AIM this...
Because I'm not afraid for my blog to have an author. Here's what I posted on the Baltimore Sun's blog about our new AIM initiative...
I am an 18 year veteran of BCPS who is passionate about teaching. I love what I do which is probably why I have had several job offers in other counties and even other states. I have declined each one because I truly felt that I work for one of the best public school systems in America. I go to conferences in other states and am proud to say I teach in Baltimore County. But I must say that this new AIM initiative, and how it has been handled, has shaken my confidence.
I was introduced to AIM about 3 years ago and have even helped write the objectives and curriculum for AIM in my content area. I believe there is a place for AIM in Baltimore County. It is a useful tool (especially for new teachers) who need help making objectives behavioral and measurable. I have used it as a tool to guide my instruction; using the objectives like destination points on a road map. But when I spent part of my winter break playing around with the data reporting piece, I simply felt defeated. Asking teachers to report on each objective for every student for every course is excessive and ludicrous. I shook my head just trying to figure out where the time to do this will come from. Less time with my son? He already gets slighted. Less time planning and grading? There goes my meaningful, motivating, and rigorous instruction. My colleagues and I are already sleep deprived, stressed out and swimming upstream. I am certain that should AIM become a mandate as is, I will seriously consider finding another school system with which to share my talents.
I look forward to the day when this is all behind us. I want to get back to worrying about how I am going to get Joey (and my other 124 students) motivated to read, write and question, instead of trying to figure out how I'm going to assess and track their progress for 100+ behavioral objectives. Oh wait - don't I already do that with AssessTrax?
Dr. Hairston, Dr. Desmond and our area superintendents must take our time constraints seriously and understand that this new mandate is simply asking too much of teachers. And that is coming from a teacher who isn't in the faculty lounge complaining about her profession every day.
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