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:

Carter High teachers have some advice to help students get through school and everyday life. 

When asked what advice she had for students stuck in a bad place,Carter High biology teacher Mrs. Chun says, “I always recommend therapy; if that’s not an option, then journaling is good. Writing down your feelings, getting them out somewhere. Sometimes if you feel really bad or negative about yourself and write down those negative feelings, then you realize how ridiculous they are…So just reach out to people; other people want to help you, and if you’re in a bad place maybe they don’t want to intrude but if you reach out and ask for help, most people are going to help you.” She encourages students to talk to people who can help them where they are at and hopefully get them out of that place.

When asked what advice she had for students for school, Carter High English teacher, Mrs. Parker urges students to keep up with their work, or else it will be hard to fix it later on. She says, “Keep up with your work. Once you get behind it is such a burden and it’s hard to dig out of that hole. So I would say keep up whatever it is, keep up with it and don’t get behind.” 

With a fresh team of smiling faces, new uniforms, and a hopeful attitude, the Lady Hornets soccer team is positive about a successful season this year. The team consists of twenty-three girls and two coaches: Cullen Ball (head coach) and Bruce Booher (assistant coach). Their season is from August through October, with sixteen games to play. The Lady Hornets are more than ready to put up a good fight this season. From winning homecoming last year, the girls are excited and ready to compete with their new equipment from the money raised. They were able to purchase new bags, uniforms, warmups, etc. The girls have also been preparing physically and mentally for the upcoming fall season. The team started their summer conditioning in July, and have been working hard since then to play the sport to the best of their ability to represent the school. When asked what his favorite thing about the team is, Head Coach Cullen Ball stated, “I like the fact that we’re young and we have a lot of young players playing and starting. So, I think it’s good for our future. I think we will succeed in the future.” With these encouraging words, the girls are ready for the season and for the future seasons to come. The Lady Hornets work hard to play their games and senior/team captain, Eva Tolliver, believes they deserve some recognition. When asked why people should come watch the Lady Hornets games, she stated,  “Because you may not think that we’re good . . . but we’re actually very amazing. We have a lot of talent on the field that a lot of people don’t see and if you don’t see it, then you don’t know. We should have a lot of students come out, and the games are free for students, so I mean fun times!” The Lady Hornets soccer schedule and updates about the season are accessible on Twitter (@HornetsCarter: Carter Lady Hornets Soccer) for anyone who is interested in supporting the girls and/or attending the games. 

Carter High School has announced the school fees to help cover the dues for the 2019-2020 school year. The senior fee for the upcoming graduates is $25, and the money collected will provide the diplomas and the graduation ceremony. There are also the fees that apply to all grades, the $10 student fee and the $15 technology fee that goes towards supplying the essentials such as printer ink and stationary. The collected money will also work towards updating Carter’s technology areas, such as the library, and replacing bulbs within the buildings. “We’re looking towards replacing some of our computers.” Ms. Davenport, the librarian, said after being asked about some of the possible updates. She explains after that the replacements would be provided for future students and last for the next couple of years to come.  When asked about the deadline for the fees to be turned in, Ms. Eastridge, the bookkeeper, answered, “I’d like it by February 28th,” but they can be turned in at any time during hive on Wednesdays before then.

A teacher with many talents has taught at Carter High School for twenty nine and a half years: Mr. Cunningham who currently teaches Contemporary Issues. He’s a stunning and fun teacher to have in class. He makes the class interesting through demonstrations of battles by using students as examples of soldiers.

Jacob Clifton, a senior, remarks, “Mr. Cunningham has killed me in every war or battle example in American history, Civil War to modern day.” He began laughing as he recalled this. 

It is just one of the ways Mr. Cunningham has gotten the students engaged and made them feel like they were part of the action. Many students that had his class previously take his other class, Americans at War, just to be in his classroom again. Jacob Clifton is just one example of the variety of students that were entertained by his bizarre stories and fun ways of learning. If you had him for third block, you would find yourself practicing Kung Fu during the twenty minutes of activity time. He would grade you on participation and how well you executed the movements. Kaitlyn joked, saying that “It’s almost as if he’s training his own army for battle.” 

 Before being a teacher he was in the army. He was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War. He explained that being in the army is not something you forget, when he was asked what he enjoyed most about it, he said, “Driving through Europe in the tank.” 

After the war, Cunningham decided to teach. One thing he got from the army was the excessive use of nicknames. He commonly renames his students; when he was asked why, he smiled and said, “To give them something special, that somebody cared enough to name [them].” He then went on to name off some of his students. “Giggles, Smiley,  and Jack Rabbit”: aka Kaitlyn Oliver, Aliyah Trammell, and Jacob Clifton.

“It’s a name that represents me!” Says Kaitlyn Oliver, a senior. Every day, a handful of students will walk up to him and he will address them by their nickname. Most students have never heard him call them by their real name. 

He’s an extraordinary teacher that deserves to be recognized. He’s done a lot for his students and managed to gain respect from them. There is no teacher like Mr.Cunningham. 

“He’s living history,” said Jacob.

Carter High School has gotten a new cross country coach for the 2019 season. Makayla Dudley takes over as CHS’s new cross country coach. This is her fourth year teaching health and gym at Carter Middle School and has coached basketball, track, and cross country in that time. Coach Dudley states, “I’ve kind of fallen in love with the last few groups I’ve coached, and they’re now at the high school . . . but, I kind of wanted to continue that so that we could build our program. I also really want Carter to be seen as a running school.” She explains that she thinks it is important to start them in the program in middle school and carry it through to high school. Coach Dudley coaches both the middle school team and the high school team. She gets help from Coach Bain from CHS, Mrs. Heartness, and Mrs. Simpson from CMS. Austin Cardwell, a ninth grader, has been running cross country for Coach Dudley for a year and decided to come back for the high school season after finding out that Coach Dudley was the coach. He says his favorite part of the sport is simply “Just running.” The team motto is, “Give it your best and one more step.” She says it in hopes that they will take that motto and use it in everything. Dudley says, “Whether it’s [using the motto] on the cross country course and a runner is like ‘I only have one more step and then I’m done’ or even in the classroom. Just give it your best and take one more step to challenge yourself one last time.” They are still recruiting runners to make a full team, so people that are interested see Stephanie Bain or email makayla.dudley@knoxschools.org. The first race is August 31st at Victor Ashe State Park starting at 9 am, so feel free to come support your school’s team!