Driver’s ed is an elective course that Carter High School, along with many other schools in the state, but no longer does, allowing students the option to learn to drive at school. The course offered information on road rules, alcohol use while driving, road safety tips, and at some schools a chance to get behind the wheel. However, the past decade or so, many schools have dropped the class. This was due to a variety of reasons: some due to funding, lack of students interested, not enough of the qualifications. Along with this though, the interest teens have in getting their licenses and driving themselves has decreased. I believe that this course should be brought back and encouraged students to take their sophomore year. For a lot of teenagers, they don’t have reliable and safe ways to learn to drive at home. They might not have a car they can learn in, or their parents/guardians might not have time to fully teach them. A lot of teenagers don’t know how to safely and legally be out on the roads and Drivers ed would offer them that chance. I think funding and investing into bringing the course back to Carter High School and many other Tennessee schools would benefit teens and parents both. 

Carter High School has recently replaced enrichment with ACT prep courses for all seniors. This has taken away the time seniors  have to work on their class grades. The ACT prep is a class that seniors take in order to better their ACT scores. The prep classes take place in enrichment time for the seniors, enrichment time is  3:00 to 3:30. The ACT class takes the extra time that the senior class has to boost their grades in real classes. We could solve this problem by cutting a few minutes out of each class to make up for the thirty, but each grade level would have to take the ACT prep crash course this way. Another idea is to cut down on activity time or just  have the seniors who take the ACT prep classes take their ACT at that time rather than in enrichment. It is also statically proven that cram crash courses do not make much improvement for students. It is pointless to have a redo policy if all the students can not even take advantage of it. Students need the enrichment time to make-up work, redo quizzes or tests, and to complete homework. Many students ride a bus so there for they can not come in any earlier or stay any later after school therefore they need that extra thirty minutes to correct or redo any work to help their grade in their academic classes. While the prep classes may boost some of the ACT scores it may lower the academic classes for the students.

Carter High School hallways have seemingly gotten too busy, which has caused a few problems. As students move class to class during appropriate times, our hallways fill tremendously, making it very difficult to manoeuvre. Carter High School has become a hazard zone during class block change.  Every day, students and staff are seen fighting their way from classroom to classroom. People are not on time for their scheduled class, mainly because people in the halls have become too occupied in conversations. However, those students who are stopping to socialize become so engaged they do not realize they are causing a blockage in the flow of the hallway. This is causing individuals to shove through the crowd. Students become rude and lack courtesy. The crowded hallways are very unhealthy. Jordanna Rutherford says, “The crowded hallways can be prevented if people would walk.” English teacher Mr. O’Malley says, “It is irritating because it could easily be prevented.” Some would say that class period change is the only time to mingle, but we could easily prevent the high-risk of fighting, shoving, and ill-mannered behavior. Students and staff who want to socialize should just move to the sides of the hall to make a clear walkway and be mindful of those around. If this happens our halls will become easier to traverse.

Carter High School students have the opportunity to take a ten day trip to London and France next summer. From June 1-June 10 with Mrs. Myers, an English III teacher and the volleyball coach will be taking students to London and Paris for 4 days each.  During each of these four day visits, students will be going on tours, exploring a different culture, eating new varieties of food, and having fun. 

Mrs. Myers says, “The students will be going on a plane flying into an airport on the other side of the world and then spending 4 days in London. Then flying on another plane to stay 4 days in Paris. There will be a tour guide with the group at all times to help with directions, make sure everyone is where they need to be and keep the tours on schedule so the trip stays on track.” The students will see major landmarks such as the Eiffel tower and the London bridge.

The senior students at Carter High School are currently taking ACT prep after fourth period during enrichment. These classes were designed to hopefully improve the future ACT scores of Carter seniors. When asked if a students previous test scores affected their ACT prep class placement, Ms. Atchley said, “Your previous scores do affect what class you’re in.” This is so that you are in a class with people with similar scores that made similar mistakes. She also says that the school isn’t doing these ACT prep classes because our scores were bad, she explained that there is always room to improve. When asked about ACT prep, Maranda Davis, a senior, says, “We stay in each class for 8 days.” She also mentioned that we move as a group to the next class. 

One of Carter High School’s newest English Teachers Ms. Sharp has replaced all of her classroom’s desks with comfortable chairs and couches. This year is not only Ms. Sharp’s first year teaching at Carter but also her first year teaching English instead of Band. In her room, where you would normally find the desks present in every other classroom you will instead find an array of lounge chairs. When asked why she chose such unusual furniture she said that,” I want my class to be an inviting environment where students feel motivated to work.” An 11th grade student in her class, Emmalea Merrel thought the change in seating to be a wonderful idea, saying “It’s my only class where I never find myself counting the seconds until the bell rings.”

Ms. Brown (Principal)

Have you enjoyed your time here so far? 

“Yes, Carter High school has been so welcoming. I’ve met so many new people. Everyone has bent over backwards to help me. It has been really exciting to be   apart of the Carter community.”

What did you do before you came here? 

“I taught English and later became an assistant principal at Fulton high school.”

What subject did you teach? 

“I taught English for 10 years.”

Do you like your co-workers so far?

“Everybody I’ve met has been great, I just got to know Mrs.Cupp and she is funny. The office ladies have been so nice and get me everything I need. The other administrators are a lot of fun to hang out with as well.”

Where are you from?

“I graduated from West High and grew up in Knoxville.”

Ms. Chollman (CDCA teacher)

Have you enjoyed your time here so far?

“I have. I have gotten to know my students really well and they have fallen into a routine and they are successful with it.”

What did you do before you came here? 

“I was a student, I studied special education at Carson Newman University.”

What subject do you teach? 

“I just started teaching CDCA here at Carter.”

Do you like your co-workers so far? 

“I like my co-workers they’re very welcoming, especially my teacher assistants in my classroom they’re always willing to help with anything I need.”

Where are you from?

“I am from Strawberry plains. I graduated from Carter High School.”

Mr. Armstrong (Physical Education)

Have you enjoyed your time here so far? 

“Yes, I’ve had a great time here.”

What did you do before you came here?

“I coached baseball and I was a gym teacher at Sweetwater High School.”

What subject do you teach?

 “Physical education.”

Do you like your co-workers so far? 

“I like them, they are very welcoming. They like sports, so we get along well.”

Where are you from? 

“The Gibbs community.”

Have you ever accidentally ignored someone because you couldn’t hear them over your earbuds? Ever been ignored accidentally because somebody couldn’t hear you over their earbuds? The staff here at Carter have. And they aren’t too happy about it, so they have officially put a new policy that will end this problem. Many students are aware (and mostly frustrated) that there is a strict, new “No Headphone” policy.  This policy entails that no student should walk through the hallways wearing headphones or earbuds. Last year the headphone policy was to have one earbud in, and one earbud out. Apparently, this was not good enough. When asked about her opinion on the new headphone policy, student, Mary Grace Neal responded with “I understand why it was put in place, but I don’t understand why they couldn’t just keep last year’s policy.” Another student, Alexandra Britton, replied to this question by saying “It’s honestly ridiculous, we’re allowed to have our phones out in the hall; so, I don’t understand why we couldn’t have just kept our old policy.” So one could say that there are plenty of students that aren’t exactly “thrilled” about this new policy.

Equality Club is an after school group at Carter High School. The goal of the club is to educate and freely discuss subjects of social acceptance and equal rights of all. The club is a safe place for all students. 11th grade student, Elijah Freeman says that for him Equality Club is a place where he can express himself and have a good laugh. “It changed me because of the people there and the things we talked about opened my eyes to certain things” he adds. The club officially started meetings in fall 2017 but previously, the group originally met informally with teacher Ms. Brewer before moving to halls, and two now graduated students. After that, the english teacher Ms. Shipman along with other english teacher Mr. O’Malley and Mr. Swafford. The teachers Ms. Shipman and Mr. Swafford have moved on to different schools, but Mr. O’Malley still sponsors the club. The group now meets in Mr. O’Malley’s room 407 from 3:30 to 5:00. The club debates and discusses issues of inequality and the wellbeing of society. The club welcomes all students, wanting to make Carter a more welcoming and safe place for all groups, communities, and minorities.

Emily Davenport the school librarian let us used her joke for the newsletter: “A man is driving down the road when a policeman stopped him. The officer looked in the back and he said ‘Uhh why do you have these penguins in the back of your truck?’ and the man replied, ‘These are my penguins they belong to me.’ ‘You need to take them to the zoo.’ the policeman said. The next day the officer saw the same guy driving down the road and he pulled them over again and he saw that the penguins were still in the truck, but today they were wearing sunglasses. ‘I thought I told you to take those penguins to the zoo?’ the officer said. ‘I did’ the man replied. ‘And today im taking them to the beach!’”

And now for a couple memes to brighten your sad day: