October 2014

If you are in eighth grade and singing is your passion, then you should definitely take Master Singers. Master Singers is the ninth grade choir class at SJHS. You get to learn songs, sight read, sing in harmony, and learn all about music. Also, if you take Master Singers, you will have a better chance at getting into high school choir programs. Tristan McAfee, a Master Singer, said that she likes choir because she can hang out with fellow singers.   

“I love Master Singers!” said Benton Aegerter, another Master Singer, “It’s fun to be able to sing and socialize in class.”

These past few weeks Mr. Shields, a history teacher, has been busy. He has had to teach his eighth grade history students all the names of the states. To help them with that, they played a little game quite similar to ‘‘Around the World’’. Each student would take a turn standing up to compete against another student while Mr. Shields pointed to a state shown on the projector. Whoever said the name of the state first, won and moved on. This game lasted for about one week. Mr. Shields finally narrowed it down to his “sweet sixteen,” as there were only sixteen contestants left. They were: Brinlee Paystrup, Natalya Love, Aydan Marshall, Tani Foster, Trevor Ollerton, Katie Britt, T.J.

“The journalism class was created to give students real-life writing opportunities and to inform people about what goes on at Springville Junior High School.  Journalism is a unique class where students have an audience of more than just their teacher and classmates; the audience is all of the students and parents at our school and anyone who visits our school website.  It is a great opportunity for our students to get published at such a young age,” said Ms. Miley, an assistant principal and former journalism teacher. The journalism class has been around for at least 15 years and has been taught by three teachers before Ms. Dunn, the current journalism teacher. Ms.

The hard working ladies in the cafeteria are absolutely amazing! They work especially hard to put breakfast and lunch on the table for the kids at Springville Jr. High. “The best part is feeding the hungry children,” said Mrs. Messick, the SJHS lunch secretary. 

The ladies begin to make lunch at 8:00 a.m and have it ready by lunch time. They also have a food delivery at 5:30 a.m every other day.

Mrs. Chappell, the manager, has been here for 10 years and likes her job. She enjoys working with all of the great ladies.

Along with a new SJHS, the Springville Community got a lot of new students! For the last few weeks of school, they have adapted to this new school. But these students are not just seventh graders, they are eighth graders, and ninth graders too!

“This school is pretty cool, and it feels awesome to be one of the first students in this school,” said Logan Herrick, a seventh grade student at SJHS.

“This school is a lot different than others, and it’s a good different, and being in a new school is just like being in a normal school,” said Carter Shepherd, a eighth grade transfer from Mapleton.

Springville Junior High School has a photography class taught by Mrs. Wallace, the art teacher at SJHS. 

On September 23 and 25, there were two people who came to Springville Junior High School to give information about their career and what it takes to do their job.  They were part of the Windows to the Workplace series presented by the counseling office.

Lisa King, a pet groomer at Petsmart in Orem, came to SJHS on September 23 for Windows to the Workplace.  Mrs. Distefano, a counselor at SJHS, said, “She did really good  and she was really entertaining.  She also talked about what pet groomers do for their education and their salary.”  According to Mrs.Distefano her favorite part was that Ms.King kept the kids entertained.               

 At SJHS students cannot sign up for the Film Studies class fast enough.  Ms. McBride, the Film Studies teacher, has almost a completely full class to teach for a semester.  “This class is for eighth and ninth graders. It’s a semester-long class, and I’m glad I get to teach this class because it is a lot of fun,”  said Ms. McBride.

The materials learned in the class are film techniques, adaptations and patterns in movies and stories.  The class has read and watched the Night at the Museum, The Lorax, and Matilda so far.  Some projects students get to do are make storyboards and write screenplays for stories.

Ms. Brennan, a history teacher, made Utah Studies exciting on September 10. She brought in candy to represent different landmarks in Utah. The class had already been trying to memorize this information, but Ms. Brennan knew from personal experience that sometimes memorization comes easier if food is involved. She said, “In the seventh grade I had to make a cell out of a sugar cookie, frosting, and use candy to represent the different parts of the cell. To this day I still remember all the parts of a cell because of that activity, so I thought it would be a fun way for my students to remember the geography of Utah.”

The drama class at Springville Jr. High is a new class. The teacher, Ms. Clement, is also new here; she was and still is a teacher at Mapleton Jr. High. 

According to Kaitlyn Gee, a student at SJHS, she said that when she walks into drama she feels like a different person. Mayzie Brunson, also a student at SJHS, said when she walks into that class she can be fun and act like a crazy person. 

Kaitlyn said that they have written a play. They also have been learning how to look like they are hitting, punching, and kicking. Mayzie said that they have been playing fun games and have written a script.