Can you change your personality?

Tomorrow we are having an "Exploring Yourself" day in AP Psych.  We have been learning about all different types of personality perspectives and personality tests so this is our chance to tie it all together.

We are going to discuss these questions:

What is your "personality"?
How reliable are personality tests?
What if you don't like your personality?
Can you change your personality?

I found this video clip from Huffington Post that discusses 5 things you can do to try and change (what you can) of your personality.

Latin American Dance

For our Culture Day for Latin America, I had another student teacher Lynette Yorgason come in and teach my class about different dances.

It was fascinating to learn that every state in Mexico moves their skirt a different.  As a result, you can tell where someone lives by the way you move you skirt. This is great to emphasize with students because it helps them see that there are differences within Latin American culture.

Here are the three different dances that were learned about:

 1) The dance from the Mexican state Jalisco.

This dance has you stomp your feet in triplets. You begin by stomping your right foot hard, then step with your left foot and then right foot.  Then you stomp hard on your left foot and do lighter steps on your right foot then left foot before you stomp hard on your right foot again.  You repeat this over and over again.

We had the class move in a circle clockwise stomping their feet.

The boys clasp their hands high behind their backs.  The girls pretend like their holding out a big skirt and moving it side by side.

The reason there is so much stomping of feet is because their music doesn't have a strong beat in it, so they make their own beat.

Type "Jalisco Dance" into YouTube for a video.

2) The dance Cumbia from Colombia.

This is an interesting dance because it shows the influence between the natives of Colombia and the African slaves.  The African slaves had chains around their ankles so they could only shuffle their feet. As a result, Cumbia dance is the shuffling of feet.  They made it more interesting by rotating their hips.  The women hold up large skirts and move their skirts around as they dance.  The men put one hand high on the back while they tip their hat and shuffle their feet.

Type "Cumbia Dance" into YouTube for a video.

3) The dance Capoeira from Brazil.

This is a fight dance.  I don't know too much beyond that and would need to do more research.  We didn't actually do this dance in class but we watched a video.  It is amazing because the entire dance is a choreographed fight.

The boys especially liked watching this video.

Look for this movie in YouTube: "The best capoeira video ever"

The students really enjoyed learning about the dances and participating in them as well.  I would definitely try to replicate this again. It took about 20 minutes to explain, dance and watch the video clips.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was recently treated for a hernia.  He is 93 years old and South Africa is worried about the day that they have to say goodbye to their beloved hero.  Here is a video from CNN that discusses why Nelson Mandela means so much to South Africans.

Id, Ego, Superego Clip

A great way to show the difference between Id, Ego, Superego is a clip from Emperor's New Groove.

In this clip, Kronk had to make a decision. The angel and devil on his shoulders tried to influence him on what to do.  The angel was the superego, the devil was the id and Kronk trying to reason between the two is the ego.

Click here for the clip. 

Population Lesson Plans

The Population Reference Bureau has great statistics on population AND they have wonderful lesson plan ideas.

Click here for the website.

Other population ideas:
-Have students take the statistics of a country and make the population pyramid
-Make a population pyramid out of legos
-Have them compare population pyramids
-Read the children's book If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith and answer questions

Hypnosis & USC Football

Here is a great clip that shows the USC football team being hypnotized.  It's funny and a good illustration.

Should we legalize drugs?

This video discusses if we should legalize drugs?  Should we allow people to have drugs so they don't go to "gangsters" for drugs?




I can use this as a journal entry for my geography students on our drug cartel day.

Drug Cartel Video

This video shows the impact of violence and drug cartels.  It looks at two students who attend college in El Paso, Texas but live in Juarez, Mexico.  The two students were killed.

Honduras Prison Fire--Feb. 15th

On Wednesday, February 15th, a fire broke out in a Honduras prison.  The fire brought suspicions to prison conditions in Honduras as the prison was packed beyond capacity with inmates.  Around 300 inmates were killed.




Plate Tectonics and Natural Disasters

What caused the Japan quake 2011, tsunami

New Drug Bust

Major drug bust in Utah County

Haiti Earthquake Articles and Videos

I am preparing for a lesson on Latin American Natural Disasters.  Here is my research for articles and videos covering the Haiti Earthquake of 2010.

CNN's page for Haiti's Earthquake

Videos on Haiti's Earthquake:

Haiti's Earthquake One Month After

Looking Back at the Haiti Quake

Anderson Cooper: 2 Years after the Quake

2 Years after the Quake Video and Article

Earthquake Survivor Shares Story

Separate: Finding Hope on the Soccer Fields of Haiti

Romney's 2012 CPAC Speech

This is Romney's 2012 CPAC Speech.  


I am going to be using it in my ESL class to introduce how to write a campaign speech.  We are then having the students the students write their own campaign speeches and posters in a group. 

Volcano erupts in Indonesia

The following article appeared on CNN on February 9th.  This article shows the effects of plate tectonics today as well as the Ring of Fire:

Volcano erupts in Indonesia, hurling ash cloud into the sky

From Kathy Quiano, CNN

updated 9:33 PM EST, Thu February 9, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Indonesian authorities are warning people to stay away from Mt. Lokon
• The volcano erupted Friday, spewing ash 2 kilometers into the sky
• A 2.5 kilometer exclusion zone has been set up around the volcano
• An eruption by Mt. Lokon in July prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents

Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- A restless volcano in northern Indonesia erupted Friday, spewing clouds of ash as high as 2 kilometers into the sky, the country's National Disaster Management Agency said.

The authorities are warning residents to stay away from the volcano, Mt. Lokon, in North Sulawesi, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the disaster management agency.

A 2.5 kilometer exclusion zone had already been set up around Mt. Lokon, which had been showing signs of activity in recent days.

A series of eruptions by Mt. Lokon in July prompted the evacuation of thousands of local residents. The volcano also erupted in October and December.

Indonesia is located on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The following article appeared on CNN on February 9th.  This article shows the effects of plate tectonics today as well as the Ring of Fire. 

Slow Recovery from Haiti Earthquake

Here is an article about how there is a slow recovery from the Haiti Earthquake

Haiti Earthquake 2 Years Later

Photos of Haiti Earthquake 2 Years Later :)

An Overview of Chile

This NY Times Article offers an overview of Chile, including changes the government has made and a little on the earthquake that struck Chili.

Apple, Foxconn and Workers in Southeast Asia

This article from CNN highlights the bad of multinational corporations that take advantage of Asians.

Here is a link to the article.

Mexico Drug Wars

NY Times made another great lesson about Mexico Drug Wars.

Here is the link.

This lesson has an overview of what the drug wars are, an interactive map, a 10 minute video and news articles.

The 2 great things about this lesson:

1) It ties in the influence of social media and then shows how social media as been involved in other uprisings around the world.

2) It links in the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. This connection helps students see how countries affect each others.

I could see this as a great MSDA activity with a variety of stations. Students could read the general explanation of drug cartels in Mexico for homework the night before so they could get some background.

Station 1: Social Media and Drug Cartels
Station 2: 10 minute video on Drug Cartels (focus on relationship with U.S.)
Station 3: Drug Cartels article about teachers
Station 4: Social Media around the World
Station 5: Interactive Map
Station 6: Instructional Conversation with the Teacher--I could ask their opinion of their reading at home and then probe them to make connections.  How does the physical geography, political system, economic system, etc. lend to Drug Cartels?  What can be done about it?  What should be done?

During the IC, you can try to get the students to think about the economics behind the drug war:

IF you limit the supply of drugs, the demand stays the same the price will go up

-There is a great incentive for people to sell drugs (when we try to cut out drugs, they became even more valuable and people have a greater incentive to see them)

-Therefore, this is a tough economic question.  We feel like we should do something, but often our efforts propel the drug cartels even further.