“Reading is the process of constructing meaning,” said Mrs. Mary Rice, an English teacher at SJHS.  Oftentimes, students feel they are able to get more meaning out of a book when they are able to read books within a group. This is one reason why Mrs. Rice’s ninth grade English classes are reading Dracula and Ivanhoe in groups.  The classes have studied the basic themes of both books, and will soon be splitting in to two groups, (with one group reading Dracula, and another reading Ivanhoe).  Although the students are only picking one book to finish with the class, many of them are going to finish the other book on their own.

At Springville Junior High, students are having fun in cooking.  At the beginning of the term students got into small groups. After they are in their groups the whole class gets assigned something to cook. Then while they are in their groups they work together to cook it. According to Mrs. Natalie Luke, foods teacher at SJHS, foods is a really fun and exciting class where students can express themselves as they are cooking.

Three students in Springville Junior High’s service learning class have found a way to turn fundraising into a competition. Ninth-grade students Savannah Bowers, Jehni McNeil, and Bianca Caraveo have started a project to help raise money for the Central Bank Angel Tree, which will help families in need during the holiday season. At lunch, the servicing learning students set up a table with a jar for each grade. Each penny that students donate will count as a point for their grade. Nickels, dimes, quarters, and bills of any quantity may be placed in opposing grade’s jars as negative points. Whichever grade has the most points on Thursday, December 16th wins a movie party in the auditorium.

Model United Nations team has been a tradition at SJHS for many years. It is supervised by Mr. David Hansen, history teacher at SJHS, and Mrs. Lise Carpenter, science teacher at SJHS. In Model UN, the students represent a country and practice parliamentary procedures to find solutions to certain world issues. Model UN practices every Monday and Friday during Quest Time.

During the month of December, geometry students at Springville Junior High memorized formulas and got into the Christmas spirit by singing carols. These weren’t just the ordinary Christmas carols you hear on the radio. Before Christmas break, Mrs. Gleave, Algebra 1 and Geometry teacher, had geometry students create math Christmas songs.

Mrs. Gleave has had her classes carol for the past four years now.  Before that, she researched on the benefits of music in memorization. Mrs. Gleave decided inventing Christmas carols for math formulas and theorems would help students remember them better. And so the tradition was born. 

The first day of school started, and so did the journalism class, which is taught by Ms. Tiffanie Miley during sixth period.  They started to work on their first articles about a week in, after practicing to become the new journalism staff. Now it’s January and the journalism staff is about to leave and join new classes next semester.  “It's really sad to me. This is my second and final year as a journalist, and I've really enjoyed the class and the teacher,” said Cody Woolsey, ninth-grade student at SJHS.  After January 13th, most of the journalism students will not be taking the journalism class the next semester.  “I really enjoyed teaching this semester's journalism class.

As Christmas Break approached, students and teachers alike found ways to spread the Christmas spirit throughout Springville Junior High School. Mrs. Brenda Bales, school attendance secretary, found her own way to celebrate the holidays: she has decorated the office!

As soon as Thanksgiving break ended, Mrs. Bales and her teacher assistants (TA’s) quickly started putting up decorations around the office. Some of the decorations were: two decorative snowmen, a Christmas tree, and various snowflakes around the room. Mrs. Bales said, “The tree here was finished before my tree at home.”

At Springville Junior High, students are learning how to serve by interacting with first graders. Mrs. Diane Bird’s service learning class visits the first graders at Brookside Elementary every Monday during the service learning class period. This helps the class learn how to serve kids younger than themselves.

On Friday, December 12th, the eighth and ninth-grade choir students and the choir teacher, Mrs. Leslie Walker, went around to different elementary schools and sang Christmas songs.

The junior high choir students sang at Art City, Sage Creek, Brookside, Westside, and Cherry Creek Elementary Schools, but in the middle of the tour they stopped at the mall and had lunch. Josh Dalley, eighth grader at SJHS, said, “I enjoyed it because it was really fun!”

Students in the Springville Junior High sewing and clothing class are now making Haan Crafts. Haan Crafts are a fancy name for different types kits you get to make stuffed animals and/or pillows and blankets. If students are in a sewing or clothing class, they have the opportunity to make these kits.

Students at SJHS had lots of choices on what they wanted to make. “I wanted to make a soccer ball, and they looked fun!” said Ashley Cutler, an eighth grader a SJHS.