Comments on: …you’ve held me, now it’s time to let me go. . .

By: Christa Allan

Christa Allan — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:54:00 +0000

Vicki: Totally forgot to mention the nifty little bottles of Soy milk options this year–in vanilla and chocolate. That should really push ya over the edge.

I think you have to have at least three years of AP teaching to apply, but check the College Board site as everything is subject to change.

Ah, the rubric. “Internalize the scoring guide” is the mantra of the reading. After a few hundred essays, it happens. That’s my blog for tomorrow and Saturday. Stay tuned.

By: Vicki Leoni

Vicki Leoni — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:40:58 +0000

Another AP list lurker here …

I just finished my second year teaching AP Lang, and I always maintained that I’d rather jam bamboo up my fingernails than be an AP reader.

As with many of my convictions, I’m now thinking quite the opposite. As soon as the AP people want me, I’d love to be a reader. Your description of the food just sealed the deal as the not-so-metaphorical icing on the cake.

I want to thank you for thinking of the faces of my sweet, hardworking young scholars when you see the often painful handwriting.

Here’s my question: I labor over each essay, rereading the rubric with nearly every paper. How do you keep focus, keeping scores closely tied to the rubric, while reading through 200 essays?

By: Christa Allan

Christa Allan — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:54:29 +0000

Thanks, Chris. I reread my posts, hoping my natural tendency for sarcasm didn’t translate as demeaning students for my amusement. Having taught AP for over ten years, I’ve witnessed their agonies, defeats, and triumphs. And I know what it’s like to sweat out the scores with them.

I appreciate your coming out of lurkdom. Keep checking in. I’m adding more tonight. . .

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:20:38 +0000

As one of the lurkers on the AP list, I would like to thank you for writing the blog. I have enjoyed reading about what you have learned from the essays (phallacies had both my husband and I in stiches) and your personal reactions to the experience. I can’t wait to see your musings on the prompts and rubrics, once you are home and your eyes have uncrossed enough to write it.

This was my first year teaching Lang. and Comp. As I helped check my classes in and watched them sit in a gymnasium-turned-test-center with 200 or so of their peers, I felt nervous for them. Thank goodness I had team taught classes and a wonderful teaching partner to help me focus for the next three hours because I could not stop thinking about them, nor could I totally quiet the persistent flutter in my stomach.

On behalf of those 60 students who I worked with all year and sent in to face the test alone, thank you for remembering that they were the faces behind the essays. I am certain that at least one of my students gave up. But most tried and were excited by the opportunity to write something for you to read.