The ninth-grade girls’ basketball team.  Front row, left to right:  Ashley Crookston (manager), Sarah Patrick(manager),  Courtney Lefevre, Ripley Tew, Maddi Staheli, Mackenzie Morris, Amanda Sly, BreAnna Elzinga (manager),  Ashly Endicott(manager),  and Assistant Coach Murdock.  Back row, left to right: Emily Daybell, Kara Stoddard, Sarah Ripley, Brooke Caswell, Amy Tingey, Cami Sumsion, Mindy Staple, and Coach Kindrick

Jacob Simmons
SJHS Staff Writer

Springville Junior High School got a lot of new additions to their teaching squad this year. One of the many was Mrs. Becky Murdock, who has proven to be a great new addition to the social studies department.

Mrs. Murdock teaches eighth grade U.S. History and ninth grade World History/Geography. She enjoys teaching both.  “I adore teaching. I love to see the light bulb go on inside my student’s heads,” she said.

Mrs. Murdock went to Brigham Young University, where she majored in Social Studies Teaching. “I switched my major four times and tried everything from Geography, Geology, to Archeology and Anthropology; trying to decide which social science to go into,” she stated. Finally she decided to go with social studies teaching, deciding she would get the “best of all worlds.”

Another element Mrs. Murdock brought with her to the junior high, is coaching.  Mrs. Murdock is the assistant coach to Mr. David Kindrick for the girls basketball team. She said, “I love coaching. Period.”

Mrs. Murdock doesn’t just teach and coach, besides that she loves to cook, spend time with her family, and play lacrosse.

Max Schreiner
SJHS Writer Staff

Students are working hard in Mrs. Rebecca Murdock’s Geography class trying to get their country projects done. These projects will be presented in class on October 28th or 29th. Right now the Geography class is doing a unit on the Middle East so each student was assigned a country from the Middle East. Mrs. Murdock, the Geography teacher, said “I expect each student’s best work. They have an option to choose which type of project they would like to do, so I expect that they’ll have fun while learning.”

“I’m doing Egypt because it’s the one I knew most about in this area,” said Katie Bair, a member of the class. She went on to say, “for my presentation I am going to dress my friends up like Egyptians and make them Egyptian food.”

Although the Middle East isn’t home to the most well know countries in the world, students are learning to make it work. Chelsea Ricks, a member of the geography class, said, “ I’m doing a country called Qutar, I hadn’t ever even heard of Qutar until I was assigned it as my country project, for my presentation I’m planning on making a recipe from Qutar.” This is an individual project, but some students have the same country, so they can work on a project together but turn in two separate projects.

Spencer Duncan
SJHS Staff Writer

Eighth graders at Springville Junior High just finished IOWA Testing.  Mrs. Monica Linton, a Springville Junior High counselor, said, “Testing is situated in third, fifth, and eighth grade so than students don’t have to test every year.”

The testing lasts for one week of the school year in eighth graders history class.  The test includes the following subjects: reading, language arts, math and science.  Each of these sections test the students’ knowledge in the individual subjects.

Mrs. Becky Murdock, a history teacher at SJHS, said, “Students may not think testing is all that important, but testing shows educators what students know and what they need a little help on.”  Christopher Taylor, an eighth grade student, said, “Yes, I think it’s important, but it shows the nation and the state how the kids are doing.”

Testing causes the school schedule to be thrown off course a little.  But eighth graders have finished testing and will now get back on track with their school work.