Check out this week's Knightly News highlighting new faces at SJHS and Cross Country!

LINK

Almost every day after school, you will see the SJHS Boys Tennis Team out on the tennis courts, working hard to prepare for matches against other schools. According to Mr. Dahl, a science teacher at SJHS and the tennis coach, they practice from 2:40 to 4:30, and they have matches on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

Mr. Dahl said, “I started coaching about 6 years ago.  I love working with students in a different capacity than in the classroom, and I enjoy seeing students improve their tennis skills.”

Cooper Riggs, an eighth grader who plays on the team, said, “I really like playing tennis. It feels good when you make a good shot, or when you win a match.”

Do you know Mrs. Murdock?  If you do not then you are missing out on a great person! She is our great finance office secretary.  She helps out our school a ton by helping with all the money and expenses, but sadly she is leaving because she is retiring. 

Mrs. Carpenter is an eighth grade science teacher here at SJHS. She teaches in room S207. Mrs. Carpenter has been teaching for 24 years, four of which at were a high school in Oklahoma, and the other 20 years were spent here at SJHS. At the end of this school year Mrs. Carpenter will be retiring. 

Kennedy Bird, an eighth grader in her class, said, “Mrs. Carpenter is really nice, and she's been teaching for a long time, so she's wise too.”

 According to Kaybrie Pratt, an eighth grader, Mrs. Carpenter lets students use their notes on all of their assignments. 

You hear a lot about the different activities and classes here at SJHS, but there is a time period that does not get spotlighted often: Quest Time!

Quest Time is a 25 minute period that falls right after third period. There are a bunch of different things you can do during Quest Time. Some of these activities include movie rooms, game rooms, and conversation rooms. There is also intervention where students go to teachers’ rooms and make up their grade.        “I like Quest Time because I get to be with my friends,” said Ryan Popham, an eighth grader at SJHS. “It is a slight break from the long school day.”

On Thursday, April 21st, schools, businesses and hospitals in Utah participated in The Great Shakeout earthquake drill, and here at Springville Junior High, we did the same. This earthquake drill is very beneficial to us in Utah because it has been about 300 years since we have had a major earthquake in the state and the earthquakes come about every 300 years. However, according to the article, “Big earthquake could happen in Utah sooner than we think”, by Jason Nguyen, in KSL, we have about 800 earthquakes a year that we just do not feel. But, chances are that we will have a big earthquake soon. The Great Shakeout website said, “90% of Utah's population lives in active earthquake zones.”

On April 25th, ten students from each grade here at SJHS, went to BYU to take a math test. These students were selected because they scored the highest in this last year’s exam. The top ten were invited to go. 

This test was designed to be taken without a calculator, so it challenged students to think more about the problems and use their knowledge and problem solving skills for each problem.  There were forty questions on the test for students to solve. Sabrina Scott, an eighth grade participant said, “The most challenging part was trying to decide what the questions meant.”  The scores on the state math test will be compared to other scores in the state. 

As many of you know, this is Ms. Dunn’s last year here at SJHS. Ms. Dunn left Starbucks for McCafe. She is leaving Brick Oven for an Easy Bake Oven.  She is leaving Abraham Lincoln for Donald Trump.  Ms. Dunn is leaving SJHS for Maple Mountain High School. 

Ms. Dunn, an English and Journalism teacher, said, “I am going to Maple Mountain High School.  I wanted to try teaching high school at some point, and an opportunity came up that worked out.  I am really sad to leave SJHS.  It has been such a wonderful place to work for the past five years.  But I am also excited for change, and a new adventure.”