Story by: Kiara Wisniewski. Creating and planning out your high school schedule can be scary. There are so many different classes offered, different requirements, and even different end goals. Whether you know exactly what you want your career to be after high school or you have no idea, I’m here to help with the music side of things. Besides AP Music Theory, these classes are all new music courses taught by Natalie Crosby, music teacher/instructor. Other music classes offered are: General Music (for seventh graders who choose to not do band or chorus), Band, Chorus and Jazz Band.

Intro to Guitar

Intro to Guitar is a course that doesn’t require any prior knowledge. It is only for students 9-12. Whether you have dabbled with guitar before, or have never picked one up, this class will help you. This class will teach you strumming, fingerings, and chords, which will be the foundation for songs later on. After you complete the course, you will be able to look up a few of your favorite songs and teach yourself, with the knowledge you attained from this class. This course is taught by Crosby, who will help ease the material to your level of understanding. This means if you have absolutely no experience with any music whatsoever, she can break it down for you into more digestible pieces. Instead of starting off with all six guitar strings, she will have you start off with the bottom three to teach you chord modifications, and then progress to learning chords using more strings.

Morgan Trudell, a past guitar student (since the class was first half), was excited to use her knowledge at church. When starting guitar, Trudell was very hesitant to continue on after her fingers started hurting, but enduring the finger casualties was a good decision. “I almost walked out because my fingers hurt, but you get used to it,” she was saying, as she showed me what she could play. Crosby’s teaching style really helped, as Trudell got personal feedback, and was able to take the songs slow, and then start on working up to tempo. Trudell now knows entire songs, and can help to teach other people guitar too. She recommends this class to anyone interested in guitar.

Intro to Piano

Intro to Piano is another course that doesn’t require any prior knowledge. Intro to Piano is only offered for students 9-12. The course will start off by using one hand, and alternating which hand you use. Once you get down reading the music, and learning the two parts separately, you will combine them to use both hands. This may seem tricky at first, but you’ll get it! Crosby is the course instructor, and will help you every step of the way. The course will teach you all of the piano basics, and will create a foundation for any future playing.

A five star review from student Justin McClain, saying “I’ve always wanted to learn to play the piano, and this gave me the perfect opportunity”. McClain actually started the class a few weeks late, making him nervous about being behind in a class he couldn’t catch up with at home (since you’d need a piano). McClain mentioned that it was easy to catch up, especially since he already knows how to read sheet music. He went on to say that class time is spent with Crosby clapping the beat and speaking the note names, while the class plays. Although the songs being played are just from a book, McClain finds it very useful that Crosby speaks the notes. McClain recommends this class to anyone who wants to play piano on any level, from hobbyists to professionals.

AP Music Theory

AP (Advanced Placement) Music Theory is for students who have participated in band/chorus/music lessons (in school, or out) and want to continue to learn. This is a whole year course, and is only offered every other year (it will be offered for the 2022-23 school year). Whether you plan on making a career in music, or you just want to study music, this is a great course for you. The course will start with a bit of review on scales, musical terms, and other basics, and then it will progress you through chords, sight singing, and advancing your aural skills. This course does have an AP exam, which will test you on your knowledge of music theory. The test is graded on a five point scale, and if you earn a three or higher, you will receive college credit.

Senior Miles Muhleisen, past AP Music Theory student, had a great experience. After a bit of review, there was a book for the class to practice aural and sight reading skills, which helped. During class there would be a website for the AP class they would use. One of his favorite parts about it was “how much I learned about it and how good it was for my moving forward in music.” Muhleisen reports his only dislike was how short the class was before his test, since the AP test was in May. Muhleisen has already put this knowledge to use in his playing, since he was able to reinforce his sight reading skills and learn more scales. He plans to also use this knowledge in the future when he becomes a music major. Muhleisen highly recommends this class for anyone interested in music, or deepening their understanding of music.

Story by: Kiara Wisniewski. Computer teacher, Lisa Postilli, is new to the school this year. She joined us part-way through the year.

Background

Before her current job, Postilli taught first grade and special education. She made technology-centered lessons and taught the students tips and tricks to further their skill building. In addition to that, Postilli has taught technology to her colleagues, especially in recent years when technology was relied on more than ever.

Joining Late

Before Postilli joined the AA community, the interim computer teacher was Mr. Doug Van Skiver, a well known substitute teacher. Swapping teachers was understandably a bit tricky for everyone involved: from changing expectations to changing the programs used. Van Skiver primarily focused on memorization and vocabulary, so students would write out code from scratch on a document, and then have vocabulary homework that corresponded to in-class quizzes. Postilli, on the other hand, focuses on integration; what tools can you use to help enhance your coding? An example of this is that with Van Skiver, we only focused on HTML coding, and with Postilli, we learned and incorporated CSS style coding (fancy codes that change background colors, how an image appears, fonts and seemingly everything else imaginable).

It took Postilli a little while to get adjusted, especially since there were many new factors, aside from joining late—teaching a new age group, a new curriculum and unfamiliar people. Fortunately for her “the students have been very understanding that I am completely new in all areas and they have been welcoming,” she said followed by “I appreciate those who have been helpful as I adjust.”

Postilli expressed that if she could change anything about her experience that year, she’d only change one thing: time. She’s excited to be in the high school and here at AA, but she wishes she had the ability to start at the beginning of the year, and to have preparation time along with more time to get to know the school community (students, faculty and administration).

Different Teaching Styles

With Van Skiver teaching Web Programming, we would just hand type the codes on

Google Docs, and would also have projects where we would have to display what the code would look like, if done properly. Personally, I found it tedious and time consuming, so I was thrilled that when Postilli came, we were allowed to use Adobe Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a program that will make the code tags for you, show you what the code will look like while you’re making changes, show you where you have errors and so much more.

Classes

All of Postilli’s classes are half year. The computer courses offered are the ones that were put in place previously, and consist of Web Programming, Gaming, Photoshop, Digital Media Drawing and Design, Multimedia Computing, Animation, and Student Success in Computer Literacy (a new class to help seventh graders become literate in all things Google in preparation for their futures).

Programs

So you’ve mentioned a change in programs, what’s currently being used? Well, that doesn’t have a short answer; different classes use different programs respectively. The programs so far are mostly from Adobe Suite, like Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Illustrator, with an addition of Clickteam Fusion Gaming Software.

Stellar Reviews

Postilli is an amazing teacher, who goes out of her way to make us feel comfortable with the programs we use. Her assignments are engaging and she has created an environment where students are relaxed, productive, having fun, and learning all in one class. Don’t take it from me though: freshman Maddie Levey has similar thoughts. “I love Ms. P,” was her parting remark during her interview. Levey also mentions that the programs used in class (Web Programming and Digital Media Drawing and Design) are easy to use. She mentioned the transition between Van Skiver and Postilli was a little weird, but Postilli quickly grew on her.

Moving Forward

Postilli has already been starting to add her own twist to the assignments and classes, but she wants to do more. In the future she’d like to offer classes that include image restoration, manipulation and graphic design, while also offering current classes that cater more towards what the students are interested in. Her future plans don’t end there though; she plans on incorporating an artistic edge in her classroom, saying “I want students to have a learning environment that they enjoy and feel comfortable in,” while also keeping it comfortable for herself. Students have talked to her about preferring desktops, which she is willing to look into.

Story by: Jin Wilson. The score is 25-24 and it's at match point. Both you and your team are at your limits, and so are your opponents. The other team's server serves overhand, and the ball comes flying into your side of the court. A teammate bumps, another sets it up, and the perfect opportunity arises. You use all your strength to jump and SLAM! The ball flies into the ground, winning the point for your team. Experiences like that are what make up the Bumpapalooza event, the annual volleyball event for the AAHS school body. The event has been running for nine years now, not counting last year, which was affected by the pandemic. This year's event, though a bit different from those in the past, is keeping up the tradition with killer matches, and talented teams all around.

There were a total of 11 teams this year, with the bus driver team known as the “Ball Drivers” and the teacher team, “In-Court Suspension” both making a grand return this year. There were six people on a team, coming from grades 7 and above, and all of them had top-tier names, with tons of puns. All teams fought valiantly, and in the end, two winners ended up on top. The winners of the toilet bowl were “Boba Nett”, and the winners of the tournament were “In Court Suspension',” who have won multiple times with a rotating cast of teachers. Congratulations to the winners of both brackets! To the other competitors, work hard and come back with a vengeance, and kick everyone else's butts.

I spoke with a member of the winner of the toilet bowl bracket, senior Chris Mormino, about how his team prepared for Bumpapalooza. "I played with Hanne Yocum, Miles Muhleisen, Claire Volk, Aritz Balboa, and Alison McMichael," said Mormino. "We just kinda voted through various names each of us came up with and the winner was Boba Nett." Mormino personally didn't practice much with the group in preparation for the event, laughing about the confession. "I've played it two times, once in ninth grade and again this year as a senior." He felt like his team's placement in the event was "nice," and he enjoyed playing with his companions.

Next, I talked with Kate Carretto, part of "In-Court Suspension", about how her time on the teacher team was this year. Carretto was actually a late substitution to the team, as one of the previous members had an urgent event to attend to. "Because I was added late, I didn't really practice at all beforehand." In-Court Suspension has won numerous times, and even if the members of the team rotate in and out, their power is seemingly unmatchable. "I'm glad we won, given that I was on the team just trying to pull my weight." The final team consisted of Steve Donlon, Burt Turner, Kate Carretto, James Dineen, John Gemmell and Molly Soppe.

In the end, every team gave it everything they had on the battlefield, and no matter how the results turned out, all participants should be prideful in the fact that you put your heart and soul into the fight. And yet again, there's always next year to take revenge on those who wronged you, right? (Non-applicable to seniors, sorry!). If you plan to join the battle next year, get to practicing, because I can already tell that next year's Bumpapalooza will be even higher action than ever before!

Story by: Ben Lloyd. 2022 was the year for top athletic performances at Alfred Almond. Two senior athletes, Ben Lloyd and Gavin Dwyer, made it to states: the highest level for competing in a high school sport. Each of them had to train throughout the year to prepare for the state level event. Both athlete’s coaches were awarded “Coach of the Year” by the section V committees.

Swimming: Dwyer started swimming competitively when he was in 6 grade. This was a decision based on his mother, who was the modified coach at the time (and still is). To prepare for this year's swimming season he swam with KVAC, a swim club that swam at Alfred University. The swim team this year won a nail biting meet against one of their rivals HAC, at a swim invitational. After winning counties, the team went to sectionals with high hopes, but didn’t pull through on winning sectionals. Dwyer was defeated only twice this year before going to states. Once was at sectionals, and the other was during the first meet of the season to his fellow team mate, senior Liam Harris. Dwyer wasn't too concerned by that loss, feeling reassured by “having more wins than Liam,” he said. Dwyer’s main events this season were: the 50 yards(y) freestyle, 100y freestyle and the 200y individual medley. He won the 50y freestyle with a state qualifying time at his sectionals meet. He qualified for the state event, but unfortunately did not make it to the second day of the event. The most memorable part of states for Dwyer was when “we were on the bus and some kid pulled out a lobster!” The kid acquired this lobster at Wegmans where Section V paid for dinner for all the Section V kids who made it to states.

Wrestling: Lloyd started wrestling when he was in kindergarten, when his father signed him up for the Alfred Almond Youth Wrestling Club. Lloyd’s grandfather, who used to teach at Alfred Almond, was the head wrestling coach for a number of years. During the off seasons, Lloyd trained at many different places including places in Rochester, Avoca and Wellsville. He also did tournaments throughout the summer to prepare. Lloyd’s success this year was from “putting in the work during the offseason and fine tuning my technique,” he says. This season he wrestled at the 145 lb weight class, losing only three times at this weight before the State Championship. After he won sectionals, he went on to the state qualifying meet, where he had in his words, a “perfect day.” This was because none of his opponents scored a point on him at this tournament. At the state tournament, he lost his first match in overtime. Lloyd then got a pin in his second match, which allowed him to progress to the second day. On the second day, he was one win away from making it on the podium. Lloyd put up a good fight but didn't get the win in his last high school match. His most memorable moment from this event was “having to wait 20 minutes to use the elevator, every time.” The hotel he was staying at didn't have any stairs to get to the rooms so the elevators were the only option for all 14 floors.