Changing job description....

[cougarfreak]

I've taught AP Human Geography for three years at the high school I am teaching at. I just got the call up to the "big leagues". Both AP US History and AP US Government are on my plate, on a permanent basis. I'm dropping the Geography. Going to be a busy year!

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

I've taught AP Human Geography for three years at the high school I am teaching at. I just got the call up to the "big leagues". Both AP US History and AP US Government are on my plate, on a permanent basis. I'm dropping the Geography. Going to be a busy year!

congrats! not sure what teaching "human geography" entails but sounds pretty illegal.

[tucking fypo]

^Health class, perhaps.

Anyway, I teach AP US Government and AP Macroeconomics. It is nice to have really motivated students but, on the other hand, being the higher level students in most of their classes gives some a license to argue every single wrong answer they give on a big unit test.

But I do enjoy the challenge of teaching AP. Good luck.

[tyketime]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

congrats! not sure what teaching "human geography" entails but sounds pretty illegal.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by tucking fypo

^Health class, perhaps.

Anyway, I teach AP US Government and AP Macroeconomics. It is nice to have really motivated students but, on the other hand, being the higher level students in most of their classes gives some a license to argue every single wrong answer they give on a big unit test.

But I do enjoy the challenge of teaching AP. Good luck.

You would have HATED me. I always seemed to get the lazy teachers that would ask a true/false question, I'd answer "false", they'd mark it wrong, I'd give a counter example that showed it wasn't always true, and they'd say that was a minor / not often example so the answer they wanted was true. Well, don't put "always" in the question then!

Or the ones that would ask a question, I'd answer, only to discover later that they didn't want me to answer the question itself, but rather write an essay on the topic the question happened to be about. Well, say that in the question then!

On the other hand, I had a great Honors Arts & Literature professor as a freshman in college who did a great job of beating entitlement out of a lot of students. He'd get all these kids that had been getting A's all their lives who couldn't fathom how any work they did was ever worthy of less than an A. But he told everyone up front that if they couldn't spell or use proper grammar, he'd mark them off as it made their work harder to read. Those were fun battles between him and those kids, but he spelled out what he wanted upfront and told you exactly what you did wrong and I always respected him for that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

congrats! not sure what teaching "human geography" entails but sounds pretty illegal.

If I'm not mistaken, "human geography" is more about people, cultures, etc than about physical geography. The study is organized geographically but it's more about population characteristics than it is about land mass characteristics (although I think how the latter shapes the former is included in there somewhere).

Far from a definitive answer but I'm kinda hoping that cougarfreak will correct where I'm wrong & then I'll have a more accurate answer for future use

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

If I'm not mistaken, "human geography" is more about people, cultures, etc than about physical geography. The study is organized geographically but it's more about population characteristics than it is about land mass characteristics (although I think how the latter shapes the former is included in there somewhere).

Far from a definitive answer but I'm kinda hoping that cougarfreak will correct where I'm wrong & then I'll have a more accurate answer for future use

Pretty much. It's about map interpretation, and how humans organize space. It includes units on population, culture, religion, political geography, economics, migration, language, urban geography, development, industry, agriculture, and environment. It's taught to freshman in high school, and they can earn 3 hours of college credit. U.S. is taught to jrs, and they can earn six hours of credit, U.S. Government is taught to srs., and they can earn three hours of credit.

[tucking fypo]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

You would have HATED me. I always seemed to get the lazy teachers that would ask a true/false question, I'd answer "false", they'd mark it wrong, I'd give a counter example that showed it wasn't always true, and they'd say that was a minor / not often example so the answer they wanted was true. Well, don't put "always" in the question then!

Or the ones that would ask a question, I'd answer, only to discover later that they didn't want me to answer the question itself, but rather write an essay on the topic the question happened to be about. Well, say that in the question then!

On the other hand, I had a great Honors Arts & Literature professor as a freshman in college who did a great job of beating entitlement out of a lot of students. He'd get all these kids that had been getting A's all their lives who couldn't fathom how any work they did was ever worthy of less than an A. But he told everyone up front that if they couldn't spell or use proper grammar, he'd mark them off as it made their work harder to read. Those were fun battles between him and those kids, but he spelled out what he wanted upfront and told you exactly what you did wrong and I always respected him for that.

That's why I don't dig true/false questions.

I actually had a parent of an AP student this past year who couldn't fathom "how on God's green earth" I could count off for "such inconsequential things as punctuation and grammar" on their essays. Then I showed a paper the student had done a few days before. The parent actually replied, "Jesus Christ, what is this?" So I'm big on that also.

[terpkristin]

Is it sad that I didn't know there was an AP Human Geography, AP US History, and AP US Government? Admittedly, my school didn't have a large AP program.

Anyway, sounds like you're stoked for the change, and it sounds pretty spiffy, so congrats! Personally, I'm amazed anybody has the patience to work with high schoolers. I know what I was like in HS after all...

/tk

[cougarfreak]

Yeah, in Social Studies, we also offer AP European History, and AP Psychology. And I'm very stoked.

[tucking fypo]

How big is your school, cougar? We are a 4A school with about 660 in 9-12. In social studies, we offer AP World, AP US, AP US Government, and AP Macro. We were looking to get AP Human Geography this year but I don't think it's happening.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by tucking fypo

How big is your school, cougar? We are a 4A school with about 660 in 9-12. In social studies, we offer AP World, AP US, AP US Government, and AP Macro. We were looking to get AP Human Geography this year but I don't think it's happening.

We have about 1300 kids. If you do get it, let me know. I've got tons of stuff for it I can send you, and my kids had really good success on the test. It's a great "entry" AP course, it does a good job of showing kids what to expect in the higher level ones.