Special Press Release
East Institutes has announced that its Advanced Placement Summer Institute (APSI) events in 2020 at Grand Blanc, Grandville and Champaign, Illinois have been approved by The College Board to be delivered completely online for this year only.
This move is in response to the nation’s ongoing status during the COVID-19 pandemic.
East Institutes will be working with guidance from Michigan Virtual to provide training in distance learning best practices for its consultants that will offer valuable support to AP teachers in the Midwest and beyond.
“Our national crisis has not diminished the fact that AP teacher training is an important component of student success in AP classes,” said Mike Hobolth, director of East Institutes. “APSI remains at least as important as a professional development opportunity as ever. We are grateful to The College Board for offering us this way of getting this training to teachers.”
East Institutes will utilize Zoom as a videoconferencing tool and Google Classroom as a resource and instructional center during the five-day events.
“The events will be different from our face-to-face events,” said Hobolth. “We anticipate that, in a typical day, teachers will start and finish their day in a videoconferencing situation; the middle of the day will be devoted to small group and individual work under the guidance of consultants who are considered national experts in the AP courses that teachers are responsible to teach.”
APSI has been a sought-after professional development opportunity for AP teachers who are able to spend four to five days with a College Board consultant to be trained in instructional strategies specifically related to the AP course they are teaching. This year’s changes in APSI delivery might prove to be a help to teachers who are new to AP as well as teachers who are geographically distant from face-to-face APSIs.
“These online events will also be a chance for teachers who have been abruptly forced this spring to continue their AP courses online to consider some tools for teaching these courses in both face-to-face and online settings,” said Hobolth.
Grand Blanc will operate June 22-26, 2020; Grandville will run July 13-17, 2020; and the new Central Illinois APSI will operate July 27-31, 2020.
East Institutes has presented AP professional development since 2015. Hobolth, a former school administrator and College Board consultant, has directed APSIs in Michigan since 2008 at events which have trained over 4000 AP teachers. For more information, visit www.eastinstitutes.com.