SJHS Gets a New Math Teacher

Mr. Anderson teaching his students

by Jacob Simmons
SJHS Staff Writer

Springville Junior High School has brought in a new veteran Math teacher. Jim Anderson, who has taught for 19 years at Spanish Fork Junior High School, has just jumped aboard the teaching team at Springville Junior High.

Mr. Anderson has a very unique style of teaching and grading. For example, when grading papers, Mr. Anderson lets his students redo a problem as many times as they like, until they get 100% on that assignment. “I want everyone to learn, so I allow them to learn from their mistakes. So if they miss one, they have the choice to correct it,” he explained. Most students seem to like this idea, then again who wouldn’t when you can get an A? “I think the best way to learn is from our mistakes, his class allows us to indulge in that,” stated Ethan Trunnell, an eighth grader at SJHS.

An assignment that Mr. Anderson has going year round is a multiplication quiz. On this assignment there are 144 multiplication questions. He recorded a tape, which gave the student two seconds between each question to answer. Students take the test once every week, with a few exceptions. Once students get 100% on the test, they do not have to take the test again. He thinks multiplication is the main thing that you use in math, so he wants to help his students learn it and be able to answer questions quickly and accurately.

After teaching for 19 years, it is no question that he must enjoy what he does. Growing up Mr. Anderson enjoyed math. But this was not the only reason he became a math teacher. “One of the main reasons, honestly I became a math teacher because I knew I could get a job. At the time schools were looking for math teachers,” Mr. Anderson said.

Cory Morgan left to go to Spanish Fork Junior High because he had sons moving up to that school; Mr. Anderson had kids moving up at Springville Junior as well, so they wanted to go to the school that their kids were at, so they just switched places.

So the exchange couldn’t have been better. A math teacher for a math teacher, while keeping both teachers happy. Both schools got a good deal. And students from both schools got a good one to.