I never intended to become a History teacher, but it turns out that this is what I love to do. I was an Administrative Assistant in the mid ’80s, and, although my opulent office overlooked Cafe Royale and Piccadilly Circus, I was a terrible Administrative Assistant. I returned to the United States and was given this incredible job at Tampa Prep, my alma mater (’81), in 1988. And here I am decades later and still loving it.When I chose Prep in 1978 as my high school in Tampa, I chose it because it did not appear to be a sausage machine — in one end and out the other as an identically wrapped and linked piece of offal. It is this celebration of the individual that I noted then that continues to make Tampa Prep the place for me. We have a wonderful new school with new toys, and yet Tampa Prep remains both a safe place to be an individual and a place where personal relationships between the students and faculty are forged. I was appointed to the Advanced Placement European History Curriculum Development Committee in 2013.
This committee transitioned to the Test Development Committee as of July 2014 when the new curriculum was finalized, and I am the co-chair of this committee. Our job now is to critique potential questions for the AP European History Exam. The work I have been doing with the College Board, ETS and seven colleagues from colleges and high schools around the country in crafting first a new curriculum and then a skills-driven assessment has been a remarkable professional experience.