The SJHS Mission statement mentions that the students will be “responsible citizens” to help that happen, Mr. David Hansen’s Government and Law class has set up Peer Court. As the Springville Junior High School Handbook reads, “A Peer Court will be created as part of a Government and law class to give students the opportunity to be involved in addressing and enforcing school policy.”
Intramurals has started off with a bang! Students are playing pickleball, badminton, volleyball, basketball, and even indoor soccer at SJHS. Students come into the boys' or girls' gym on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 2:45 PM to 3:45 PM in order to participate in intramurals. All types of teachers host different sports for different days; intramurals are a way to get exercise and make up absences in P.E., jogging, body conditioning, and aerobic conditioning.
“Science Fiction Club is a place for students who have an interest in science fiction to come and share their interests with others,” said Mr. Sam Dahl, science teacher at Springville Junior High School. That’s right, there is a sci-fi Quest Time activity!
The sci-fi class is held every Tuesday during Quest Time in Mr. Dahl’s class room- upstairs in room number 73. In the sci-fi class, students watch sci-fi movies like ‘Contact,’ read science fiction stories, listen to old radio broadcasts like ‘War of the Worlds,’ and even write their own science fiction stories.
The winter months are coming yet again for Springville Junior High, and all over Springville. The leaves are brown and gone, and snow is starting to fall. Many people like winter, and some also very strongly dislike it.
Katie Liddiard, eighth grader, said, “[I don’t like winter because] it makes me stiff, and it hurts.” But Brittney Metler, another eighth grader at SJHS, likes winter a lot because, “Then you can have a snowball fight, make a snowman, go skiing, and my favorite, snowboarding.”
Cells are the basic unit of life. So, in biology, a class during first through third period at SJHS that focuses on living organisms and they way they work, cells are one of the first and most important things students learn about. Unfortunately, many students feel they are also one of the most difficult subjects to learn about. Mr. Shawn Hatfield, the biology teacher at SJHS, has come with several ways students can memorize the complex organelles inside of cells. One of these ways is drawing them.
Mr. Trent Mikesell, an English and creative writing teacher at SJHS, and his class learned about one of the Jewish ceremonies, the Passover on November 19, 2010. The Passover is a holiday that celebrates the freedom of Jewish people from Egyptian bondage during the time of Moses. “We read The Devil’s Arithmetic. In the book, they celebrate Passover and then it talks quite a bit about the celebration,” Mr. Mikesell said, “The best way to help the students learn about it is through activity, instead of just talking about it.”
Football season has ended and the leaves have started to fall, which means one thing, basketball season! The team is coached by Mr.
This year Mr. Trent Mikesell, seventh-grade English teacher, is also teaching creative writing. In creative writing, one of the many types of writing the students are learning about are parodies. Parodies are basically when you make fun of something. Mr. Mikesell gave the students different things they could write about, and they wanted to write parodies. Mr. Mikesell, said, “Parodies are generally funny, and I wanted the humor.”
Mr. Mikesell, said, “I am excited to see what the students do. We watched several parodies, and read several examples of parodies.” The students can write about whatever they want. Some people are making fun of celebrities, and some are making fun of fairy tales.
Mrs. Trish Nielson is a world geography and history teacher at Springville Junior High School. She was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in Kingwood, Texas. She went to an elementary school, and then later a middle school, called Kingwood Middle School. At that school, she was the mascot (which was a cougar) for sporting events. She would wear the cougar costume with pride and would have fun getting the crowd rallied up for the schools’ teams. When she was older, she attended Kingwood High School, whose mascot was the Mustangs.
Students at Springville Junior High School who participate in the Honors English class will read many different pieces of literature throughout the school year. The book they are currently reading called Elantris.
“In class, students researched Elantris, along with other titles, and then gave speeches on behalf of it as well as other books. When we finally voted, Elantris was one of the books selected,” said Mrs. Mary Rice, the Honor’s English teacher at SJHS. All the books that the students are going to read this year were selected by a democratic vote by the students at the beginning of the year. Research was done on these books beforehand so the students knew what to expect from the books.
