I found out last week that I will be teaching A.P. United States History next year at my school, and hopefully will be doing so for the foreseeable future. Our current A.P. teacher is stepping down and the position opened up and I was luckily enough to get it.
I have mixed feelings. One the one hand, I am excited to be able to work with the very best of students in our public schools. I have to admit, that in my general U.S. History classes the wide range of learning ability handcuffs me. I have some students that struggle with the very basics, and others hungry for more. Differentiation nightmare. It has been very frustrating at times. I cannot wait to be in a classroom full of eager and intelligent minds. In the public school arena, A.P. is all we have for such interaction. No survey courses, limited electives, ect. We have a massive curriculum that we have to always be teaching to, so A.P. is our only chance at getting into in-depth discussions with students.
On the other hand, the goal of the student is to pass the A.P. test and get their college credit. Some students are there as they love history, but many because their parents make them. Students in A.P. classes can become fixated on simply gathering the facts, taking practice tests, and preparing for the written portion of the test. Fair enough. However, I think our school, which has had an excellent A.P. teacher who is going to mentor me, has a good approach to A.P. classes and I am excited to be an A.P. teacher.
Anyway, I will share my experiences as I go. I will also post samples of my curriculum, syllabus and other things this summer in hopes of getting feedback!
Chris
Good luck on this new endeavor! AP History was my favorite class in high school, and better than many of my college classes. As for your concern about students wanting to focus solely on passing the test to get credit, don’t worry about that. The fact that you’ve got students that actually care about their education far outweighs their motivations. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
Thanks Steve. I appreciate your comments and support. And yes I will be posting here how it goes and how I prepare this summer!
Thanks again!
Chris
Also, I just added your site, very impressive!!
I’m taking AP US history right now and it’s one of my favorite classes! It’s hard work and I have homework quite a bit, but I absolutely love the discussion and the writing. And it does somewhat become all about the AP test, but I guess that’s inevitable. Our whole third trimester is about preparing for that and that’s kind of a bummer.
Bobbie thank you for your post and I’m happy to heart that you like the like AP History. Future historian I hope! Good luck with the test!
C