Seventh grade is when Covid came into effect, meaning going into eighth grade I had little to no motivation for my school work. School being virtual made it way harder for me to enjoy school, and my grades dropped substantially during this time. But Mr. Wagner was not going to let the previous year at Merton bring anyone down and would make sure that everyone's experience in his class would be fun and enjoyable.

Mr. Wagner was always more than just a teacher to me, he was the reason why I was motivated to start trying again. He also always found ways to make science class fun and not feel unbearably long and boring. One thing he would do is take a few minutes and play a song on his record player, and make sure that everyone got a break from class.

Even though science was never my favorite subject, he was the reason why it became one of my favorite classes of the school year. He always had fun projects and was never afraid of going on a tangent about something random. He also was always open to people asking questions, and not just ones about science, we would often spend 5 to 10 minutes sometimes just asking random questions instead of working on a project. Mr. Wagner was always passionate about what he did, He was always fun and energetic in and outside of class. 

One thing that I always enjoyed was that the songs he chose always had some deeper meaning or something to take away from them. Sometimes it was just for fun, but most of the time the music had a purpose making it more engaging and meaningful. But of course not every class could be spent having fun, as there was work to get done. But class was never boring when we were working because the projects that we did were always unique and exciting. He made me enjoy school again and especially science class, which I used to never like.

Mr. Wagner will always be my favorite teacher, he was able to make me excited to come to science class and want to learn more. I sometimes wish I could relive some of my favorite moments from his classes, or get to be a part of his class one more time.