November 2011

Ms. Jennifer Dunn, seventh-grade English teacher, is now holding a Harry Potter Trivia during Quest Time in room 54 on Thursdays! Ms. Dunn is a huge Harry Potter fan. When she noticed lots of her students reading the books, she thought that a Harry Potter trivia was something a lot of students would enjoy.  Ms. Dunn asks a question and then whoever raises their hand first, or hasn’t answered very many questions, gets to answer, and if they get it right then they get a piece of candy.

Sadie Clark, a seventh grader at SJHS, exclaimed, “I enjoy going and like getting a piece of candy!” According to Ms. Dunn, students really enjoy it and there’s a lot of laughter during the game.

Each Friday during Quest Time, a 20 minute period during the day, Ms. Rachel Neeley, an English teacher at Springville Junior High, holds a karaoke party in her classroom for any students that don’t have deficient grades.  Ms. Neeley said, ”The students enjoy singing, dancing, and having fun.”

According to Ms. Neeley, the students like choosing popular musical hits from today.  According to Kate Galbraith and Abby Coleman, two seventh- grade girls, there are also popular songs from the past.  They like going to karaoke because you can just have fun and hang out.

On October 26th at Springville Junior High School, the seventh-grade pod attended a celebration assembly.  A pod is a group of students who are taught by the same teachers; in this case those teachers are Ms. Tiffanie Miley and Ms. Rachel Neeley, English teachers, Mr. David Kindrick, science teacher, and Mrs. Angel Nilson, pre-algebra teacher. Ms. Neeley said, “I really like the pods. I think it is good for the students to stay together for part of the day.”

The assembly was a boys vs. girls assembly to have fun and celebrate a celebration of the term. The teachers kept points by playing games and having relays.  Ms. Miley said, “I think the kids had a lot of fun at the assembly.” 

Springville Junior High School has many cheerleaders in the student body.  Girls from seventh to ninth grade can sign up for the opportunity to cheer for football teams. Seventh graders cheer for either Rotary Mustangs or S.O.S Drug Bears, eighth graders cheers for either Quality cleaner Vikings or Reams Badgers, and all ninth graders cheer for Springville High Schol freshmen Red Devils.       

Springville Junior High School took a jump into learning this year by combining English, history, and science into an intertwined system called the pod. Mrs. Elizabeth Bass, English teacher, said, “The major purpose of the pods is to provide a small-school, student-centered environment that allows students to feel a part of something.” 

Here at Springville Junior High School the Hope Squad is helping students with problems like depression, bullying, and making friends. One of the ways the Hope Squad helps is through the buddy box. 

The Springville Junior High School choir will be performing a candlelight concert for parents on Friday, December ninth at 7:30. Mrs. Leslie Walker, SJHS choir teacher, said,“It’s a very nice concert because we honor people who have given service to the school and to the community.”

The Master Singers, who are ninth graders, will be singing five songs. The Journeymen, who are eighth graders, will also be singing five songs. The Knightingales, who are eighth-graders, will be singing four songs. The Master Singers and the Journeymen will be singing three songs together.

Mr.Mitch Cudney, the art and photography teacher at SJHS, is letting imagination and creativity be expressed through the hands in his sculpting class.  For one of these sculpture projects, the students had to sculpt a humanistic head out of clay.  However, according to Mr. Cudney, there is a process you go through before you start sculpting.  Mr. Cudney said, “The students will sketch out their sculpture, get ideas from other artists, and create an original design.”

On October 27, Brian Smith, or “the man” as lots of kids call him, came to SJHS to teach kids about how to make Japanese food.  Brian is related to Mrs. Luke, the foods teacher at SJHS, and so she was really happy to see him again. Brian spent two years in Japan, and he LOVES to cook Japanese food. It’s his seventh year coming to teach kids how to cook. He has been teaching ninth graders only, but two years ago, he started to teach eighth graders too.  He has taught them how to make salads and salad dressings.  He also taught them about fruits and other healthy foods.

The journalism class at Springville Jr. High School is an elective class for students who like to write. The journalism students write articles about junior high happenings and spotlight articles about members of the SJHS community.