Summer in AP Psych Land

Summer has gotten off to a great start for this AP Psych teacher, and today (while many of my students would probably gag at the thought of the upcoming school year, given our pleasant summer weather) I begin the long process of making plans for a great 2013-14 AP Psych experience!

Admittedly, it's early for me to be thinking about this. However, as many Chi-Hi folks know, my summers "off" have always involved a lot of planning and training for the upcoming school year, and this year my summer preparation time will have to be scheduled even more carefully. Since April 8th I have been on educational leave to complete an internship for my Masters degree in Counseling Psychology, and this will continue until September 13th. Most of my hours during the work week will be occupied as I meet with clients and complete other required training experiences. So, my normal practice of camping out in my classroom for much of August has to be revised. Instead, I'll be gradually working on updating the calendar and lesson plans to reflect next year's syllabus over the next couple of months.

"Lucky" Table 13 celebrating the end of this year's Reading.

Also, I'll be keeping tabs on results from last year's AP Psych exam as they become available. This year I was again involved in the scoring of the Free-Response sections of the test, which involved an early June trip to Kansas City, MO, to join 380 other AP Psych teachers and professors of psychology in evaluating over 250,000 student exams. (For more info about this year's Reading, see this post from the THSP blog, which includes more pics of fabulous psych instructors, including yours truly.) My table (pictured at left) was one of three that ended up participating in the scoring of BOTH Q1 and Q2 (usually you are assigned to one for the whole week). So, even though it took more training, I can now boast expertise in both rubrics, which will be an asset as I help future students prepare for the test.

Individual scores for my (Wisconsin) students will be released July 6th (to students) via the online score report service. Reports for teachers will follow soon after (July 10th & 11th). Aggregate data about all test takers' performances was released just yesterday, in Trevor Packer's Twitter feed:

I like those odds, Chi-Hi. :) Especially as Mr. Packer (head of the AP for the College Board) noted that there were percentage increases in 3s, 4s, and 5s (passing scores) as compared to last year's test.

So, be prepared for some changes to the blog and some constant "construction" mess in the lesson plans and calendar features over the next couple of months. I'll also include updates about AP Exam scores as they become available. Even when class is not in session, there's never a dull moment in AP Psych.