Here at Springville Junior High School, students get to spread the love for Valentines Day with Valegrams! A Valegram is a little note students can send to each other in honor of Valentines Day! Students have their choice of sending a romantic flower or a candy and a note. “They were sold outside of the cafeteria at lunchtime and would be delivered to the receiving student’s period right after lunch,” said Mrs. Bird, the service learning teacher at SJHS. “Anyone could buy them for that special someone, “Gregg Davis, a ninth grade student at SJHS, said.

Missed a lot of school and need to make up PE credit?  Almost everyday SJHS holds an extra-curricular activity know as Intramurals that students can attend, to make up their PE credit.  Intramurals are held from 2:45 to 3:45 in the girls gym every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday after school.

Not only do they get to make up credit for PE, but they can also get extra credit while playing the sports that you love.  Mrs. Maughan, a pre-algebra teacher at SJHS, is one of the teachers that volunteered to help out and supervise the activities after school.  Mrs. Maughan says, “It is a really fun job, because I either get to watch students play sports, or I get to join them myself!”

Spring is coming and along with it so is track. Track will start on Monday, March 21st. If you are a student with a GPA higher than a 2.0 you can join track. On Tuesday, March 8th the school will hold a meeting explaining track and what you can do. At the meeting you will get forms that you and your parents will sign giving you permission to join track. There is also a fee that you will have to pay of $35.

In Mr. Mikesell’s seventh grade English class at SJHS, the students are creating hero reports. All the seventh graders pick a hero, or someone who means a lot to them, and then present an oral report to the class about their hero.  Reports took place on Friday, February 25, giving each student about five minutes to explain about their hero to the class. Chris Luther, a seventh grader at SJHS, chose Tom Cruise for a hero. Chris said, “I chose Tom because he is awesome, and I was excited to tell people just how amazing Tom Cruise is.”

Recently, P.E. students have entered the world of pickleball. Pickleball was created during the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island on a short ferry ride from Seattle WA. According to inventors, U.S. Congressman Joel Pritchard, William Bell, and Barney McCallum, the original purpose of the game was to provide a sport for the entire family. Mrs. Anderson, girls P.E. teacher, said, “It’s been played here at this school for as long as I can remember. So for at least 30 years.”

Seventh graders at Springville Junior High took a dive into the work field on February 4th, which was Job Shadow Day. Job Shadow Day is a day where kids can pick an inspiring adult they know and go to work with and to learn about that adult's career. The purpose of Job Shadow Day is to help the seventh graders decide on their future careers. Mrs. Hales, a seventh-grade CTE teacher, explained why she liked Job Shadow Day, “It gives the students an experience in the work field that they normally wouldn’t get.”

The new kids on the block are Gregg Davis (president), Samantha Child (vice president), Marissa Carpenter (vice president), Haleigh Payne  (vice president).  Are all ninth-grade students at SJHS on the student  council.

At the beginning of the new semester, the new student council took over the responsibilities that the former student council was in charge of. The former student council is still helping  the new student council with dances and other major events that require more help than just four people; but the new student council are the ones most involved in the activities they are participating in.

Photo caption: The winter semester journalism class:  Front row, left to right:  Anna Bunnell, Joee Lowe, Sarah Clark, Hollie Coulon, and Whitley Hicken.  Middle row, left to right: Stacy Stapel, Ali Earnshaw, and Kira Craig.  Back row, left to right: Renae Lovelace, Annee Lange, Kylee Jensen, Mckenzie Reidhead, Tiare Spencer, Klade Smith, and Camilla Dunn.  Not pictured: Ashlan Kendall.

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On February 4, 2011 in Mr. Shields’s eighth-grade U.S. History class, students had the chance to experience the voting process that is used when electing U.S. presidents. But for this activity, they used the Super Bowl teams instead of presidential candidates. Here’s how it worked:  Each student drew a state out of a box with the number of electoral votes that state gets. Then they cast their vote on a ballet and passed it up their row. As Mr. Shields read the results, a student selected that state on the projected map and changed it to blue or red, depending on what team the students in class voted for.

t the beginning of January, Honors Orchestra performed a spectacular show.  Honors Orchestra is where a group of more advanced students from the junior high schools in the Nebo School District come together and perform a concert.  They played all types of music; this last time they played classical songs, a lullaby, a fiddle song, and even a rock song. 

Honors Orchestra isn’t only for the best musicians; this time it was who wanted to.  “The music in Honors Orchestra was a little bit harder then normal orchestra, but it was hard because you had to learn the music at home.  And we only had two practices with the whole orchestra, and then a performance,” said Michelle Welch, ninth grader.