Well, it's that time of year again: Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. TAKS. It's amazing how the word can mean one thing to a teacher and sound totally different to an accountant. Tax season strikes no fear in my heart. In fact, I love it because it promises cash back, home improvement opportunities, and the possibility to dream, for a month, of things we want to do with our newfound wealth (well, it's wealth to us). TAKS season, on the other hand, has a strange hold over me. This year it isn't so bad because I'm not teaching at an at-risk school anymore. However, my new school has its own stresses. Gone are my days of dreaded fourth grade writing, but this year I am teaching newly dreaded fifth grade material. This is the first year that Texas fifth graders are required to pass both Math and Reading TAKS to advance to sixth grade. In a school with only two fifth grade teachers, Erin (my teaching partner) and I feel a lot of pressure to see our students succeed. Even one student failing can hurt our school's ratings, not mention our reputations as relatively young, fresh teachers. Tomorrow we are each giving the Reading test to our class. The math test, my true stress, is April 4th, and the Science TAKS is at the end of April. I teach both sections of fifth grade math, and Erin teaches all of the Science. Fifth grade is the only elementary grade that tests Science, so Erin has to be sure to review years worth of information. The Math, equally challenging to teach, is mainly application and higher level thinking skills, and the kids are required to pass to move on. We both have our work cut out for us. And so do the kids. Who knew that eleven and twelve year-olds would be stressing over TAKS-es?