_{Knox county schools were on spring break from March 13-19. Elementary, middle, and high school students and teachers, got a break from school as spring is ready to begin, this break was highly anticipated by the teachers and students. Mrs. Chun, a teacher at Carter high, talks about how she watched a band performance, house cleaned and visited a friend.Mrs.Chun says “My husband is in a band and they had three shows and I went to one of them. It went well. It was a lot of fun and they had a larger than usual crowd.” The band is Burn the City. She also talks about how she cleaned house and visited a friend from high school. She says “I have a toddler and he is 2 so I handed him over to my mother-in-law for a few days so that I could get some house organizing completed. I went to visit a friend from high school and ate some really good food. She has two little boys near my son’s age, and they had a blast playing together.” Mr.McGee, a teacher talks about how he bought a playground, watched tv, took his daughter to daycare, his nephew’s birthday, and his daughter’s dentist appointment. Mr.McGee, says “I bought a big playground for my daughter. I watched march madness. I took my daughter to daycare.” He also says that it was his nephew’s first birthday and that he took his little girl to the dentist for the first time. Mr.Rimer joins in and says while laughing “We both spent all spring break planning for class.” Zee Thomas, a senior at Carter High School talks about getting a prom outfit, working, and riding a roller coaster over spring break Zee says “I went to the mall to look for a prom outfit. I worked and cleaned cabinets. I went on a roller coaster through the woods.”Trinity Whitson, a sophomore at Carter High School talks about how she took care of her sister, talked to her boyfriend, and went to Cracker Barrel. Trinity says “I took care of my sister after her surgery.” She also says that she talked to her boyfriend and ate and played checkers at Cracker Barrel. Not one person had the exact same spring break. Each person had different things they did for fun and things they needed to get done. This spring break sounds like people really enjoyed it.}

Ms. Shoemaker is in the upstairs, main building. She teachers her freshmen students algebra everyday. She teaches year-long freshmen algebra classes, such as Algebra 1A and Algebra 1B, to her students. 

Ms. Shoemaker says she has always loved math since she was a child and wanted to be a teacher so that she could make a difference in her students lives. She says teaching freshmen is difficult because, “They are a different breed”. But they also keep life more exciting and, typically, more challenging. She says that math is not an easy subject, but she also says nothing is really an easy subject to teach. She says her biggest challenge is that the students honestly don’t try or they will just shut down before even putting in effort because they do not think they are good enough. 

She offers tutoring in the morning on tuesdays and thursdays, and in the afternoon on mondays and thursdays.

Hannah Cate, a freshmen, says “Ms. Shoemakers classes are chill and it’s probably my favorite class.” She enjoys going to Ms. Shoemakers to hang out with her friends. “I don’t really like math but Ms. Shoemaker is a good teacher so I really like that class.” 

If given the opportunity to have any other job, Ms Shoemaker would still choose teaching because, as she says, she truly enjoys teaching and shaping young minds! 

The class is anxiously rushing as a sudden project has been dropped into their laps. With an hour dead line, they must make a sculpture made out of just a 18×24 inch piece of paper, a glue stick, and string; the project itself is worth a hundred points. 

Why would any teacher do such a random and spur of the moment thing? Ms. McCulley finds that it truly brings out one’s craftsmanship, creativity, and productivity. 

Ms. McCulley teaches multiple art classes at Carter High School, one out of the many is her art one class. Before she came to Carter she had taught at a variety of schools, but the one that started her realization of wanting to become an art teacher was her daughter’s elementary school. She goes on to tell a story of how she had volunteered at her daughter’s school, because they had no art teachers, and asked all the students to draw what they had done that weekend. While the majority of the kids had come up with picnics, and parks, one boy came up with him on a surgeon bed. Ms. McCulley went onto talk about how that day she had learned how art is an extremely powerful thing, one that can give a voice to someone who cannot express themselves through words.   

Ms. McCulley has taught almost thirty years and has plans to retire soon. She says, “I plan to rest… take care of my mental health.” She says that she wants to get out while shes still kicking in her boots so that she can still be, “relevant.” She also wants to restart their soap and lotion business,”Wild Hare.” Possibly, she may even start teaching more community classes as she has in the past before her teaching days, of course long after she has gotten a thorough enough break. 

She says that her “people” are teenagers, and as she has enjoyed her time dearly as a teacher, specifically she has enjoyed it most with high schoolers. Her take away from everything was that no matter if you claim to be an artist or not, the greatest joy you can have is forging something for yourself. So get out there and make a legacy; Ms. McCulley sure has, in the hearts of many students she has touched dearly with her inventive and hands-on learning experience.

Mr. Melton stands in the front of the art classroom, showing a drawing on the board. The students get out their notebooks and begin copying the drawing. After they complete their drawings, Mr. Melton gives them instructions on how to create clay mugs for their projects.

Carter High School offers many fine art classes that have different teachers, one of them being a new art teacher: Mr. Melton.

Mr. Melton teaches Art 1 at the school, and he enjoys teaching it.

“It’s really fun, and you get to learn how to make things in here,” says Mr. Melton. He says that his favorite part of teaching is getting to help kids, and he absolutely loves being a teacher. He actually taught ESL (English as a Second Language) classes for over 10 years before becoming an art teacher. He chose to be an art teacher because he enjoys making art himself and thought it would be fun to teach.

Some students also have their own opinions of Mr. Melton and his Art 1 class.

“He’s ‘ight. He has a nice beard though,” says Adron Atkinson-Hawkins, a freshman who took Visual Art 1 last semester. He continues to talk about how Mr. Melton is nice to his students and “goofy.” Adron says that he enjoyed when Mr. Melton would read The Hobbit to the class because of the parts of the book where he sang. 

Other students who are currently taking art classes also like Mr. Melton. One of these students, Lucien Shippers, says, “I think he’s a good teacher. He’s made me express myself more through art more than I ever had before, and I never really considered myself to be an artist before. He pushed me to become a better artist.” They continue to talk about how they like being able to be creative with the art projects, as they think Mr. Melton is lenient with what you decide to do on art projects. They say that the art class consists of learning basic art techniques and is a good class to prepare students for any future art classes that they decide to take later on. 

Why Students Don’t use Lockers

Most students choose to just carry around all their stuff in their bags instead of requesting a locker. The need for lockers will vary from person to person but only a handful of lockers are used. Many students are unaware that they can request lockers. Senior Timothy Leopin who when asked why he doesn’t use one replied: “I didn’t even know we could use them.” After being a student for four years he was still unaware that you could use the lockers. Many students such as myself don’t use them for another reason such as Xanathus Vigue, when asked why he doesn’t use them said: “It would be a waste of time to go back to my locker between every class.” Plus this is only two students there are probably even more reasons that vary between people. 

Carter’s baseball team just started playing recently, and they have had a nice start to the 2023 season. 

Led by Coach Armstrong, Coach Hayes, and Coach Griph, the Hornets have had 3 wins and 3 losses. They have only played 6 games in total, so their beginning stats are pretty good. The baseball team plays a lot during their season, and they have many more chances to win even more.

“It’s good, we’re young, we are just trying to learn. We are rebuilding the team, figuring out new positions since we lost eight seniors and five of them started for three years,” claimed Coach Armstrong.

It is hard to move new players in new open spots. Baseball is a tricky game that can be won by being smart with players. The coaches have themselves in a pickle; they are constantly changing the line-up and it is a constant question who is going to start. 

“I am excited for the rest of the season because we are good at the game, and we have lots of fun playing,” said Jackson Baker, a freshman baseball player.

A new class will be coming to Carter in the 2023-2024 school year! Students will be able to involve themselves in traditional crafts and let their creativity flourish in Mr. Melton’s new woodworking course. The instructor, Mr. Melton is the new visual arts teacher who joined Carter just before the 2022-2023 school year. While being just recently welcomed into Carter, Mr. Melton has been involved in public education for over 12 years, and has been generally woodworking for most of his life, but took it up seriously around three and a half years ago. This woodworking class has been considered since Mr. Melton’s initial hiring, with his experience with the craft even being part of the reason he was hired on in the first place. Woodworking will be a hands-on course, with the only real prerequisites being satisfactory grades in Art-1, along with responsibility when using serious equipment. And for those interested in woodworking who haven’t taken Art 1, prior experience with the school’s welding class would work just as well! When asked what students could expect with this course, Mr. Melton commented on the class’ all-encompassing nature stating that: “This class will focus on carving using traditional hand tools and methods and will focus on a mixture of ornamental, sculptural, and utilitarian works: anything from spoons to decorative panels to sculptural works in the round (carved from all angles).” And so, both students interested in utilizing the craft for practical tools or appliances and those who are more interested in sculpture alike will find something to love in this class. As Mr. Melton put it, “This class is an opportunity to learn skills, preserve traditional craft, and connect to years of history,” It is one you won’t want to pass up this 2023-2024 school year!

Ms. Wimer is the one and only French teacher here at Carter High School. This lovely woman teaches French 1, 2, and 3 with no planning period. Now that shows dedication!

Ms. Wimer was a language major at Lee University and had to go to France to get full credit. She decided to go to Normandy, France for two back to back summers and be home for the rest of the time. Her first time living in Normandy she was twenty and the second she was twenty-one. She moved to a small town called Merville-Franceville-Plage which is a small town in Normandy. Normandy is located in Northern France and her small little town she once lived in was right on the beach. Ms Wimer said that,“The weather was great and I loved living on the beach.” She lived with her “French Mom” as she calls her, whose name is Danielle. The two ladies got extremely close and still keep in touch. 

When talking about France, she always has good things to say. She says the people in her town were so polite and always looked out for everyone in the community. Her favorite place to go was a local pastry shop to get something to eat, then walk to the park and eat. Every day  Ms. Wimer would go on a forty minute walk through her small village. Sometimes she would go an extra twenty minutes to walk through some farmland and pet the animals there. When I asked her what the food was like, she replied with,”I gained twenty pounds while I lived there and I don’t regret it.” 

Something that is different about France than the USA is, they get free healthcare, free public transit cards which saves money on getting a car and paying for public transportation, and there are no taxes on food. 

Ms. Wimer plans to move back to France for her retirement. Overall, she really encourages people to go to France if they can and thinks it is a beautiful and wonderful place. 

Title: Cocaine Bear

Director: Elizabeth Banks

Starring: Ray Liotta, Keri Russel, Margo Martindale 

Studio: Universal Pictures

Release Date: February 24th, 2023

Available: Only in Theaters

When one hears that a film is titled Cocaine Bear, one’s mind races in curiosity. You wonder if the film will live up to its gaudy premise. Will it be a low-budget Sci-Fi channel original? Will it be a crowd-pleasing B-film? Elizabeth Banks’ 3rd directorial feature is the latter. When a drug smuggler’s plane is going down over Knoxville, TN, he drops his load of cocaine and jumps. Unfortunately for the diver, he hits his head and falls to his death. Unfortunately for everyone else in the film, the portion of the narcotics dropped over Blood Mountain in Chattahoochee National Park in Georgia. Here, a black bear ingests the cocaine and goes on a rampage. The bear crosses paths with a variety of interesting characters including Tennessee police officer Bob, mother Sari, her daughter DeeDee, DeeDee’s friend Henry, and several others. While each human character has his or her own arc and story, what everyone goes to the theater to see is the gory ways they meet their demise at the hands of the titular bear. Of course, this is all not historical. Based very loosely on a true story, Cocaine Bear actually has a near-factual beginning in reality. Andrew Thornton, a drug smuggler, died by falling out of the plane over Knoxville after he attempted to parachute. He had several bags of cocaine in his possession where he was found in a neighborhood driveway, wearing a bulletproof vest and Gucci loafers. They later found the aircraft in North Carolina’s mountains along with nine other duffel bags of cocaine. Three months later, a dead Black Bear and a tenth bag of cocaine were found. The bear had ingested at least three or four grams of cocaine, but the only ones harmed in the event were Thorton, of his own stupidity, and the bear due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Today, the taxidermy of the bear is displayed at the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington. When focusing on the more exaggerated version, my personal favorite side character was the hilarious Ranger Liz, portrayed by beloved character actress Margo Martindale. While the movie will certainly win no Oscars with its relatively weak script, its overreliance on joking about its own existence, and its lack of cultural staying power, it does succeed on the only thing it promises. A bear does cocaine and goes on a rampage. That is the only thing one should expect from this movie and if one accepts that, then it is a ridiculous, fun ride. Seeing this movie at home will never be able to recreate the experience of laughing together with 50 other people, cringing and shielding away through the gory moments, at an intoxicated bear murdering her way through a bunch of idiots. “I’d love to not remember this. But it kind of seems like the thing that stays with a man forever,” Henry remarks after a tense scene. And man, I hear you. 

Product: Sour Watermelon Peeps

Company: Peeps

Cost: 1.36 at Walmart

Every year around Easter time when you look around stores you see marshmallow peeps everywhere you look. They come out with a bunch of flavors every year or new colors of peeps each year. But have you had the Sour Watermelon peeps taste like a marshmallow watermelon sour patch kid in the shape of a chick. The watermelon taste is so strong that you don’t get bored with every bite. When you bite it’s just a tad bit sour then the more you eat it just tastes sweet. It reminds you of the summer time. I’ve never liked peeps until I have tried these and now I want them all the time.

On March 2, 2020 at 10:46 am Peeps came out with the Sour Watermelon Peeps. On the outside they are green with sour crystals while on the inside it is just pink like a watermelon. They are gluten and fat free. Made in the USA and made out of globally sourced ingredients. A lot of people use them to put it in their Easter baskets. They also just eat them around summer time since it tastes so much like watermelon.