Mr. Millner

Today, Wertsch was away for a CIS English teacher meeting. This meant that we need a sub, and who would be a better fit than the musical director, Mr. Millner (the theater kids call him Jason.) This is his first time subbing and he got a very easy job. Wertsch just left us with ethnographies in the computer lab, which left him with walking round the room and occasionally asking about how class works. The musical is in the the stage of tech week, otherwise known as hell week. If I feel tired, I imagine he is exhausted. We have to stay until 9:30 pm, but he has to fix light cues and sound cues, so he ends up staying much later.
   It is his first day on the job and I can relate because i am currently looking for a job. I never knew he was getting his teaching license until Wertsch told me that he was subbing for us last week. If he becomes a part of our district, i feel like he will have even more of an influence on theater. I wish I could say he is going to have more of an influence on me, but no offense to him, I just don't see him starting teaching here within the year. I will always try to come back for future shows and productions, but that is not something to worry about while I still have my own musical to worry about.

Unproductive morning turns into unproductive day

Today, the juniors and sophomores had to take a practice test for the ACT and so the seniors and the freshman got to come at 11:15 instead of the usual time of 7:40. Of course this would have been a great opportunity for me to work on my papers, but I ended up waking up at seven and laying in bed watching YouTube until nine. The night before, I stayed up late playing Team Fortress 2 and on twitter, and I hated being awaken by my natural body clock. Honestly, playing video games would have been more productive than doing what I did because then I would have at least been thinking about what I was doing. My morning was mindless and unproductive.
     Not only was my morning productive, but the rest of day is going to be unproductive simply because how tired I am.Right now i am supposed to be working on my research paper, but brain is just not functioning right and I know I would cut into two sentences of my notes and get sidetracked. I should have just stayed home today.
     However, this does give me a chance to talk about my research. My paper is on the shifts in attitudes towards cleaner energy. What really bothers me though is that I only find ideas and not actions. Sure, there is companies that enforce recycling or some have put up solar panels, but the only company that did have a significant "green" makeover was Hewlett-Packard. They cut way back on GHG emissions and reduced toxic materials in their products, but most other companies like Walmart put up solar panels simply because they had a lot of money and it is a good marketing device. I would like to think that companies would care about our future generations and not just saving money. I do like the fact that we are trying different forms of energy simply because I know that the scientists that came up with the ideas are still hard at work trying to improve our way of life.
    I bike to school almost every day not only because I don't have my license because of me not wanting to pay for insurance but also because it is good exercise and it saves a lot of gas. I do understand that cleaner energy does take a lot of time and money, but it pays off in the long run and it also fuels the scientific wonder of many people like me.

Wanting to learn.

In CIS English today, something strange was brought up when Wertsch was discussing the reason for him being gone on Monday. It was a class that all of the CIS English teachers were required to go to to discuss literature and other intelligent topics along the lines of our class. As Wertsch was completing the story, somebody in the class asked "Is it an actual class, like do you get credit for it?" It eventually came down to the class just being a requirement for him to be able to teach the class. What I want to get at though is why does a credit signify a class?  I despise the fact that everybody is worried about credits and grades when I just want to come to school to learn about things I don't know.
      I see our school focused on test scores and nothing else. This draws back to the fact that grades have become far to big of our education system. I always thought that a good way to put it is "education if forced, learning is voluntary." So many nights of mine have been spent cramming for a test that I have the next day, simply because if it is not interesting to me, I will not care to learn it. Yes, I will put it in my temporary memory so i can do well on the test, but that is not something i do for me. My parents want to see good grades, my teachers want to see good, colleges want to see good grades, but that doesn't change the fact that I want to learn. Its not just mindless learning, I enjoy learning about things that give me a better understanding of the world, such as: chemistry, physics, literature and math.
     Sometimes I wish colleges were not looking at ACT scores or grades and the process was open to people who wanted to learn. Everyone could take the exact courses that they wanted to take in order to shape their own futures after maybe taking a bunch of minor classes in high school. I understand that this cannot work in today's society were everything is not based on specialties or desires because of money and limited talent, but I just want people to think about what school would be like if you came at your own will with your desired classes as your schedule instead of a grade based education.

Ethics

     The one thing I can not ethically do is add people into my story that weren't there. However, I can and will tweak the relationship of me and the characters. This will make the story more believable and make the fake dialogue more interesting,therefore, making the story more interesting. Since my story is about my first video game I ever played I will probably change the game to make the story less about the game and more about the interactions and the emotions that go along with the story. I honestly have no problem lying a little for the sake of the storytelling because I really cant remember much of it. I only know what it felt like and how it changed me into what i am today.

Three Domains

1. Science/Technology
          The impact that this has had on my short life so far.
2. Music/theater
          The great and not so great experiences I have had in choir and musicals.
3. Grief/Loss
          The loss of my grandfather.