Andalyn Hall and her pet kangaroo

Students enjoyed learning about kangaroos from Grandpa Dutch.

Kara Dunn
SJHS Staff Writer

On April 28, 2010, students in Ms. Tiffanie Miley’s seventh grade English class were all in shock when a kangaroo jumped into their classroom. Throughout the semester, Andalyn Hall, a student in Ms. Miley’s first period class, has told the class about her grandfather’s kangaroo.  Her grandfather and mom brought the kangaroo in to surprise Andalyn and the rest of the class to celebrate the end of state testing.

Andalyn’s grandfather, Grandpa Dutch, owns a farm in Springville where he raises animals. After his kangaroo is full grown, he will give the kangaroo to one of his friends who keep full grown kangaroos.

Andalyn was just as surprised as everyone else to see a kangaroo walk into their class room. “Andalyn’s face lit up, she was so surprised,” Whitley Hicken said.

“I was so excited when I got to present him to the class,” Andalyn explained.

The class not only got to see and pet the animal, but they also learned a lot about kangaroos. Burke Collings said, “We learned that they can grow up to be six feet tall.” The class also learned that kangaroos use their tail for a third leg and that they are a lot softer then they look.

Ms. Miley’s class was excited and eager to learn about this animal, and was grateful for the opportunity to learn hands on.

Assistant Principal Dave Knudsen, Principal Darrel Rolfe, journalism students Christopher Taylor, Andrew Garza, Spencer Duncan, Katya Wagstaff, Kristi Hatch, Cody Woolsey, Kara Dunn, Julie Barbosa, and journalism teacher Tiffanie Miley.

Kristi Hatch
SJHS Staff Writer

On Wednesday, February 10, 2010, the journalism class of SJHS made a presentation to the Nebo District School Board.  Using the same presentation as when they presented to the Nebo PTA, the journalism class impressed the School Board.

Mr. Rolfe, the principal of SJHS, introduced the class and the teacher, Ms. Miley.  Then three students of the class, Kara Dunn, Katya Wagstaff, and Christopher Taylor presented a brief summary about what the duties and opportunities of the journalism class, after which there was a video presentation that Ms. Miley put together.

The video covered certain areas of journalism, and throughout the presentation, students were talking about what the certain things meant to them and how they do it well. A few the areas discussed were brainstorming, interviewing, drafting, editing, and peer review.  Students also expressed their satisfaction with being published in the Springville Herald and how their writing improved throughout the semester.

“Those who visited with me after the presentation indicated they were very impressed with the journalism program,” said Mr. Darrel Rolfe.  Ms. Miley also said, “I think the school board liked our presentation. They seemed interested in our video and were reading our newspaper.”

There’s no doubt that this year’s journalism class has been very successful. Mr. Rolfe said, “The fact that we had published so many articles and 100% of our students had been involved stood out to [the school board] as very untypical.  Certainly this is not only a tribute to our students, but to Ms. Miley as well.”

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On January 20th, Springville Junior High’s journalism class gave a presentation to the district PTA board about what goes on in the journalism class and how they write their articles.  “Whenever the district PTA has a meeting, it’s hosted at a different school. The schools are asked to give a presentation for the PTA members, and Mr. Rolfe asked that the journalism class give the presentation at our school,” Ms. Miley, the journalism teacher, explained.

The journalism class worked together to make a video explaining the process they go through everyday and their thoughts about the different steps. Three students wrote up introductions and introduced themselves and the journalism class to the PTA members and school principals in attendance.

“I really appreciate all that the students have done to prepare for this presentation. I think it portrays a very good message about the academic climate at the junior high,” Mr. Rolfe, principal at Springville Junior High, said.

Although the students worked hard on their presentation, Ms. Miley really made the presentation possible. “Ms. Miley has helped this class come alive to the students,” Mr. Rolfe observed.   “I believe it was very obvious to those who saw the presentation that our students are totally involved in the class and learning these wonderful principles of writing,” Mr. Rolfe said.

“I’m glad that the community reads what my journalism students have written throughout the semester. There are so many good things that go on at Springville Junior High, and I’m glad that we get a chance to share them.” Ms. Miley commented.

The journalism class has also been asked to give a follow up on this presentation to the Nebo School Board on February 10th about how they feel and why they enjoy journalism.

SJHS Staff Writers

Front row, left to right:  Jack Setzer, Spencer Duncan, Jacob DeRosia and Cody Woolsey.  Second row:  Jacob Simmons, Brooke Seaton, Morgan Bowser, Hayde Blanco and Christopher Taylor.  Third row:  Cheslea Ricks, Kenia Martinez, Julie Barbosa, Katya Wagstaff and Sarah Jensen.  Back row:  Max Schreiner, Andrew Garza, Jose Martinez and Kara Dunn.

Kenia Martinez
SJHS Staff Writer

This week is the last week that journalism will be available this school year. Students have enjoyed writing about different events from around the school. From student and teacher spotlights to school-wide happenings, the journalism students have covered nearly everything.

Ms.Tiffanie Miley has taught journalism this year. Ms. Miley enjoyed teaching the class and described her Journalism students as a group of great writers who are motivated to do good work. “I’ve been really impressed with what my journalism students have written this year–both in quantity and quality,” said Ms. Miley. The journalism students have done so well that Ms. Miley cannot think of a way that the students can improve in their writing.

Andrew Garza is an eighth-grade journalism student this semester. Andrew is sad that these are his last days as a journalism student. He’s had fun writing a wide variety of articles for this class. All the students in the journalism class can agree that their writing has improved since they’ve taken this class. “I think my writing has improved. I can be more descriptive when I write,” said Andrew. Andrew’s favorite article was one he wrote about what students were planning on doing for Christmas.

Sarah Jensen is another eighth-grade student in the journalism class. Her favorite article was one she wrote on Mr. Booth because it was fun to learn about band. “Yes!” Sarah said, explaining that the journalism class has indeed helped her in her writing, “I write tons better!”  Sarah isn’t particularly happy about leaving Journalism this semester because she enjoyed getting published, and she thinks that the class is really fun.

This semester will not be the end of news from SJHS, however. Next semester, a couple of former journalism students may end up writing articles. The scheduling is still being worked out, and Ms. Miley really hopes it happens. There will also be a journalism class next year for eighth and ninth grade students.

Kaleb Barnum, Andrew Garza, and Max Schreiner, journalism students at SJHS.

Cody Woolsey
SJHS Staff Writer

The first school newspaper was a big hit around the school. But many students school-wide do not know the hard work and dedication it took to write all of the articles and publish it into a newspaper. Read on to learn about the process it took to make the newspaper.

“We had to wait almost the entire first term before we had enough articles to publish into a newspaper,” said Max Schreiner, a journalism student at SJHS. The process of making a single article takes about a week. It starts with journalism students picking an article topic, then they brainstorm ideas for your article like who can be interviewed and what you need to know.

Next, journalism students interview people who have something to do with their chosen topic. Then they use an “inverted pyramid,” which looks like an upside-down pyramid to plan out their article in order of importance, with the most important information being shared at the beginning of the article.

After planning out the article, journalism students then write the first draft; but that’s not the end of it. After that they get a “Peer Review” which is when one of the fellow journalism students read the article and make sure it is ready for the second draft. They then get their article edited by another student, and after making all their changes, turn their article to Ms. Miley for the final editing and grading process.

“I don’t grade too hard–I just make sure that the basic requirements for news writing are met.  But I do edit pretty carefully since our articles end up in the newspaper,” explained Ms. Tiffanie Miley, the journalism teacher at SJHS. After students get their articles back, they take a picture and email Ms. Miley their finalized article.  Ms. Miley formats the school newspaper and sends it to the Springville Herald, who then sends it to the printer.

“When I see my article published in the paper I feel excited,” said Jacob DeRosia, another Journalism student at SJHS, “it’s pretty cool to see something you wrote in a newspaper.” Even though it’s a lot of work to get the newspaper up and running, it’s very rewarding in the end. We enjoy your comments on the newspaper and hope you enjoy the new ones to come!

The journalism class taking a break from writing articles in the library computer lab.  Left to right:  Spencer Duncan, Jack Setzer, Hayde Blanco, Sarah Jensen, Katya Wagstaff, Ms. Miley, Kaleb Barnum, Cody Woolsey, Andrew Garza, Christopher Taylor and Jacob DeRosia.

Chelsea Ricks
SJHS Staff Writer

Ms. Tiffanie Miley teaches seventh grade Language Arts, Reading for Enjoyment, and the Journalism class at SJHS; she is a very busy teacher! Ms. Miley decided to become teacher because of her good teachers in high school. She enjoyed to reading so decided to teach English. She loves coming to work everyday, and considers herself lucky to have a job she enjoys.

This is Ms. Miley’s eleventh year at SJHS, and she chose to teach here because, “There are so many good kids at the junior high!” Morgan Bowser, a student in Ms. Miley’s class, thinks that she is a nice teacher and is very patient. Max Schreiner, another student that has Ms. Miley, thinks she has “good teaching strategies and she also is very helpful.”

Ms. Miley likes teaching Language Arts because, “We get to read fun books together and the seventh graders are very easy to like.” Ms. Miley helps her students learn reading strategies and better writing techniques.

She enjoys journalism because the students are very “self motivated.” In journalism the students write about things that are going on at our school, Springville Junior High. If the article, meets all of the expectations the students ave the opportunity to be published in the Springville Herald Newspaper.

The Reading for Enjoyment class reads their own books. They then discuss the different books they are reading and what they enjoy about them. Ms. Miley, with all those classes, is a great teacher in all of them!

Your informers from SJHS. Front row, left to right:  Jacob Simmons, Spencer Duncan, Jennifer Galindo, Kara Dunn,  and Jack Setzer.  Second row:  Brooke Seaton, Morgan Bowser, Shyenaia Luna, Jacob DeRosia, and Cody Woolsey.  Third row:  Chelsea Ricks, Katya Wagstaff, Julie Barbosa, Hayde Blanco, and Christopher Taylor.  Back row:  Max Schreiner, Andrew Garza, Kaleb Barnum, Sarah Jensen, Jose Martinez, and Kenia Martinez.

Jacob Simmons
SJHS Staff Writer

With the new school year, Springville Junior High School has a new journalism class to bring you information about the school and its surroundings.

The journalism class is taught by Ms. Tiffanie Miley, who also teaches seventh grade English. “I enjoy teaching journalism because it’s a class with an immediate real-life application,” said Ms. Miley. She continued to say that because of the real-life nature of the class, it motivates her students to do their best work. Surely, many teachers would like that.

Students enjoy the class too, Jack Setzer, a journalism student, said one of his favorite things about the class was going out to interview students and teachers. Kara Dunn, another member of the class, said, “I love this class, and being able to move at our own pace while writing about what we want.”  Max Schreiner, another member, said he enjoyed being able to move at his own pace too.

As a class, the journalism students brainstorm a list of things that are going on at the school, and around the school. They then choose a topic they want to write about, brainstorm about the topic, and gather information through interviews. Following the interviews, the students, draft, edit, and review each others work, and finally e-mail their article to Ms. Miley who submits the best articles to Springville Herald.

“We love the young people who write for the Springville Herald,” said Pat Conover, an editor for the Herald. SJHS finds their articles in the paper rather often, much to the liking of the students, and their mentor, Ms. Miley.

For the first time in several years, this semester’s Journalism class is going to publish and distribute a paper to the students during school.

Robin Anderson
SJHS Staff Writer

Have you ever wondered how to write newspaper articles?  Have you ever pondered about what it takes to write a good article? We have the answers for you. To write an article, the SJHS journalism staff uses a simple checklist.

The article checklist is a simple list of things that the students need to do to write an article. It starts out with brainstorming, and continues through interviewing, writing the first draft, and editing. Once students finish their drafts and revisions, they turn their articles into Ms. Tiffanie Miley, the journalism teacher, for her to grade and edit.

Once Ms. Miley finishes editing the article, it goes back to the student for the final draft, after which, they take pictures, and email the article back to Ms. Miley to be submitted to the newspaper.

The article checklist helps make the article easy to write. “The students have a list of steps to do, and if the students do all the steps then they write better articles,” said Ms. Miley, who created the checklist. “The checklist helps them remember all of the steps.”

The journalism students find the checklist very helpful.  “I’ve noticed that the checklist helps me write articles much faster,” said KresLynn Knouse, a student in the journalism class this semester.

After the article is emailed to Ms. Miley, she submits it to the newspaper. The editors of the Springville Herald decide which articles get published in the newspaper. The published articles are displayed on a bulletin board at the back of the classroom, and the students who wrote the published articles get extra credit. For the students, this is very rewarding.

Ria Swapp
SJHS Staff Writer

If you ever want a fun class with a fun teacher, then Ms. Tiffanie Miley’s journalism class is the way to go. Ms. Miley is the teacher of the Springville Junior High journalism class, and she provides her students with the education they need to write newspaper articles.

In this particular Journalism Class, there is an article due every week to week and a half. You have to pick a topic of your own liking and write an article about it. It’s not too hard, you just always have to think about your topic and keep in mind what you are writing about. You also have to think of good enough questions to ask the people you interview so that they will give you enough information on your topic. There is about four or five articles due all together in one term.

Ms. Miley is very easy going when it comes to consequences for her students. According to Ms. Miley, she never needs to give out any punishments in journalism because, “Students in my journalism class enjoy writing and are really self-motivated. They are just good everyday.”

If the students have been well behaved, Ms. Miley will allow a day of word games or board games for the students to play. She says, “It’s fun to give my students a break once in a while because they really are good kids and work hard everyday.”

According to Ms. Miley’s student Kayla Price, the class is an easy “A” if you know how to write. “I enjoy this class,” Kayla said, “Ms. Miley is very easy to get along with and the class is a comfortable place to work in.” It is just like any other class. They do just as much work and they are expected to participate in class time as much as any other class. As Ms. Miley says, “I think grades are usually a reflection of the responsibility and work ethic that a student shows.”

Ms. Miley gives extra credit to anyone whose article gets published in the Springville Herald. This extra credit makes a big difference in some student’s grades. So if you ever contemplate getting into a journalism class, then Ms. Miley and her ten years at Springville Junior High School is the right place for you.

Maddi Dayton
SJHS Staff Writer

As the semester comes to a close for the fall journalism students at SJHS, a new door is opening for seventeen other students. These new journalism students will have the opportunity that only 23 others have had this year. They are getting a chance of a life time. They will have the opportunity to try a type of writing that is not taught in standard English classes, they will learn to be journalists.

“I think it will be fun,” said a student in second semester’s class. According to current journalism students the word fun is an understatement. “Journalism is not only educational but enjoyable at the same time. You get to learn and do something enjoyable all at once,” Brooke Caswell, a first semester journalism student, said. Many of the first semester students agree with Brooke’s statement.

“I just hope they get as much out of this class as I have,” Sarah Fawson reported. Sarah’s hopes will not be in vain because many future students like Jantzen Dalley, plan on learning “everything.” Others, like Autumn Hathaway, hope to find their “inner journalist.”

Journalism is a class that is great for students and that gives them skills that they’ll use their whole life. “I am excited to teach next semester’s group of students,” Ms. Tiffanie Miley said, and from the look of things next semester’s students are excited to be coming in.