October 13, 2017, Seymour High School’s first quarter ended. That means that students have gone through nine weeks of school, and are halfway done to completing a semester. Students have been working hard the past nine weeks, some are relieved to have a fresh start with their grades. Montana Suits, a sophomore says, “I like having new grades every nine weeks because if you have a bad part of the nine weeks, you can get a better grade the second nine weeks and that will average out instead of keeping the bad grade the whole semester.”

Students have a chance to choose three “elective” classes. The classes that students must take to graduate are English, science, math, three years of history, and one semester of health. Different diplomas have different requirements, but the rest of the classes are free to fill with “electives” such as band, art, theatre, newspaper, choir, foreign language, and many other options. Bryanna Bailey, a freshman says, “I recommend taking band and theatre arts. You form bonds that you normally would have the chance to have. It’s kind of like having a whole other family.”

After the first quarter, students begin to get in the hang of their classes. They learn the expectations, homework load, and their goals. “My goals for this quarter are to get A’s and B’s and to try to get all my credits for all the classes I am taking in order to graduate junior year.” says Megan Lake. Other students may have goals to improve themselves emotionally, or mentally.

Every semester students will receive a new schedule for their classes. Students will receive a new schedule in about 8 weeks time. Most students will have the same classes for one year but a different time slot for each class. Devin Beddoe says, “Classes this year are different from last year. Some are better than last year, but some of them are a little harder.” Each year students will have more opportunities and possibly harder classes. Classes can get better or worse, but the work will pay off.