Summer in AP Psych Land

This summer I've been pretty busy getting ready and renewed for what I hope will be a banner year for AP Psych in 2014-15. Just thought I'd give you a brief summary of all that has been happening to prepare for your arrival in rm 136.

AP Exam Reading

In early June, I joined 400+ AP Psychology teachers and Psych Professors from across the country at the AP Exam Reading in Kansas City, MO. This is my third year of participating in the Reading, and it was great to connect with my colleagues from across the country, see old friends, make new ones, and (of course), score endless stacks of FRQs from the 2014 exam.

I was assigned to Question 1, which was a research methods question, and was happy to be scoring lots and lots of bar graphs much of the week. In all, over a quarter million exams were read by the crew that week. 

With the recently retired (from teaching) Charlie Blair-Broeker at the AP Reading. 

Steve Jones and I take a serious selfie during lunch at the Kansas City Convention Center.

Brad Wray, Mike Ray, and I can't figure out why there are no cars in downtown Kansas City on Sunday afternoon. Or at least cheering crowds to celebrate the end of the AP Psych Reading.

Then, after the end of the school year, I did attempt to become a hermit for about 2 weeks. I got caught up on sleep and was able to clean my house for once. How nice, right?

Chi-Hi AP Psych Exam Results

In early July, scores for our AP Psych students at Chi-Hi became available, and we had a lot to celebrate! The 2014 crop of AP Psych students was our largest group of test takers yet: 95 students took the AP Psych Exam! And, they did quite well. 

As a group, we can boast a 86% percent pass rate (which was substantially higher than the national pass rate of 65%), and 33 of our 95 test takers earned 5's (the highest possible score). This is impressive, given how much instructional time we lost due to snow days over the 2014-15 school year. 

AP Annual Conference

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the AP Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA. It was an invigorating conference, as I picked up a lot of great ideas for use in my own classroom and for growing and supporting AP programs in general. 

As a side bonus, during non-conference hours I tried to squeeze in as many Philadelphia tourist activities as possible, including a run up "Rocky's" steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the early morning hours. 

I've got the Eye of the Tiger...

Now that mid-July is upon us, however, it's time to get focused again. I'll be at school more days than not over the next few weeks updating my plans for the year and getting things ready for textbook pick-up in mid-August. If you visit the blog during that time, you'll notice many pages and features are "under construction" as I make adjustments and updates for the 2014-15 school year.  

I'm looking forward to the planning and preparation, since it means I'll be seeing AP Psych students again soon.