Student Life
Security cameras to be installed at RCMS
Security cameras are scheduled to be installed by fall 2022 at Rachel Carson Middle School, and some students are happy about this advancement while others are wary. Following the plan, 50 interior cameras and 17 exterior cameras will be installed. The interior cameras will be placed in the hallways of the school and will not…
New rules for recess revealed
The rules for how RCMS is going to implement recess into school starting next school year have been announced. Recess will be implemented into a specific period and will be 15 minutes long at a minimum. Due to a no phone policy that is being voted on in the summer of 2022, phone usage will…
A musical journey
Whether she is vigorously rehearsing beautiful pieces of music or attempting to devour seven tacos in 12 minutes, Mrs. Devyn Grimes shows the students of RCMS that orchestra is never a dull place to be. Mrs. Grimes is an orchestra teacher at Carson who strives to create a productive and enjoyable environment for her students…
Carson team wins awards at TechMUN conference hosted by TJHSST
RCMS’s Model United Nations delegates won several awards while participating in the annual TechMUN conference on May 13 at Thomas Jefferson High School. “I was looking forward to attending the conference for a long time and was very excited as I knew it would be a good experience for me,” said Aarna Bhamidipati, an eighth-grader…
Hundreds walk out in remembrance of Texas shooting victims
Approximately 400 RCMS students participated in a walkout on May 27 to honor the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting. They gathered on the blacktop where they stood for 21 minutes — one minute for each life lost. Many of the students also chose to bring signs and posters to the blacktop, wanting to…
FACS: Food for Thought
“I always tell my kids one day you will move out, will have a roommate and you will need to learn how to do these things yourself,” said Mrs. Rachel Arculin, the RCMS FACS Teacher. FACS, or Family And Consumer Sciences, is a class that has been taught in schools since the nineteenth century. It…
Celebrating 20 years of teaching with Mrs. Guild
“When I first started teaching, we had to go to a computer lab,” Mrs. Carrie Guild, history teacher for the All Stars team, laughed. “There were no laptops, kids didn’t have phones, there were no iPads.” Mrs. Guild began teaching in 2002 at Sandburg Middle School. She taught there for two years before moving to…
A year to celebrate
After the first full in-person academic year since 2019, the school year is finally coming to an end. To conclude the year, Rachel Carson Middle School is hosting multiple end-of-the-year celebration activities to congratulate students on the hard work and determination they put into finishing this year on a high note. The celebration consists of…
The Game of Learning
In FCPS, schools have started using laptops and teachers have adapted to using online learning tools to engage students. According to an anonymous poll, the most popular learning tools were Kahoot and Quizlet mostly because of their user-friendly interface. Commonly used ones were Kahoot, Quizlet, Gimkit, Blooket, Mathspace, NoRedInk, Desmos, Socrative, Quizizz, and Quizlet Live. …
Ukraine Chess Charity seen as huge success
RCMS had a full parking lot on May 14, as an unusual amount of visitors for a Saturday crowded inside the building to wait for the tournament to begin; in the cafeteria, which was filled to the brim with enthusiastic students and parents, organizers of RCMS’ Ukraine Chess Charity gave an opening speech and thanked…
Music students will attend the Busch Gardens trip for the first time in 2 years
The music students of RCMS who have purchased tickets will be attending a full-day field trip at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg on June 3 after a two-year break due to COVID. Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, is a 383-acre, European-themed amusement park located in James City County, Virginia. It’s split into mini villages: Oktoberfest, Germany, New France, France,…
The journey behind sending students on a field trip
As in-person school has returned, so have field trips, but not all classes will go. The decision to go on a field trip is dependent upon teachers, and many choose not to due to the immense planning required, as well as the possible time conflicts it could have within a school day. Many popular electives,…