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When we think about cartoons you may think about Flapjack, SpongeBob, Avatar: The Last Airbender, or Adventure Time. But what about the cartoons we grew up watching. Many of the old cartoons are airing still or are discontinued. Such cartoons like Dragon Tales, Smurfs, Hey Arnold, Bernstein Bears, and Recess. Along with other cartoons like Dexter’s Laboratory, Rugrats, Martin Mystery, and Xiaolin Showdown .These cartoons teach us about values of life. Like how to tie your shoe, say the alphabet, or even to teach us how to treat your friends and family. They also gave us entertainment and for some people even lasting memories. Many teenagers and even adults still enjoy watching old cartoons and new cartoons. For comfort and for just passing time people watch cartoons. We rarely get to see many of our all-time favorite cartoons from the 1990’s and 2000’s. From time to time it’s good to watch something that you haven’t seen for ages.

Old cartoons may be around for years as new cartoons take over the Television airways. When the time comes that there are no older cartoons all we’ll have is our memories. These memories will affect us and even enlighten us. We can never forget the cartoons that helped us grow up into this world. Old cartoons will always be around in our memories and maybe even on the internet or digital TV.

Can’t we read what we like? Some Language Arts teachers assign lists of books that students must draw their reading from in order to fulfill a certain number of pages read each quarter. This system, while possibly also being designed to reach other aims, obviously has as a primary objective getting students to read high-level books. They are also apparently intended to provide students who do not like to read with choices.

The problem is, for others of us, this system highly limits our own reading choices. We have limited reading freedom, with maybe the ability to read one book not on any of the provided lists.

But what if we want to read a series?

Many recent books are later followed by a set of sequels. If we want to read a series, we have three options:

1. Read it simultaneously as we read list books. Reading two books at once can be difficult in the sense that if you are reading one of your own choice and one that has been assigned to you, you will more often turn to the book you chose when you decide to read. This will very much slow your progress in list books.

2. Wait until we have completed our requirements for list books and THEN read our own choice. The problem is, this will cause impatience and frustration, and, in students who do not read regularly, discourage further, independent reading. As is obvious, that is near the exact opposite of the objectives of assigning reading requirements, which is to get students to read. This is perhaps the worst option.

3. Probably the best option is to alternate between list books and choice books, but this, too, raises difficulties of its own. It will be hard to focus on the list book when you know that next you get a book of your own. Though, in this scenario, the choice book is a reward for reading a list book. But once again, what if you are reading a particularly gripping series and then have to stop for a list book that could potentially be…well…somewhat wordy. It would be torment, and might lead to the total collapse of the alternation.

Why not just assign reading requirements, telling students to read a certain number of pages each quarter? For a student who loves to read, hundreds of pages can be devoured in record time if they enjoy their book. And perhaps suggestions could be provided to those who, for whatever reason, don’t like reading. Who knows, maybe they could find a series, author, or genre they enjoy.

As you have probably heard, MMS is trying a new Jr. High schedule for the entire eighth grade. But of course as with all first time things there are going to be some problems.

One of the most major problems I have noticed is the “no backpacks” rule most of the eighth grade teachers enforce. Now, I understand why many teachers would have this rule because they don’t like to fall over backpacks when they’re moving around in the room. But the truth is, now we need our backpacks more than ever. This new schedule treats us like we are high school students, so that means we may have a core class on any floor of the building. This is fine except for the fact that if we can’t have backpacks in any of our classes not only do we have to go up and down the building almost every class change, but we also have to be carrying all of our stuff in our hands. This would be ok if we still had teams because a good majority of our classes are all right there and so are our lockers so we don’t need a backpack. I believe many of the eighth grade teachers still have this rule because they are forgetting that we travel twice as far to our classes than years before and that we are carrying things in our hands. Also in the rush to classes some kids even trip, and since all of our things are in our hands we drop everything. Whereas if we had backpacks kids would just fall and get back up, no harm done.

The other problem that I have noticed with this new schedule is that the teachers can be pretty harsh on the “being late to class” policy. I know all of the teachers think that five minutes is a lot of time but the fact is the eighth graders get the schedule they get, and this year that can mean having a class on one side of the building, having their locker on the other side, and then all the way back to the other side of the building is our next class. We should have at least one warning of being late before getting handed a red slip because there are those occasional times where just everything goes wrong. We leave a book, our locker won’t open, we get stuck in non-moving hallway jams, or we get stuck in the bathroom. So as you can see this new schedule has some issues, but its nothing that can’t be fixed. Allowing backpacks and relaxing the tardy policy would be two great steps to start.

Cheerleaders seem to be very well into their job as representing MMS. They are cheering and flipping and yelling all over the place. Everyone works hard but they want to enjoy MMS cheerleading while they still can especially for the 8th graders. A lot of students here at MMS are focusing on how they are going to continue their cheerleading career, but school work is also important to the cheerleaders.

It seems like cheering really helps you stay in shape. Being fit is important because you have to stay in shape so you can flip, do splits, and other things. A lot of girls prefer basketball and cheerleading, because they are most common sports. Cheerleaders are always on time to practice and always on task. Their job is to be a good cheerleader and represent their school.

“Presenting 2010’s Mustang volleyball team!”

The coaches are Coach Vickery and Coach Hamrick. The first step to a winning team is selecting the players. They determine the players by judging them from six categories- bumping, setting, spiking, serving, sportsmanship, and coachability. Based on these six categories, they rate them 1-5. Then they choose the twelve players with the highest scores. They look for an all around athlete and someone willing to help out “not so good” players, according to the six categories above. The players are taught team skills and how to work together. “There is no I in team”, as Coach Vickery says.

One thing that he hates about volleyball is cut day. He wishes that everyone could be on the team and that makes it difficult to choose the twelve players. However this year he thinks that the team is one of the best in ten years and looks forward to sharing in their success.

Thank you for all the Mustangs that came out and did their best.