Freshmen @ MindSay 
school
Here in the band we're faced with a little bit of a dilemma...
This past week was homecoming. This involves a number of traditions in the band, including but not limited to:
1. The freshmen write a saying on the underside of the bills of their beanies, which is something that each freshman earns in band camp in the summer by learning our names and the history of the band. For example here's my class in our beanies our freshman year: picture
2. There are 4 concrete "blocks" leading up to the band hall. At homecoming the freshmen have to strip off the fifth year's block and replace it with their own, for example here is our block, freshly painted: picture
3. After the football game, we have a band party which is for the most part band only, with some alumni typically showing up as well. It's one of two parties during the year which is sort of "you're a loser if you don't show up", the other being right after the freshmen get their beanies.
Now, here's the dilemma part... one of the freshmen was recently suspended for the rest of the year and lost all of his scholarships because he was stupid enough to hack into the public computers and log people's login info just "because I could".
Despite this, he continues to follow us around... taking pictures of everything and more importantly butting his nose into everything that's going on. He overheard people talking about the homecoming party and randomly showed up. He overheard other freshmen talking about their beanie slogan and showed up when they were painting them on to paint his. He saw the names on the block and whined and complained that he couldn't sign it... something that the band directly specifically told the other freshmen not to allow.
And the worst part of it all... the part that REALLY bothered me... was when he pulled out his saxophone in the stands and started playing with us.
1. I do not want people seeing him with us, leading them to think we're okay with his behavior
2. I do not want him to think we're okay with his behavior and
3. I do not associate with felons.
Every single person I have talked to about it has said how uncomfortable they were with him being there. Some were angry, confused... no one was okay with it.
So the question is, how do you tell someone they're not welcome in the group that they are obsessing over without completely crushing them?
Lab is a huge pain in the butt at the moment. On monday we took a plastic see-through box and put this little volcano model in it. Then we filled it with red-colored water in increments of 1 cm, and drew contour lines on the clear lid of the box. That was allright, but then the teacher told us that we had a til friday to make our own model. Specifications: A) May not float in water B) May not dissolve in water C) Can't ruin the box (apparently some kinds of clay do this) D) May not have any overhang (will mess up contour lines) and E) must fill the entire box.
I wasn't entirely sure how to do this, and when kids in the class asked him what they should make it out of, he got all ticked off and said "I dunno guys, just DO somethin'!" So I went out into the shed with my dad and we went through some of his stuff. We found some interestingly-shaped concrete blocks that looked like they would give us some good contour lines, so we took some epoxy and glued them together. Took them in the next day, REJECTED. Apparently it had to fill the ENTIRE box, and I hadn't heard the overhang part which the rocks had.
I forgot to mention that he told us to bring it in to him to make sure it worked BEFORE lab on friday. He told us this wednesday.
Thursday is when I brought in the rocks. I went home that evening with some new specifications in mind, and my dad and I went back out into the workshop. He got a sudden idea and dumped out his trash bucket. There was a block of cement with some old grout on top of it, with barely any overhang and a little bigger than the last one. I had no other choice so I took it. Again, it seemed like it would give good contour lines.
I brought it in this morning, and set it in the box - only, it was too wide, by about 1 centimeter. I tried sort of chipping it off on the edge of my chair which didn't work. So now I was screwed. What was I supposed to do, measure the box and build something exactly that height and width? I guess that's what he wanted us to do, but I think he should've specified, because I just figured it had to fit in the box and be a good size for making contour lines.
I ended up just borrowing my lab partner's model - well, that's what I thought I was going to do, until his model started floating in the red dyed water after about 6 cm filled. We managed to finish his diagram so I just traced over his and made my lines slightly different. Heck, the science teacher doesn't know what it's supposed to look like because we make the models, not him.
I know it was partly cheating but I don't feel bad at all. It was partly the teacher's fault for not giving us ideas. I've gotten really mad at him lately, I think he's a terrible teacher. For one thing, he's really dry when he talks in his monotone voice, droning on about the mantle and the crust and the core. When you ask a question, his attitude is "you should know this by now, you figure it out" instead of helping you like he's paid to do. Maybe it's just his teaching technique. I understand how on a test he would feel like that, but in class when he's showing you things, I think he should help you when you need it. That's why everyone in the class does so horribly on tests, because they're too afraid to ask him and get yelled at. Then he yells at us more for doing badly on the test.
The whole lab thing is pissing me off, but I'll just have to deal. I just have this feeling that it's going to be hanging over me all year. There's a huge amount of pressure, as the teacher is very, very strict about format and order and everything. If you don't underline the right word or put the right page in the front, you get points off. It all seems ridiculus to me.
My dad said he got my midterm results. "How'd I do?" I ask. "Great! Except for one subject, I was really dissapointed in." This was a little weird, as it wasn't like my dad to talk this way to me. "Want to try to guess which one it is?" he said. "Oh and, by the way, you're wrong," he added before I'd even started. "Math?" I said. He shook his head. "Science? Spanish? Global? Gym?" Nope, nope, nope, nope. The only one left was..."orchestra?" He said yes. I started laughing my head off. It's really funny to me that I got a 79 in the subject that I'm best at, and better at it than 99.9% of the kids in there, but I still got points off because I missed a lesson or two. Ah well, I don't care. I almost missed my lesson again today though, because since it's on an irregular schedule (it cuts into your normal schedule) I never remember. I went to all my classes as usual, then in 4th period Spanish the phone rang on the wall. My teacher picked it up and said a few things including "right now?" and "I'll tell him." She made her way towards me as she was checking homework, and said "that was your dad, he says you have a lesson right now." Oh snap. I was ten or so minutes late, which isn't too bad, and the teacher didn't seem to care. I went to meet with my Spanish teacher after school to get my homework and look over my last day's.
The pep rally was pretty fun, but I couldn't hear anything over the constant screaming. It was fun, though, to jump up and down on the bleachers yelling "FRESHMEN! FRESHMEN! FRESHMEN!" in a chant with the rest of them. We were last place in most of the contests, like costume day and class color day, but that doesn't really matter to me.
Gotta go eat dinner now. There's more to write about, but I'll do it another time. Again, I'll post my midterm scores when I get them.
I thought it was just our section who will be in the gym...but it's not. There were I think 200 + IITians who were in the gym also for their first meeting in their PE class...Hmmm...infairness, there were a lot of "cutie" guys and "pretty" chics there! (including me...hehehe) ;o) But then, I was not satisfied to those cute guys 'cause I haven't seen my CRUSH! Yup! It's soooo saaaadddd..... =,( Hmmm....well, that's life...hehehe
Yeah! We had fun also when we we're in the gym in our attendance session....hehehe...My friend Marjorie was really terrified listing our names for those who want to transfer in Wed-7am-9am schedule...Of course, there were a lot of us who wanted to be on that schedule rather than the Wed-4pm-6pm time....BooOoRIinnggg....isn't it? Physical Education in that time???? Are you insane???hehehe...Hmmm...what else???Hmmm....no more!
PS:
add me on FRIENDSTER pls: shay_shay_ako@yahoo.com
on MYSPACE: shay_alexis101@eudoramail.com
tnx a lot! Muwah!
Head hurt
Need sleep
So cold
And want food
I wish I did miss that day of school a month ago, now I need to take all my finals. This sucks.
I still need to finish my math study guild, and art study guild, then study on a site here and look at my nots and vocab. for spanish, then tomorrow I need to bring my book and notebook of science home so I can study that. I'm not really worried about all my exams just Spanish, I want to at least get a good grade to get into spanish 2 but I'm already at that mark with a 74% and tomorrow I need to find my art folder to organise it to turn it in, its been lost so I need to find it. Then the art teacher is giving us 50 points to clean her room. So when everone else is out on Thursday I will have to go for a half a day to do exams.
I still can't believe my freshmen year is over on Thursday, its gone by so fast. I remember last year around this time, well it was turing the summer I was not looking forward to go to high school, and now freshmen year is over, it went by so fast.
Oh yeah I forgot to tell you all what so of my classes are next year, I'll list them:
College Prep Algebre II
English 10
Unidified Arts 10
Painting I
Drawing I
Sculpture I
Chior
College Prep Biology
Accounting
Gym
History 10
And I think thats it.
I still need to clean my room up a bit, I've been cleaning like crazy for the past week its kinda weird. And still need to write Cody, and eat supper if I feel like it. And I might read to night if I get to it. And I need to take a shower.
Hugs 'n' Kisses
Sarah
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