 5th graders in the Cougar Den. This week starting on Monday the 22nd of January, elementary schools in the Asheville City School District toured Asheville Middle. There were 8th grade student tour guides who showed them around.
The tourists were 5th grade classes with their teachers. On the tour, kids learned what some of the electives and core classes were; they also learned the layout of the building. The 5th graders were very curious about electives and what they were. They also wanted to know about how much homework there would be. Many of the kids were fascinated about being able to play competitive sports and sing in Chorus or play an instrument in Strings or Band. ¨They were very inquisitive and interested to join the Asheville Middle Cougar family,¨ said 8th grade tour guide, Ainsley. This was a great opportunity for the 5th graders to learn about the middle school and learn the ropes. We look forward to seeing these rising sixth graders soon! Story by Margaret Derry  Dues to last Monday's unexpected day off of school, it now means that if there is one more snow day than we well be getting Saturday school. This could be very bad for children or teachers who would have plans on that day. Many AMS students have verbally expressed their concern for having to potentially attend school on a Saturday.
Many solutions have been brought up in an article on Public School Review. Many students agree that all Saturday School does is adds to the stress of school, while simultaneously taking away the time we have with friends and family. There are pros, as some students and teachers say that these make up days take stress off and give up more time to work on school work. Whether this is good or bad, here are some solutions we can take. One way we could solve this is to add school days to the end of the year; at first this sounds like a great idea but a problem that arises with this is if you have already scheduled your summer and cant go to school those days. A second option is always to lengthen the days of school for a certain period of days. This could be good but it can also harm people and their time to do homework. Finally, what I believe is the best option, is to take out some holidays. This could be great because it doesn't mess with the weekend or the summer. I believe that though snow day make ups are terrible to sit through and can take away from the weekend, it doesn't happen often and other solutions have their cons as well. So, it might be better to get them over with than have to deal with it by paying with your holidays or summer. What are your thoughts? Story by Peter Hornaday  A new petition is going around, and it needs your help! This petition's purpose is to hire a worker in the cafeteria to manage the dishwasher. This would allow AMS to be able to use the reusable plastic trays that the school purchased years ago. For this petition to work it needs one thousand signatures, which means it needs everyone's support. It only takes one minute to make a difference and show your passion for the issues that really matter.
According to Livestrong, styrofoam takes over 500 years to decompose and can not be recycled. This is one of the reasons why styrofoam products are over 30% of all waste in landfills. Not only is styrofoam bad for the environment, but for anyone near it. Over 90,000 workers face the exposure of polystyrene and styrene each year. Polystyrene and styrene are some of the materials that make up styrofoam and are extremely dangerous. These materials have been known to cause serious health conditions such as cancer, and toxins found in the blood stream. Although some might consider the five second setback of scraping off food and then putting away your tray an inconvenience, isn’t millions of humans ceasing to exist by the year 2060 a bigger inconvenience? Styrofoam may be the go to material, but it can’t stay this way. This petition would help show that Asheville Middle can lead the way to a greener future. Your singular name, that seems so small, can make the difference that changes our school for good. Changes need to be made now, before all we can think about is the changes we should have made. Link to petition: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/make-ams-styrofoam-free-no-more-foam-trays-in Be sure to use your real name and make positive comments Story by Fiona Austin |
