This year I am teaching AP Environmental Science for the first time, and, to put it professionally by not using any swear words, it's been quite the learning experience. But I have a few confessions to make because if I don't get them out of my brain I'll burst at the seams. And no one wants that - it makes quite a mess. This post is going to be pretty open and honest, so consider yourself warned.
And now, for the confessions that are so good for the soul:
Confession #1: This first year of teaching AP has made me feel like a first-year teacher all over again.
I have to learn a lot of content that's new to me. And this is content aligned to a test that my students have to take, a test that is heavily content based. While I regularly look at the topic outline provided by the College Board, I also regularly freak the heck out that I may have not taught something in the topic outline on a regular basis. I did write my syllabus to the topic outline, but that still doesn't stop me from having regular "OMG did I teach this did I teach it in-depth enough even though I don't have time to go into depth" panic attacks about three times a week. I haven't felt like that since....hmm....1997. Oh, to feel young and inexperienced again.
Confession #2: The design and intent of AP goes against everything I believe learning should be.
Coverage, coverage, coverage. That's not rigor. I feel like it's all about slogging through the science stuff rather than actually learning and making sense of the science stuff. While environmental science is bursting with potential problem-based goodness, you just don't have the time to do it justice in an AP class. Maybe you do and I just haven't figured it out yet - if you're an APES teacher and you have figured this out, please contact me and let me know what you're doing!
Confession #3: I have only just now started to feel somewhat OK about what I'm doing in that classroom.
I'm not into lecture. I know some AP teachers that lecture every single day with a lab sprinkled in for special occasions; I also know their students usually do well, getting scores of 3 and above on the tests. So, I'm not knocking it - but it just isn't me. I can't do that and go home at night and feel good about what I'm doing to or for students. So instead I set up learning activities for each chapter of study where students can show me what stuff they've learned as well as how they can apply the stuff. For example, when students had to learn about principles of smart growth in order to combat urban sprawl, I had them apply these rules by redesigning the town in which I teach. They were provided zoning maps and land use maps of the town and given free reign to redesign the town using smart growth principles. Here's an example of one of their redesigned towns:
Confession #4: Most of my students struggle with making their own meaning and owning their understandings.
I'm sure I'm not the only teacher, AP or otherwise, with this issue. But in an AP class that is rigidly paced with a way-earlier-than-the-end-of-the-school-year deadline for understanding, this becomes a serious issue. While I still let students fix their knowledge all semester long, I have to give strict test deadlines to keep pace with that beginning of May test deadline. I feel like I am constantly letting them down by not giving them the time they need to actually learn the material.
Is this what rigor supposedly is? I ain't buying what AP is selling.
Confession #5: FRQs are a struggle.
The APES exam has four free response questions. We've been practicing. It hasn't been working. What I'm doing hasn't been working. Practice isn't making perfect. I have been giving feedback, but it hasn't been good enough. Most students list, but do not explain. They show some knowledge, but don't display the depth of their knowledge. They try to skim the surface and use the background knowledge from past learning instead of using the learning in front of them. They need more practice, but how do you make time for that when you're trying to make time for students making their own meaning?
I half-apologize for this AP-related rant (after all, this is my little slice of the internet and I am free to post as I please). But that's the beauty of blogging--by getting it all out, I see where I need to go and what I need to do.
And, as much as I don't really agree with what AP is about, I do want another shot at teaching this next year. I need to do better.