February 2012

Local author Brandon Mull inspired students at Mapleton Junior High School on Thursday, February 23rd.  His message to the student body; never give up on your creative interests.  Mull, known best for his Fablehaven series, told students a little about his life, gave them a behind the scenes look at how Fablehaven was created, gave a sneak peek at his latest novels, and reminded students that creativity can take them wherever they want to go in life.

Mapleton Junior High School just had its semi-annual Parent Teacher Conference on Thursday, February 16, 2012. On Parent/Teacher night, teachers stay after school until 7:30pm. The event provides parents time to talk to teachers about their students’ behavior in class and the students grades in that particular class. They could also discuss, if necessary, solutions to help their student be more successful.  It took place in the school’s cafetorium and the main gym, as usual. Most parents say that it’s very beneficial.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, MJHS sold “Valagrams”.  This was an idea that originated from the student body.  Love birds had the choice of either giving a red carnation flower, or a sweet candy stick, for that special someone and many students just gave one to a friend.  The choir program was in charge of finances and sales of the Valagrams.  Treats and flowers were on sale from February first through the fourteenth. The Sucker, which came in root-beer or strawberry kiwi, was $1.00, and the flower was $2.00.

With the recent passing of Valentine's Day, Mapleton Junior High School presented its first musical stage debut, "Love on Broadway", at the Springville Junior High School auditorium.  The family-friendly show ran Thursday, February 9th through Saturday, February 11th.  Under the musical direction of new choir teacher, Leni Thomson, forty-nine talented students from 7th, 8th and 9th grades performed a musical review of favorite Broadway songs about love from popular musicals such as Les Miserables, South Pacific, Rent, Hairspray, The Music Man, and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Here at Mapleton Jr. High School, we highly encourage the theater arts.  One way of doing this is through our yearly performances of Shakespeare’s works.  This year things are different.  Ms. Lewis, the Theater arts teacher at MJHS, is for the first time in the history of MJHS, directing a musical instead of the traditional Shakespeare play.   The musical production that has been chosen is Tom Sawyer.  Because this production will be a musical, the auditions were difficult.  There were two auditions to go through for the singing parts.