Teachers are the students at AP Institute

The air is filled with anticipation in Bill Pell’s classroom as his students eagerly awaited his performance of “Since There’s No Help,” a sonnet by Michael Drayton.

“Remember, I’m not an actor. I’m a high school English teacher,” he told the class before launching into his poem.

When he finished pacing around the room, raging one minute, meek the next, the class burst into applause.

“Literature is more than reading and writing. It is verbal and visual,” he told his students. “You have to find a way to make poetry accessible to your students. I like to do ‘poetry as performance.’¤”

Normally, a teacher would not tell his students how he engages them, but Pell’s students are different. They are all high school teachers taking part in the AP Institute, which is being held this week at The Community School of Naples.

The institute provides teachers with an overview of specific Advanced Placement courses, development of an AP curriculum and teaching strategies for AP classes. The institute offers classes in calculus, English literature and composition, human geography, world history and economics.

More than 100 public and private school teachers from around the country are attending the institute, which runs through today at The Community School of Naples.

Photo by Garrett Hubbard, Daily News

Yelissa Rivera, a mathematics teacher at Golden Gate High School, volunteers to solve a calculus problem on the front board while Ross Martin of Cypress Lake High School in Lee County jokes with the instructor that her answer is in fact correct during the Advance Placement Summer Institute held at The Community School of Naples on Tuesday. The weeklong session is designed to prepare teachers to instruct AP classes and help those who already are teaching to improve.

Between 1999 and 2005, there has been a 125 percent increase in the number of students taking the AP exams in Florida, according to a January report by the Florida Department of Education.

Martha Brady, director of district and school relations for the College Board Florida Partnership, spoke to the teachers Tuesday about how AP classes are becoming a necessary part of high school life.

“If a student does not have an AP or IB (International Baccalaureate) on their transcript, their chances of getting into the University of Florida is not good,” she said. “Honors classes are important, but they are not the same as AP.”

Brady urged the teachers to return to their schools and open the doors to the students with the potential who might not be the obvious choices for AP classes. She also urged them not to choose students for AP because they could get a 3, 4 or 5 on the exam, which are the grades predictive of college success.

“Don’t let other kids or teachers tell you or them that it is ‘too hard,’¤” she said. “It can be a challenge, but the standards do not change. The exams do not change. Let AP drive the school’s curriculum and raise the bar for all kids.”

Barron Collier High School teacher Pam Grabczynski will teach AP literature this fall, but she is no stranger to AP. She taught AP literature a few years ago.

“I taught it before we had the benefit of the workshop. It was very challenging,” she said. “I am really excited to be here. I have been with Mr. Pell a day and a half and it has been so valuable to me already.”

Pell, who teaches at Spartanburg High School in Spartanburg, S.C., said he hopes the teachers discover better ways to teach AP literature and composition.

“The idea is to share ideas and questions. The workshops are where we pick each other’s brains,” he said. “The students (in AP classes) are more developed, so we have to challenge their higher order of thinking.”

Colleen Blankenship, who teachers AP human geography in Gwinnett County, Ga., said she came to get validation of the classroom methods she had in place. She said she also liked the connection she felt to her fellow AP teachers.

“It is nice to hear the requirement standards for the state of Florida and compare them to Georgia,” she said.

Nichole Bighall will teach AP human geography for the first time at a Winter Springs high school this fall.

“I am looking for more information on how to teach AP and the direction I should be going in,” she said. “It’s been great. I’ve gotten a lot of good information.”

The teachers agree that AP classes present new challenges for teachers.

“There’s a little more pressure. The stakes are higher because of the exam and because you get credit for how well the students do on an exam,” said Kerry Burkley, a world history teacher at Palmetto Ridge High School.

Pell, who has taught AP for 30 years, had nothing but praise for the students attending the institute.

“They are very enthusiastic, very talented. You are not an AP teacher by accident. You earn it. We are blessed to be here,” he said.

Golden Gate High School English and drama teacher Margot Herman will not teach AP English next year, but came to the institute because she hopes to teach AP in the future.

“There are so many pieces of literature out there that it can be overwhelming to decide what to pull in beyond what is in the textbook,” she said. “It’s nice to be in an environment with other teachers to bounce around ideas.”