Mr. Robbins reading to his students.

Sarah Jensen
SJHS Staff Writer

Did you ever write an autobiography? The students in Mr. Steven Robbins’ class are writing one right now. Mr. Robbins has been teaching English and doing these autobiographies since 1990.  However, he took eight years off to teach Geography. “My favorite thing about having my students write these essays is watching students get into writing them,” said Mr. Robbins.

Mr. Robbins teaches seventh-grade English. Haylee Duncan, a seventh grader at SJHS in Mr. Robbins’ class, said, “In class we read, do journal entries, he reads to us, and lots more!” There are seven chapters in the autobiography. The first chapter is called “What about Grandma and Grandpa?” The first chapter is about the students’ grandparents. The students have about two to three weeks to write an at least one full page typed or one-half very neatly written single-spaced pages. Mr. Robbins gives the students a guide so they are not writing it all on their own. The guide helps them to make sure they have everything they need.

Chapter two is called “How My Parents Met.” The students in Mr. Robbins’ class have not gotten this assignment yet, however, it will be assigned to them soon. This essay needs to include when and how they became engaged, when and where they were married, who performed the marriage, about the reception and more. “The parents essay will be due sometime in January,” said Mr. Robbins.

Following chapters focus on later parts of the students’ lives.  The last chapter is called “Who am I?”  This essay need to have the students describe themselves and include their feelings about life, values, hopes, goals, things most important to them.

There is another part it is not a whole essay, it is an epilogue. It needs to be hand written and should be addressed to future generations. Include the students’ plans for the future and it needs to be signed and dated at the end. Mr. Robbins’s classes are going to write an interesting autobiography. Mr. Robbins hopes they enjoy writing it.

Katya Wagstaff
SJHS Staff Writer

Many people love to travel to far-off places for vacation.  People crave vacations because they’re a chance to get away from everyday life and either relax or go sightseeing.  Most people go to see sights that are famous for different reasons; perhaps they go to visit the Seven Wonders of the World including the Pyramids at Giza.  Perhaps what someone else dreams to see is the Eiffel Tower (“Tour de Eiffel” in French) in the City of Lights.  Whatever that special place may be, students, teachers and faculty members at SJHS love to travel.

Students at SJHS have a love of traveling to different places.  Julie Barbosa, a ninth grader, has been to Brazil and South Africa.  She said, “I love Brazil because it’s a party place and the food is great!”  Eighth-grade students Christopher Taylor and Spencer Duncan have both visited England.  According to Christopher, Oxford was a cool place to see because of the different old buildings.  Spencer said, “I like to go see the different places you can learn about Old and New London.”

As a teacher, the work schedule is different than “normal” office jobs.  Teachers have plenty of time in the summer for vacations.  Mr. Steven Robbins, a seventh-grade English teacher, has traveled to places all over the globe.  The most exotic vacation he has been on was to China.  Mrs. Natalie Luke, the foods teacher, has been to Ireland and Finland.  While she was in Finland, she ate reindeer!  Mrs. Lori Caras, a seventh and ninth-grade science teacher, couldn’t decide which vacation spot was her favorite.  She said, “Europe was filled with amazing history.  I loved being in a different culture and hearing different languages.”  Her other favorite vacation was Cancun.  According to Mrs. Caras, it was a relaxing place to visit.

Teachers aren’t the only ones who work in schools and have time to take vacations.  One of the newest faculty members to enter Springville Junior High is Mrs. Courtney Johnson, an assistant principal.  She said, “Last May, I traveled to Germany and drove down through Austria and into Slovenia.”  Slovenia is one of her favorite vacation spots because it is “easy to explore” because of its small size.  She also went through the Alps, one of the largest mountain ranges in the world.

These exciting vacations to far off places seem like you have to go to the other side of the world to experience.  But that’s not true, there are places in Utah that people across the world come to visit, and these places are practically in our backyards.  Utah is home to five national parks, which is more than any other state.  We also have many ski resorts to visit during the winter months.  This means that memorable vacations are right around the corner!

Sariah Morris
SJHS Staff Writer

Mr. Steven Robbins, an English teacher at Springville Junior High, has been teaching for a total of thirty-two and a half years. Twenty-four of these years have been spent here at Springville Junior High, five at Spanish Fork Junior High, three at Monticello High, and then half a year at South Davis JHS in Bountiful. Mr. Robbins graduated from Snow College and BYU.

Mr. Robbins’s wife, Sheila Robbins, is also a teacher. She teaches fourth grade at Sage Creek Elementary. He has six kids, including Kristina, going by Kristi, Katherine going by Kathy, Karin, David, Jason, and Michael. He also has 17 grandchildren, three of his grandchildren have been born within the last two months.

Mr. Robbins loves to teach; he loves to learn and watch people learn. He also loves to read and go fishing. He travels a lot, and has been all around the United States. He’s also been to places outside of the Untied States, such as China, Israel, and lots of countries in Europe several times.

Mr. Robbins has lived many different places, some of them being Sweden, Monticello, Logan, Ephraim, Provo, and Strawberry Reservoir.

A student in Mr. Robbins class, Mark Smothers, said, “I love Mr. Robbins’s class. The way he teaches is different from all the other teachers, and I like it a lot. He also likes to interact with his students, and I enjoy it.”

Another one of Mr. Robbins’s student, Hayde Blanco, said “I like his class to. He doesn’t make us copy out of the book…well unless we’re bad. I like it how he is really organized.”

Mr. Robbins said, “I believe that if you teach a student how to learn and to like it…they’ll do it, and if they learn self-discipline they can achieve success.”

Carolyn Brown
SJHS Staff Writer

Here we have taken an inside look into Steven Robbins’s seventh grade English class at Springville Junior High School. The class is two periods long, so Mr. Robbins splits things up. In the first period they do things that concern reading. The students read for a while and then Mr. Robbins reads to them. Right now Mr. Robbins is reading the novel Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Soon they will have turned in their fist book report, and the next one is coming up soon. They will then have five more to do.

The second part of the class is writing and literature. The students have journals where they keep a record of the things that happen to them in seventh grade. For literature, the students have to do spelling lists through the week. The students have to do a worksheet called “4 and 1’s.” Students look up a set of twenty words in the dictionary and find the words’ definition and etymology. They will also be writing autobiographies by doing papers throughout the year.

Mr. Robbins has very few rules. “Be quiet, be prepared, be productive, be honest, and show respect. Those are my only rules and they are very easy to follow,” explained Mr. Robbins. “They are very important and they help to keep the class in order.” Being quiet helps the students so that they can focus on their work and get the most out of it. To be prepared you must have a book, pencil, and paper. Being productive helps the students so they don’t have to have homework. Being honest speaks for itself, and showing respect helps the student work well together.