Sorry folks. We had spring break wicked early and then it was back to the grindstone in serious fashion to get the kids ready for AIMS. This, for the uninitiated, is the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards test. In other words, for parents, students and teachers, it is known as Hell Week.
Teachers diligently, lovingly, forcefully or by some other measure, try to prepare their students for this test. What is sad is this; far more hangs in the balance for the schools and the teachers than for the students when it comes to this test. Unless that student is in high school and has any hopes of graduating; if that is the case, the poor kid really DOES need to pass AIMS. Without those passing marks, sorry dude - no diploma for you!
One of the problems we, as teachers, encounter, however, is the thoroughness with which we prepare our young, impressionable students. We do a bang up job of teaching them that everything they need, their complete and total Raison D'ètre, is to take AIMS and do well on AIMS. We do this so well, in fact, that as soon as the test is over, our classes turn to us, bewilderment and puzzlement on their faces, as if to say, "But we took the test. Certainly you have nothing left for us to DO this year??"
Oh, my deepest apologies, my dear, youthful mind... we still have 7 weeks of school left. We have scads and scads to teach you.
If only we'd not done quite so well making you believe the be-all and end-all for in your career in education *until you go off and find something that actually PAYS you well* is this stupid test.
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