A new assistant principal has just come to Springville Junior High School. Mr. B.J. Wright was assigned to come to SJHS by BYU. He has taught third and sixth grade at Wilson Elementary School in Payson. According to Mr. Wright, he had the opportunity to be an intern principal at Riverview Elementary in Spanish Fork, as well as Lehi High School, in addition to here at SJHS.
Did you ever wonder how the journalism class writes their articles? At Springville Junior High School, we have a school newspaper. That’s thanks to Ms. Tiffanie Miley, teacher of the journalism class at SJHS. The journalism class is in charge of writing articles and taking pictures for the newspaper. Ms. Miley created the system used to write an article. If the articles are well-written enough, they can be entered into the Springville Independent News, and maybe published in the next issue. Here’s how journalism students a journalism article.First, the student starts out with a brainstorm. They figure out what they already know, what they need to know, and who they can interview.
On the morning of April 5, Springville Junior High’s eighth-grade Chamber Orchestra students were practicing with the New Horizons orchestra at Springville High School. The New Horizons orchestra is composed of older adults that are just learning to play string instruments.The concert followed that very night at 7:30. First up was the Chamber Orchestra, then New Horizons. After that they played a couple of numbers together.
This annual concert was conducted by Dr. Sam Tsugawa and Mr. Andrew Dabczynski. Dr. Andrew Dabczynski is Professor of Music Education and director at BYU; he is also co-author of “String Explorer,” a musical theory book used by SJHS orchestra students.
Springville Junior High School has a Chinese class. The class is for eighth and ninth graders only. According to Bethany Allen, ninth grader at SJHS, everyday when class starts, the “president” of the class, goes and rings the gong. Everybody bows, then they say, “lao-shi-hao”, which means “good morning teacher” in Chinese. Then everybody sits down. Bethany said, “I like being in the Chinese class because who else can say, ‘I know Chinese’?” Hannah Bray, ninth grader at SJHS, said, “I like the Chinese class because we do lots of cultural stuff, we eat food, and have parties!”
As spring break drew closer, students and staff at Springville Junior High started planning on what to do for the week long break. “This year I went to Bear Lake with all of my husband’s family,” said Mrs. Koriane Maughan, English and dance teacher here at SJHS. “We went swimming, golfing, and played games.”
Spring break was on Monday April 9th and continued through the rest of that week. It ended on Friday, April 13th. According to Taylor Stubblefield, an eighth grader here at SJHS, her favorite memory from spring break is camping. “Swimming and camping are my favorite things about spring break,” said Taylor.
Students at Springville Junior High School attended the State Archery Competition in Salt Lake City during the month of February. The competition was held February 11,2012 in a grand hall at the Salt Palace. According to Mrs.Kelly Anderson, P.E. teacher at SJHS, this was the first year SJHS was able to attend a state competition for archery. “Over 200 students statewide went, 17 from our school, and it was killer fun!” said Mrs.Anderson.
On March 9th, 2012, SJHS students attended the State Future Farmers of America (FFA) convention in Richfield, Utah. At the convention, the FFA had a science fair. All of the FFA members participated in the science fair, including Andalyn Hall, a ninth grader at Springville Junior High School.
Andalyn’s science fair project tested alpaca fibers (hair). She tested how alpaca fibers grow stronger or weaker over time and with age. After much research and hard work, Andalyn presented her science project, and she won! She was up against ten students and took first out of her category. “She was happy!” said Mrs. Giffing, the agricultural science teacher here at SJHS.
Front, left to right: Becca Bertlesen, Kate Kelly, and Ezra Hopate.Back, left to right: Jed Barker, Mr. Hansen, Spencer Gwillian, Andrew Gwillian, Brandon Merkley, Studebaker, Sarah Clark, Rebecca Morrison, and Ms. Beddes.
***************************************
Each month the Springville Junior High School faculty and staff selects six students, a boy and a girl from each grade, to be the Super Knights for that month. In February, Sam Graves and Sarah Clark were named the ninth-grade Super Knights, Wyatt LeFevre and Sarah Emmett were named the eighth-grade Super Knights, and Salvador Juarez and Alisa Boyer were named the seventh-grade Super Knights.
If you ever walk into the band room at Springville Junior High School during first period, you might hear the eighth-grade band playing a medley of songs from the Disney movie Tarzan. Mr. David Booth, the band teacher at SJHS, said, “The eighth-grade band is doing a most excellent job on the Tarzan piece. It's a very exciting piece of music with a lot of percussion.” Some of the percussion consists of a snare drum, timpanis, a xylophone, and even a trash can. The band students seem to enjoy the piece. Chase Kimball, a trombonist in the band, really likes the song. He said, “It’s a hard piece, but we’re handling it well.”
