AP

I just finished a week of AP training, which went really well, but at the beginning of the week I had an 8" stack of books and papers I wanted to go through this summer in preparation for next year, and we got so much free stuff that now I have two 18" stacks instead. But I got a lot of great ideas and between this and some of the books I have read so far, I want to totally reorganize the way I teach world history next year. Instead of teaching it in units such as "Scientific Revolution," "Enlightenment," and "Age of Exploration," I would like to reorganize it one of two ways: either the AP way, which is to divide history up into groups of years, such as 800-1300, and teach everything happening between those years, or the Arnesto way, which is to label eras like "Contacts and Conflicts," Global Enlightenment," or "the Frustrations of Progress." The Arnesto way is a lot like the AP way, but the units are smaller and have better names, in my opinion.

There were a lot of people in these classes from all over the world, including a woman in my section who teaches at the international school in Shanghai and people from all over the US, including South Dakota and Arizona. I learned so much and the woman teacher was amazing. I hope that someday I know 10% as much information as she does and can do 10% of the cool things that she does in her class. Of course, her kids are freaking amazing and apparently all overachievers, whereas my kids fall in a somewhat different category.

Anyway, I need to process this information, while it's still fresh in my head...so until tomorrow...