In Kansas City Now...

It's been three long years in the wilderness, but the AP Physics readers are finally gathered in Kansas City.  We have 500(!) readers now - when I started in 1999, there were 79.  Point is, I don't see everyone every day!  If you're here and want to say hi, you can find me in the Loews lobby most nights after dinner; or Edna and I are grading the P1 non-operational exams in the room by the snacks.

Because I'm not on the operational exam this year, I can't discuss my particular questions or their rubrics.  But if you'll sign up for an AP Summer institute - the June 27-30 online institute through PWISTA has plenty of available spaces! - I'll talk you through the P1 rubrics this year, or any year.

I'm more and more able to articulate why I love the reading so much, other than the obvious professional development benefits.  Or maybe not obvious: The reason I can grade papers 5-10 times as fast as my colleagues at school is precisely because I've done so many years of boot camp at the AP reading.  We all learn something new to bring back to our classrooms.  After just a few days I already have ideas percolating.

The real reason I keep coming back is about culture and community.  So many places I've been - including jobs, including college and high school and middle school - have been full of people with social or professional agendas.  I've never, ever felt part of a wider community, never felt like I could sit at any lunch table and be truly and overtly welcomed.  

But here?  People know me.  They seek my input, and listen to it as I seek out and listen to theirs.  We argue about physics and rubrics, but disagreements don't lead to personal animosity.  Everyone here knows we are in a crucible together trying to grade all these 200,000 exams the right way, and we know the right way demands us being supportive, kind, and inclusive.  Importantly, those very few over the years who haven't done things the right way don't come back.  

The readers here are all very different.  They wear overalls, dresses, grungy t-shirts, dress shirts with slacks, yoga pants.  They speak with NPR-ready voices, and with thick drawls.  They teach at all sorts of universities and high schools.  It doesn't matter.  We all have a love of physics, and of physics teaching, in common.  We have a common goal of getting these exams graded (which gives everyone a point of idle conversation: not "what do you think about the thunderstorm last night," but "what problem are you on, and how's it going?").  

I'm thrilled to be back here.  I hope all you AP teachers out there will come join us at some point.  And I hope and wish that every community I am and will be part of could become as welcoming as this one.