Why is the clock so slow? I thought, as I sat in my first period class of eighth grade at Merton Intermediate. The last five minutes of social studies felt like forever as everyone was itching to get to our next class—science, with Mr. Wagner. 

Today wasn’t just any day of science, because today Mr. Wagner was going to play music on his record player. It was something I looked forward to every week in his class. The type of music he would play would always be a mystery until he pulled out a record cover. Is it rock, country or pop? He introduced me to a multitude of new genres which allowed me to become open-minded when listening to music. I had heard artists like Creedence Clearwater Revival and Bob Marley before but after listening to them in Mr. Wagner's class I looked at the music through a different lens. 

Mr. Wagner always kept me entertained and engaged no matter what subject we were learning. It was always exciting to enter his classroom and it didn’t matter if we were learning about water properties, the elements or climate. That's what made him such a good teacher, he was able to make class exciting by telling stories and relating them to science. It’s hard to keep the attention of Seventh and Eighth grade students, but that was no problem for Mr. Wagner because of how entertaining and engaging he was in class. 

Dealing with a bunch of seventh and eighth graders must have been difficult, especially knowing myself and my friends at the time. However, Mr. Wagner was always patient and kept us in check, especially in our last few weeks in class with him. I remember our last week at school, we were jokingly washing our hands 24/7 and pumping the hand sanitizer dispensers dry. Mr. Wagner just told us to “settle down,” and we started working on our robotics unit. 

I know Mr. Wagner definitely had practice with his patience knowing that he was also a father, something that definitely translated in the classroom. Mr. Wagner was always looking out for his students and created one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. 

Unfortunately, that year got cut short due to covid and so did my time learning in class with Mr. Wagner. Mr. Wagner was the person who jolted excitement into my day from 7th grade to my last day in school as an eighth grader. I loved going to his class everyday and now I feel like I missed out on a full quarter of learning with Mr. Wagner.