Midnights is Taylor Swift’s tenth album! It was released on October 21, 2022 and features thirteen songs with seven bonus tracks! Her other work consists of Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, RED, 1989, Reputation, Lover, Folklore, and Evermore. Taylor Swift and Fearless are both “country” albums, Folklore and Evermore have a more folk vibe, and the rest are more pop than anything. Midnights feels like a mixture of lots of the genres Taylor’s done in the past. The sound of each track mostly reminds me of 1989 and Reputation which are upbeat and fun but they also show deep, dark emotions.

Midnights’ opening track is “Lavender Haze” which is about Taylor’s love with her boyfriend Joe Alwyn. This is a strong opening track and really makes you want to dance. “Lavender Haze” is a very loving and fun song. “Lavender Haze”, “Question…?”, “Vigilante Shit”, “Bejeweled”, “Karma”, “Mastermind”, “Paris”, and “Glitch” are the more happy and up-beat tracks on this album. These songs are fun and exciting. While Maroon, Anti-hero, Snow On The Beach, You’re On Your Own, Kid, Midnight Rain, Labyrinth, Sweet Nothing, The Great War, Bigger Than The Whole Sky, Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, and Dear Reader are the more down, slower tracks and are more likely to make you cry from how emotional they are. They definitely made me cry the first couple times I listened to them. One of the sad songs like You’re On Your Own, Kid is upsetting but still up beat. 

Many songs on this album are very deep and personal like “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”, which is about her traumatizing relationship with John Mayer that took away her childhood. On the other hand, there are very fun and uplifting tracks like “Bejeweled” that are happy but still meaningful and have so much thought behind them. 

Overall, this album is amazing and I would recommend every single person alive to listen to it. In my opinion, there are zero negatives to this album. At first I thought it was questionable but the more I listened to it, the better it got. Now, it’s one of my favorite Taylor Swift albums. 

A brand-new vending machine now sits at the edge of the lobby, near the freshman entrance, replacing the former ice cream machine. The new flavors provided by the new Pepsi machine are an amazing addition to the school. Not only is this machine new and running, but it is also introducing new flavors to the school. Although the machine has not been stocked yet, the front of the machine shows the diversity of drink options. The flavors consist of non-diet cans of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Starry, and then, of course, diet alternatives. They also included a brand-new flavor of Kickstart: strawberry-kiwi, paired with its slightly former flavor of pineapple-orange-mango. Everyone has been buzzing about these drinks, such as Kaitlyn Rutherford, a sophomore, who has said, “I like the variety that the vending machine has and the fact it is not only diet. The flavors definitely look yummy.” Although some may say that non-diet drinks could cause a spike in obesity or are even just unhealthy compared to their counterparts, I find that providing more natural options than chemical induced sugars are better for a wide variety of reasons, one of them being: many people are allergic to aspartame, which is the fake sugar used in diet drinks, so leaving options for those students could increase happiness and even sales within our school. There are high hopes for the machine, and although nobody has yet to try the long-awaited strawberry-kiwi Kickstart, many people have come out to voice their opinion. Jaci Jones, a sophomore, is one of those people: “I’m excited to try the new flavor it sounds really good!” Many people are stoked for the new variety of drinks; hopefully the school can add onto the burst of excitement and eventually add a new food selection.

Title: John Wick: Chapter 4

Director: Chad Stahelski

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård

Studio: Lionsgate

Release Date: March 24th, 2023

Available: Only in Theaters

Whenever one hears about another film in the series John Wick, he or she immediately begins to look forward to watching a couple of hours of hit star Keanu Reeves saying “Yeah,” for most of the movie in his deep voice. And they would be correct. John Wick: Chapter 4 is a high point for a franchise that continues to find ways to try and one-up itself. In the fourth installment of the beloved franchise, John Wick has recovered after being shot off of the top of the New York Continental Hotel and is ready to seek revenge on the High Table (the governing body for the assassin underworld). When he challenges the new Head of the High Table to a duel to forgive all his crimes and free him from the assassin’s underworld, John brings even more assailants after him. Can John survive them and win his duel? This movie follows three previous sequels that also follow John Wick, a legendary hitman, who experienced multiple tragedies and has to go through friend and foe to try to get some normalcy back in his life. The fourth chapter brings back many beloved side characters such as Ian McShane’s Winston, Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, and the late Lance Reddick’s Charon. It also introduces some great new characters in Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine, Bill Skarsgard’s villainous Marquis Vincent de Gramont, and Shamier Anderson’s mysterious Mr. Nobody. The John Wick movies are not known for their dialogue or writing which is still evident in this sequel; however, they excel at giving the audience nonstop, well-choreographed action. John Wick: Chapter 4 does this better than any of the previous three entries to the franchise. While it is nearly 3 hours long, its runtime never feels stretched, as audiences never tire of seeing Keanu Reeves’ John Wick come up with inventive ways to kill hundreds of assassins. The film is also impressively shot with gorgeous cinematography. While some may be annoyed by the long-run time or the convoluted plot that seems to exist only to set up the next action sequence, this is without a doubt one of the most impressive pure action movies of all time. John Wick: Chapter 4 is an absolute delight to see in theaters and is maybe the best film of the year so far.

_{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!