As teachers, we may teach the same content repeatedly for years. But we can not always use the same teaching method; standing still can’t lead to progress, changing for the better. We need to keep on changing and trying during our teaching, especially for the updating AP courses.

This past school year was the first year that I officially taught AP Physics B. I’m glad that all my first students got a good score in the past AP Physics B exam. Now, half of the new school year has gone, I’m about to prepare a new upcoming AP Physics B exam. The content was more familiar to me, but I’ve got a new student body. Advanced Physics moved at a lightening pace with no review of topics previously covered in Pre-AP Physics. AP Physics B course covers all topics that are part of the curriculum, even those covered in previous physics classes. This allows students that have previously taken Pre-AP Physics to be successful in the class. I was pleased that most of my AP Physics B students grasp Pre-AP Physics well which they taken in the previous year. But they still need to learn more and work hard in order to get a good score in the AP exam, because we need to cover so many contents over a very short period of time. That will be a challenge both for the teacher and students.

I tried several new ideas in AP Physics B. One significant change was providing one or two quizzes for each unit. Feedback from students and insights by other physics teachers to a previous post helped me to realize students needed additional formative assessments in order to accurate measure their understanding of the current unit. In the past few years, I scored and graded the student’s homework and quizzes all by myself. But I found that this will make the students have no idea about the AP physics scoring standard, thus they can not try to get a higher score with the same academic level. Now I’m trying to ask the students to grade these quizzes in class, which provided insight into how AP problems were scored, and copies of solutions were immediately distributed. Often, I would collect the scored exams to flip through them and note which students were struggling and which concepts needed additional class time. I believe these quizzes worked well since they provided students with a clear and immediate feedback as to whether their level of understanding was where it should be well before the unit exam. As a result, fewer students needed to take advantage of reassessment opportunities after unit exams in AP Physics B than in Pre-AP Physics.

I’ve also heard a proved successful class activity called peer instruction. I’m still learning the operation techniques, combining peer discussion with instructor explanation will increase student learning from in-class concept questions and maximize the effectiveness. All questions selected were conceptual. I found that conceptual questions lead to more lively discussions among students and, historically, my students have struggled more with conceptual questions than quantitative problem solving questions. Once I have enough time, I used peer instruction in my class. I was very pleased with the level of student engagement, discussion, and debate during these peer instruction activities. I will try to use more peer instruction next year.

Despite the mixed success, I’m going to continue exploring new methods for my AP Physics teaching. I may spend more time on making my power points, because my students really relay on them both during the class and after class. They can copy them as study guides or review outlines. Also I will collect some useful learning materials through various means so that the students can learn more besides the textbook.

Looking ahead to the upcoming semester, I’m going to keep on trying my new methods on teaching. In addition, we are going to make major changes to AP Physics B in the 2014-2015 school year, because College Board will divide AP Physics B into two full-year AP courses: AP Physics 1 and 2. Next summer, I’ll restructure AP Physics B into the two new AP Physics courses; till then I’ll make more major changes. Changing makes me a better teacher.

Bonnie