Reframing Extra Credit

“Can I do extra credit to raise my grade?” I hated this question so much as a teacher. It required me to do more work and sometimes felt like it wasn’t a good practice. For a few years, I offered no extra credit because I didn’t have the capacity to grade anymore than I already […]

Reflecting After the Test or At The End of the Year

I never wanted to be that teacher who got stale. After I did my National Board Certification, I constantly was in a state of reflection. I tried to make the class enjoyable, rigorous and not increase my workload or make life harder for anyone. The day after the AP test, I had students reflect while […]

Focus on the Outcomes

I received an email this morning that I needed to choose my daughter’s mode of instruction for the 2020-2021 school year by July 10th. (Arizona starts early and the district is on a modified year-round schedule). I froze. Like me, most people are going into this next school year wondering what in the hell they […]

3 Project Ideas For After the AP Exam

I woke up this morning and didn’t really know what to do with myself. That’s been the six years of the morning after the AP test feeling. In our district, movies are not the preferred use of class time over 20 minutes. Here are a few ideas for how to spend the time after the […]

Extended School Absences/Closures

We are in unprecedented times. It’s uncertain. And many are wondering what we are going to do for the AP test. As someone who has a chronic illness, I think about MY extended absences a lot, and have safeguards built-in for days I need to be gone. We have one more week of our scheduled […]

Teaching AP Government in a Shortened Semester- Week Nine Practice Exams and SPRING BREAK!

Week 9, Days 38-42 What was covered this week: Day 38: Lecture on political socialization. Day 39: We took a multiple-choice AP practice exam as a marker for our more than halfway point. I used the exams on Albert.io, but there are a plethora of tests out there. Day 40/41: Students really needed to […]