Mind-Reading at MACUL

I am an extremely indecisive person, so the long list of presentations in the MACUL conference program worried me immensely. As I scanned the list and came to the realization that I could probably only attend three or four presentations, I began to panic. How would I ever decide which presentations to go to? Answer: I wouldn't. I knew I could not trust myself to narrow down the list in a timely manner. Instead, my game plan was to follow a group of MACers and let them make all decisions for me so as to avoid the anxiety that inevitably accompanies all decisions I am forced to make. For the duration of the morning, my plan worked brilliantly. Then I saw the following presentation on page 41 of the MACUL program:

Mind-Reading With Technology Tools 

Andrea McKay

I had no idea who Andrea McKay was, but I could tell immediately she was a psychology teacher (all psychology teachers are connected by their mutual love for psychology). As I am always looking for opportunities to brush up on my mind-reading skills, nothing could stop me from attending her presentation. 

Andrea McKay is indeed a psychology teacher and she did not disappoint. She started her presentation with a demonstration on how to read minds. Being a psychology teacher myself, I was confident I could crack her demonstration within seconds. However, I (shamefully) admit I could not figure out how she was doing it. It appeared she was actually reading another MACer's mind. I was in awe. 

Eventually, Andrea did reveal her trick and proceeded to present on a tech tool called PearDeck. This tech tool seemed cool and I will be looking into it more, but the real benefit of this presentation for me was the experience. I will be teaching psychology next school year and I want to re-create such a captivating experience for my students. Luckily, I have inside information from Andrea so I can do the same demonstration in my psychology class. I plan on using it as an intro to my class to debunk myths about psychology as many students think it is all about psychics and mind-reading. I also want to use it to introduce students to the research process by having them generate hypotheses for how I am reading their minds (if I can get the same demonstration to work for me!). 

Not only did I get some ideas for psychology lessons, but I did actually learn about some cool tech tools. I was inspired to create a professional Twitter account and I have an entire list of tech tools to explore further. Needless to say, I was impressed with the MACUL conference. There was truly something there for everyone and it was great to see so many innovative teachers collaborating to transform learning from a chore into an exciting experience for our students!