More than 200 teachers from Mississippi and surrounding states are expected to participate in the 26th annual Advanced Placement Summer Institute July 12-17 at Millsaps College.
Richard Smith, senior vice president and dean of the college, said the Millsaps AP Institute trains not only teachers but boosts the state’s educational system.
“Over the past decade, the institute has trained hundreds of high school teachers to offer AP courses, which in turn has significantly strengthened the curricula in dozens of school districts,” he said. “As a result, thousands of high school students have been challenged to perform at their highest levels and have entered college far more prepared to excel than they would have otherwise.”
The AP Institute at Millsaps is the largest in the state and endorsed by the College Board. The Millsaps College Department of Continuing Education administers the program and has been helping AP teachers and pre-AP teachers hone their teaching skills and content knowledge since 1983.
The objective of this institute is to prepare high school teachers to teach college credit courses at the high school level. Curriculum development, the formulation for objective and subjective examinations and the selection of textbooks and other resource material will be discussed and new teaching methods will be demonstrated, said Nola Gibson, director of the AP Institute and director of Continuing Education at Millsaps.
Training sessions are offered in 11 subject areas and are led by College Board-endorsed consultants. The lineup includes biology, calculus, chemistry, economics, English language and composition, English literature, environmental science, U.S. government and politics, U.S. history and world history.
This is the first year a workshop in environmental science will be offered and participants will do their water experiments at Mayes Lake, a component of LeFleur’s Bluff State Park. Also unique to Millsaps’ program is a special presentation by Eudora Welty biographer and Millsaps professor Suzanne Marrs to each of the English workshops.
“Year after year, we see these teachers become very excited and inspired by what they learn at these AP Institute workshops,” said Nola Gibson. “The teachers who lead the workshops go through years of preparation for the AP exams in order to become certified to conduct these workshops. They are truly master teachers.”
