Story time! The first time I answered the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” with “I want to be a teacher!” was in 2nd grade. I thought my teacher had the coolest job ever! She got to read The Boxcar Children, take care of our class guinea pig, and write on the chalkboard (you read that correctly, my elementary days predate whiteboards.) I knew I wanted to teach 2nd grade, too! Every year after that I still wanted to be a teacher, but it moved up to wanting to teach that grade because I loved what I was learning at the time. (Except for that weird time in middle school where I thought I wanted to be a dentist…) Then I got to 10th grade Honors US History and my “what do you want to be when you grow up?” answer got stuck there. I loved the way my teacher taught us and all of the interesting stories in US History that we got to dive deep into. I knew that I wanted to teach honors and AP history. Here I am, 13 years later, and I just completed my official AP Training!

I received my teaching certificate in 2014 but have not had the opportunity to teach AP and Honors courses yet because the small schools I have worked with have not offered them. When my current school offered to send me to the AP US History Summer Institute in Novi, MI I jumped at the chance! Sure, I would have to give up a week of my summer break, but I knew it would be worth it. I’m not even teaching APUSH this year, so some of the other teachers were probably wondering why I was at the workshop. Two reasons: first, it is still my goal to teach AP and Honors (and college) history courses someday, second, I knew that I could learn techniques to use in my on-level history courses.

Here are some of the things I learned:

• Focus on the skills in class, and have students work on the content outside of class time.
• The class is pretty challenging and students will be asked to do a lot on the AP Exam, so students really need to be focused and committed.
• Develop a system for students to use for tasks such as analyzing sources, so they can be sure to follow it each time and get all of the necessary details.
• Introduce students to the writing rubrics used on the exam and use rubrics each time they write for practice. They can also use the rubrics for peer editing.
• Let students know that they should spend 1 minute on each multiple choice question, and typically a score of around 80% on those is very good. Warm ups each day are a good way to practice MC questions.
• In writing questions on the exam, students need to be very specific and avoid using universal truisms such as “Many things changed during the 1920s.”

As a book-lover and avid reader of history and teaching texts, I was excited to have so many good book recommendations provided at the AP Institute. Here are a few books and other resources you might be interested in:

• What the Best College Teachers Do – This is definitely on my “to read” list since I also teach college courses!
• Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
• Advanced Placement United States History (AMSCO) – Other teachers recommended this book as a great supplement to your textbook.
• By The People – This textbook was recommended because it is written as a story and the students enjoy it.
• Cult of Pedagogy Podcast
• The History Chase – Awesome website full of resources created by the teacher who led my AP Institute.
• The History Dig – Primary sources organized by APUSH time periods.

If you are getting ready to kick off a new school year with a new class of AP students, I have created a quick way for you to start getting to know each student and informally assess their existing historical thinking skills.

Download it, print it out, and you’re ready to go! It is available in both of my shops for just $1:
Amped Up Learning: https://ampeduplearning.com/a-history-of-me-historical-thinking-skills-back-to-school-activity/
Teachers Pay Teachers: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-History-of-Me-Historical-Thinking-Skills-Back-to-School-Activity-4691801