On October 7, Mrs. Toni Boyer Zundel, a professional author, came to Ms. Rachel Neeley’s Creative Writing class. Mrs. Boyer talked to the class about how she got published and what it takes to be an author. Ms. Neeley said, “I thought it would be great for my students to hear from a person who actually accomplished what so many of them want to accomplish.”
This year something new is coming to Springville Junior High; it is the math core. According to Mrs. Corrin Gleave, math teacher at SJHS, this new core will be a good change for the school. “We used to teach by subject; algebra, geometry, algebra. Compare that to teaching a basketball unit in PE, then a football unit, then a baseball unit. That was the old core. The new core teaches by concept. Think teaching a unit on throwing ball; throwing a basketball, then a football, then a baseball. Now move onto catching. Learn to catch a basketball, then a football, then a baseball, everything is still there—it is just reordered and re-packaged.”
The Springville Junior High School creative writing class recently wrote children's stories. Students learned how to write to a specific audience, and in this case, it was children. Ms. Rachel Neeley, creative writing and English teacher at SHJS, said, “I am having students write children's book because it is fun and a good way to review all the elements of plot.”
This year Springville junior High School P.E. students are learning new sports like archery. The boys and girls P.E. classes are going co-ed for a little while where the boys and girls work together with archery and frisbee golf. The P.E. classes started both sports around the end of September and are finishing some time in October.
Mr. Ken Van Ausdal, principal of SJHS, asked Mrs. Anderson, girls P.E. teacher, and Mr. Parker, boys P.E. teacher, what new sports they would like to teach. Mrs. Anderson chose archery and Mr. Parker chose frisbee golf. Mrs. Anderson said, “I like archery because you can do it at any age.” Mrs. Anderson also said, “I still do archery.”
This year at Springville Junior High School a new elective is the dance class with Mrs. Koriane Maughan. According to Mrs. Maughan, the dance class should perform in front of the school because it is a good and fun experience for the students. The dance class will be performing one dance choreographed by Mrs. Maughn to the song, “You Make Me Feel,” by Cobra Starship, in an assembly sometime in December.
Dance students like Katie Meyers, ninth grader at SJHS, are both excited and nervous to perform in front of the school because, she loves to dance but doesn’t want to fall on her face. She also said that dance class is really fun and she likes to make a fool out of herself while she dances!
Mr. Greg Shields has been teaching at Springville Junior High School for five years, but this will be his 25th year as a teacher. He has also taught for seven years at TH Bell Jr. High in Ogden, Utah. Then he taught at Morgan High School in Morgan, Utah, for eight years. Then Payson Junior High for five years. So how did Mr. Shields end up here at SJHS?
As most students at Springville Junior High know, Quest Time is an extra period between third and fourth period to give students with deficient grades extra help. Quest Time was established two years ago by Mr. Darrell Rolfe, former principal of Springville Junior High, and the Quest Time Committee, which consists of the following faculty members at SJHS: Mr. Trent Mikesell, Mrs. Corrin Gleave, Mrs. Josie Hales, and Ms. Diane Hamilton. Quest Time was put into action last year. Since Mr. Rolfe had left the school, Mr. Van Ausdal, who had become principal of SJHS, was responsible for getting Quest Time started.
On a day like any other at Springville Junior High School, Mrs. Diane Bird, a sewing teacher, starts the first assignment in her eighth-grade sewing classes to make pajama pants. She has two classes with about 25 students in each class. Her two classes have worked on their projects for about six days now and are starting to finish their masterpieces.
Three weeks ago Mr. Shawn Hatfield, a science teacher at SHJS, gave his science enrichment students an exciting assignment. The students had to come up with unique ways to cushion an egg while it fell from the top of the school's roof. This thrilling experiment came in three parts. While participating in this project, Mr. Hatfield's students learned about force and movement, and how to problem solve. In the first experiment, the students used a container eight inches or less and anything that wasn’t a liquid or a substance like peanut butter substance to keep the egg from cracking. The second experiment was the same except that the students had to make a container five inches or less.
Recently, the company Blendtec donated eight blenders to the Springville Junior High School’s foods class. But they didn’t donate to just Springville Junior High, they donated blenders to all the secondary schools in Utah County. Caitlin Dinkle, ninth grade student at SJHS, and her dad, Ken, brought them in one day and now the foods class uses them almost everyday.
