"Teacher of the Year"

Staff Writer, Quinn Gallagher

I was really interested in surveying seniors about outstanding teachers on the Charter Staff. I gave out a survey with eight categories to fill: most comical, most helpful, most energetic, most athletic, most kid like, most understanding, best dressed and most vocal. I went to the senior homeroom and asked them to fill their choices and I put the results into "fancy" certificates! I was surprised to some of the results, just because I wouldn't have thought that some of the teachers they picked would have won. 

Displayed below, the right are the first place winners and on the left are the second place winners. Congratulations to all our teachers. Keep up the good work!

Students and Technology

        

Staff Writer: Sarah Morris

“The most technologically efficient machine that man has ever invented is the book,” 

says influential literary critic Northrop Frye. 

But in today’s ever growing age of technology, is the book really the most efficient way of obtaining information? Important, yes. Useful and influential, definitely. But the most efficient? Today information can be obtained in so many new ways. We can brush our fingers across a handheld screen, and there it is. And that goes for any kind of information. If you can dream it up, the internet will give you an answer. Instantly. So here’s what I wanted to know: how does this accessibility of information affect today’s students? It’s definitely a topic worth talking about. In what ways does this constant stream of information help us, and can it ever hurt us? I considered the ways high school students most commonly use the internet to access information that helps them in school. The first source that came to my mind was the ever popular Sparknotes. Clearly it’s an easy way to do less work, you can read a summary instead of a book. And is this really allowing students to learn? All of the students who I talked to- all who pointed out they’ve used sources like Sparknotes instead of a book- agreed that doing so definitely cuts back on what you’re actually learning. On the other side though, they also all agreed that being able to look up different types of analysis is more helpful than harmful. High school work can get really difficult, and having the ability to search for information easily allows students to have answers they would not be able to come up with otherwise. It can build confidence in students, because they are finding information that they would not have if they couldn't find it so easily. One of the students I spoke with discussed enjoying going to a library for information personally, but acknowledged that that is not always the easiest way. Having instant access to information certainly means that students will be looking for more of it. And how can one argue that’s bad? Students are actively trying to learn more, and are fortunate enough to have tools on hand that let them. While there can be some drawbacks, over all, the fact that students can always find what they’re looking for is helping them to find more.

Magic: A Game for a Student

Staff Writer: Ryan Robinson

Magic: the gathering is an all paced card game that doesn't require much skill to play, yet can be very complex. The game is played by two players each choosing their own color ranging from black, green, blue, red,and white. Each player draws 7 cards from his or her library, which contains 60 cards including the 7. After you have your 7 in hand, you play any basic lands, if you have any, and 1 basic land can be played at a time. After a few rounds have passed, you should have enough mana to draw a creature and attack another player.

The game will go on like this for a while, every now and again a spell will be played by the players, after a player has lost all of his or hers health points (which there are 20 health points). So the game can vary depending on the skill level of a player and his or her deck. The game is very fun and has its rewards.

In the event that our school wanted to create a magic club it would have support from students who play like Joe O’brien, who said, “I think that’d be really cool but few people would be able to grasp the concept. But it would be very fun if they could.” 

If our school decided to create a magic club it would be beneficial because magic is a fun game that can bring together the most unlikely of people. Take me, for example: I’m a 10th grader who plays magic with 7th graders time to time. (I always win) Not only that, but also evokes deep thoughts and can inspire cognitive thinking, from which attack to use, to building creature's strengths. Magic isn't a mindless game and tends to be very interesting and fun. It can even be a way for kids to make friends as magic tends to attract an anti-social crowd. If our school decided to make a program I imagine that there would be over 20 students wanting to join.

The Book That Covers It All

Members of the yearbook staff have put in a lot of their time and hard work to make this yearbook the best they can. All year these students have been taking photos at every major event, tracking down students and staff for interviews and features, not to mention designing each and every page of the book. Yearbook students and staff have done a great job putting this yearbook together just for you! As it is getting closer to the end of the school year, the yearbook members are meeting for about two hours a day, to get this project completed. When deadline day is approaching in April, the students stay in the computer lab for a full school day to finish up all the things they have to do before submitting the final copy of the yearbook.

For students that have not purchased a yearbook as of this Friday May 1st, and would like one, you can go onto the website and purchase a yearbook to be shipped to your house. 

If you have already purchased a yearbook, the books will be delivered on the day of Arts Fest, May 29th. 

This year for the first time, the students attending Avon Grove Charter School could have made a page in the yearbook for just themselves. Students could put images into a collage to be posted only in their own yearbook.  

Freshman: The First Year of High School

First Year of High School

Written by:Jesse Eckman

These are the results for the “First Year of High School” survey that most of the freshmen received:

1.What could have made your first year of high school better?

Most of the responses to this question said that they wish that they would have been more prepared and more informed with tests and quizzes and wished that there were more field trips. Others said that they wished that they would have cared about their grades.

2. What did you like the most about your first year of high school?

Most of the responses to this question were related to saying that they liked certain teachers or classes. Others said that they liked things related to the period that the freshmen had lunch and said that they liked the field trip to Baltimore.

3.What was the worst part about your first year of high school?

Almost all of the responses to this question were that they were not ready for all of the tests, homework, quizzes, more assignments, homework and not being able to go outside a lot.

4.What was your favorite in class project for your first year of high school?

The responses for this question was mixed between nobody liking the projects this year, others liking the 3rd or 4th marking period history projects and the rest liking the simple projects such as the math wanted poster project or the 4th marking period presentation project for biology.

5.What was your favorite teacher for your first year of high school?

Majority of the responses to this question was that the teacher chosen was either Ms. Groff or Ms. McCann.

6.Did you attend any school-sponsored events? If so, what was the best one, in your opinion?

Majority of the responses to this question were that not many freshmen went to any school-sponsored events and the students that did went to the dances and not many students liked the dances.

7. Overall, how was your first year of high school on a scale of 10 being amazing and 1 for being awful?

Majority of the numbers that were chosen were either 4-7. It was rare to find an 8-10 and there were a few 0-3s.

8.If you had to describe your year in a sentence, what would it be?

The responses to this question was a mix between good or bad and it mainly depended on if the student was either prepared or unprepared, motivated enough or the student just was not happy with their first year of high school.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Students Dealing with Stress

      Staff Writer: Nevan McFoy

AGCS students' normal stress level is 6, which is one is one above what could be considered a normal stress level. I went around at lunch and surveyed at least 50 people, and I asked these questions: What do you stress about? How does stress affect you? How do you manage your stress?
Most students when surveyed picked school as the top thing they stress about. Instead of how they look, social media, not sleeping, their weight, and all the above. I was surprised most people didn't pick all the above.

What do you stress about?

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	School	How you look	Social media	Not sleeping	Your weight	All the above

Most students in Avon Grove Charter School are affected by stress as seen below. With most being overwhelmed, the others mostly voted being angry all the time. When some people stress they feel nervous over things that aren't important at the time.

How does stress affect you?

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	Angry	Overwhelmed	depressed	Nervous	Hungry	Cry

Most students in Avon Grove Charter school manage their stress by listening to their music and sleeping. This makes students happy. The more peace and sleep they get by themselves allows their stress level to drop and make them less stressed than they were a few minutes ago because their brain finally had a time to catch up and relax to the thing they are doing. That's why most students prefer to sleep and listen to music because their brain can rest.

How do you manage your stress?

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	video games	Surfing the internet	Excercising	watching TV	sleeping	Music

When I was walking around asking these questions. I also asked if they ever felt bad about the way you treated teachers or friends when they've  been under a lot of stress? 28 students said yes, that they have felt bad the way they treated others. About 14 students said they don't feel bad when they treat teachers and students badly in a mean crude way.

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	yes	no