53 replies to this topic

[MaiAndy]

I WENT TO SENIOR INFO NIGHT, THEREFORE I DO NOT NEED TO READ 36 COMMENTS!
SEE HOW GREAT SENIOR INFO NIGHT IS!
Everyone should of just went.
BTHSnews.org tries it's best to spread the news. I advertised Senior Info Night a few times. Just trying to do our part.

[Ikra Ahmad]

With that said, i don't think you have much to complain about. You are talking to a person who has attended homecoming two years in a row. A few football games, a soccer game, almost every wrestling match last season, at least two if not more games for every division of basketball (girls, guys jv and varsity), a volleyball game, a tennis match and so much more. I took out the time to copy the tech PSAL schedule into my calendar and try to make time to attend events. Our school spirit is comprised of those who attend the events. Before you complain about the lack of it, notice that you are part of the problem. When you make the effort to attend games, go through the trouble of finding out times and then printing out directions i will not deny you any right to complain. However, i will take you up on your suggestion to make the process of relaying athletic events related information in a more personal way.

Shahruk, on 17 October 2010 - 09:24 PM, said:

I'm only so passionate because I hate stupid things, and I've never seen so much stupidity before in my life. I've been to one soccer game and a few wrestling matches.

[NickC]

Shahruk, on 17 October 2010 - 08:46 PM, said:

Can I ask where the money from smartboards came from? The money used to reconstruct the PA system and install new clocks was well spent, but wasn't necessary. There are much better things to spend the money on currently.

The money was a grant from the City Council - same with the PA System with new clocks. The renovations of bathrooms were also from the grant. The roof project - I believe School Construction Authority. Scaffolds should be down by the end of October/early November.

Do know that money is being spent on improving our facilities to meet standards of the industry, improving the education you receive at Tech - 5N8 - Genetics Lab is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
2W14 - Computer Lab / BN4 - Law and Society Mock Trial Room / BE10 - new equipment to support the wrestling team. With the support of the PTA and their efforts, showers in the boys locker room will be repaired for use by student athletes who have practice after school - (ie. Wrestling).

[Ikra Ahmad]

What andy said. And for the record - i think few others can surpass andy mai in his school spirit - he takes the time to attend EVERY home tech event. Kudos and lots of respect Andy.

MaiAndy, on 17 October 2010 - 09:27 PM, said:

I WENT TO SENIOR INFO NIGHT, THEREFORE I DO NOT NEED TO READ 36 COMMENTS!
SEE HOW GREAT SENIOR INFO NIGHT IS!
Everyone should of just went.
BTHSnews.org tries it's best to spread the news. I advertised Senior Info Night a few times. Just trying to do our part.

[NickC]

MaiAndy, on 17 October 2010 - 09:27 PM, said:

I WENT TO SENIOR INFO NIGHT, THEREFORE I DO NOT NEED TO READ 36 COMMENTS!
SEE HOW GREAT SENIOR INFO NIGHT IS!
Everyone should of just went.
BTHSnews.org tries it's best to spread the news. I advertised Senior Info Night a few times. Just trying to do our part.

+1

[Shahruk]

Ikra Ahmad, on 17 October 2010 - 09:34 PM, said:

With that said, i don't think you have much to complain about. You are talking to a person who has attended homecoming two years in a row. A few football games, a soccer game, almost every wrestling match last season, at least two if not more games for every division of basketball (girls, guys jv and varsity), a volleyball game, a tennis match and so much more. I took out the time to copy the tech PSAL schedule into my calendar and try to make time to attend events. Our school spirit is comprised of those who attend the events. Before you complain about the lack of it, notice that you are part of the problem. When you make the effort to attend games, go through the trouble of finding out times and then printing out directions i will not deny you any right to complain. However, i will take you up on your suggestion to make the process of relaying athletic events related information in a more personal way.

I'm not going to make the effort to do all that. If I'm bored, I want to be able to pull out my ipod and go on the school website and know when and where there is a school game and be able to go there afterschool.

But we're getting off topic. I've made my point, and I'm getting lots of run arounds. I've made my point, what you guys do with it is up to you.

[NickC]

Shahruk, on 17 October 2010 - 10:31 PM, said:

I'm not going to make the effort to do all that. If I'm bored, I want to be able to pull out my ipod and go on the school website and know when and where there is a school game and be able to go there afterschool.

But we're getting off topic. I've made my point, and I'm getting lots of run arounds. I've made my point, what you guys do with it is up to you.

Everything is on the school website and on PSAL.org if you're looking for sports and meets. All links on the bths.edu website.

[NickC]

SoLR, on 17 October 2010 - 07:15 PM, said:

Hey Nicky, just curious, were you at the assembly as well?

No. I was in class ...in Buffalo... because I know what mandatory attendance means. Just saying...har har har

[Unimaginative]

*ahem*
Sorry to dredge up a topic that seems to have simmered down, but this event was doomed to fail whichever way you look at it. It's my understanding that a school day is supposed to have 6 hours of instruction but Tech was nice enough to allow us to come in at 11:50. Personally, I wouldn't have been greatly saddened if I had had to come in at 8:00 which is when I've been coming into school for the past 4 years. Since the school day is supposed to consist of 6 hours, but Seniors only had about 3 and a half hours accounted for, the Senior Picture and the Info Night were supposed to count as the rest of our "instruction" (or so I hear). Great.

But here's the thing. The Senior Picture only took like half an hour and the Info Session only took an hour which still doesn't account for the time we're supposed to spend in school. Students weren't allowed to leave the Info Session when they wanted to and were given the ultimatum "stay or relinquish privileges to all Senior Events". This meant no prom, no graduation, no trips. At least that's what Mr. Williams told me as I attempted to leave. Face it Tech, it WASN'T a real class no matter how much you try to convince the DOE and since we didn't swipe out as the session was dismissed as a group there would be no way to prove to the DOE that we did, in fact, satisfy the 6 hours of instruction that we needed. So what would it have mattered whether we had stayed the entire time or not?

This brings me to the point that we should have just been allowed to leave when we wanted to. I honestly thought that the event was going to take the 3 hours it was scheduled to take (and possibly more considering Tech gets nothing done in the time allotted). There is no way I would have wanted to leave school at 9:00, take a train, and a bus for a good hour, and then still have to walk home in the dead of night. Sorry, but I'd rather not be raped, thank you very much. I sat there for half an hour at the Info Night, realized that the College Information Session was exactly the same thing that I had listened to a few days prior in an assembly in the auditorium, and I realized that the SGO speakers were basically reading out loud from the pamphlet. I don't care how stupid anyone thinks the class of 2011 is, I'm pretty sure we all know how to read. Third period was made half an hour longer in order to get rid of prefect, and hand out important materials. It would have sufficed to hand out the pamphlets during class, spend only FIVE minutes on them, and move on with our merry little lives. Besides, we have a website. Why not post the important materials such as the FAQ session that was held on the Tech website, as well as a scan of the pamphlet? But that would make sense, something Tech hates doing.

Anyway, if the kids who wanted to leave had been allowed to leave then the event would have gone much more smoothly. You obviously can't give kids such a drastic ultimatum and force them to remain somewhere they don't want to be. This would have left behind only the parents, and those who had either not heard the information or wanted to ask questions. But to be completely honest, Tech is rather incompetent when it comes to relaying back information. The ladies who give out the college application fee waivers have no idea what you're supposed to do with them, the scholarship adviser is only there 2 days out of 5 and doesn't always stay till 4 PM, and my guidance counselor hasn't replied to any of my emails in the past 4 years. It's like every time you need help with something in Tech, you either have to go to 5 different people to figure it out, or you just don't figure it out because everyone seems to be away in Narnia.

Instead of separating all of the events that day, they should have just been held one after the other. Instead of the mandatory 8th period lunch that nobody went to, the Senior Info Session should have just started then. I'm sure students are capable of explaining to their parents about the Senior Dues because either way, a lot of Tech's population's parents are immigrants that probably don't speak or understand English very well so the students would have ended up paraphrasing and translating all the same as if they had heard the information in their third period class, or in an Info Session held without the parents. Besides, considering our website can be translated into like a million different languages, if you posted the information online it would probably be more comprehensible to those who don't understand English very well because they would be able to read it in their own language.

And as a final word of advice, this being specifically directed to Mr. Asher, not allowing the students who cut to attend Masquerade ball is a pretty bad idea. You're preventing students who would WANT to give you $50 to attend this event from attending, forcing SGO to have to raise the price of the tickets for everyone else in order to help pay off the venue because our SGO is in debt. My economics teacher suggested that maybe those students who attended should be given a voucher, giving us a slight discount for actually attending so instead of punishing everyone, you'd be rewarding those who you deem worthy enough to deserve it. Even if the ticket were only $10 cheaper for those who attended Senior Info Night, it wouldn't be THAT unreasonable and the losses wouldn't be as great. Besides, by implementing such rash policies you're only hurting what little school spirit we have left.

[DBest]

1) It's not appropriate to give a "punishment" to college bound seniors for not attending an event. It's condescending and for something like senior info night, unnecessary. The information given was all provided in the pamphlet handed out, and the event itself conflicted with everyone's schedule.
Notice the language below:

R. Asher, on 17 October 2010 - 04:14 PM, said:

Since this event is conducted on school time, attendance is mandatory. Students who miss the event will be required to make up the session with me at a time & place to be determined prior to participating in any of the events.[/list]The time/place is TBA until Mr. Williams, Mr. Kaelin, and I can review the attendance list and determine the number of students involved (review should happen on Wednesday this week - no time to do it before the Open House). Once the volume of students involved is determined, the session will be scheduled.

I agree that a makeup should be held for those who felt they missed out on the info, but it should not be mandatory for all of those who did not attend. There is no significance in doing this rather than trying to enforce a retarded rule. Although school is mandatory, most students can't possibly come for everyday for personal reasons. The same can be said for this assembly. As for denying them the right to attend senior activities, the school would be losing money by doing this and it would just cause resentment among the student body. What benefit would it bring, none.

2) Going to your job afterschool is mandatory. Picking up your siblings, going to an interview, dropping by the hospital to see a sick relative, going for a check up, going to court, etc, all seem mandatory. Now you have to make a voluntary choice of what to pick. Those responsibilities, or a school assembly at 8:00pm. Don't write stupid posts.

NickC, on 18 October 2010 - 02:49 AM, said:

No. I was in class ...in Buffalo... because I know what mandatory attendance means. Just saying...har har har

3) Many people should take some initiative to get involved in student activities. Although there are many students at these games/events, with a student body of 5,200, a few hundreds at most attend. Pathetic, however, you can't sit around blaming anybody because there is no appeal to attend. Why is there no appeal? Because we have difficult course loads that bar us from attending, and because there's such a hassle to get the information. With such a big school, there is a lack of personality and a connection with the school. I agree with Sharuk on this, try to find a way to make the information more personal. Trying to find out how is why we have a SGO.

Ikra Ahmad, on 17 October 2010 - 09:34 PM, said:

i don't think you have much to complain about. You are talking to a person who has attended homecoming two years in a row. A few football games, a soccer game, almost every wrestling match last season....Our school spirit is comprised of those who attend the events. Before you complain about the lack of it, notice that you are part of the problem. When you make the effort to attend games, go through the trouble of finding out times and then printing out directions i will not deny you any right to complain.

I apologize for joining in so late, but like most technites, I was up late doing assignments (which seem to pile up all at once on occasion). I have a 1-10 no lunch and still stay in school until around 5-6 pm for clubs/teams. I have work on occasion, and use to volunteer. Still, my schedule can't compete with a large amount of other seniors' schedules. It's understandable that some couldn't attend, really.
Despite the lack of organization in the school, you should all retain some school spirit. What other school offers you more than 1 senior trip, has a masquerade ball on a luxurious boat, has performances from famous celebrities/ companies, gets visited by prestigious colleges like MIT or Yale, has a club to help you on the SAT, has guidance counselors that take on hundreds of kids, etc. Our standards maybe a little too high.

[NickC]

DBest, on 19 October 2010 - 01:30 AM, said:

I apologize for joining in so late, but like most technites, I was up late doing assignments (which seem to pile up all at once on occasion). I have a 1-10 no lunch and still stay in school until around 5-6 pm for clubs/teams. I have work on occasion, and use to volunteer. Still, my schedule can't compete with a large amount of other seniors' schedules. It's understandable that some couldn't attend, really.
Despite the lack of organization in the school, you should all retain some school spirit. What other school offers you more than 1 senior trip, has a masquerade ball on a luxurious boat, has performances from famous celebrities/ companies, gets visited by prestigious colleges like MIT or Yale, has a club to help you on the SAT, has guidance counselors that take on hundreds of kids, etc. Our standards maybe a little too high.

You fail to recognize that Ikra, along with any students (if there are any left at this point) in the school that have school spirit and pride that they have the workload you have as well. Believe me, some people actually have it worse than you. The standards are a little too high because we know you're willing to accept them and you're capable of accepting them as well.

[DBest]

NickC, on 19 October 2010 - 11:10 AM, said:

You fail to recognize that Ikra, along with any students (if there are any left at this point) in the school that have school spirit and pride that they have the workload you have as well. Believe me, some people actually have it worse than you. The standards are a little too high because we know you're willing to accept them and you're capable of accepting them as well.

In that statement, I made it clear how horrible my schedule was and that it can get much worse. Alot of people have worse schedules, that's why it's understandable for them to miss something like senior info night or any other school event. Students have other responsibilities.
The standards that students judge the school with are too high. The school isn't a genie, it will not grant all of our wishes. Although it's great to strive for something better (and we should), technites should still be grateful for what tech has to offer. I sense alot of hostility from students on this forum, and it seems like there is no gratitude whatsoever.

[Shahruk]

Any hostility you sense is purely false assumption. I'm arrogant and make sure a point is made, so disregard any "hostility" you may sense.

[Sulate]

Shahruk, on 19 October 2010 - 06:27 PM, said:

Any hostility you sense is purely false assumption. I'm arrogant and make sure a point is made, so disregard any "hostility" you may sense.

I don't see how you can be a proper judge of whether or not your own posts were hostile ;)