8 days till my WISE presentation

Gradbash was AMAZING!!! I had the time of my life and will never forget this night!!!! <3
Also, the countdown has begun, 8 days till my WISE presentation! That def means its time to hustle! I worked on a major part of my presentation today and worked on about 6 slides of my powerpoint portion of my presentation. Some of the details I'm leaving out.. they will be seen at my presentation... :-)

Success feels good!

So between last night and today, Ive had many goals happen and am pleased with results! I was able to do 4 slides for my powerpoint that I am going to use in part of my wise presentation and today, went to the gym for a couple hours with my best friend Ashley, and we did one of the most successful workouts I have done, probably within the last 4 years!! Burned about 230-240 calories!! Anyways, tomorrow I have many goals, such as turning in my job application to Adventure Bay, getting done with 4-8 slides of my powerpoint for wise and then going to Sydney's WISE presentation, my first one to evaluate!

Goals for the upcoming week

             So I have many goals of what I want for WISE and myself for the next week. By this time next week, I am hoping to have put together the audio and visuals that I want to use for my WISE presentation and complete at least half of my outline. Also, I want to try to go to my hip hop class 1 or 2 times next week, plus the dpjcc to work out for one day. I joined the new weight watchers pointsplus system this morning and my goal for this week is to lose 3 lbs.

Early Release=4 hours of babysitting + senior awards :-)

So today has been one busy day..Just got home from babysitting Kari and Claire from 12-4 and now I am finally working on WISE a lil bit and waiting for my best friend Ashley to come over. Then tonight, my family and I are going to senior awards and supposedly im getting an award, but have no idea what its for! I guess ill find out at the awards ceremony.

Lots of stuff going on..

So...this week, I am defenitely getting a sense of time management practice; babysitting 4 days this week, getting prom/grad bash arrangements figured out, beginning to work on getting together my WISE presentation, and a huge Statistics test tomorrow! Right now, I just finished writing an overview of everything I have done in WISE, like different research ive done, hands-on experiences, and interviews I have done. That way tomorrow, I can start coming up with how I am going to present this whole experience. In a few min,I am going to look for a book on public speaking and making presentations to help me prepare for speaking in front of a crowd for at least 45 min, and then I have to study for my stats test, then babysit from 3-5 pm, and then later, I am supposed to work out at the gym with my best friend Ashley.

An experience that I will never forget!!

So out of everything I have done hands-on in the WISE experience, I have to say that yesterday was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had! I got to shadow and help the nurses out in the post-partum unit of Family Birthplace at Memorial West Hospital. So.. cool!! Got to learn how to take vitals, like heart rate and temperature on newborns and even got to help a nurse make rounds and perform these tests on the newborns themselves. I watched a nurse give 2 babies a PKU and Billyrubbin test and they were so.. cute. I remember one of them was a 5 lb, 2 oz baby girl and she was scared and wrapped her entire little hand around my finger and squeezed it so stop crying.. she was the cutest baby girl I have ever seen!  Afterwards, I watched 2 baby girls go through hearing testing. Also, I was responsible for supervising and watching out for a little baby boy named Daniel who was born april 19 and was in the jaundice infant incubator for more than an hour. On another baby boy, I watched a neonatologist do a kidney synogram on a 1-day old baby boy and he was explaining about how he has a kidney problem. It was so.. cool because I was able to observe, help, and handle the newborns and even helped get a couple of them dressed and got to feel their soft skin and those little fingers and toes. Lastly before I left, one of the nurses gave me a pamphlet about audio development in babies, and a packet that the hospital usually gives to new parents at birth, which is a booklet all about infant development, feeding, holding, bathing, health, ect. I enjoyed this incredible experience and it as really hit home about how precious a little one's life is. <3

Middle school observation and prep for Birthplace/NICU experience :-)

Yesterday was a very fun but hectic day for me. I was at school including 4th hr because Coach Love was presenting his wise presentation and then afterwards, I headed over to Falcon Cove to meet Dr.Johnson, a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at the school. I came and observed both her 7th and 8th grade classes and noticed huge differences and similiarites between the students. Her 8th grade class was so..hyper, non-compliant, and just wouldnt listen to dr.Johnson and made her raise her voice. However, the 7th graders took dr.Johnson very seriously and listened to her, followed directions, and once they got comfortable, became little chatterboxes, but were hilarious. I think the reason behind this is that the older the student is, the less likely they will listen to an adult. Younger students look at adults as "grown ups" while the older ones only refer to them as being "older than me, but not wiser." In addition to observing her class, Renae's medicaid person, Ingrid, came over and surprised us and then the two of us went to JCPenney outlet and picked out scrubs for me to wear tomorrow when I go to memorial west to shadow a nurse from birthplace and the nicu. I am so...excited!! I have been looking forward to this since January!!

Remembrance and research on development

First off, before I get into the research I have been doing today on developmental psychology, I want to just say that I feel for the family and friends of both Sasha Abitante and Juan Zambrano, two members of our senior class who were killed last night in a highway car accident along alligator alley. RIP both of you and let this be a lesson to other teenagers and teen drivers about the safety of wearing a seat belt at ALL times.


Aside from the depressing news, I am pleased to say that this week, I get to focus on my favorite subfield of psychology, developmental psych. Today, I am researching and learning about developmental stages throughout the life cycle.
          The first stage I have looked at is called the pre-natal stage, which occurs in pregnancy. A pregnancy is approximately 9 months and can be broken down into 3, 3 month periods called trimesters. In the first trimester, in embryo develops from a single cell and the embryo begins forming an eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and small arms and legs. In the 2nd trimester, bone develops from the rubbery cartilage of the baby's skeleton and at this stage, a baby can hear and kicks and motions from the baby can be felt. In the last trimester, her skin and body develop more detail including eyelashes, finger and toe nails, and neurons in the brain become active. Until birth, he or she usually spends the last few weeks of the trimester gaining weight. Tomorrow I will begin looking at infantile stages of development through toddlerhood.

Intelligence test results.....

So here is the breakdown of my 2 friends' results from the intelligence test I created:

Steffani: Top 2 intelligences were Linguistic (Word Smart) and Interpersonal (People smart)
Lower 3: Intra personal (self smart), Logic-Mathematical, and Naturalist (Nature smart).
Although the results seem a little surprising considering Steffani excells in mathematics, what lowered her overall score from that section was the non-mathematical logic question.

Yarlin:Top 2 intelligences were Linguistic (Word Smart) and Interpersonal (People smart)
Lower 3: Intra personal (self smart), Naturalist (nature smart) and Logic-Mathematical.
To me, Yarlin's results are pretty much expected since she has a strong point in the social sciences and english.

On a luck streak...YEAH!!

                  So yesterday was a great day! My mom let me stay home from school since it was a pointless day to come because of FCAT testing and all, so she took me to Sawgrass to go prom dress shopping and we picked out my prom dress! Very beautiful and I love how I look in it.. can't wait to show it off at prom! Anyways, not only did that make me feel great, while my mom and I were waiting in line to pay, I got a call by Ana Lugo, the nurse manager of Family Birthplace at Memorial West hospital! She told me that she would be glad to help me out and set me up with a day that I can come in and shadow a nurse from birthplace/ the NICU. Finally, after trying since January, I am getting cooperation! So next thursday, I will be shadowing one of the nurses from the neonatal intensive care unit and family birthplace...so ecstatic! In conjunction with my studies on intelligence, I have taken video footage and observed kids and teenagers playing tennis/piano/violin to show the aspects of music bodily-kinetic intelligence, aka athletic intelligence. It is really interesting to see such diverse talent! Watching two girls in my class play tennis, its pretty amazing to see how much hand-eye coordination and skill it takes to play tennis successfully. Also, I am really impressed by the two kids that I babysit,  sisters Claire and Kari, who play violin and piano and how they are so fluent and capable of identifying notes and scales and following the rythym of the songs they learn.

Reality of time kickin' in!

                  So I think after getting back from Orlando with my family and reading Coach Love's website, I think the reality of time has finally clicked in to me and I am realizing how much I still want to get done for WISE in so..little time.. I need to get myself on a good basis between hw, babysitting, WISE, and enjoying time with friends and family. So I have gone to Memorial West hospital's family birthplace and NICU to speak with a nurse about coming in to shadow a nurse there for a day and I called both head managers and left them both a message so now I am in the waiting game. In the meantime, I am focusing this week on Howard Gardner's 9 Intelligences and have created an intelligence test to tests 5 out of the 9 different types to see where different people are stronger and weaker in their intelligence. If you would like to be a part of my experiment, you can email me at Gwadler1014@aol.com and let me know and I will send you the test.

Sea World Orlando..HERE WE COME!!

I am so..excited!! Tomorrow, my parents, sister, best friend, and I are heading to Orlando,Fl!! We are going to the annual Sea of Dreams event hosted by the Autism Society of Orlando, which we belong to as a support group for my sister, Renae. We are all ecstatic and love attending this event every year to meet other parents and children with autism, and enjoying the day at Sea World.. Also, while I am there, I am going to try to have some more hands-on animal encounters as part of my comparative psychology studies.. Will def take pics once we get back!! :-)

Research on personality

                Today, I decided to do some research on personality psychology and how personalities are organized, figured out, and categorized. To begin with, there are different parts of a personality, including common knowledge, verbal intelligence, creativity, and logic. Each part gives special abilities to someone. Common knowledge helps people in daily life and driving, verbal intelligence gives someone the opportunity to speak fluently and express opinions. Creativity is a person's imagination that helps them with fields such as arts, music, social sciences, and english. Logic, is a person's ability to do arithmetic and science, where memorization and following directions comes into play. A person can have a mixed personality or simply one type, depending on how much of a certain part is present. The Myers-Briggs type indicator is a test to identify what personality type someone has.

Psych Bowl victory and Personality Psych week

Good News!! CBHS defeated both Stranahan and Deerfield beach high schools in the inagural psychology bowl held at Nova Southeastern University!! So..proud of the great work accomplished and glad that 2  of our students placed 2nd and 3rd in the poster competition! We are true stars!! This week, I have decided to focus on personality psychology, which I am thrilled about because this is one of the topics in psychology that interests me the most. Today, I conducted a personality inventory on both my mom and I. A personality inventory is a series of personality tests that reveal parts and aspects of a person's personality and behaviors accompanied by them. What is interesting is the fact that just from testing my mom and I, it is possible to see that personality traits and behaviors can be inherited from parent to child. My mom and I shared scores within 1 standard deviation from eachother on all 4 of the personality tests,which means we share similar aspects of our personalities, which I believe is true.

Finally showed video to coach love!

So after all of the trouble I encountered getting my WISE preview to work for coach love, I finally brought my laptop in wed and let him watch my presentation and he loved it! So..relieved! So yeah, this week, the only "exam" i had to physically take was tennis and we played doubles and ran a 1/2 mile! I love 2nd semester of senior year! Its so..nice, considering today is my best friend ashley's birthday and she is bringing a group of us out, to Boca di peppo's! Also today, I am volunteering with Psychology Honor Society at the 1st annual Psychbowl at nova southeastern.

I hate technology!!

Sometimes technology is such a pain in the "a double s"!!! The problem is my video works but not on coach love's computer and I have been trying to convert it to wmv and allow it to be successful,but it wont! Looks I am bringing my laptop into coach love's class tomorrow.. maybe he can help me there.. Either way, I also watched Forrest Gump and I am Sam, which are to incredible movies about the challenges of having diagnosed "mental retardation". I highly recommend these two films for those who plan on going into the psychology field.

My WISE video preview

I am so..happy!! My WISE video preview came out AWESOME!!!! CHECK IT OUT!!

Relaxation to the Max!

I enjoyed spring break so...much!! In honor of spring break 2011, I've decided to dedicate the past week and parts of this week to methods of coping and relaxation. Some of the things I did to enjoy some relaxation where punch my punching bag, attend a Hatha Yoga class at Weston Yoga with one of my great friends, went to the beach with that same friend and enjoyed the boogie boarding,  and watched the movies 50 First Dates and Just go with it. This week, I am going to try out some pilates videos I have rented from the library and possibly get myself a massage at Massage Envy..I love this theme!

Movie-TV Marathon

So throughout the week, in addition to music videos, I have been watching different feature films and tv shows that have psychology principals attached to them. Here are my reviews of these films and how they are psychology related:

American Teen-documentary of 5 high school seniors in indiana who have select social cliques including prom queen,jock, geek, rebel, and heartthrob. The film documents their lives and the different dramas they go through during senior year of high school up to graduation and going to college. This flim is defenitely social psychology related by the way the kids are grouped in cliques and many of the dramas they encounter are enforced because of the group that he or she has been associate with.


Mother and Child- a film that documents the lives of 3 women who have all delt with the stuggles of adoption;giving up a baby at 14, being that baby, and a set of parents who cant concieve and are going through the adoption process. I would say this movie is psych related by the way it shows attachment between mother and child and how important the bonding process is in the psychological development of a person.


Mr.Mom- After a man loses his job, his wife gains one so now they have switched roles and he has become "the mommy of the house." This movie is psych related in the way that gender roles are highly looked at and the way they are accepted to people in a society.

American Idol--its not necessarily the show that has psychology related principles but some of the things Ryan Seacrest does. For instance, allowing commercial breaks between results gives more of a suspense to the show and makes the viewer wanting more.

Teen mom 2-- A show about the struggles teen moms go through raising their children. Broken homes, relationship troubles, and even infant struggles showcase some of the reasons many young mothers struggle to keep a family unit in their lives.

Glee- this show showcases different social groups within high school, and even brings up the points of how homosexuality affects the life of a high school guy and the relationship he carries with his father.

psychology and music

Here are some of the songs I have listened to and reviews of how they are psychology related:

Bruno Mars-Grenade; idea of psychological attachment to a person and how extreme a person would go to make things happen.. schizophrenic like; talking about getting a bullet through his brain, jumping in front of trains for her, telling her devil to send her back to where she is from.

Lady Gaga-Born this way; idea of accepting who you are and the theory that God is the creator of the world. His creations have no mistakes; everyone was born to be unique in their own ways. Believing in yourself is all you really need to get through life’s ups and downs.

Enrique Iglesias-Tonight I’m loving you; focuses on the aspect of psychosexual development by freud. Shows that the guy has uncontrollable sexual urges and is in the genital stage of psychosexual development and believes that the woman he loves is approaching this stage too.

Christina Aguilera- I turn to you; idea of attachment between anyone including parents, spouses, family, friends, and role models; creating bonds with others and forming relationships where the ideas of trust, dependency, and helpfulness are included.

The Lion King-Hakuna Matata; talks about not worrying about problems in life and just going with the flow.

Destiny’s child-Survivor; talks about not giving up when others put you down or leave your side; positive self talk.

Amazing movie based on social psychology

               These next couple of weeks, I am focusing primarily on psychology throughout the entertainment world. Today, I started off by heading to the library and checked out 6 different films. The first one I chose to watch is American Teen. It is a film about 5 indiana teenagers who are seniors in high school. They take on the social classes of prom queen, jock, hearthrob,rebel, and geek. The movie mainly documents the lives of these teens through each of their prespectives. It gives insight into what many teens face during their high school years; relationships, alcohol, sex, the idea of going to college, prom, accepting yourself for who you are, and discovering who you want to be in the future. This film is a perfect representation of how the aspect of social psychology is portrayed throughout the media, which is in the same league as the films Juno, Napoleon Dynamite, and The Breakfast club.
     In addition to movies, I have began listening closely to music and believe it or not, one song that stood out to me was Justin Bieber's hit, Never Say Never. After listening to the song in great depth, I have gained more of a respect for him and his music, including the fact that this song sends a powerful and uplifting message to those who feel they are inferior to others, and feel taken advantage of. His lyrics of "whenever you knock me down, I will not stay on the ground, pick it up, pick it up, pick it up,up,up and NEVER SAY NEVER" are really inspiring and have even helped me personally to feel more confident about myself, even when sometimes people try to put me down or do things that make me feel unrespected. Overall, this song conveys the message of positive self talk to help a person get through difficult situations.

Cognition in Action!

               Yesterday, in addition to my friend Steffani coming over to swim and hang out, I decided to interview/examine my sister Renae as part of my Cognitive psych week. She was diagnosed with autism when she was really little, but has made great progression with the help of her therapies, my parents, and I. I wanted to be able to give a personal look on cognition in children with autism, so I decided to run some tests on my sister! lol. First, I interviewed her so you could see how she puts sentences together and has some speech ailments along the way. Next, we played I spy, and I had her look for objects, but she needed verbal prompting and clues in order to find them.Then, we used flashcards where I gave her a word and she had to create a sentence using the word and in the sentence, it is possible to see some of the grammar errors that she tends to make. Last, I demonstrated learning math by using the bead system and showed that she needs consistent verbal prompting to understand mathematics. This test wasnt to embarris her or make her feel ackward, but to show the reality of struggles that she goes through in her academics. For the next couple of weeks, I am planning on mixing some themes together,starting with Psychology in Entertainment. I am looking forward to seeing how psychology influences some of todays best music, movies, tv shows, and literature!

P.S.- I will be adding more pics and videos soon, once I can find my USB camera connector for my laptop! :P

Sylvan Learning Experience

            So today, I met Mrs.Q, director of Sylvan Learning Center on Glades Circle in Weston. I decided to interview her because I wanted to keep with the theme of cognitive psychology, and speaking to a director of a tutoring company is a good way to find out about the services they offer and how they motivate the students to learn. She told me that they specialize in students grades k-12 reading,math, and study skills, fcat tutoring, sat/act/college prep for high schoolers and study skills for high schoolers. They motivate the kids by giving them tokens when ever they stay focused and continue to succeed and once they have collected enough coins, they can shop in the Sylvan store. For elementary kids, they have everything from little board games to pencils, sticker books, and toys. For the older kids, they can trade in their tokens for gift cards such as Itunes, Target, Best Buy, and even some smaller electronics such as headphones. Man, now I'm wishing I could go there; that really motivates me!

Much better week

                 I am so relieved to see that this week, I am already making better progress and getting back into the swing of things regarding my WISE project. I started off my week of studying Cognitive Psychology by heading to boca yesterday and interviewing/watching Julie Knote, conduct a speech therapy session with her 2-and-9 year old daughters. I found it really interesting to learn more about being a speech therapist, especially since she has been mine and my sister's speech therapist since we were in elementary and preschool. While I was there, I took candid video of Julie giving her 2-year-old, Cassidy, and 9-year-old, Haley, speech therapy appropriate to their age groups. Also, I got to meet Julie's newest addition, baby Kennedy, who is now 4 and a half months old; so..cute! In addition to this experience, some of my other plans for this week include doing cognition evaluations on my sister Renae, who has autism, and visiting Sylvan Learning Center to learn about tutoring and different techniques that the tutors feel help students learn to the best of their abilities.

Keeping the plans comin'

                    So the last couple days have been pretty successful! I am so..proud of my lil boy Jimmy, he's learning how to swim! Also, I like how I have had progress with making plans for going to the NICU soon and will be talking to Mr.Neely and speaking to him with Heather so we can get all of this work out. In the meantime, I have decided to dedicate next week to Cognitive Psychology. My goals for next week are to do some research on cognition, go to Sylvan Learning Center and speak with the director and a tutor about their programs and learning strategies, see my sister's/my previous speech therapist, Julie Knote, for an interview and interactive speech-therapy session, and do some testing, interviews, and questionares on my sister's learning strategies.

Weird week

I dont know why, but for some reason, this week I feel so..out of it! Its a good thing I'm using this week as a planning week, gives me some time to get myself back on track with everything so I could have a good week in WISE next week. Unfortunately, Jimmy's graduation had to be cancelled yesterday because his trainer had a family emergency come up,so it will be sometime within the next week. Also, I just came from the dentist; needed a filling. Ouch Novacaine! Anyways, today my goal is to schedule some more events for myself for my wise project,make some business cards for babysitting jobs, and start teaching my Jimmy boy how to swim!

Lots of Planning and Phone Calls

             This week, since it is only a four-day week due to president's day, I have decided to use this week of WISE as a planning week for further engagements and hands-on activities for my project in Psychology. So far, I have been in contact with Heather Green, from Joe Dimaggio Children's hospital NICU and we are in the process of scheduling me to come in for a tour and to see some of the newborns and preemies up close, along with talking to the parents and learning about the babies struggles for life and how they have developed since they were brought into the NICU after birth. In addition, I have been coming up with more places that I can interview and some of the ones I have thought of so far are Sylvan Learning Center, My sister's speech therapist, and staff from Dan Marino Center. In the meantime, I am trying to plan more hands- on activities. Also, I have a long day today; working on scheduling events for WISE, I have a camp counselor job interview, and tonight, Jimmy is graduating from beginner dog training class and moving onto intermediate!!

Observational Study on a friend

               For my last experiment, what better way to end the week than an observational study on one of my best friends,Steffani! An observational study is when an experimental psychologist does a study on a person or animal without he or she knowing that they are being observed. My purpose for observing my friend was to see how a person's mindframe and confidence changes when put into differrent situations. For example, when I watched Steffani participate in our statistics class, I noticed that she felt more confident about herself, knowing that math is her comfort zone. She felt more comfortable talking to other students in class and felt like she was helpful. On the other hand, when I went with her to her photography class where she is just beginning to learn the stages of developing film, she was getting more frustrated when her pictures wouldn't come out. I could see her body language go from being in a relaxed state to a more tense state of mind and she was more in a hurry. Based on my observations, I can conclude that a person's mental state of mind, body language, and behavior adjust according to situations that someone is either put in or chooses to partake in.

Putting a friend to the test

                 So yesterday, I was debating on what other type of psychological experiment I wanted to try out. Then I finally decided to go along with creating a questionnaire and having my friend,Steffani, fill it out and then I would analyze her results. The questions I asked her helped reveal parts of her personality; her thoughts on spending money, teenage pregnancy, and physical and emotional attachment to people and words. The portion I thought was the most interesting was when I had Steff read a series of words outloud and tell me how she felt afterwards. It is actually pretty neat to see how someone listing words in a row can cause he or she to feel a certain way. Aside from that, I attended a 2nd training session with my dog Jimmy last night and it went pretty well. At first he refused to listen to me, but after a while, he was on a role. We are excited because next week he is taking a training test and will graduate from Pet Smart's 8-week beginner training program and head to intermediate. I will def try to get some pics from the event :-).

Putting my stats honors class to good use!

This week's theme took a lot of debating because I wasnt sure if I was ready to experiment with this theme, but I decided I could do this. This week, my main focus is Experimental Psychology. By the end of this week, I am planning on finishing a survey with data results and conclusions, an observational study, and a physical test. So far, I have conducted a survey on Cypress Bay Students and Valentines Day. I randomly selected 50 cypress bay students and asked them for their gender,grade, whether or not they had a valentine this year and what they did on Vday. The results were incredible: 40% of the students I surveyed had a valentine and 60% did not. What makes the results incredible is that I ended up randomly selectiing exactly 25 boys and 25 girls and the results for each of the genders matched the average of the 50 people sample that I had surveyed! Some interesting conclusions I came upon were the facts that ony 18% of the students recorded went out for dinner on Vday, a staggering 44% did NOTHING on Vday, and about 38% did other things on Vday, whether it be hw, gym, or practice for a sport. So if you are one of those who felt alone on Vday, your really not! Because according to my survey, 60% of the people I surveyed were in the same boat!!

My Metro Zoo Experience

Yesterday was so..much fun! My friend Steffani and I ventured out to Miami's Metro Zoo for a picnic and nice trip to the zoo to study animal behavior and human-interaction with animals. Didn't even need to speak with a zookeeper;saw plenty on my own just walking around the zoo. As far as animal behavior, I saw lions roaring, sea otters trying to build a resting place, gorillas who wanted to duke it out with a fight, donkeys giving eachother a hicky, lol, rhino moms and babies, a gorilla trying to put a t-shirt on itself and making cover with a plastic blanket to protect itself from the rain, and an elephant eating with its trunk. All very cool to watch and I did get video footage which I will be posting soon. Also, my friend and I got to feed a Giraffe and it was so..cool, the tongue was purple and like a foot long! Concerning human-interaction, I saw kids who were afraid to go near animals, children immitating animal behavior, and children mesmorized by seeing certain animals. Overall, it was my favorite Psychology experience so far and it was fun to be able to spend the day with one of my best friends at the zoo just the two of us and have some lunch. Right now, I am still trying to decide on my subfield choice for this week, considering my animal theme this week was awesome!

Me and My Jimmy

Yes!! Jimmy and I survived beginning dog training class last night! Man, o man... he was the smallest lil guy there;everyone else was ninety pounds or above! He did an awesome job and just from attending a one-hour dog training session, I learned so..much about dog psychology. First off, for dogs, actions speak much louder than words. When getting a dog to behave, one of the biggest mistakes people make is telling a dog to "sit,stay,or lay down." However, dogs are more willing to follow hand signals and gestures to follow commands. Another important thing I realized too is that dogs have very, very short memory and constantly need repetition in order to learn tricks or obedience training. Teaching a dog how to sit one time and giving them a treat will not teach them to follow the command; they need to see the gesture or signal at least 10-20 times to even some-what pick up anything. Lastly, Jimmy's trainer from Petsmart, Holly, told the class that her main secret to the training is positivism and postive-reinforcement. Using treats and tummy rubs as rewards accompanied by "good boy/girl" and avoiding words such as "don't,stop, and no" are the key to getting a dog to pay attention and follow commands. I think that was such an awesome experience yesterday, getting a hands-on experience with dog-training and I am so..proud of my lil boy, Jimmy for doing such an awesome job in class yesterday! <3

Time to become an animal expert!

                  I've decided to dedicate this week to Comparative Psychology, the study of animals! I am very excited because this week is my first chance to have more of a hands-on experience with Psychology! As far as right now, my beginning plans for this week consist of researching the famous animal-psychologists such as Cesar Millan, Jane Goodall, and the legendary "Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin. Then, I am planning on attending a beginning dog training session with my terrier mix named Jimmie and learning from his trainer how she gets the dogs to cooperate and how she uses positive-reinforcement in her training. Lastly, I am pretty excited because this weekend, I am planning on venturing out to Miami's Metro Zoo with one of my best friends and we are going to have an awesome time! It's been about 4-5 years since I have been there and it has always been one of my favorite places growing up, especially since I love.. animals! I look forward to having some interaction with the animals and capturing moments on film of them in their natural habitats. Be sure to check out my favorite links on my home site, gwise201011.webs.com for some interesting and entertaining links
:-D

Campus visit day at FAU

Just from reading the title of this journal, you may be thinking "how does campus visit day at FAU have anything to do with Psychology?" Believe me, it ties into the day. Friday, I had my campus visit day at Florida Atlantic University where I got to learn more about the college of science that I will be attending, learn more about student organizations/clubs, dining plans, and all the ropes of living on campus in college. While attending the information session about Student Life on campus I had met and spoken to one of the  guest speakers, Megan. She happens to be a full-time junior at FAU and is a volunteer for the student life programs at FAU.  She and I come from similar backgrounds; having Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I myself, have had generalized anxiety disorder growing up and one of my biggest fears has been sleeping away from home, which in the last year, I have decided to give living on campus a try, but have been apprehensive about the whole idea. I personally, have never met another peer with the same fears I have and who has been successful in overcome his or her fear, until I met Megan. Before she began as a freshman at FAU, she had zero confidence, wouldnt public speak, and was afraid to sleepover others' places. With the help of her new "FAU family", she has progressed so..much and it is the most relieving feeling to know that it is possible to have success in going to college, even with an anxiety disorder. I now know that I can go to her for anything when I live on campus, and hearing her journey has really helped me calm my nerves down and was extremely reassuring in giving me self-esteem and confidence to know that I can do this! So basically, this journal is about helping the general psychology of ME. :-)

fau.edu  FAU's official webite

Whats it like to be a psychotherapist?

Yesterday, I decided to take a visit with my very own Psychotherapist, Mrs.Debra Rode, and in between my own therapy session, I chose to ask her some questions about her job and what her goals are when she is working with patients. One of the things that she feels is very important, especially when helping clients with self-esteem issues is the ability to reframe thoughts in the mind from negative to positive outlooks on life. She feels that in order for someone to be successful as a psychotherapist, he or she needs to have pacience, be calm, open minded, non-judgemental, and have forward thinking. I have to admit that at first I felt weird interupting our session with asking her these questions, but it actually ended up tying into our conversations and discussions and helped me understand certain things that she wants me to work on, like reframing thoughts and arguments to have some different meanings and feelings than I have right now. I appreciate having her as a therapist because I feel she is someone I can confide in, go to for help when I have issues in my life that occur, and get asssistance in reframing negative thoughts about myself in my head. Thank You Debra so..much!!

My first Interview for WISE

Today, I woke up bright and early and met Mrs. Kimberly Patterson, AWESOME AP Psych teacher at Cypress Bay around 7 a.m for an interview about her experiences with General Psychology. By the way, this week's theme is General Psychology--the basis of understanding Psychology as the study of behavior and mental processes. For me personally, that is how I originally became involved with psych; by first taking Regular Psychology with Mr.Calderon in my sophomore year and as a junior,enrolling in Mrs.Patterson's AP General Psychology class. These two classes opened up the doors to help me learn about the different subfields of psychology and give beginning insight into how the mind works. I found out so..much about Patty, including the fact that she is nationally recognized, is involved with the reading and grading of the national AP exam every year,and has met famous Psychologists such as the Amazing Randi, and Philip Zimbardo. To the psychology world, these two men are legendary to modern psychology. She explained to me that the one thing she loves about psychology is learning about how the mind likes to play games with us and how others around us can leave an impact on our decisions and mistakes in life, even when we are unaware of it.
Thank you so...much Patty!! Awesome Interview!! <3 :D

"For Women Only" Review

So  for the last week or so, I have been sick with bronchitis and I am so desperate to get better. Hopefully some cough medicine I picked up from CVS will help me feel better. Meanwhile, yesterday I had my mentor meeting with Coach Kraemer and it went awesome! She is so excited for me and as her student, she is so proud to see all of the accomplishments I have made the last 2 years and will continue to throughout WISE. I also stopped at the library yesterday and picked up a dvd of  TV program called "For Women Only" that I decided to watch this morning. It is a lecture lead by a PH.D named Gary Null who specializes in women's physiological and psychological body and mind. I personally thought it was great, even thought it was meant more for women who are around age 40 and up. He basically explains how hormones and biological processes in women work and he gave helpful hints in how to control your state of mind and even help aid PMS, which I think for me, was the most helpful part :-p. I defenitely recommend the program for women who are interested in knowing how their body and mindframe work and understanding general psychology about themselves.

2nd day success :-)

Hey guys, right now I am sitting down at Panera Bread in Weston Commons sipping on the best iced tea ever while I work on planning a master calendar of contacts and things I want to accomplish in WISE. I have developed a great idea in which every week (or almost every week), I am planning on having theme weeks where I primarily focus on different aspects of Psychology and plan interviews,research,and opportunities surrounding these focuses. I think it will be a great way to keep my self organized while giving myself a variety of experiences throughout this semester course. I have some really neat plans in store and I have begun getting in contact with people and places who I would be honored to speak and work with. I also have some experiments,surveys, and questionarres in mind and am so excited about sharing these with orthers.
       Well, I gotta go for now, I have a statisitics test to study for and I have to get ready for my first mentor meeting with Coach Kramer tomorrow. I'll be sure to let ya'll know how my first mentor meeting goes :D

My first WISE journal

Hi everyone, I'm Genna Wadler and I would like to welcome you to my WISE journal blog. Every week, I will have mulitiple posts, explaining and documenting the experiences I take part in throughout my WISE journey. To give a little bit of a background to my project, I am basing my project on the field of Psychology. My goal for WISE is to learn more about what Psychology is and see if I will be interested in partaking in this field as a possible career. I have a strong interest in the behavior of others, including humane and animal behaviors. I want to learn how the mind works and find out the mysteries behind why things occur as they do. I cannot wait to begin posting pictures and video from my experiences and getting feedback from others. I am looking forward to and appreciate the chance to have this experience of a lifetime. For now, I am kind of getting myself started, reading through my WISE info packet and figuring out how this whole process works. Tomorrow my plan is to create a master calendar of due dates and begin researching who I want to get in touch with and learn from in this experience.


So far, I am off to a great start and I promise, this blog will become so much more interesting within the next week or so. :D