Walking into Ms. Heidi McPhillips’ classroom, there is a painted map on the wall and an arrow that says, “Where we are!”. A timeline lines the wall with dates, and there are two white boards in the front on either side of the Promethean board with a place to put phones. This is McPhillips’ Intro to AP World History class in the 300s Hallway at Woodgrove High School.
At Woodgrove, the Intro to AP World History course is taught by McPhillips and Ms Ashley Valasek. In the class, McPhillips and Valasek teach about the past up to the 1500s and other useful skills to prepare for future AP classes. “I think Intro to AP World History is important because it gives sort of an honors introduction perspective,” Valasek commented.
In this class, the main topics that McPhillips and Valasek teach are “everything before 1500, across the world, so Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia, Byzantine Empire, Classical India, China, and early Islam; Comparing all the monotheistic religions; Japan and Europe in the middle ages. But also just comparing and analyzing them and how their relationship impacted their environment and how it impacted their history,” McPhillips stated. Valasek also mentioned, “We start in prehistory, and we go up to the 1500s, so we talk about Prehistoric times. We talk about the River Valleys, we talk about Greece, Rome, all the way up to the Renaissance, where we cover religions along the way too, so we cover a lot.”
The main skills that are taught in this class are how to write good and efficient notes on your own, because that’s a big part of the AP class structure, different study tactics, besides just re-reading your notes, and how to answer questions in a good and effective way. Some of the skills that the teachers like to focus on are note taking, critical thinking, and studying and writing skills. “We work on how to get to the point, but also to use documents and how to cite things and how to set up their paragraphs to be successful,” Valasek emphasized. In this class, most of the time is spent taking notes in a workbook that they give out at the beginning of the year to all of the students. Bree Mohler, a freshman in McPhillips class, commented on her most difficult part of the class. She said, “Definitely the note taking. It’s such a culture shock.”
After Intro to AP World History, there are a couple different courses that are offered to students hoping to continue in higher classes for history. In 11th grade, Dual Enrollment history classes are an option, which is what McPhillips recommends. “I would consider Dual Enrollment because it has stricter guidelines as far as there are no retakes and there is no grade floor. In college, it’s college credit, and colleges understand that those classes give you more real world experience for what colleges will be like,” she mentioned.
It is important to be able to study well, which will benefit you all through high school. Some of the ways to be more prepared for tests in the class are making index cards, highlighting notes, and having a study schedule so you do not have to cram. According to junior Emily Mole, one of the things that helped her the most was “just making index cards and then studying them and actually doing your work”. Another thing that Valasek shared is “learn how to study. Everyone studies differently. Some kids use notecards, some write their notes, some read the textbook, some read things online”.
As a freshman, McPhillips recommends focusing on “learning about yourself and how to be successful…also learning okay, this is frustrating, what else could I try?”