Home Again

Well after many, many trips this summer I am home for good. Over the next few days I will post each of the legs of my travels over the last six weeks but first some news. Today I went back to school to move my classroom and start unpacking and decorating (I don't officially report until the 20th and classes begin with students on the 25th). I had the help of two of my students and my home teachers. They were a huge help and got me off to a great start with finishing my classroom.

Now for some good news, I checked my school mailbox this morning and I got the results for my AP class....10 of my students passed the test. I had 26 students take the test and I had anticipated that I would have about 10% pass the test (around 3 students). I am thrilled with the results. The most experienced AP World History teachers have between a 50-60% pass rate depending on the year and the quality of the students. The exceptional ones might be able to boast a 65-70% pass rate. My 39% is excellent for a first year AP teacher and in my case I was only a second year teacher as well. I am very, very happy with these numbers.

Bravo to my students who studied and put in the time to be successful and I am so excited to start next year and see what I can do. I know I will be a more effective teacher and I hope to have even better results next year.

Here is a little more information:
The test is on a 5 point scale with 5 being the highest.
2 students received a 4
8 students received a 3
6 students received a 2
10 students received a 1

(I am actually happy I had more 1's than 2's because I told my students all year that a 2 was a lazy man's 3.)