AP Calculus 1 Reflection

I am about to go to the shore to enjoy my first day off of the school year, but I wanted to write about my calculus 1 class that took their AP test yesterday before I left. This was a very different group than I have taught since I started teaching calculus in 2009. When I started teaching calculus, the class was full of all the top seniors and a couple of juniors. As block scheduling rolled through, more juniors took the course, but it was still usually senior heavy. A couple years ago I started teaching advanced algebra 2 which is a mostly sophomore class. I identified the top performing students and pushed them to take calculus as a junior so they could take the newly added calculus 2 course as a senior. I did not push last year's AA2 class as much, because I thought I pushed some kids too hard the year before and they really didn't want to be in calculus, but took it because I told them to. This was all a very wordy way of saying that this year's calculus 1 class didn't have as many seniors, because they took it as juniors, and not as many juniors, because I didn't push as many to take it. On paper, this was the "weakest" group of calculus 1 students I have ever taught.

The word "weak" is a poor choice to use when describing this group, but relative to the other classes I've taught, it is somewhat accurate. Also relative to the other classes I've taught, this class is extremely hard-working and determined. Their grades didn't look great at the start of the course, but they didn't get discouraged and kept working hard. This group did everything I asked them to do and almost never complained about it, at least not to me. I had a full classroom of students studying over spring break, more calculus students than homeroom students every morning, and the highest percentage of AP prep session attendance I've ever had. These kids were doing calculus every chance they got, whether it was on a field trip, between school and play practice, or if they were able to leave another class/study hall/lunch to come in my room and practice. This is the main reason I barely slept the past week, because I know that if any one of these kids doesn't get the score they want on the AP test, it is my fault, not theirs.

The success that our students have had on the AP Calculus exam has been both great and bad in a way. I am clearly very proud of everyone of my students that do well, as their names are permanently displayed on my classroom wall. Unfortunately, the success of past students sometimes gives current students the idea that it is easy to do well on the exam and that showing up to class and doing the homework will get them a score of a 4 or 5 in May. Very few people see the amount of work every student on that wall had to put in to get there. The amount of work from student to student varies greatly, but the one thing that is the same is that all of them worked harder than they ever had before in a math class, and many times, in any class.

A lot of students get scared away from taking calculus at Millville when they see their friends working so hard. It is so much easier to take different classes and boost your GPA than to put in that amount of effort for a whole semester. Unfortunately, for those that don't take the class, they are missing out on more than calculus. These students have learned so much about themselves and what they can accomplish with hard work. I may have failed a few of them with respect to them getting a 5 on the AP exam, but they can walk away from this class knowing that they took one of the hardest classes we offer, and walked out strong. No matter what any of these kids scored on the AP test (and I really believe most of them got fives), I am proud of every one of them. I have pretty high expectations for all of my students, but this group blew away my expectations. I can't wait until July 6th to see how well they did yesterday!