, it is not very effective in helping us to learn new materials. BUT, besides personal blog, your blogging and RSS are great tools for researching and learning new materials about psychology.
3. Maybe we can start this “discussion forum” where everyone keeps continue discussing on one psychological topic we are learning in class. Therefore, we can see what people think when they have new ideas.

1. the class is helpful to me because it makes me dive deeper into class discussions and read for specifics more than for general idea.

2. the personal blog helps me to a little extent because i don’t try as hard to find good articles, i just comment about whichever article i see first. the articles are interesting, but i don’t think it’s much help when it comes to tests.

3. in order to in cooperate blogs into teaching and learning, good blog posts should be used for teaching material as an incentive for students to do better so that their work can be displayed.

1. The Blog was especially helpful because I had access to all of the power points used in class and also to outside materials via RSS feed. Because every lesson in class was posted on this blog, we were able to know what happened in class whether or not we were there (NOT because we skipped haha but because we were sick… seniors?) I thought it was really thoughtful of you to put up studying advice.

2. To some extent, the personal blog helped. I can’t exactly say why it was not absolutely, 100% helpful hmm… let me put it this way. It helped us, as individuals, get to know each other, apply psychology and some aspects of psychology into our lives. It was a great experience blogging on the World Wide Web about our own thoughts and feelings towards and about this class. We could write in our own style without being censored or moderated, we could essentially say what we wanted, but it didn’t help with the main, hardcore, AP style, meaning its emphasis on vocabulary, theories, and the like.

3. Sometimes in class, the due dates for some assignments are not as clear, or maybe I just always miss that little detail in class. Maybe if you could have a section on the blog entry about the assignments due for a each week? That would be awesome. I think more time should be spent reviewing the multiple choice tests after we get them back so we know where we went wrong and why the answers are what they are. Personally, I don’t like Meyers. It doesn’t work for me.

1. It helped us interact as a class by giving feedback to each individuals point of view on certain topics in Psychology. It also helped us learn more about psychology by researching on random topics on sites like Scientific American and Psychology Today. It also allowed us as students to go onto the blog and see what the aim and main ideas of each topic was, allowing us to study better for the tests and ultimately, the AP Exam.

2. It helped me learn more about psychology because we had to do our own personal research about each topic. So to a large extent it helped me learn.

3. I think that for class blogs that we should’ve been issued more topics that are happening now in psychology. This would help us learn better because we would know what is happening now as well as the history behind the subject which we learn in class.

1. I think the AP Psychology Blog Class was sort of helpful. It was extremely helpful in aiding me write my blogs. IT also made it very easy for me to see my classmate’s blogs and pick up ideas from their blogs. In Media Literacy, there is no class blog. I don’t know how to get to my other classmate’s blogs. In fact, I’ve never seen half of my classmate’s blogs. The hints before tests were extremely helpful in helping me review for the tests.
2. Writing blogs was a new interesting experience. The class blogs we had to write were somewhat helpful because they connected the things we learned in class with the real world.
3. If the number of blogs are relatively few, then writing a blog would be more enjoyable rather than demanding. But overall, the blog is a good idea for the class.

1. To what extent did you find the AP Psychology Class Blog helpful in managing the course, providing you with resources and explaining activities?
To a large extent I found the AP Psychology Class Blog helpful. It helped me stay organized and when I was absent, I could find a place to find out the information.

2. To what extent did maintaining a personal blog in psychology help you learn? (To a large extent.. To some extent… To little extent…)
To some extent I learned from the personal blog. It enhanced my outside learning.

3. What suggestions do you have to further enhance the use of blogs for teaching and learning?
The blogs took a little too long so maybe blog posts should be a little shorter.

1)To a high extent, the AP class blogs were helpful in managing the course. The extra reading materials provided on the blog allowed me to further understand the topics covered in class.
2)To a high extent, my own personal blog helped me with this course. Maybe not so much with the topics studied in class, but it allowed me to do extra research into subjects that are more intriguing, and it enabled me to reflect on activities done in class.
3)I think as the year progressed and the number of blogs we were required to do decreased, i enjoyed it more. I find writing a few insightful blogs was alot more helpful compared to writing 5 rushed blogs.

1. The AP Psychology Class blog was helpful to a large extent. It’s nice to have a place where you can go online to find where the class is at, and the pace at which it is going. After going on long trips and coming back, it’s good to come online and find some of the assignments needed on the class blog. The review guides with the lists of what to study and what to know are also extremely helpful for some of the harder and longer chapters, as it helps you get on track with your studying.

2. The personal blogs are helpful to a mild extent. I fully appreciate the connection that this class helps to give with the outside world, in terms of psychology and how it affects us and the world around us. One concern, however, is the weight of the grade that it holds and the rigor with which it is graded. Though it IS an interesting experience, going online and finding articles on psychology and tips on how to live a healthier life, as well as reflecting upon class, it should not be graded so hard.

3. Other than that, I feel that I’m satisfied with the use of online blogging for this class..

1) I think the AP Psychology Class Blog is very helpful because it’s a place where we can all refer to as a link to other blogs of students in our class, and also the ‘handy hints’ are helpful when it comes down to test preparations.

2) To a large extent, it’s increasing my own knowledge of psychology, making it a source of information outside the classroom. In addition, this is also preparing us for the inevitable use of blogs in universities and even workstations. And it’s fun personally to maintain and add interesting information to them.

3) I don’t really have any suggestions to further enhance the use of blogs, because I think they are great already. If possible, maybe put up a calender that shows the date of tests, and just important dates as a reminder?

1. To some extent I have felt that the AP psychology class blog has been helpful in managing the course keeping me in date and reminding me what to do, the handy hints, and the different links helped me prepare for the tests and the reading on the class blog helped with providing explanation for the activities

2. To some extent because by doing the blogging I was able to read various types of articles related in the topic, and also at the same time be able to learn more deeply about the subject we were learning. Also helped me learn how to blog with the pictures and video.

3. I think with more blogging to do about the topic learnt at the time will be able to help the student read more about the topic at the same time being able to learn more about the topic.

1. The class blog was especially useful in providing the Myer’s link. The review questions were also handy

2. To some extent the blogs I did augmented my understanding of the course. It certainly made it even more interesting, what with the connections to the real world and recent news. But I think the requirements were a bit too high. In addition I never really found reading other people’s blog that interesting, so there wasn’t a very successful promotion of using the blog.

3. The blog could be improved by relaxing the rules regarding the blogs, or by stimulating interests by talking about blog posts in class (not only the class assigned ones, but the individual, interesting ones as well).

To a medium extent, the blog helped to provide me with resources and explaining activities. It does not provide us with more resources, but the activities are explained. The reason it only helps us to a medium extent is because it does not help us earn the A on tests that we all desire.

To a large extent, keeping a blog helps maintain my interest in psychology, but it does not necessarily help us get the A that we all so much desire. To get the A, we would need to post about the terminologies in the chapter that we read or the summary of each sub-chapter in the textbook. This will help us all reach our goal for that A, but at the same time that would be detrimental to most of us students because we would regard it as more ‘work’. The blog posts, on the other hand, are less of ‘work’ than our own will to explore psychology. We choose what to post, with the exception of some class posts, but even so we are given the freedom to write about anything we want on that specific topic. This makes it interesting for students because then they are able to write their own perspective on that topic, not necessarily the correct perspective. And by reading other’s blogs, we learn more about psychology in general.

I think the blog work right now is just right. It is not too heavy, and it is interesting to explore psychology on your own time. Overall, I think the blog is a good idea.

1. The Psychology Class Blog is possibly my most valuable resource for AP psychology. It provides a succinct list of the things we need to accomplish in the chapter and the assignments due. It provides a wealth of links and resources for studying. The fact that you took time out to put up “handy hints” to help us review was also extremely helpful.
2. To a large extent blogging helped me learn more effectively in AP Psych. The mix of required blog tasks allowed for a good balance. We were able to research and post on topics of our interests, discuss these posts with our friends. At the same time we had specific blog posts that were meant to reinforce what we learned in class. Knowledge is nothing without application and our blogs provided an effective outlet.
3. In all other classes we have a moodle site which is discussion based. Our individual blogs are an effective learning tool that are not utilized by these other classes, but the moodle sites also have some value as well. I think if we could integrate the two by having both blogs and some sort of seperate discussion forum we could get the best of both worlds. Mr. Anthony says that socratic seminars are one of our greatest strenghts as a class, so why should this good discussion be restricted to the classroom when we could have valuable and continual discussions online.

1. To a large extent, I found the class blog helpful. I was able to obtain resources that were provided for the unit and the powerpoints were especially helpful. I was able to keep track of myself and check what I had to do for each unit.
2. To some extent,I found the personal blogs helpful. I would have found them helpful to a large extent if it was not the random psychology articles we had to find that were not related to the current unit. Besides that, I found our posts extremely helpful because I was able to become familiar with the topic as I wrote about it.
3. I think the blogs should definately be maintained next year. One suggestion would be that it could focus more on the unit at hand.

1. AP psychology class blog was very helpful for keeping track of what we are learning. But I don’t think the personal blogs would have been useful to everybody. Although it is fun to read other articles on psychology, it doesn’t help us prepare for the ap exam.

2. the personal blogs were helpful to some extent. Blogging is fun and interesting, and makes me more interested in psychology. But personal blogs didn’t help to prepare for the ap exam. the class blog with review points and powerpoints, however, helped a lot for classwork and preparing for the exam.

3. I think it is good to keep personal blogs, but would be better if they were used to a less extent. The ap psych class blog should be kept.

To a small extent did I find the blogs helpful in managing the course. To a small extent did I find the blogs helpful in providing resources and explaining certain concepts and activities. The blogs do provide information that is useful and helpful to learn that is beyond the boundaries of the topic.

To some extent, maintaining a personal blog helped reinforce what I had learned in class. It did not really help me learn anything new, but summarizing the things that were taught in class through blogs helped me retain a lot of information.

Personally, I don’t think that blogs are all that productive in helping one to learn. As I said previously, I feel that it helps retain information when blog posts and collaboration are about the topics covered in the class. I think blog posts should be kept because they help raise grades and are not extremely time consuming. It is also a good way to communicate with other classmates and see what they have to say. When I think back to my blogs, I don’t have a strong impression of how the blog has helped me score higher on tests; although it did help me understand the topic more in the sense of how certain concepts are related to the real world.

To some extent, the class blog has helped me prepare for certain activities in class such as having the Blog Log readily avilable online. I think that the blog post for each unit is particularly helpful in listing the homework and the “Handy Hints”.

To little extent has the personal blog been actually helpful. I wouldn’t say that it hindered my learning in AP Psych, but it hasn’t really helped me. Generally, I found that I was reluctant in doing so and would much rather do actual studying.

Overall, I reject the overzealous embrace of technology in classes and find that it’s generally used in the wrong way: i.e. homework is done online instead of being handwritten as practice for the AP exam.

1. AP Psychology Class blog was helpful to a very large extent because it helped us keep track of assignments for the unit as well as the outline of the actual class. It enabled us to have access to all study materials such as the power points and handy hints for the test. The blog helped us to be organized throughout the course.

2. Individual blogs were helpful to some extent because it allowed me to recap and to reveal what I learned from the chapter. Especailly, refelcting on articles let me to apply the theories and terms we learned in the text to real world situations. Writing about how I feel about certain subjects with evidence from the text book and what we learned, helped me to reorganize the main idea of the unit.

3. I think the class blog should definitely continue. It helps us to be on track and to organize. The individual blog could be improved by having more blogs on articles or other recent studies because reflecting on articles widens the knowledge of the concept and helps us view different aspects of it. Also, when people comment on other people’s blog, more origniallity of ideas should be revealed not just rephrasing what’s already written in the post. Class blogs and individual blogs should all continue; it’s a great reasource!

I find the AP Psychology Class Blog to be somewhat useful. I am sure that once I start my exam review it will be cool to have all the powerpoints up there in order for me to find and use. However before now I haven’t really used it that often because i haven’t had much of a need for the stuff that is up there since we get most of it in class
To a large extent maintaining a personal blog has been good for me in this class. I usually absorb things pretty easily but often don’t have to write them down. By forcing me to think about what i want to say in a way that works on paper has helped me to organize my thought. Being forced to write often is a good way to develop better writing skills because often we are not encouraged to write more than one sentence answers to our daily school things.

To further enchance the use of blogs for teaching and learning I would suggest having having more motivated students. The thing about blogs is that you put in as much effort as you want to get back from it. So making a higher level of interest (like discussing the things we cover in class in group discussion rather than just reading out sections……………………) will enevitably lead to more benefit from the blogs. By making people care, they will have more to write.

I think AP Psychology Class Blog helped me a lot because of the resources like slide shows, assignment sheet, and extended articles. I personally prefer electric document than paper hand outs, because I can’t always carry my hand outs around, but I can get the resources from the blog wherever that I have an access to internet.
Maintaining personal blog didn’t really help me with tests prep, but I think it was helpful in the sense that I learned more about psychology and get to read the information apart from the ones in the book, and compare information.
Though I think a class blog does not help AP Psychology in particular, but a blog is a good thing to have because it makes us think deeper and allows us to jog down these thoughts.