Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives

Tulane University in New Orleans will host its third Advanced Placement Summer Institute this June 18-22, 2012. These courses will provide a challenging and exciting opportunity for AP teachers to learn new strategies to improve their students’ AP performance. Registration ends June 1st.

This summer, make the most of your professional development and join us in New Orleans as we continue our tradition of AP course instruction at Tulane University. Courses offered  will be beneficial to experienced and new teachers alike. This is an official College Board-approved APSI.

If you have any questions, please email apsi@tulane.edu or call Mike Spara at 202 487-7257.

DATES AND LOCATION

The Advanced Placement Summer Institute will take place June 18 – 22, 2012. Course hours are 8:00am – 4:00pm. Courses will be held on Tulane University’s beautiful Uptown campus. Each course will last 4 days, except AP Administration (2 days).

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Click here to register now.

For all courses except AP Administration, click below to pay online:

For AP Administration, click below:

If you cannot pay online, please send checks made out to Tulane University to:

ATTN: Alexander Hand

Scott S. Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives

Tulane University

200 Broadway Street, Suite 108

New Orleans, Louisiana 70118

Payment Orders should be sent to the same address. Checks must be received by June 1st. Details regarding location, syllabus, and schedule will be sent mid-May.

Payment must be received to complete registration and guarantee your reservation.

If you have any questions please email apsi@tulane.edu or call Mike Spara at 202 487-7257.

Each workshop will cost $600, except AP Administration ($300). Course fees include course-related materials, parking fees, breakfast and lunch.

AP BIOLOGY

This AP Biology workshop will explore all aspects of the new program including the Curriculum Framework (the four “Big Ideas”, the seven “Science Practices”, “Learning Objectives”, etc.), how to set up your course, how to run inquiry-based labs, and how to prepare students for the new examination. Participants will get hands-on experience with the new inquiry-based labs. We will also discuss ways to modify your existing lab program to fit the new AP Science Practice Standards. Participants will be instructed in the new national exam design, particularly in contrast with the former exam. Other topics include the new audit and reviewing resource materials for this course.

Participants should bring this coming year’s school calendar for planning purposes, as well as handouts of one of their best Biology activities (favorite lab demonstration, etc.) to share with other participants.

Teacher Bio:

Erol Altug Erol Altug has both a B.A. in Biology, Secondary Education and a M.Div. Following two years of part-time teaching at Trinity College, Erol worked for twenty years at the elite Robert College of Istanbul (RC, the oldest American school abroad, is a highly academic co-educational prep school for Turkish youth), where he introduced and coordinated the first Advanced Placement program in Turkey. In 2001, he and his family moved to The Stony Brook School on Long Island, NY (a private, co-educational prep school), where he serves as science department chairman. Erol is actively involved with the Advanced Placement program nationally and internationally. During the grading of the AP Biology exam, he has served as a Reader, Table Leader, and as a Question Leader. He is a consultant for The College Board and has presented at one-day teacher workshops, multi-day events, and Advanced Placement Summer Institutes both in the USA and in Canada.

^Return to Top

AP CALCULUS

In this workshop, participants will look at ways to present calculus topics using multiple representations and learn how to develop student understanding of calculus concepts. They will learn what to teach, how to teach it and how to assess student understanding as well as ways to prepare students for the AP Calculus AB exam. Participants should bring a graphic calculator, notebook paper, and post-it notes.

Teacher Bio:

Dixie Ross teaches AP Calculus at Pflugerville High School in Pflugerville, Texas. She has served as an AP consultant for summer institutes and other teacher professional development workshops since 1994 and has been a reader for the AP Calculus exam. Ms. Ross served on the Math Vertical Teams Tool Kit development committee, the Building Success development committee and the AP Advisory Council for the Southwestern Region of the College Board. She received the College Board’s Southwestern Region AP Special Recognition award in 1992, the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement and the Texas Excellence award for outstanding high school teachers. In 2008, Ms. Ross was a finalist for the O’Donnell Texas AP Teacher of the Year award and was recognized as a Math Hero by the Raytheon Company for her efforts to involve more students in advanced mathematics. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and holds a BA and a BS from The University of Texas at Austin.

^Return to Top

AP CHEMISTRY

This four day workshop, designed for new AP Chemistry teachers or those who have taught AP Chemistry for 1-3 years, will review the basic concepts in a general college chemistry course with the intent of exploring the proper manner to present and to evaluate them. Special emphasis will be placed on classroom management and laboratory planning to fill the needs of the current AP curriculum and the upcoming course re-design in 2013-2014. Participants will perform and evaluate labs and activities of various styles such as micro-scale, calculator-based, data collection with probeware, as well as traditional macro scale experiments. Significant time will be spent on developing an understanding of the actual test and methods for ensuring students’ success.

Teacher Bio:

Mark Case is a 33 year-veteran, chemistry teacher from Emmaus High School in the East Penn School District in Emmaus, PA. Mark also is an experienced consultant in both Chemistry and Educational Technology. He served as a member of the College Board’s AP Vertical Team in Science Committee, which has developed a guidebook for improving science education. Mark also is involved in writing items for the SAT II and ACT chemistry exams. He is a Dreyfus Master Teacher and has shared team leadership of the WWNFF CHEM6 Chemistry team, with whom he presented over fourteen, one-week TORCH institutes for chemistry teachers throughout the country. Mark has also served as a computer applications instructor for the Summer Chemistry Institutes at Princeton University, and he created the WWNFF chemistry webpage. He has presented numerous technology workshops, including TI calculator and CBL/LabPro, Graphical Analysis, Concept Mapping, Internet, and Multimedia workshops for science teachers. Mark has presented several topics at ACS meetings, Chem Ed conferences, national NSTA meetings, and the Phillips-Exeter Math, Science and Technology conferences. His several notable awards include the 1994 Tandy Technology Scholars Award, being a multi-year, state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching, and selected as a 2006 Master Teacher by the DaVinci Science Center.

^Return to Top

AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

Training will focus on the meaning of rhetoric and offer many take-home lessons for teachers to use with their students.  Rhetorical analysis lessons will give teachers strategies for teaching the rhetorical analysis essay, including how to decode the prompt and write commentary.  Persuasive lessons will focus on using the appeals, addressing the prompt, and using appropriate evidence.  Synthesis lessons will offer techniques for writing the synthesis essay and learning to incorporate students’ own arguments in their essays. The aim of the lessons is to offer strategies which are proven to turn “4” essays into at least “6’s” and to turn scores on the AP exam of 2 into scores of 3 and 4. Participants will also receive several lessons which address the multiple choice section of the exam.  These lessons are based on released passages and stress the skills of annotating and finding patterns in the text.   Participants will also receive a researched argument unit focusing on the meaning of the self which culminates in students writing a synthesis/persuasive essay.

Teacher Bio:

Becky Talk has conducted numerous summer institutes and two-day workshops for College Board. She has been a reader for the AP Language Exam for twelve years. She was the 9th grade editor for the publication Laying the Foundation: A Resource Guide for Pre-AP 9th English and was on the original writing team of The Lighthouse Initiative, a document aligning AP skills with skills required in the state of Texas. She has taught AP Language in a large high school in Savannah, Georgia and currently teaches AP Language and AP Literature in a very small rural high school in Texas. She is also an editor for Laying the Foundation online multiple choice questions for Pre-AP English teachers grades 6-10 and a national trainer for Laying the Foundation, based in Dallas. In addition, she is a mentor for teachers for Louis Educational Concepts.

^Return to Top

AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

During this course participants will examine the requirements of the AP English literature course, focusing on key strategies to engage students in close reading, critical thinking, and persuasive writing. Participants will investigate a variety of methods to enable students to recognize and analyze tone in both prose and poetry. Using Othello as a reference, participants will explore strategies to engender student discussion as well as individual “ownership” of Shakespeare’s heightened language. Participants will also have the opportunity to work together to develop a pertinent lesson plan to use in their classrooms during the coming year, to compare Common Core Standards to the AP English literature curriculum, to share “Best Practices” with other AP instructors, and to deconstruct the 2012 AP English literature exam

Teacher Bio:

Mary McDonald teaches AP English Literature at Enid High School in Oklahoma. She has served as a Reader, Table Leader, and Assistant Chief Reader for the AP English literature exam and is currently a member of the AP English Literature Development Committee. A Nationally Certified Consultant, she leads workshops for AP and Pre-AP teachers throughout the country. In 2007, she was a Finalist for Oklahoma Teacher of the Year. A former high school drama coach, Ms. McDonald directs local community theatre productions and is co-founder and director of Enid’s Shakespeare in the Park. She received a B.A. in English from Phillips University, an M.A. in English from the University of Central Oklahoma, and trained for two summers with The National Institute on Teaching Shakespeare.

^Return to Top

AP US HISTORY

This workshop will provide teachers with curricular materials and classroom-tested strategies to teach an advanced level history course and to prepare students for success on the AP United States History exam. Participants will be provided with sample syllabi that address content and pacing concerns, sample lessons and activities to engage students in the historical process.  Particular emphasis will be given to activities that train students to read, write and think like historians.

Teacher Bio:

Penny Rosas , an educator for over 25 years, has been a College Board consultant and exam reader for the past eight years. Receiving her undergraduate degree from Pan American University and her M.Ed. from University of Texas—Pan American, both of Edinburg, Texas, Penny has taught junior high school through college history classes and finally found her true calling with high school juniors. Teaching high school students and working with educators are her passions. Celebrating 32 years of marriage, enjoying her grandson, reaping the benefits of an empty nest, Penny loves reading on her brand new Kindle Fire.

^Return to Top

AP STATISTICS

This AP Statistics workshop is an intensive four-day program that will provide an overview of statistical ideas and concepts and give valuable resources and instructional strategies for teaching AP Statistics. We will cover the four principal areas of the AP Curriculum: Exploratory Analysis, Data Collection, Probability, and Statistical Inference. Participants will be given instruction on content, classroom activities, teaching strategies, time management, uses of technology, review for the exam, cumulative projects, and exposure to previous AP questions, concentrating on how the 2012 AP exam was graded. There will be a discussion of AP goals, resources, and equity issues, the course audit, and recommended textbooks. This workshop will

be valuable not only to teachers planning to teach or already teaching AP Statistics, but also to Pre-AP teachers who through vertical teaming can help prepare and encourage students to take

AP Statistics.

Teacher Bio:

Dr. Martin Sternstein a Professor of Mathematics at Ithaca College, received

his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago and his doctorate at Cornell University.

He spent two years in West Africa as Fulbright Professor at the University of Liberia. He has

strong interests in national educational and social issues concerning equal access to math

education for all. He has been a Reader and Table Leader for the AP Statistics exam, has given

over 50 college Board Pre-AP and AP workshops, and is the author of the Barron’s AP Statistics

review book and the Barron’s AP Statistics flash cards. You can reach Marty at

martys@ithaca.edu.

^Return to Top

BUILDING AN AP PROGRAM: A WORKSHOP FOR SCHOOL LEADERS

Building an effective AP program varies by school and depends on each school’s unique culture, resources, and needs. Strong leadership, training, planning, teaming, goal setting, charting and interpreting data, professional development, and implementing a school wide plan are key to a successful AP program.

* Participants will be provided resources to train faculty and staff, educate parents in their community, and offer their students post secondary guidance through high school course planning.

* Participants will synthesize multiple forms of data and use indicators to guide decision making to serve the best interests of their students and school communities.

* Participants will learn to develop goals and to design interventions based on an analysis of the data provided by College Board to their school.

* Participants will develop strategies and review key components for student and teacher recruitment, leadership, training, and Pre-AP(r) and AP professional development.

* Participants will assess the requirements for developing and sustaining a college-going culture that will encourage and sustain open and equal access and learn to identify barriers and challenges that emerge.

* Participants will learn to analyze AP score data effectively. Analyzing AP score data can help administrators understand their students’ performance on the AP Exams and chart overall progress toward school and district goals.

Teacher Bio:

Debbee Reynolds has been an educator and administrator for over 33 years. She joined the staff of Advanced Placement Strategies in 2002 and is a Program Director for numerous APIP district programs as well the Director of Advanced Academics for all APS schools. Her responsibilities include the implementation, administration, and management of Advanced Placement Incentive Programs in English, Math, and Science in Texas public schools. Prior to joining APS Debbee was the Southlake Carroll ISD Guidance and Counseling director. During her years of public school service Debbee served as a teacher, academic and counseling administrator, and district testing administrator in grades K-12. She has extensive experience as a organizer, trainer and presenter for administrators and counselors at numerous professional conferences and workshops including College Board, the Association of College Admission Counselors, AdvanceNOLA, and NMSI affiliates. Debbee is a reader for various national scholarship programs including Dell Scholars.