Two students walk into their AIM, and look at the daily calendar on the board. Both were planning on spending the period catching up on their math homework, but they see that they have a fire drill today. The students start complaining about how they won’t be able to finish their homework if they have to spend half the period outside. While this may be annoying at the moment, wouldn’t it be more annoying if this interrupted an actual class instead?

AIM was created to unify the school and be an academic period where students could have time built into their day to get extra help from their teachers.

Recently there were changes in AIM’s general rules. Students now must scan into any AIM that isn’t their assigned one using a QR code, and after the first five minutes they must stay where they are.

The committee that created AIM guaranteed students an extra period that most other schools in the area are jealous of, but it seems that many students have started taking the period for granted.

Before MCHS had AIM, they had a similar advisory period called, “teachers of West expanding relationships,” or Tower, which primarily focused on building relationships, and less on giving students academic time.

This goal that built Tower is also a part of the core purpose of AIM, but many students don’t take advantage of this enough.

“This year,” said Upper Campus Principal Greg Eiserman, “ … every student should be assigned a teacher they have during the day.”

All students are being given an extra opportunity to build their relationships with teachers and peers, but many students still spend the period on their phones instead. This is one reason why the phone policy was pushed so hard at the beginning of the year, but it hasn’t stopped students from ignoring this opportunity.

This is causing the initial purpose for creating an advisory period to be undermined because students aren’t taking advantage of the help being given to them.

But this is also happening when it comes to schoolwork.

With over 80 extracurriculars offered at MCHS, not to mention jobs that many students have outside of school, it can be hard to find time to do schoolwork. This is another reason why AIM became a standard period.

Years ago when students were initially asking for more time in the day to see their teachers for help, the school listened. But the current students, only being a quarter of the way through the school year, have already started using the period to do anything but schoolwork. This wouldn’t be an issue if students weren’t also complaining about their AIM time being cut short.

The main complaint from students this year has been that the no movement days for AIM are making it harder for them to get their work done.

Part of creating AIM was to give staff and students a built in period to have drills, meetings or anything else that would otherwise interrupt class. If there wasn’t a designated time in the day to do these things, then it would be even more in the way of students doing their work.

Without AIM, there wouldn’t be a choice but to interrupt an actual class period, which throws off the schedule a lot more than having a couple no movement days in AIM since it would cut one random class period short for the entire school.

A lot of students are upset because they feel that their only work time in the day is being continuously interrupted, but then many use the time to slack off. They can’t have it both ways.

If students want more time to work, then they should be utilizing the time that they already have. Instead of being on their phones or clicking through random tabs for 35 minutes, they could be using that time to get the work done that they need to, so the next time there is a fire drill they won’t be as impacted.

AIM was created to help everyone, both staff and students, and even though it may not feel like it, AIM is much more valuable to students than they may realize. They just need to start using it.