SJHS gets festive when it comes to Christmas, even holding a dance celebrating Christmas to reward students for good behavior and attendance on Thursday, December 11.  According to Mrs. Distefano, a counselor at SJHS, the dance went well and she liked chaperoning, “I enjoyed chaperoning because I like to see students having fun in more of a social environment,” said Mrs. Distefano. “My favorite part of the evening was when the first slow song came on.”

Students also enjoyed the dance. “I like the dances because I get to hangout with friends and dance with babes,”  said Isaac Hodson, an eighth grade student at SJHS.  

This year at SJHS, we are having a Christmas door decoration contest. It was held between the third-period classes, who made the door decorations during class. 

“It is a good way to spread Christmas spirit in the school,” said Lexi Kearns, a ninth grade student at SJHS. 

“I think it’s fun because we don’t have any class during third period,” said Kaiden Exon, an eighth grade student at SJHS. Teachers also seem to like the contest too. 

“It is a fun way for students to be creative and have a good time,” said Ms. Neeley, a ninth grade English teacher at SJHS. 

The Latinos in Action has one job, to help. Last year, the Latinos In Action held a food drive. They did it again this year. “We did the food drive because we did it last year, and it worked,” said Angeles Gaitan, a ninth grade student at SJHS. “It also is a good way to help people out,” said Angeles. 

The food drive was also a competition, where the seventh period classes went for the most food donated. The winner, Mr. Taylor’s class, got a pizza party.

Baby week was December 1st-5th. All the students in the teen living class carried around a flour sack baby and had to care for it at school and at home. Ms. Murray, the teacher of Teen Living, said, in Teen Living, students learn about how to be a good friend, get along with and appreciate family members and your heritage, personality traits for yourself and others, dating, and sexual responsibility. “Students have to name their baby and clothe it with small blankets. The gender of the baby is drawn from a hat, to emulate the randomness of real baby genders. To care for the baby, the parents have to wake up at one in the morning and take care of the baby.”       

On November 21, 2014 the SJHS second Super Knight Assembly happened. The Super Knight Assembly’s purpose is to spotlight students for doing the school basics which are: being responsible citizens, successful learners, and effective communicators. 

According to Mr. VanAusdal, the principal  at SJHS, we have Super Knight Assemblies to celebrate the good things students do. The Super Knight Assembly is centered around the school basics. Teachers nominate students that do those things, then the faculty votes on the selected students-one boy and one girl from each grade. 

On November 18, 2014 the boys basketball team played against Frontier Middle School from Saratoga Springs at home.  The SJHS boys team won with a score of 41-38.

SJHS has many sports to offer, one being girls basketball. Girls basketball is offered to all ninth grade girls; it started at the beginning of November and goes to the beginning of February. The team practices every day (except game days) from three to five, and on Wednesdays from two thirty to four thirty. The team includes 13 girls:  Jessey Simons, Taralyn Gervais, Megan Nusink, Avyrie Fellows, Brielle Cruz, Erin Call, Cayla Giles, Danielle Hartness, Kaitlynn Broderick, Sam Atkinson, Lynn Bereton, Grace Ashcraft, and Nikiah Jones. The coaches are Ms.Brennan, our very own history teacher here at SJHS, and Ms. Merrell, a special education teacher here at SJHS.

On November 24, 2014 the Agriculture Science (Ag science) class here at SJHS journeyed to Ottesen Dairy in a quest to discover the sciences behind dairy production.  According to Mrs. Thomas, the Ag science teacher, the dairy is owned by her husband’s family.     

Also according to Mrs. Thomas, after the class arrived at the dairy students visited different stations.  “Some examples,” she said, “of these stations are: the milking barn, baby calves, and everyone’s favorite- the milk tank.  At each of these stations we discuss what science is occurring.”  

Mr. Dahl, a science teacher at SJHS, has been teaching for six years. He has been working at SJHS for all six years. “I love working with the students and passing on the things that I have learned about science,” said Mr. Dahl. “I want to help students to be as excited as I am about science. I really like this age group as students are still excited about life and have a lot of energy,” said Mr. Dahl. 

On November 3rd and November 4th, we were lucky enough to have an archaeologist and orthodontist come and visit our school. These visits were for the Window to the Workplace program put on by the Counseling Office at Springville Junior High. 

Kara Kawakami Petty, the archaeologist, presented her career using a lot of pictures. These included photos of skeletons she had uncovered herself, artifacts, and sites that she had worked on. Abi Maicas, a seventh grader, said, “I liked the pictures the archaeologist had. It showed what you would do and find.”