Introduction

There exist many unexplainable phenomena in the world: the Bermuda Triangle, the strange beauty of a Lunar Eclipse, the incredible popularity and critical acclaim of the Avengers franchise despite the fact that all Marvel movies are utter garbage. Today, I will attempt to do the unthinkable and explain one previously thought unexplainable phenomena: the East High School freshman.

Now, what is a freshman? Obviously, as a senior, I have absolutely no idea. So, in the spirit of academic pursuit I decided to go to the foremost authority on freshman antics and problems: teachers. I figured, as some teachers often spend almost all of their time with freshmen, they would be able to offer me some insight and some of their observations on the life of a freshman.

Tips and Tricks for Staying Organized

One thing that all of the teachers I interviewed seemed to agree on was that the switch from Fugett to East was a challenging one for our freshmen friends. As the experienced psychology teacher and certified funny man Dr. Jones told me:

“I think one of the things that is a struggle for freshmen is that… much more of the learning is put on them. In middle school… they’re kind of handheld… and then you get to ninth grade and the expectation is that you need to be responsible for your own self and your own learning. Learning that responsibility is sometimes a struggle for ninth graders.”

Of course teachers are not blind to this fact, and a lot of teachers do attempt to help their students adjust to this unfamiliar environment. Ms. Robinson, a math teacher here at East, explained to me that for a lot of freshmen, a real source of the transition adversity were somewhat new concepts such as paying attention to deadlines and submitting things on time. Thankfully though, some of the seniors I talked to were able to offer some of their tips and recommendations for staying on top of their ever increasing workload.

Senior Tip #1: Use a Planner

A lot of seniors stressed the benefits of handwriting things and having physical copies of calendars and schedules to write down assignment due dates, test dates, or college application deadlines. You can buy some fabulous, stylish planners from Target for like ten bucks, or - if the color pink, cute cartoon animals, and hand-drawn fruit isn’t your vibe - you usually get a free planner that has school related decorations on it at the start of the school year from your homeroom teacher.

Senior Tip #2: Sticky Notes

If you didn’t know, Sticky Notes are a Windows program that allows you to create colorful, virtual Sticky Notes on your laptop. This is useful for keeping track of anything from homework to To-Do lists to the amount of wood you need to bring to Robin in order to upgrade to a Deluxe Coop in Stardew Valley because you brought the wrong amount yesterday and then she left her shop before you could buy the missing wood off of her and now it’s Tuesday and she decided to take the day off and now you have to wait a whole nother day just to upgrade your Coop to get the Rabbit’s Foot to finish the Community Center bundles and you got distracted thinking about Robin so you just accidentally gave Abigail clay instead of amethyst and it’s been a really long day and the sun is going down and it’s getting dark and cold- oh it’s so cold. And best of all, Sticky Notes come preinstalled on your school laptop!

Senior Tip #3: Schoology Calendar

We all probably know Schoology (the school’s hub for assignments and classes) as well as the calendar it creates for all of your assignments. Said calendar can be very helpful to keep track of when things are due as it will display for you exactly when assignments are due (down to the time) per the teacher’s input. Also, if you didn’t know, you can set each class to be a different color on your calendar to further help you.

Important Classes

There are hundreds of students at West Chester East High School. Coincidentally, there also happens to be many interesting classes for said students to take. When I interviewed seniors, I asked them what classes they thought were the most valuable and important to take. Some of the most mentioned ones included:

AP Psychology

By FAR, the most common response, AP Psychology is taught by the one and only Dr. Jones and delves into a variety of topics, most of which relate to human nature. Not only is the class incredibly informative and interesting, but all of the information learned in it can be applied to real life. Unfortunately however, AP Psych (as it is commonly referred to) is not available to freshmen at the moment.

Public Speaking

Are you afraid of presenting in front of the class? Does the idea of talking about something in front of a large group of people scare you? Well, as twenty-first century philosopher Soulja Boy once theorized:

“In this world you either crank that soulja boy or it cranks you.”

If that soulja boy is cranking you, and you are paralyzed by your fear of public speaking, look no further than Public Speaking 1 and 2! The class is led by the charismatic Mr. Lewis and will teach you everything you need to know about giving speeches and presentations as well as plenty of practice for each. And the best part? Public speaking is available to persons of all grades and ages!

AP Language and Composition

If AP Psychology will help you with your life outside of school, AP Language and Composition is probably the class that will help you the most in school. AP Lang and Comp will give you all the information you need to write good essays- a skill which is massively useful seeing as how every class past sophomore year pretty much requires you to be able to write extensively on a variety of topics. You can take AP Language and Composition starting in Junior Year.

Personal Finance

You love taxes. You love taxes. You love taxes. You love taxes. You love taxes. We all do. Why not further cultivate your love of adult things like budgeting, W2s, and I9s? Well, in Personal Finance you can do just that. This is probably one of the most important classes you can take in high school.

Being financially literate, being able to properly budget and plan where your money is going, and understanding how to file your taxes are skills that will help you survive over the age of eighteen. This class is especially important if you have a job and are getting paid; if you are employed, understanding where your taxes are going is an especially valuable skill.

Study Hall

Although having a study hall in your schedule might seem like an empty period or a waste of time, having at least one study hall in your schedule is super useful for having time to unwind and do some work. Forgot to do math homework last night? Now you have forty five minutes of prime time to figure out what Rolle’s Theorem is.

Ideal study hall times are second, third, and sixth periods. Also, if you don’t want to hang out in the cafeteria or in the dimly-lit and spooky auditorium, you can fill out a pass and hang out in the library. An added benefit of hanging out in the library is that if you befriend the librarians they might make you tea.

Intro to Food Preparation

Unbeknownst to but a select few in the student body, tucked away in an obscure little hallway, hidden in shadows and mystery: there is a class filled to the brim with life skills. A class that can teach you values that will be of utmost importance when you slip into the suburban domestic bliss associated with modern life. I’m not talking about AP Music Theory! It’s Intro to Food Preparation, the only class that gives you class.

In Intro to Food Prep you will learn to cook a variety of scrumptious dishes, tasty fishes, and challenging food… ishes. The recipes and skills you will be taught in this class are important to anyone planning on entering college soon. A reminder: as tasty as it may be, ramen is not very nutritious, and a diet based solely on Ramen and Ramen-products will not be very good for your pancreas.

Some other recommendations were to take lots of art classes and history classes.

More freshmen advice will be available in Part 2, which will be published in the next edition of the Norse Code!