Hi Loyal Readers. First, a note about the photo. When I sign up to read APs each year, the College Board makes me promise not to take photos of the reading itself. The photo above, I hope, provides no secret information about what's behind the curtains (which is about a thousand college and high school English teachers reading pink booklets in which students each wrote three essays a month earlier) but does give you a sense of the scale of the rooms where we read. And now back to my regularly scheduled blog post.
Each year, for almost a dozen years, I've spent a week away from my family reading APs from students I didn't teach and don't know. This year, when the College Board sent me an invitation to read for the Capstone Diploma Program instead of asking me to my usual AP English Literature and Composition reading, I spent some time thinking about why I read APs.
Here's what I came up with. My favorite thing, by far, about reading APs is getting to see my AP reader friends. In my first year at the reading, I went to some of the evening College Board events. There, I met teachers from West Hartford (I know that's only an hour from my house, but I've never seen this friend except at the AP reading), Colorado, California, and Oklahoma. I've also gotten to spend time with friends who used to work at Hotchkiss, but left here many years ago. I've loved getting to hang out with these clever, fun people I don't see during the other fifty-one weeks of the year.
Second, I like living the hotel life for a week. All of the daily responsibilities of cleaning up dishes, doing laundry, walking the dog–things I actually don't mind doing–disappear for a week. I spend a week not having to be a real adult.
Third, the first few days of the reading provide wonderful professional development. Getting to read so many (Most years, I read over 1400 essays.) students' responses to the same prompt helps clarify what kinds of mistakes in thinking kids are likely to make. In reading versions of the same answer over and over, I often come up with clear ideas about how to approach helping students learn to write a coherent thesis statement, to structure an introduction, to edit for mistakes that teachers detest.
Fourth, we get paid. Honestly, the College Board doesn't pay enough that if I didn't have one through three above I'd still go, but the money isn't anything to sneeze at either. This year, I'm planning to use it to by stools for the cabin in Maine.
Fifth, I get to visit some places I'd be unlikely to go. For my first many years, we were in Louisville, KY. For the past two years, we read in Kansas City, where I got to hang out with one of my favorite people and her terrific family, whom I haven't lived near in twenty-two years. This year, we're going to Salt Lake City, which has some delicious restaurants I'm eager to visit. Plus, I've never been in the Tabernacle, which I've heard is amazeballs.
That's the whole list. And of course, there are some items in the minus column, too, but I don't focus on them. I try to forget how days four, five, and six of the reading can feel if I'm on Q1 (a poem) in a year when the poem is difficult or Q2 (a prose passage) when the College Board used a passage with old-time character names. I also need to block out how much I miss my family on those last few days. This year, while I'm there, I'll be collecting fifty-five exams, writing fifty-five comments, and trying to complete the work for my two online classes and online internship. But those are all Later Carita's problems.
For today, I chose to think about the time with friends, time without adult responsibility, professional development, pay, good food, and fun sights to visit. For today, I chose to enjoy reading APs.
What activities do you do that some people question or wonder why you would? Please feel free to leave a comment.