The Wagner Deal

As of tomorrow, it will be my last day in first period band. And am I happy. However, this goes with a sad song. I will have to leave second period Video Productions to make room for second period band. Wasn’t my first choice. I was forced into the decision.

This shows that you can stand up to the third reich. I was able to tell him what I was going to do, rather than what he wanted me to do. Maybe next time he will show me some respect. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read back a few posts.

So, don’t freak out when you see me in band Wednesday.

Wagner’s Plead – He Really, Really Wants Me

In the past post, Wagner’s Plead, I asked whether I should give into his demands, and transfer into Wind Ensemble or say no. I decided to go with no, and not two day into the semester was I fed up with his new regime. His plan was to make the small class even smaller. We were to be separated into sections and practice on our own, leaving him to do whatever he does.

I made an appointment with my counselor to discuss dropping band altogether as it is fairly useless for me to take anyways. Besides, I have more fun in video productions making fun of Tom and his movie Time Walker. So there I am, sitting alone in that damn cold office. I get called to talk to the counselor and she greatly rejects the idea of me dropping. Why? I have no idea, she wouldn’t tell me. So I do my thing and pull out the handy voice recorder and press record, making sure she saw it.

Me: Listen, I am not going to first period anymore.
Her: Yes you are.
Me: Uhm, no. You can change my schedule and do it the way I want, or I will solve the problem myself by not going.
Her: Well, why is it that you hate band?
Me: I don’t hate it, I just don’t agree with the teaching of Wagner. In addition, I find it silly to switch instruments half way through the year.
Her: Well, I see your point. How about this: I will email Mr. Wagner and tell him your disposition. I will instruct him that you will be talking to him today.
Me: Fine.

I leave and continue my day. Just as it happens, I pass Wagner on my way to lunch and he says in the tone no one wants to hear “I need to speak to you in my office.”

To his office I went after eating my food, and taking my time. I told him why I was there. But you could see that he already knew. In fact, he looked as if he was about to cry. Here is how it went down.

Me: Hey, my counselor told me to talk to you concerning me dropping band.
Wagz: Tell me why you want out? (Editorial: Sounds like it’s a camp I was forced into.)
Me: I feel it is a waste of time in first period as I learn nothing new.
Wagz: Why didn’t you accept my offer to join second Wind Ensemble?
Me: I don’t want to play another instrument half way through the year!
Wagz: I really don’t want to lose you. That would be bad. Very bad. It wouldn’t look good leaving the department half way through your senior year.
Me: I really don’t care…
Wagz: How about you come to Wind Ensemble?
Me: I’m not learning a new instrument.
Wagz: Ok, would you consider it if you played the trumpet?
Me: I don’t know, maybe.
Wagz: Well, talk to your counselor to see if that can happen.
Me: Sure thing *wispers* Hitler

Now, what was bad about that whole ordeal was trying not to laugh. Not only was a half scared to death that he was going to kill me, but the look and sound of him desperately trying to keep me in the department was one hard to keep to ones self. So now I am in a pickle. I can accept his offer or simple say no.

What I find funny mostly about this whole thing is I suspect many people don’t tell him no. This gives him great shock when someone stands up to him. I’m leaning to the side of rejecting his second offer to prove my point. If it wasn’t for him trying to undermine me, I may consider his offer, but as of now, I really have no incentive to even play for him. Don’t get me wrong though, he is a great music teacher. He just needs to refine his teaching a little more. That last stunt of him separating the band was a complete failure and you can see now how he is trying to undo it.

Why Cramming For Finals Is Bad

Let’s face it: you’ve slacked off all semester and it’s now finals time. Don’t open that book just yet, you may just be wasting your time. I will attempt to explain before it’s too late.

First, I would like to evaluate the reason we are forced to sit in an often crowded class for an endless amounts of time. We are forced into this because it is supposed to be the time when we learn new ideas, theories, concepts, procedures, et cetera. School is not about wasting time and ignoring the teacher. As bad or boring as the class may be, paying attention will ultimately save you much time in the long run.

In my case at least, studying before a major or even minor test actually hindered my test scores more than it helped. I have found out that simply doing the work in class is more than enough to familiarize yourself with everything you need to know for the finals and other assorted tests along the way.

Tests are not made to be a test of how much you can remember for one day, they are designed to test how much of the information you stored in your brain over a long period of time. This is why most finals focus mostly on material covered in the beginning of the semester.

To whom benefits if you know the information for one day? If you forget the information soon after then you really just wasted your time and probably would have been better off taking a different course.

I have only studied a few times my entire time at school. I don’t worry about a test the next day. If I don’t know the material, then I don’t know it. I’m not going to waste my time and cram the information to try and mislead the teacher into believing I know it. If anything, it’s better to get wrong what you don’t know. It lets the teacher know what they did right. How else would they know if no one told or showed them?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for doing extra work spread over a long time. You will better retain that information. I all the time read up on past subjects on Wikipedia. It’s much fun to learn more than the teacher taught.

One last reason cramming is bad: it adds too much stress to your life. That is the last thing you need when trying to memorize information. You will almost certainly forget the information as you doze off hours before class starts.

Wagner’s Plead – He Really Wants Me

So, I got the main today, and nothing out of the ordinary really. Bills, bills, more bills, aol cd, bills, lost children, renew your domain name now!, bill, to the parents of: Troy, bills.

Ok, you get my point, nothing special. I was expecting a letter from Wagner to move me into the place I belong, but I wasn’t expecting it to be a plead. So, why make you wonder what the letter says!

TO: Parent(s) of Troy … (Edited because I don’t like having my full name here :p )
FROM: Bill Wagner

RE: Moving up to Wind Ensemble – 2nd period

Due to the improvements (if you want to call sitting waiting for the other players to match the talent of Scott  and I) that Troy has shown during Concert Band and his level of commitment (I hope he knows marching band is over…), I would like to offer (bribe) him the opportunity to move up to the Wind Ensemble 2nd period (Save me from the hells of Friedman’s class). Because of the nature of the Wind Ensemble (Because I don’t practice), I would need Troy to play the school-owned euphonium (Because no one else will? I thought I already told you no!). The parts are exactly like playing trumpet (except not), just an octave lower (I knew there was a catch). I know he would do well (would? does he already know what my answer will be?) and I hope he welcomes this new challenge (if it’s like playing a trumpet, then where’s the challenge?).

This change would greatly benefit his playing (You mean your band) and also require a change of class challenge (no, not really. Video Productions is first period). This can only be done through the counseling office. I have sent them a copy of this letter (and they probably just filed it away…).

So, congratulations (thanks?) and I hope you will contact your counselor right away (I would, but I hear they bite) to schedule an appointment (during break?) to work Wind Ensemble into Troy’s schedule for second semester.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

(Scribble of signature)
Bill Wagner
Music Director (Dictator)

cc: NHS Counseling Department

So, what do you think? Should I take him up on this offer?

Lots of New Updates

It’s been a week, I think, since my last post, and to prove that I am still around, I am posting some updates. Wii!

To start, I am going to name the biggest and most important update of the week. I have spent a good four days working out the best way to create a user friendly navigation system for OjaiCMS. I bring to you, the first public demo of the system. When you click on a menu item, sub choices will appear. Everything is loaded in the background using AJAX (just like Gmail). The breadcrumb under the header also updates live. There are some bugs, but those will be fixed shortly.

Second on the list if the awesome concert put on my some group from Niger. Pictures from the event are in my gallery (they are the last ones in the set).

To really kick off the last week of school, I had to go to my last high school football game, and was the drive a pain. Took us nearly four and a half hours to get there, but only two hours to come back. Not only was the ride long, but the bus driver kept the lights on, forcing us to stay awake.

The rest of my week was all personal business that is personal? Special update to come in a few days

A school First? Quite Possibly

Here’s the scoop. Last night I sent Nick a message telling him to learn some basic sign language. We both agreed that we would not speak one word in our first class of the day, which just happens to be video productions. Our main goal was to get the teacher mad without doing anything wrong. I will not say the teachers full name, besides it being Tom and ending in Friedman. So as the day goes, we confused him as to why we were not talking. He asked us to go to the art room and find out when it would be a good time to film a PSA (public service announcement). We get back with the news that we should come back in a week. We still were only using our hands to communicate.

Only a few minutes later, Mr. Tom decided to ask us a bunch of questions; for some reason our responses got his mad. Lets say he snapped. He told us we had to speak, or he would send us to the office. OH NOES!!! NOT the Office! I fear the office! So, without saying a word, Nick and myself stand up and go to the office. At the office, I think they were confused why we were sent there for not talking, especially being two people rather than one. I can see one person going to the office for not doing anything, but a combined effort by two people?

After being treated very nice in the office, we went back to class. All in all, I think this was a first for the school. I highly suggest anyone else in video productions to use the sign language approach just to get him mad. He seems to have a prejudice against people who can’t talk. Which I might add, being kicked out of class for not talking is considered illegal. In fact, if I wanted to, I could file a lawsuit of discrimination and at worst have his teaching credentials removed. But why would I do that? I have so much fun in his class.