Mr. Petrizzo: How Does He Do It?

By Elyse Lengsavath

Published November 20, 2025

Mr. Petrizzo, another teacher at Northwest CTA, teaches AP U.S History and AP European History. While he is rather new at teaching AP History, he has been able to get many of his students to pass their AP tests. 

He shares what he believes are the three ways that allow you to be a successful AP history teacher. 

“The key to being a successful AP history teacher is making sure you have a good pace of instruction, the information is organized and laid out in a way that students understand the developments happening, and hitting upon key skills that are a necessity to scoring well,” Petrizzo said. 

Mr. Petrizzo elaborates on why he believes these strategies are effective. 

“There’s a lot of information, so emphasizing key points and using my three strategies builds a solid center that increases my ability to get students practicing and building the skills that they need on the AP tests,” Petrizzo elaborated.

He also believes that doing activities in his classes play a major role in his students’ success.

“Activities encourage students to think outside the box, and performing these tasks allows students to actually engage with the material,” Petrizzo informed.

However, Petrizzo can’t take all the credit for his students’ success. 

“The students put a lot of effort into their scores, and they have earned exactly what they got on their AP exams. It isn’t just me.”