December 2011

Photography is a one-semester class taught by Mr. Mitch Cudney. Photography takes place during sixth period. Mr. Cudney said he hopes to “get students excited about taking photographs” through this class. 

According to Sarah Mitchell, an eighth grader at SJHS, she likes photography because she likes the assignments that they get, and she enjoys taking pictures. Sarah said other kids in her class seem like they enjoy being part of photography.

On November 4, 2011, the students at SJHS attended an assembly for their Super Knights. During the assembly, a dance class performed and the 4H drama club performed for the rest of the student body. Mr. Ken Van Ausdal, SJHS principal, came up with the idea to give out Super Knight awards, and it started this year.

       Mrs. Diane Bird, the clothing teacher at SJHS, is doing a sewing club during Quest Time.  During this time, students are making sling bags that tie at the shoulder. According to Mrs. Bird, she started the sewing club so all the students could participate in sewing, even if they could not get the clothing class in their schedule.   Shaylee Ferran, seventh grader at SJHS, said, “I like sewing club because I like learning how to sew different things.”

Ms. Jennifer Dunn, a new English teacher at Springville Junior High School, has always wanted to be a teacher. When she was really little, she would play school with her brothers and sisters and their stuffed animals, and she was always the teacher.  Three out of her four grandparents were teachers, and her dad is a professor at BYU. Ms. Dunn has always thought that education is very important. If she wasn’t an English teacher, then she would definitely want to teach history. She has always loved studying history; she is big into World War II.

Mr. David Hansen’s eighth-grade U.S. History class had taken step back from learning about the colonies to learn bout the stock market. “It’s important to learn about stock market because the stock market is the foundation of America’s economy,” said Mr. Hansen.  

Mr. Hansen and his student teacher, Ms. Megan Cadworth, put together a simulation to show how the stock market works. Mr. Hansen gave the students fake paper money and then let the students decide if they wanted to buy stocks or not. “I bought five stocks and I thought I would do ok, but in the end I lost a lot of money,” said Haylee Markham, an eighth grader at SJHS.

Mr. Shawn Hatfield will soon have been teaching at Springville Junior High for 20 years. He teaches science enrichment, eighth grade science, and biology, and has also taught a computer multimedia class in the past. According to Mr. Hatfield, junior high students are very hard to teach but also very fun to teach, because they still like a lot of things about school and are willing to learn. 

Mr. Hatfield likes teaching a lot.  He said, “[teaching junior high is] the best job I’ve ever had.” The reasons he enjoys teaching have changed over the years, but mostly he enjoys watching students learn. He said he likes teaching all grades, because “Each grade has something special to offer.”