Day 60

It’s a testing day in AP Human Geography. Unit three is harder than the previous two units — at least from what the students tell me and what I can observe. The concepts layer on each other. Therefore, if you don’t understand one concept, it’s difficult to understand the next.

As for the test, some students come in confident, others stressed. As a teacher, it’s not my favorite day. I watch them take the assessment, watch the stress, struggle, or excitement that they know the material in the way the question asked it. There is very little interaction on my part with them. I don’t get to work with them.

Not sure if giving a test is the “right” thing to do at this point in the year. I know what they know and they know what they know — or don’t know. I’m constantly talking to them and observing them. As a class, the students have been learning and doing deep dives in the material. But the AP exam asks for very specific demonstrations of that learning.  Therefore, I give the students the metric so they can see what they will have to do in May and how they will be evaluated. It’s stressful for me when students get a question wrong. I wonder if it was my fault. Did I not do my due diligence?

Image by Anemone123 from Pixabay