Mrs. Diane Bird, the clothing teacher at SJHS, is doing a sewing club during Quest Time.  During this time, students are making sling bags that tie at the shoulder. According to Mrs. Bird, she started the sewing club so all the students could participate in sewing, even if they could not get the clothing class in their schedule.   Shaylee Ferran, seventh grader at SJHS, said, “I like sewing club because I like learning how to sew different things.”

Ms. Jennifer Dunn, a new English teacher at Springville Junior High School, has always wanted to be a teacher. When she was really little, she would play school with her brothers and sisters and their stuffed animals, and she was always the teacher.  Three out of her four grandparents were teachers, and her dad is a professor at BYU. Ms. Dunn has always thought that education is very important. If she wasn’t an English teacher, then she would definitely want to teach history. She has always loved studying history; she is big into World War II.

Mr. David Hansen’s eighth-grade U.S. History class had taken step back from learning about the colonies to learn bout the stock market. “It’s important to learn about stock market because the stock market is the foundation of America’s economy,” said Mr. Hansen.  

Mr. Hansen and his student teacher, Ms. Megan Cadworth, put together a simulation to show how the stock market works. Mr. Hansen gave the students fake paper money and then let the students decide if they wanted to buy stocks or not. “I bought five stocks and I thought I would do ok, but in the end I lost a lot of money,” said Haylee Markham, an eighth grader at SJHS.

Mr. Shawn Hatfield will soon have been teaching at Springville Junior High for 20 years. He teaches science enrichment, eighth grade science, and biology, and has also taught a computer multimedia class in the past. According to Mr. Hatfield, junior high students are very hard to teach but also very fun to teach, because they still like a lot of things about school and are willing to learn. 

Mr. Hatfield likes teaching a lot.  He said, “[teaching junior high is] the best job I’ve ever had.” The reasons he enjoys teaching have changed over the years, but mostly he enjoys watching students learn. He said he likes teaching all grades, because “Each grade has something special to offer.”

Ms. Jennifer Dunn, seventh-grade English teacher, is now holding a Harry Potter Trivia during Quest Time in room 54 on Thursdays! Ms. Dunn is a huge Harry Potter fan. When she noticed lots of her students reading the books, she thought that a Harry Potter trivia was something a lot of students would enjoy.  Ms. Dunn asks a question and then whoever raises their hand first, or hasn’t answered very many questions, gets to answer, and if they get it right then they get a piece of candy.

Sadie Clark, a seventh grader at SJHS, exclaimed, “I enjoy going and like getting a piece of candy!” According to Ms. Dunn, students really enjoy it and there’s a lot of laughter during the game.

Each Friday during Quest Time, a 20 minute period during the day, Ms. Rachel Neeley, an English teacher at Springville Junior High, holds a karaoke party in her classroom for any students that don’t have deficient grades.  Ms. Neeley said, ”The students enjoy singing, dancing, and having fun.”

According to Ms. Neeley, the students like choosing popular musical hits from today.  According to Kate Galbraith and Abby Coleman, two seventh- grade girls, there are also popular songs from the past.  They like going to karaoke because you can just have fun and hang out.

On October 26th at Springville Junior High School, the seventh-grade pod attended a celebration assembly.  A pod is a group of students who are taught by the same teachers; in this case those teachers are Ms. Tiffanie Miley and Ms. Rachel Neeley, English teachers, Mr. David Kindrick, science teacher, and Mrs. Angel Nilson, pre-algebra teacher. Ms. Neeley said, “I really like the pods. I think it is good for the students to stay together for part of the day.”

The assembly was a boys vs. girls assembly to have fun and celebrate a celebration of the term. The teachers kept points by playing games and having relays.  Ms. Miley said, “I think the kids had a lot of fun at the assembly.” 

Springville Junior High School has many cheerleaders in the student body.  Girls from seventh to ninth grade can sign up for the opportunity to cheer for football teams. Seventh graders cheer for either Rotary Mustangs or S.O.S Drug Bears, eighth graders cheers for either Quality cleaner Vikings or Reams Badgers, and all ninth graders cheer for Springville High Schol freshmen Red Devils.       

Springville Junior High School took a jump into learning this year by combining English, history, and science into an intertwined system called the pod. Mrs. Elizabeth Bass, English teacher, said, “The major purpose of the pods is to provide a small-school, student-centered environment that allows students to feel a part of something.” 

Here at Springville Junior High School the Hope Squad is helping students with problems like depression, bullying, and making friends. One of the ways the Hope Squad helps is through the buddy box.