Supercast

Kellie Openshaw:
I want them to see the different exploratory classes, like maybe it tells them you're a good fit for marketing, and manufacturing, and health science.

Anthony Godfrey:
You don't always think about what industries or what jobs might be right for you, and YOU Science is exactly that. It's a scientific approach to helping connect kids with opportunities.

Anthony Godfrey:
What if there was a tool to help your student discover their natural ability to do something pretty amazing? Well, that tool exists and it's being used right here in Jordan School District.

On this episode of the Supercast, we meet some students involved in an aptitude-based program called YOU Science. Hear the exciting ways this program is helping students uncover natural talents they didn't even know they had, and in turn, helping them find their personalized pathways to future success.

We are here at Fort Herriman Middle School talking with Kellie Openshaw about YOU Science and how it's used in Jordan School District. Thanks for joining us.

Kellie Openshaw:
You're welcome. I'm glad to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
You are the Director for YOU Science for the state of Utah, correct?

Kellie Openshaw:
That is right.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, tell us about YOU Science. What is it? And, now, the state provides that for every student in the state, and Jordan has really worked hard to take advantage of this great program. So, tell us about what it does.

Kellie Openshaw:
Absolutely. So, YOU Science is a college and career readiness platform, and it's a place where we want our students to cultivate their career and their life, and really see success for their future. So, as you mentioned, every student in Utah has access to a YOU Science account, and you know, there's a lot of college and career readiness platforms out there, and the thing that makes us unique is that we start with an aptitude assessment. We're the only company that provides an online aptitude assessment where we give the students a series of brain games and help them figure out their natural talents, like numerical reasoning, spatial visualization, 3D visualization, things like that. And so, by understanding those talents, we can show students careers that would be a good fit for them that they may not have otherwise considered.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us about when this is administered, when do students get access to this, and play the brain games?

Kellie Openshaw:
Sure, absolutely. So, we usually start with the aptitude assessment in seventh grade, and so we do a more simplified version. There's five brain games and then one interest survey, and we want our students, those results, to show them different industries that they're a good fit for. Because they're still in seventh grade, we want them to explore at this point, so we want them to see the different exploratory classes, like maybe it tells them you're a good fit for marketing, and manufacturing, and health science. Well, that helps them and their counselors know what kind of exploration classes to take in eighth or ninth grade to start figuring out what they may want to study more later. And then in ninth grade or after, we have them take the more advanced version, and that gets them to specific careers that they can start to discover.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's the blend of aptitude and interest. So, the brain games say, "Hey, you're pretty good at this," but then there's also interest. If you're interested in these things, these are the types of industries that might be a good career for you.

Kellie Openshaw:
Exactly. And it's really important. I mean, we obviously want our students to be interested in what they're studying. But a lot of times, if we think about teenagers and the things that they're interested in, they kind of live in this fun teenage bubble of friends and social, and sports, and music, and all the things. They haven't been exposed to a lot of the careers that are outside of that bubble. And the aptitude brings in that exposure to let them know, "Hey, I bet you didn't even know that you'd be really great at being in computers or really great at being in manufacturing.” Just things they hadn't had exposure to.

So we call that our exposure gap. When we see an interest level in an industry versus an aptitude level, the difference between the two is an exposure gap. Let's take computer science, for example. Nationwide, we pulled our data on over half a million students, and there was a 75% exposure gap from the aptitude to the interest. So, figuring out how to get through that. And here in Utah, if we look at women, that exposure gap is 92%. So, how do we help, in this case, how do we help women figure out that they could actually be very talented in computer science, but it's not something they're naturally interested in? How do we close that exposure gap?

Anthony Godfrey:
I love the way you describe this exposure gap, the idea that you're good at something, but you don't even know it's out there as a career. You don't even know it's a possibility. Utah has a very diverse economy. We’ve worked hard at that. So there are options that even parents or others who might be advising them would not be aware of.

My dad didn't say, "You know what? Have you considered being a superintendent one day? I think that would really work for you.” People can decide whether it really works for me. But I do love being a superintendent, and you don't always think about what industries or what jobs might be right for you, and YOU Science is exactly that. It's a scientific approach to helping connect kids with opportunities and with ideas about who they could be and what they could do.

So, tell me about how parents would interact with this. Parents who are listening and say, "Well, hey, I have an eighth grader. Maybe they took that last year. Maybe it kind of didn't ever hit their radar." How do parents access this information?

Kellie Openshaw:
Yeah, great question. So the first thing is to have a conversation with your student and say, "Hey, do you remember taking those brain games? Do you remember YOU Science?" Because a lot of times, the students have an account and they've forgotten.

Now, in your district, that is impossible because you're actually going back to the results often. And you're helping the students recognize this as a resource. But sometimes that's not the case. So I think the more our districts engage and go back to those results, they lean on those results to invite them to different things. It helps the parents be more engaged.

Then, when a parent asks about that and says, "Hey, show me your results," because right now they'd have to show through their student's profile. We're working on a parent profile, so we're hoping we'll have that in the next year or so. But they can then sit down with their student. They can see their talents. They can see the different careers and industries that their students would be a good fit for.

It really brings up some fun talking points for parents to have with their students, really introduces them to their students, quite honestly, where they have conversations they've never really talked about before showing, "Wow, I had no idea that you had a natural talent for organization or for recognizing patterns in numbers." Then it starts to click for the parent, where it's like, "Oh, now I know why, as a kid, you used to line up all of your race cars along the edge of the table." Or "Now I understand why you actually are really good at keeping a schedule." It just starts to help you see your students through a new light. So, for parents, I'd recommend talking to your students, have them pull up that account, and show you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, that's great. And like you said, it's a conversation starter, something that goes beyond “How was your day?” and walking through the room saying, "Oh, is that Fortnite you're playing?" Instead, it's a deeper conversation, and you learn something about your students' abilities and interests.

Kellie Openshaw:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
One of the things we did in Jordan District for those listening is we actually did go to the YOU Science results to find students who were particularly prepared or interested in the type of careers associated with NSA. We used that information, wrote letters, and sent those out to parents and students, and invited them to be part of a meeting where NSA had some internships that they wanted to fill. That was hugely successful. We had a great turnout because it wasn't just sending an email out to every student saying, "Hey, you decide whether this is of interest to you." We knew something about our students, and we were able to connect them with opportunities that they wouldn't have dreamt of.

Again, it's not like, "You know, I wonder if you would be good at the NSA internship." Once you start toward one destination, you get a little different perspective on every destination, and you can move a little closer to your ultimate goal. Each pathway, even if you don't choose to follow that for the rest of your life as a career, it informs your next choice and helps you move forward, rather than feeling around in the dark, or just doing what you figured you would do because your parents or family members were already involved.

So, I love how this blows the possibilities wide open and really does make the world their oyster in a really meaningful way. So, thank you very much, Kelly, for all the support you provide us and for taking time today.

Kellie Openshaw:
Absolutely. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back more on YOU Science.

Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Break:
Does your student want to become a veterinarian, commercial pilot, programmer? Maybe they want to make a difference as a dental assistant. These are just some of the programs offered as part of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Jordan School District. CTE provides the technical skills needed to prepare students for future employment or a successful transition to post-secondary education. Career and Technical Education provides work-based learning opportunities. We partner with industry experts to offer apprenticeships and internships, with students working in the real world at real jobs while going to school. The CTE experience starts in our elementary schools with the Kids' Marketplace and grows through middle and high school. To explore all CTE has to offer in Jordan School District, visit cte.jordandistrict.org today, and let's get your child started on the pathway to a profession.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with Cyler and Glenn, two students here at Fort Herriman Middle School, about their experience with YOU Science. Thanks for talking with me today.

Glenn:
You're welcome.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about YOU Science. What was it like taking the YOU Science assessments?

Glenn:
The number of things they were kind of weird, but they were kind of cool too, at the same time.

Anthony Godfrey:
Weird and cool number of things. What did the weird, cool number of things tell you about yourself? What did you learn in the results from YOU Science?

Glenn:
From the results, I learned that I'm great with or probably great.

Anthony Godfrey:
Allow yourself to be great. Not probably great. You are great at fill-in-the-blank.

Glenn:
Numerical checking or number checking.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Did that surprise you?

Glenn:
Kind of, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you had not been walking around checking numbers, and suddenly you realize you're good at it.

Glenn:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's like discovering that you can fly or that you can turn invisible or something, some superpower. So, where has that led you now? Are you taking classes and doing things differently because of that?

Glenn:
Currently, I didn't think of looking at YOU Science to take my classes this year, but I am going to be taking more health science classes next year, not next year, in high school.

Anthony Godfrey:
I know this can change. You're not locked in just by being on the podcast and telling me this, but what sort of careers have you considered?

Glenn:
An EMT or a paramedic.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm glad that there are people who want to be an EMT or a paramedic. That's exciting. What is it about those jobs that interests you?

Glenn:
I mean, you get to save people's lives.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, you're definitely having an impact on people's lives in a very real and immediate way, so that's awesome. Great.

How about for you? What's your experience been? Do you remember the assessment? Do you remember taking the YOU Science assessment?

Cyler:
Yeah, I do. The thing is, for me, I didn't think it'd add up too much. I thought, “Oh, this is just something for the teacher that they want us to do. I'll just quickly do it, and then I won't have to deal with it anymore.” And then I figured out later, "Oh, I guess this does raise an impact."

Anthony Godfrey:
Sounds like you're a survivor first of all. You know how to have an assignment in front of you and take care of business right away. Tell me what changed, what shifted when you took the YOU Science assessment. How was it different from what you expected?

Cyler:
There was a lot of, I can't remember exactly, but there was a lot of random things on it like, “Oh, I don't see how this is going to help with anything. I don't understand this or that.”

Anthony Godfrey:
But it was challenging, it was engaging.

Cyler:
Yeah, it was like, “Oh, this is really weird. I don't know what to do with this.”

Anthony Godfrey:
And what can you tell me about the results of your YOU Science assessment?

Cyler:
There was one big one. I have something about spatial reasoning. I'm able to place things where it should go. I'm really good at organizing. And something it said about me was, I was really artistic.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's a very unique combination, that you are artistic and you're highly organized. I think that can serve you quite well. So what are some of the careers and professions, jobs that you're thinking about that could tap into your artistic and organizational sides?

Cyler:
One thing that I've been trying to do is a cloth designing. So I've been designing clothes, I have a bunch of drawings of clothes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the designs, what sort of style of clothing are you designing? Victorian, Elizabethan, what sort of a look are you going for?

Cyler:
Honestly, I don't really have a look. It's just, I'll get like, I'll think of something like a hat or shoes or just anything. And I'll be like, “Okay, so this is what it looks like. How can I make this look special in my own way? What's something that people usually don't do?” Like, for instance, women's pants, I've heard, oh, the pockets aren't big enough, that stuff. And with pants, I'm like, “Oh, I also really want to add stripes of different colored denim in it.” So that's what I did. And I also added bigger pockets and extra cargo pockets on the legs.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have big things ahead of you, my friend. That's pretty exciting. That's really cool. It's a high level of creativity, but also being very thoughtful about the impact of your design and that personal touch that you're putting on things. We have a number of ladies in the room here. Are the pockets too small in women's pants a lot of the time? They're nodding in agreement, so you've really tapped into something here. Let me know. I want to be an early investor in your clothing company. It looks like you have your finger on the pulse there. So that's really exciting. You have your portfolio.

Cyler:
Yeah, I just keep them in my notebook.

Anthony Godfrey:
Highly organized, of course, right?

Cyler:
They used to be connected to a bigger one. I did-- so this is my first–

Anthony Godfrey:
This is in-depth design.

Cyler:
So this is my first one. So Angie, she's my neighbor, and she also deals with student help. So she came over because this one time she had me take a test of what I think I'm going to do when I grow up. And I said, “Oh, I don't really know what I'm going to do.” And it was like, any worries that you have. And I'm like, “I'm worried about not being able to do anything.” So she read it, and she's like, “Oh, no, this is really bad.” So she looked at YOU Science and was like, “I've got to show this to him.” So she came over to my house after setting an appointment with my mom, and she started telling me about all this stuff. And then right after she left, I drew a vest.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you drew a vest immediately after having this opened up to you, this idea that you really could do some things that you didn't believe you were maybe capable of.

Cyler:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is awesome. That is so impressive. You have a drive and just a personal confidence that I think is going to carry you very, very far. Well, I love that YOU Science kind of set you down a path. It's a path that allows for a lot of creativity and really some great ideas from you. So you strike me as someone who's very observant, that you're always watching for ideas, and watching for needs that you could fill with your designs. Is that true?

Cyler:
I try my best, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, Glenn, tell me, you had some experiences that helped move you toward EMT as a possible profession. Tell me about that.

Glenn:
So yeah, we went on this, for like CTE, on this 911 operator field trip. And while the guest speaker was talking, showing us videos and recordings, I saw a video of an EMT rushing in, helping someone that was, I believe, in cardiac arrest. So the caller had to provide CPR to the person in cardiac arrest. And then they were doing it at like a certain pace. And then the EMTs came in, and they were going really fast with the CPR. And then just hearing how the calls went, and it just inspired me for the EMT thing.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a serious field trip. I love that the combination of what you learned about yourself through YOU Science and the CTE field trip experience really has set you on a path of saving lives in the future as a career. Well, thank you both. Super impressive. Great things are happening in the future for both of you. I have no doubt of that. I'm excited to follow where things go from here.

We're talking now with Jacob Cope, the CTE team lead here at Fort Herriman Middle School, about how he uses YOU Science in his classes. Jacob, thanks for talking with me. Talk a little bit about the classes you teach and how you use YOU Science to create what I understand are focused field trips.

Jacob Cope:
Yeah. So at Fort Herriman, we have a lot of different CTE course offerings for students. We have courses in business. We have courses in engineering and manufacturing, courses in coding and technology, family and consumer science courses. And so one of the goals that we've had as a team over the last couple of years is to help tie students' interests into opportunities to associate with and see what happens out in the workplace. So we have been working toward each month having a focused field trip and a focused guest speaker. And the plan is, at the beginning of each month, we have a guest speaker come in and talk about their job and what they do. And then later on that month, we take a group of students, that same group of students that listened to the guest speaker, on a field trip to actually visit the work site of that person.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about how you use YOU Science to develop the plan for these experiences and how that impacts the way you interact with students.

Jacob Cope:
Yeah. We obviously have students in seventh grade and ninth grade take the YOU Science Brain Games. And it's in eighth and ninth grade that students are participating in these field trips. So we allow students to apply. We have an application process for the field trip. And so students that are interested apply to go on the field trips and hear from the guest speakers. We then look at their YOU Science results and encourage them, as part of the application, to look at their YOU Science results. And based on what we see in their applications and what YOU Science tells us about those students, we pick the group that gets to participate in the guest speaker and the field trips.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's really exciting to hear that we learn about students, and then we provide experiences specifically tailored to their interests and abilities. And it's a great launch to, if not a career, at the very least, some really exciting experiences.

Jacob Cope:
Yeah, definitely. In addition to using YOU Science for these field trips and guest speakers, we're also using the results that we get from it to help students find classes that would be of interest to them. So, for example, we just went through our registration process recently, and we took a look at specifically business and marketing students, students that would be interested in taking classes in business and marketing, and those that would be interested in taking coding classes. So we looked at their YOU Science results and found students that were interested in those areas, had aptitudes and interests in those areas, and actually invited them to take our courses. Hopefully, they can, as they take those courses, determine if that's the direction they want to go.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which again is so much better than simply putting a poster up in the hallway, you know, saying, "Hey, take this or that class." Instead, it's, "Hey, you are someone who could really enjoy and benefit from this particular course." It makes school so much more meaningful and helps students really discover a lot about themselves. Well, congratulations on providing incredible experiences for these students. Thank you very much for everything you're doing.

Jacob Cope:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.

Randy Kammerman:
I would say there is a spot for every single kid in DECA, but DECA is not for every kid.

Ava:
Eat, meet, compete, and you get to meet the best friends. Like all of these people mean so much to me. I would have probably never met them if it didn't, if we weren't in DECA together.

Anthony Godfrey:
These are great lessons that will translate to a lot of other aspects of your life.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. He is a Herriman High teacher who makes every student know they really matter. Someone who impacts the course of student lives and their future success every single day.

On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside Randy Kammerman's classroom, where he has become an award-winning DECA advisor, building a wildly popular program, leading students to high-level careers in marketing and business.

Listen and find out how Mr. Kammerman inspires a love for learning in his classroom, mixed with more than a couple of laughs along the way.

We're here at Herriman High School talking with DECA officers. Tell me your name, grade, the event you're competing in, and what position you are in DECA.

Ava:
I'm Ava. I'm the Business VP. I'm competing in Finance Operations Research, and I'm a junior.

Ana Arriaga:
My name is Ana Arriaga. I am one of the presidents this year for DECA. I am– my event is Business Services Operations Research, and I'm a senior this year.

Mackenzie:
My name is Mackenzie. I'm also a senior this year. I'm VP of Marketing, and I'm competing in Independent Business Plan.

Alex Milad:
My name is Alex Milad. I am also a senior this year. I am also a Business VP, and I am competing in Business Service Operations Research.

Anthony Godfrey:
Business Service Operations Research.

Alex Milad:
It’s quite the name.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, okay. Now tell me which of you has to carry the most for your competition?

Ana Arriaga:
Me I do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah, probably yours. So, what do you have to carry?

Ana Arriaga:
So I have...

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us about your competition and what you have to...

Ana Arriaga:
Perfect. So it's business, the same, I’m Business Services Operations Research, and all of it, all of what it is, it's just a research paper. So we research a company organization and we just make a plan for them. So this year was to implement AI into their company. So all of the things they have to carry into my presentations, there's two of us. So we have posters, we have all of the handouts, which is we have every VM Van that we're gonna hand out. We have an iPad as well. We have a mini poster and I think that's...Oh, and then I also have like this paper handout that's like a driver profile, and yeah, it's a lot of things that we have to carry around.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're making a pitch, a well-researched, serious pitch.

Ana Arriaga:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, and tell me about your other categories. Tell us about your pitch.

Ava:
So mine is Finance Operations Research. So it's similar to Business Services, but it's for a finance company. So I'm working with a real estate company, Manning and Clark, to figure out how they can implement AI into their processes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And are all these real companies?

Ava:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're doing things for real companies as part of your competition. That's really cool. How about you?

Mackenzie:
Mine is a fake company. So mine is an independent business plan. So I had to– me and my partners came up with a product and ways to develop it. We did the finances for the whole company.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's not a fake company, it's a potential company.

Mackenzie:
It's a potential company. Yes. We made our mock-up prototype. We had an app developer help us out, make us an app to present to our judges. So yeah, we made a whole business plan and we present that. It’s like Shark Tank.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Alex Milad:
Yeah, I'm also in Business Service Operations Research, and we are working with a construction management company, and they're huge. They do billions every year in revenue. Anthony Godfrey:
This is a real one.

Alex Milad:
Yeah, a real construction management company, and we're also doing the same thing, trying to help them incorporate AI into their systems, make things better for them, pitching that to them.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, talk to me about what is involved in the competition. You are sending more people to nationals than any Utah High School has ever sent to national competition. What do you do leading up to that? Talk me through the year. Not every moment of the year, but what levels of competition, how does this all start?

Ana Arriaga:
So it depends on the project. So I started around September. I know Ava started around...

Ava:
I started my project. It was a school-based enterprise. It was my second project. I started that project in May of 2024 and was working on it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you started last school year?

Ava:
I started last school year.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's why you all gasped when I said, "Oh, just summarize how you got here." So you started a long time ago. You choose the project. What are the levels of competition for you to qualify for nationals?

Mackenzie:
So we have three, basically three different events. We have our roleplay events. So there's a bunch of different categories like automotive services, and you can compete in like...

Alex Milad:
Team roleplays.

Mackenzie:
There are team roleplays, individual roleplays. And then there are sales presentations, which it's just a quick pitch to the person. It's like you have some time to prep beforehand, but a lot of it's improv. Roleplay is– all of it’s improv. And then projects, that's the papers that you prepare. So it's either a 10-page paper or a 20-page paper that you prepare all beforehand, and then do a 15-minute presentation on.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that presentation... So, is there a region competition, and then a state, and then nationals? Or do you just go straight from state to nationals?

Mackenzie:
So for our projects, it's just state to nationals. So we have to get to the top three in the state to qualify for nationals because our DECA as a whole in Utah is a bit smaller than other states. So, other states they have to qualify their projects for state, but we don't. We do have other competitions, but they're just for roleplays. So you'll go when it's just kind of for fun. You just practice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, yeah, so it's preparing you for state and national competition.

Mackenzie:
But the only time you'll ever actually present your project is at state.

Anthony Godfrey:
So we've had more people qualify from Herriman High than at any school in Utah. That's really exciting. You're all smiling at that. You should be very proud of that. That's a really big deal, and your leadership has been a part of that. Is this your first time at nationals for all of you, or did you compete at nationals as juniors and sophomores?

Ava:
So us three have competed before at nationals. Alex is a first-timer this year.

Alex Milad:
Last year, I did a project, and it didn't make it. It got fourth place, so you know. I could have let that break me down and be like, I'm not going to do DECA next year.

Anthony Godfrey:
DECA is all about rising up.

Alex Milad:
Yeah, it's all about sticking with it and putting in the work. This year, we did it, we made it to nationals.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how many people are going to nationals?

Students:
47.

Ava:
47 from our school.

Alex:
47.

Anthony Godfrey:
But you had more than that qualify.

Alex:
More qualified.

Ava:
51 qualified, 63 qualifications, so that includes people that double qualified.

Ana Arriaga:
So there's kids that do two projects each year. So I did two projects. I did a sales project, and then I did my BSOR project. So I qualify for both of them, so then you have to decide which one to go with. So that's how it works basically.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me where nationals are and what's involved.

Ava:
ICDC this year is going to be held at Orlando, Florida. And there's like 50,000 high school kids that will come and invade Florida for the whole week.

Anthony Godfrey:
Are you taking over Disney World?

Ava:
We're taking over Universal Studios.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, Universal Studios. I've been part of student trips where they shut the park down and teenagers take over. Because I was a high school assistant principal, I was not terrified, but everyone else in the area was.

Ava:
Everyone else is terrified. Everyone else is scared. But there's about four days of competition. There's a day for testing, a day for presentations, a day for roleplay presentations. And then you have our mini awards in the morning of Tuesday morning, and then you'll find out if you final for your project or roleplay. And if you do final, you have to go present again that day. And then at the end of the night, you'll find out if you've placed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk about the difference between judges at the state level and judges at the national level.

Ana Arriaga:
So we both did a project last year together. For state, we did great. Our judges were very nice. Ava:
The judges at state were very involved, and afterwards they were like, “Oh, you did so good, see you at nationals.” And then when we got to nationals, it was a little disappointing. We went up, and our judge didn't give any indication whatsoever the entire time. And then–

Anthony Godfrey:
Just stone face, watching the presentation, no reaction.

Ana Arriaga:
It was really hard to make eye contact with her, too.

Ava:
She was looking down at her paper the whole time. And so after she got up–

Anthony Godfrey:
Where was she from? Is she from industry, I assume, from business?

Ava:
The judges are from–

Alex Milad:
It depends on the city. So most of the time, like last year, it was in Anaheim, so you get a ton of Disney employees, a bunch of ESPN employees all the time, or anybody from Anaheim city itself. Orlando is almost all Disney and surrounding areas. So most this year will be Disney employees of some capacity.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me, what are some of the skills that you have learned being part of DECA these years?

Mackenzie:
Public speaking. Public speaking was never something I was ever good at before nationals, or yeah, before nationals last year. But then, you know, I was at nationals all alone. I had my little PowerPoint presentation and a basket that had alpacas in it. And I had to go up to this random stranger that was like a business professional and be like, “Hey, will you stay at my resort? Please?”

Anthony Godfrey:
With the alpacas.

Mackenzie:
And so you had to really like just get comfortable being uncomfortable. And you had to understand that, like, even if you know, if they don't like you, it's nothing to do with you. And you just have to go, and you have to do your very best, and talk in the best way you can without stuttering. It was just it was a great lesson to learn.

Ava:
For me, I would say the thing I found the most is that not everything's about wins and losses. Like this year at state, we had our advisor win advisor of the year, and it was–and he's going to hate me for saying this.

Anthony Godfrey:
I heard about that.

Ava:
Yeah, he's hating me. But it was a lot cooler than, like, seeing our Business Services, Operations Research, they swept that event. And so seeing stuff like our advisor win advisor fear and having the B.S.O.R. sweep, it's just so much cooler than winning on your own project and succeeding by yourself.

Anthony Godfrey:
These are great lessons that will translate to a lot of other aspects of your life. And it's obvious that DECA has had a deep impact on you, that it's really changed who you are, and what you believe you're capable of, which is exciting. What drew you to DECA? For those who are listening, thinking, well, maybe I'd like this, or maybe my son or daughter would like this. What made you want to be part of it besides Mr. Kammerman? Because really, he's the draw. He's the magnetic center of DECA at Herriman.

Ava:
I think Herriman has an unfair advantage to other schools. We have a great advisor who actually cares about our projects. But other than that, like, DECA's very nerdy. Like we all know that. It's very– but you just got to have fun. And so I think that was something that really drew us in. You know, our whole motto is eat, meet, compete. So you come in, high school–

Anthony Godfrey:
Eat, meet, compete. I like that.

Ava:
High school kids love free food.

Anthony Godfrey:
Not retreat.

Ava:
Not retreat.

Anthony Godfrey:
Not repeat.

Ava:
No. Eat, meet, compete. And you get to meet the best friends. Like all of these people mean so much to me. I would have probably never met them if it didn't, if we weren't in DECA together. And so it was just the community that Herriman has built in the DECA program. We have the

biggest DECA program. We have one of the biggest DECA programs in the entire state. And it's just been so cool to like see everyone come from, you know, there's football players and drill, and then there's like the eSports captains. And it's just all of these people that are so different, but they're all coming together for the same reason. And it's just such a cool experience.

Anthony Godfrey:
So in the Venn diagram of student life, there can be overlap with all of these groups of DECA at the center that pulls you together. What do you love most about Mr. Kammerman's class and being in DECA?

Ava:
He's one of the most humble people I've ever met in my entire life. He does not like the attention on him.

Anthony Godfrey:
He's pacing right now as you compliment him. He’s walking around the room trying to avoid it.

Ava:
The very first time I had his class, I was a junior in high school, it was my first day, I was terrified. I had heard a lot of things about Mr. Kammerman. He has a very big reputation that follows him. And it's great. It's all complimentary. But he just, we walked in on our first introduction. It wasn't like, “Oh, give three facts about yourself.” It's like, “What are you a nerd about?” Like, what do you care about? Like, what do you find weird? And it was just like he automatically makes you feel comfortable. And we ended up submitting him to be educator of the year for the Jazz, which he won.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, yes. Yeah. I can think of three awards off the top of my head that he has won.

Ava:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, yeah. Go on.

Alex Milad:
Yeah. Well, something about Mr. Kammerman, too, is he'll build a connection with every single student. He's not going to just leave certain students in the dust and focus on others. And that really rolls into DECA, like how they're saying, reading 20 to 30-page papers multiple times, leaving feedback, coaching the students rather than just telling them what to do. Having that connection that he already built with us from the first day, it goes so far.

Mackenzie:
He would print on my towels. For a presentation I had, I wanted towels that were monogrammed. And so he printed on them.

Anthony Godfrey:
He figured out how to do it.

Mackenzie:
He figured it out. He doesn't even just care. Like, he doesn't care about us succeeding at DECA or anything like that. But he just genuinely cares about people as people and what they do beyond high school.

Anthony Godfrey:
And he obviously knows you well.

Mackenzie:
Oh, yeah. A little too well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's really thrilling for me to be able to be here and talk with you and sense that energy that you have around this upcoming national competition. I like your chances. You guys are going to do great. So, congratulations on working so hard and learning so much. I know you're going to carry this with you for a long time. So thanks for representing us well and good luck out there.

Stay with us. When we come back, we'll talk with Randy Kammerman about the DECA program at Herriman High School.

Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Break:
Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @jordandistrict. We can't wait to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with Randy Kammerman, the advisor for DECA here at Herriman High School. It's an exciting week preparing for nationals.

Randy Kammerman:
Exciting is a good word for it. It is a good word.

Anthony Godfrey:
It is all in. I've been in your classroom a number of times because I know you don't like to talk about this, but you've won a number of awards, particularly in the last few months from the Jazz. You were advisor of the year for DECA, teacher of the year. Tell me, what do you love about being the advisor for DECA?

Randy Kammerman:
This sounds super nerdy like we've talked about before, but like I was a football coach before I was a DECA advisor, and I grew up my whole life playing sports. And so once I quit coaching, they kind of handed me DECA, and they're like, "Hey, you're going to do this DECA thing." I was like, "All right." So I kind of treat DECA like my sport. It fulfills my competitive juices and stuff. And so I try to preach the whole getting better every day. We call it stacking Ws, like come and get practice. Like you've seen these kids in my room working stuff like that. To me, that's my favorite part. And I mean, if you know anything about sports, you always see people say “Respect the process.” Right. And I never tell our kids, you'll never hear me say, "Oh, you're going to win or we're going to measure our success by winning." It's always, "Did you put in the work?" But you can't be sad if you didn't put in the work. Right. And so for our kids, they always just hear me say, "It's about the process, it’s about the process." And so I think being a DECA advisor and teacher is like getting a little bit better every single day. That's the thing I still love because it fulfills that niche of missing football and coaching, and stuff like that.

Anthony Godfrey:
What would you say to parents or students who are considering DECA?

Randy Kammerman:
I would say there is a spot for every single kid in DECA, but DECA is not for every kid. Right. If your kid is interested in DECA, we can find a spot for him. We can find an event for him. We can figure out any place to put your kid at any talent level. But there are some kids who come and try DECA, and they're one-hitter quitters. They're out. They realize it's not their cup of tea. I would say, if you want your kid to make friends, there's no better place than DECA, because like we were talking about before, you get kids from everywhere. The wrestling team, girls wrestling team, boys volleyball, these newer sports. Plus, you get your DECA kids, your math leads, SBOs, a lot of video game design kids. So there's kids from every walk of life. And so everyone comes together. DECA's one of the things we pride on with our officers is, DECA is a place you get to meet people. That is what we're for because every kid in high school needs to have a place. Right. It doesn't matter what it is. So if your kid walking down the hall that you're not on the football team, you're not in a club, DECA has a place for you. We can teach you this stuff to hopefully be good.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's the equivalent of the sports where there aren’t tryouts. If you show up and you keep showing up where you're going to learn, you're going to get better, you're going to grow, DECA's the same way. Whatever talents you bring or interests you bring, as long as you're willing to show up and work, and you're going to meet people and you're going to get better.

Randy Kammerman:
And like when our kids say you get to compete, meet, and eat, what they basically say is you get to compete in business, marketing business. That's what we do. You get to meet a ton of people, and you get to eat delicious food because we get to travel. If you ask any kid that ever goes to nationals with us, their core memory from DECA is five years from now, I get a text that's like, "Dude, I'm in Orlando. You're never going to believe I just went to Giordano's. Remember when we were here?" Those are the memories. It's never, "I took top 10 in the country." It's never anything to do with competition. It's always the memories, and so that's what we try to get our kids to recruit is like, "You're going to meet some people and make some awesome memories here."

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, the food does speak to me.

Randy Kammerman:
Yes, me too. It's my favorite part.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's the time commitment for someone? "Okay, I decide I'm going to do DECA." It sounds like you're able to do other things along with DECA. You can stay in your other extracurricular activities and still be really successful.

Randy Kammerman:
100%. So the time commitment for DECA is whatever you want to put in. That's what it is. So we have some kids who are naturally gifted speakers. So they come meet with me once and I teach them how to do a DECA roleplay and say, "This is the exact way you’ve got to do it. Come practice with me two or three times before state”, and they'll make nationals. They're just that good. There's some kids that require a lot more work, so it depends on how good you want to be. And so I always tell kids, "Don't let anybody outwork you. If you really want to go to nationals, you're going to put in the effort." And so, like of our 12 DECA officers, almost every single one of them is an athlete of some sort. Swimmer, lacrosse, hockey, tennis, or they have another job. Like we have a couple of our DECA officers that work 30 hours a week. So when you ask the time commitment, it's 20 minutes a day. That's what I'll ask of kids. Like open your paperwork for 20 minutes a day, or come to a roleplay with me. Take 10 minutes to prep, 10 minutes to present, 20 minutes a day, and we'll get you there.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I've just heard so many lessons from talking with them, talking with you. So many valuable experiences and lessons that will stay with them for a long time. You talked about getting the texts five years later. Tell me about the lasting impact you've seen from DECA.

Randy Kammerman:
It's pretty crazy. Like we have a couple that's married. They live in Texas. They met in DECA in this classroom.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Randy Kammerman:
I'm going to a DECA wedding this Saturday.

Anthony Godfrey:
A DECA wedding, that’s awesome.

Randy Kammerman:
And the lasting impact, like I've said, is real because it's– there 10 years from now, 8 years from now. And like I have a kid who texts me about a week ago. I just opened a Roth IRA. I'll never forget when you made me do the personal financial literacy roleplay at state. Because what happens, I've been doing this a while. I have a kid sitting in the front row, and on the first day of class, I'm like, this kid can talk, and he's smarter than the average bear. So like, dude, you're going to, I'm going to put you in DECA. You need to trust me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Randy Kammerman:
“I don't even know what DECA is like.” It doesn't matter. You just have to trust me. And so kids like that, they'll go, they'll qualify national in a roleplay. They'll meet a bunch of friends while they're there. And then five years from now, they'll send me a picture. Like we have kids who went to a Braves game together. Seven years after we were there. They said, “Hey, we were all in Atlanta for a conference. We went to a Braves game.” So cool stuff like that. Like, that's the best part. Like high school is fun and nice. But in 10 years, nobody cares that you took first in business services operations research event at DECA nationals.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's the connections that you make by doing that and the way that you change as a person.

Randy Kammerman:
A hundred percent. I freaking love Herriman. I've been here for 13 years. Put my heart and soul into this place because there's no other way to do it. And this year is crazy. So before the school year even started, I sat down with these officers. “Hey, look, guys, I need you to believe me. I'm not, I'm never going to BS you, but this year has an opportunity to be special. Like, if you guys will do what I ask and you put in the work, I legitimately think you can have 200 members and 50 kids to nationals.” I knew how many members we had, and then only a couple of our officers knew exactly how many we had. It was 206. Right? So then I'm sitting at state, I'm doing the math, and then– I actually had to drive myself that day because my kid got sick. So I drove myself, and I didn’t want to fight traffic on the way home. I'm gonna do the exact math right here. And I do the exact math. I'm sitting all by myself, and I'm just like, “We just had 63 qualifications for nationals. What am I?” And all the kids are texting me, “How many did we qualify? How many did we qualify? How many did we qualify?” They're trying to do the math, and I just text back “51 kids, 63 qualifications.” And like the flood of text messages came through, but the really cool part was hours after that, I probably got 30 texts from alumni.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Randy Kammerman:
That were like, “You guys freaking killed it. I saw on Instagram or I texted, you know, like I texted Ana, she told me this, I texted Ava, she told me this, I texted Tyler.” And that's the coolest part, is that we saw the alumni that follow and kind of help and stuff like that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's the lasting connections. That’s pretty incredible.

Randy Kammerman:
Yeah. It was really cool. So this group is a special group for sure. Like it's a good group to go out on, but it's one that they freaking worked so hard to get 50 kids. It was crazy. I still don't believe it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Well, congratulations on building a program that just kept growing because every time that program grows, it just means more kids feel connected and more kids feel this sense of efficacy, this growth, the sense of themselves that they wouldn't have had without it. So Bravo. I know you don't like to talk about it, but those awards are hard won through a lot of work and caring, and dedication on your part, and well-deserved. So, thank you.

Randy Kammerman:
I appreciate it. And thanks for those kids for bombarding the Jazz system and embarrassing me in front of 20,000 people at a Jazz game.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.

Auro Sosi:
This is competition season for us. The "People of the Pacific" are involved annually in the annual Who Got Roots competition.

Carl Talanoa:
So we do dances and we even do sometimes we practice our languages and even music.

Auro Sosi:
The idea of their identity through their culture, cultural practices and rituals so that way they can still stay connected even though they're far away from their motherland.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are sharing culture and building community in a class that's also a club called "People of the Pacific" at West Jordan High School.

On this episode of the Supercast, find out how students are unleashing tons of talent and taking to the stage in dance competitions to showcase their rich cultural traditions from various Pacific Island nations. They are students proudly supporting one another on a path to greater academic success.

We are here at West Jordan High School talking with Auro about the competition that's coming up. Will you introduce yourself? Tell us about your position here and what the "People of the Pacific" group has been up to these days.

Auro Sosi:
Yes, so my name is Auro Sosi. I'm the "People of the Pacific" teacher and advisor. I also run the Reset and Restore room here at West Jordan High School. Just students who are assigned mostly by admin to come into the room who need additional help whether it's with classes, Edgenuity, packets, and things like that.

So right now this is competition season for us. The "People of the Pacific" are involved annually in the annual Who Got Roots competition. It's a statewide competition that involves all of the high schools who have either "People of the Pacific" or Pacific Islander clubs or classes in their schools. So it's a dance competition.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that's what they're practicing in the background. That's what we hear. Tell us a little bit about how that competition is judged and what they're working on today.

Auro Sosi:
So there is a panel of judges. They pretty much judge off a lot of criteria. Most of it is off synchronization, presentation. A lot of it has to do with cultural rituals and practices involved in the dance scenes and performances. So like this one that they're performing now is the traditional Tongan Lakalaka. It's performed by all of the Tongan men. So it's just a male-only dance. But there's a lot of criteria depending on what the judge who the judges are. But it's been pretty, pretty fulfilling these last couple of years that West Jordan has been able to participate. Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. How many different numbers will there be?

Auro Sosi:
So the way this particular competition works where we choose, we select two islands that we wanted to perform as our main islands. So this year we've selected Tonga and Samoa. And then a month prior to the competition, they go out to all of the schools, meaning the organizing committee, go to all of the schools that are participating to draw what is called a wildcard island. So each school will be given the same amount of time to work on this wildcard island. And it's mostly an island that's maybe overshadowed or overlooked, not necessarily performed every year. So this year we selected Tokelau as our wildcard island.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about Tokelau.

Auro Sosi:
So Tokelau is an older island in the South Pacific. There are dances when the students are studying it. It kind of derives from like all of the sister islands that surround it. So there's a little bit of everything. There's some Samoan motions and there's a lot of Tongan rituals that are embedded in their cultural dance. But they're very subtle. They're not as loud and obnoxious as the other sister islands.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's a quieter, subtle, a little bit forgotten island when it comes to the performances. So tell me about the louder performances. What are some of the aspects of performance that people who are not here able to see this? Describe how the boys dance, how the girls are dancing now.

Auro Sosi:
So the boys you can see a little bit more live. We call it mafaná. It's kind of like their spirit of dancing, the energy that they bring to the stage. That's what's expected of the male performers in the Tongan islands. Well, in any island in the South Pacific, the girls as you can tell, they're a lot more graceful. They're a little bit more subtle. They're not as wild. But it just kind of showcases the grace and beauty of the women of the South Pacific.

Anthony Godfrey:
Lots of hand motion and small steps, less, less full body motion. Just more of the hands.

Auro Sosi:
For Tongan dancing, it's mostly motions from the upper body and hands. As you can tell, most people are probably more familiar with Hawaiian dance. It's hula where it's embodying the whole body. Where she's hooling and utilizing all parts of her body to perform. But in Tonga, they're more subtle in the sense that it's just the upper body and hand motions mostly.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see. It's just really transporting me. I wish I were on an island right now. I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it. So tell me, how long have they been preparing for this?

Auro Sosi:
So we actually start from the beginning of the year. We have performances throughout the year here at the school and throughout the district. That's what we kind of utilize as our service opportunities when we go out. We want to perform. We were able to visit with the Mayor of West Jordan and the City Council just a month ago. And that was what one of the things that our students were able to do was present their advocacy program and platform and also perform for them. So we pretty much prepare throughout the year with our service opportunities. This being kind of like that climax moment that we prepare for is our competition.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic. Now I got to be part of a ceremony at the beginning of the year for leaders in the school. Describe that for folks who are listening.

Auro Sosi:
So our ‘ava ceremony, it's a traditional kava ceremony. It's something that we've embedded in our "People of the Pacific" program that we like to start off the new school year every year with. It's just in Samoan it's called the ‘ava feiloa’iga or pretty much our greetings with each other. Us welcoming, whether it's guests or honored guests, that we're honoring in that particular setting. But for the ritual itself, it's really a teaching moment to our kids but also to welcome in the new year. Usher in the new year that they're about to embark on. But also in a cultural sense to set that precedence and tone for them as far as culture is concerned. Because "People of the Pacific" is what we're trying to portray is get more of an idea of their identity through their culture, cultural practices, and rituals so that way they can still stay connected even though they're far away from their mother lands and the islands.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, yeah it's a sense of connection with each other and with the broader school community. So now we saw the boys separate and the girls separate. Now this is a combined dance. Tell me about this particular dance.

Auro Sosi:
The Island Kingdom of Tonga is the only remaining monarch in the South Pacific, meaning that they're the only island in the South Pacific still today ruled by a king and queen. Never colonized, never taken over by any other foreign power and so their dances as you can see they're a lot more reserved. They're a lot more respectful in the sense that you see when the girls perform they're very graceful, they're very, you know, demure. Where the boys are always so masculine and they're just so full of energy. But when they come together it's just like both of those aspects and qualities all mesh together to become this pretty much beautiful, royal production. So that's what they're performing right now is their traditional Tonga Lakalaka that's combined for both male and female performers.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back we'll talk with three student leaders of "People of the Pacific".

Never miss an episode of The Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Break:
It's giving busy parents a little more peace of mind when it comes to their students getting to and from school. We're talking about Zonar MyView. It's a mobile app meant to enhance the school bus transportation experience for students and their families. The app allows parents to check on their child's school bus location and the estimated time of arrival at the bus stop each day for pickup and drop off.

If you want to join the thousands of parents already using the app, it's easy. All it takes is a few simple steps. First download the Zonar MyView app from the App Store or Google Play. Then visit auxiliaryservices.jordandistrict.org/zonar. That's where you'll find the school access code and directions on how to enter your student's unique ID and learn how to create an alert zone around your child's drop-off and pickup locations.

Let the Zonar MyView app help you stay on top of things knowing when a bus might be running a little late and when to get your kids going or head out to meet them at the bus stop. It's one more way for us to better connect with you.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have won an award recently, just last week. Tell us about that.

Auro Sosi:
So the Utah Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce here in Utah, this was their first year. They had their inaugural Pacific Islander Educator Award this year. There were nine nominees including myself. They came here and delivered the nomination here at the school and a few of our administrators were present. I was totally shocked and taken aback to have been nominated. Just to be nominated alone was an honor, but when we got there that evening– I went with my parents and a few of our other students who happened to be awardees as well for scholarship by the chamber unbeknownst to us. When they presented each and every one of us nominees and a certificate they then announced the award and I was the recipient of that award. So it was truly an honor. To me, receiving that honor is more of a tribute to not only the other eight nominees but to all of the students and other educators who aspire to educate and inspire any and all students. Not just for Pacific Islanders, but everybody. All students across the board around the world everywhere.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's an important point. It's really not about just one group it's about connecting that group to the broader school community and inviting the school community in to connect with this group. It's anything but exclusive. It's something that really is very inviting. So tell us about any other activities. I know there are performances throughout the year, there's the ceremony at the beginning of the year. Is a service component of "People of the Pacific"?

Auro Sosi:
So we have what is called the Island Teen Advocacy Team, for short we call it ITAT. So that's pretty much the service and activity arm of the "People of the Pacific" program. It's an advocacy program where there are students who advocate for mental health awareness, suicide prevention and also being tobacco and vape-free in high schools. They're so involved in that throughout the year. At the beginning of the year, they have what is called the Great American Smoke Out where they go out and advocate for pretty much– not so much smoking, but vaping here in the high schools. It's become like this pandemic here in our schools. Where things are just like so readily accessible for our students to access these things. So they advocate for those things. Try to educate on the the downfalls and also the symptoms that a student can experience if they do vape and things.

Most of it comes from our mental health and suicide awareness platform because a lot of them can relate to that. Just recently, just within our community, the Pacific islander community, four youth between the ages of 14 and 19 took their lives just within the last month. So it's just become this thing now since they've been so aware of it and they've advocated it for so long. It's now become more personal for them because they're wanting to make sure that everyone feels accepted. Everyone feels loved and appreciated. But also that they know the value of life and that everyone is valuable, even themselves.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that emphasis on supporting each other and valuing each other. Well, congratulations on running an incredible program that provides great opportunities and support and on your well-deserved award. I understand there were educators from higher ed that were in the running as well and you beat them all out. So congratulations. Well done.

Auro Sosi:
Appreciate it, thank you so much.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with three students who are part of "People of the Pacific" here at West Jordan High School. Just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your participation.

Carl Talanoa:
My name is Carl Talanoa. I'm a senior at West Jordan High School and I'm the president of the POP class.

Caitlyn Lokeni:
I'm Caitlyn Lokeni. I'm also a senior at West Jordan High School and I'm the vice president.

Andrea Togavailoa:
I'm Andrea Togavailoa. I am as well a senior at West Jordan High and I am the secretary in our POP class.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell us, for those who aren't familiar with it, tell us about Pop class and what it involves, and why it's important to you.

Carl Talanoa:
So People the Pacific class is really a class where we do a whole bunch of cultural stuff. In this class, we learn about our backgrounds as Pacific Islanders and we also learn about our culture, expanding into our culture. So we do dances and we even do– sometimes we practice our languages and even music. We do a lot of other stuff that is outside of the school as well. We are part of an ITAT thing where we do outreaches to other schools like middle schools and all that about the program that we do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Outstanding.

Andrea Togavailoa:
Yes, about our ITAT team, it stands for Island Teen Advocacy Team and basically what that stands for, or what they support, is they support preventing drug use and vaping and smoking and as well as tobacco use. They also bring attention to suicide awareness and I think that our class really strives for that stuff. Especially in our generation today where many teenagers now struggle with mental health. I think it's important to have knowledge and to know and understand that there is help. I think ITAT is a great platform for them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Awesome.

Caitlyn Lokeni:
Yes, taking it back to outside of what we do, outside of school obviously. What our president said. We have more to do with our cultural backgrounds like deeply rooted. Our POP class actually does a lot for the Polynesian community outside because of how well-known Auro is. So we'll do all the ceremonies which are some more cultural ceremonies that like pretty much we're focusing on this one high chief or like a high individual. We're celebrating their welcome into–.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, tell me about being in Auro's class. What is that like?

Caitlyn Lokeni:
Oh, it's something. Yeah, I definitely think not only Auro, but Coach Lei it's really- they're really disciplinary. Especially with school and going to class. I definitely think for, not to be biased, but our Polynesian community here you wouldn't find it anywhere else. From any other schools out here in Utah.

Anthony Godfrey:
That level of discipline and expectation. It sounds like it's a good thing though.

Caitlyn Lokeni:
Yes, being held to a high standard really means a lot actually. We get we do get prizes for being such great students.

Andrea Togavailoa:
I think it's such a privilege to have Coach Lei and Auro as our advisors here at West Jordan High School because not many schools have people like that who are who are so high up. Like our athletic director, Coach Lei that many Polynesians see like other Polynesians so high up in our district and industries and stuff like that. I think it's such a privilege to have Auro and Coach Lei help us around our school and to feel like a family here at West Jordan High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about this competition coming up and the preparation and how you're feeling going into it.

Caitlyn Lokeni:
Our competition we've been preparing for it for since the beginning I think. I think Auro especially put a lot of work into this. He constantly is working on our costumes and making sure that all of our dances are fit to perfection. I think that speaks a lot about his character and about who he is as a teacher,  about how much work. He doesn't have to do all this work. He could just like throw like cloths on us or something, but he actually puts so much work into our outfits and everything that we do, and our music and everything. So I think that speaks volumes as a teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:
He won an award recently, does that surprise you?

Students:
Yes.

Andrea Togavailoa:
No, that does not surprise me.

Caitlyn Lokeni:
It's very well deserved.

Anthony Godfrey:
It doesn't surprise me for a second. Tell me about the competition how are you feeling?

Andrea Togavailoa:
With Auro and Coach Lei, I honestly say that they're like the power duo. I've never seen a power duo like that before because no matter how much like effort or how many hours it takes into being put into this competition, and how much Auro is putting into this competition Coach Lei is right behind him and backing him up. I definitely think like the way that they support each other is how it reflects on us students in the class and how we support one another and whatever it is. Just how– Caitlyn also won an award too.

Anthony Godfrey:
Caitlyn, were you one of the scholarship winners?

Andrea Togavailoa:
Yes, yes she was.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, tell me about your award.

Caitlyn Lokeni:
It was such a great opportunity because people thought that I'd won the award because the award winner before also won architecture, but I think it's because not only the culture and I think it's because of the dynamic and uniqueness and the hard work that is put into the scholarship. That is the reason why that many aren’t able to win it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what's the architecture aspect of it?

Caitlyn Lokeni:
The scholarship is going for me because I want to go to college for architecture.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, it's because you chose– So that's part of it because you want to be an architect. Well, we're designing buildings all the time. Come back and design a school for us. Remember all the student perspectives, what you like and don't like and then you can put it into practice.

How about for you? How are you feeling going into competition?

Carl Talanoa:
I'm feeling good, I'm feeling great. We've had this competition for a while. We've been in this competition for a while in the previous years, but we've never actually placed before. So this is really important.

Anthony Godfrey:
I feel like this is going to be your year.

Andrea Togavailoa:
I feel like it is. We're taking it, we're definitely taking it this year.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've seen the dancing. I’ve talked with you three. I talked with Auro. It's going to happen. It’s going to happen.

Carl Talanoa:
Yeah, that's what we're aiming for. We're aiming for that. So we've been having lots of practices. We've been practicing a lot, even the middle schoolers, they've been coming to practice with us. We've had practices on Saturdays in the dance room or anywhere as long as we can practice. We're just trying to practice so we can fix things up. We'll fix a small mistake so we could be ready for this competition.

Anthony Godfrey:
Awesome. Well, I wish you the very best. Congratulations on your award and on being such great examples to the "People of the Pacific" class and the broader school community here at West Jordan High.

Students:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.

Kelli Cannon:
It’s just really fun to see how far education has come.

Megan Dahlgren:
So to be able to take this and learn and see how it's grown from Oregon Trail to you know whatever, however you're using it in your classroom now.

Kelli Cannon:
There are old programs that they used to actually print out and hand out to the attendees and there are topics like WordPerfect and AOL.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are supporting teachers in doing groundbreaking work, redefining what traditional learning looks like in the classroom.

On this episode of the Supercast, we talk with a Digital Learning Specialist and an Instructional Coach to explore the history of digital learning, how it's impacting students today, and how teachers are seeing big benefits using the technology that is now at their fingertips.

We're here at UCET in the UEN Homeroom Podcast Studio talking about how UCET impacts your practice and we're talking now with Kelli Cannon. Tell us a little bit about your role in Jordan School District, with UCET, and how being at UCET and being involved has impacted your practice.

Kelli Cannon:
Okay, so yeah, my name is Kelli Cannon. I am a Digital Learning Specialist in Jordan School District and I'm also a UCET Board member. This is my third year on the board and I love everything about UCET. My first UCET conference was my first year of teaching, 2014. It feels like a long time ago. When I think about that time I think we didn't even have laptops. So we had desktop computers and people were just kind of like sitting on the floor with like the first generation iPads trying to learn things and do things and just how much the conference has grown in the last 11 years has been just really fun to see. Just the impact that technology has had on education.

Anthony Godfrey:
So when someone comes to UCET what sorts of things will they learn about in breakouts and keynotes and in talking with vendors?

Kelli Cannon:
Okay, so the way we have the UCET Conference sorted out right now is in strands. In the strands there are different topics so there's like a robotic strand, and there's a tech basic strand, and a tech advanced strand, and so there's a little something for everybody here. There's also leadership and coaching because we have a lot of instructional and digital coaches as well who want to improve their practice. Then coming into this vendor hall as I look around I see a lot of tech companies. This year our theme is “Authentic Intelligence” and it's a little– like we say it's a little bit cheeky to AI in a way. There are so many AI vendors here and how AI is really shaping the landscape of education in Utah right now.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us more about what “Authentic Intelligence” means. Why that theme?

Kelli Cannon:
So when we were sitting around at our– we planned these conferences a year in advance. So we were sitting around in our meeting last July and we said “We know AI is gonna be really big it's not going away, so what can we do to kind of play off that theme?” So we said, “Let's use AI, but when we say Authentic Intelligence we mean how can we use AI or keep the human skills in a technology-driven world?” So we're still looking for that human input. I think that's what keeps teaching like personalized and relevant is having that human interaction.

Anthony Godfrey:
I really think artificial intelligence propels human intelligence instead of replacing it. It's a way to enhance it to support it and to build a foundation. Kind of clear the easy stuff out of the way so we can get to the real deep thinking.

Kelli Cannon:
Yeah, I agree.

Anthony Godfrey:
Instruction is really at the heart of this right? I mean it's technology-focused but it really comes down to teaching and learning.

Kelli Cannon:
Yeah, I agree. Something that we really like with AI and something we've been talking a lot about in our district is how AI, particularly school AI, has really personalized learning for each of our students. And how we've been able to use AI as a thought partner and not just, you know, putting students in the space or with a chatbot but really making sure that they are learning, and growing, and making it relevant to them. Like you mentioned to offloading some of those administrative tasks so we can have more time to work with the students which is what really matters.

Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely. If you go back in time to the 2014 Kelli and you compare her with the 2025 Kelli, how has UCET changed the way that you look at education and teaching generally?

Kelli Cannon:
Well, I remember that year I met my new team. I got hired like a week before school started right out of college. They gave me this big huge stack of worksheets and they said this is our math for the year. I was like “Oh wow, okay, packets, worksheets, books” and I mean of course those things have their place but now I look at just the many opportunities that we have with technology and because of technology to teach in a different way and make it last. These are what our students now they spend a lot of time on devices and a lot of time on the internet and technology and so this is like what they're used to. So students of ten years ago compared to now are completely different.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I love how you switched it from you ten years ago to students ten years ago.

Kelli Cannon:
Sorry.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which is really the focus. No, you're right. You're right because you have to think about what world are students coming from. What's their day-to-day experience and how do you tap into that to make sure that education is as effective as it can be?

Kelli Cannon:
Agreed.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us about a Digital Learning Specialist for those who don't know. What is your role in the district? What exactly do you do to help support our teachers?

Kelli Cannon:
Yeah, so there are about eight of us and we have about ten to fifteen different schools that we visit every month and we try to spend extended time there. We meet with instructional coaches and digital coaches, we hold tech trainings, we also do a lot of professional development in the district office. We love everything tech-related. People are always emailing– just don't call us because we don't use our phones very well. I don't know how to transfer a phone call, figure that out.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's an archaic skill. It's an archaic skill like writing a check. Nobody needs to do that anymore.

Kelli Cannon:
What is that?

Anthony Godfrey:
Right, exactly. Exactly.

Kelli Cannon:
Yeah, and so also part of my role is I work with computer science. I help train our computer science rotation leads and I get to do STEM and robotics and help them do lessons and train on tools. So it's just a really fun and unique job to have.

Anthony Godfrey:
As I walked in I saw the “Eras” booth. The “UCET Eras” booth with lots of technology over the years. I felt really comfortable standing between the '80s table and the ‘90s table. That felt really good to me. Tell us about the “Eras” booth.

Kelli Cannon:
Yeah, okay. So about a year ago “Taylor Swift The Eras” was really popular so that's kind of what started it, right? Taylor Swift through the eras. I've always listened to her music since I was a teenager and so I thought, “Wouldn't it be fun to go back in time and use that and see what's changed?”

I've learned a lot in the last year. The original UCET committee was UCCE, which I can't remember that stands for. It's like Utah Coalition for Educational Technology, like that, and it was formed in 1980 out of Mike Bailey's master's project which I thought was really interesting to see a master's project grow into something this big. Just going through the history and seeing where they started out. Just you know a few people or maybe a high school auditorium with a hundred people to where we are today in 2025 with 1600 teachers here. And just the amount of vendors and moving even from high schools, to Provo, to the Salt Palace. Like every year we keep growing. So we're really excited to just keep incorporating technology.

Then as far as the “Eras” booth, what we have is since we started in the 1980s we have a table for each decade. I've asked people to donate old technologies so we have old Apple computers, and we have floppy disks. In the 80s and 90s we have a VHS, which I just found out stands for Video Home System. There were some things over there though I didn't know what they were so I had my Gemini, my Google Gemini app, open yesterday I took a picture of it and I said “Google, tell me what this is and what year it was made” and it explained it to me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Using new technology to understand old technology. that is a thing of beauty.

Kelli Cannon:
Then in our 2020 era, we have a face shield that someone used during teaching of course. I think this one wasn't used but it's just really fun to see how far education has come. There are old programs that they used to actually print out and hand out to the attendees, and there are topics like WordPerfect and AOL. Then you know as we go through it's changed a bit.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is there a CD over there for 1600 free hours of AOL in a particular month?

Kelli Cannon:
There's a floppy disk.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, that's great. It was really cool to look through the eras. And I actually think it's very instructive because as you look I think we're always looking forward. What's new? What's next? How can we get better? But we have to pause and look back and see our progress and see how far we've actually come. It was it was really nice to reminisce through the technology and really think about how far we've come. So bravo on all the work that you're doing and on the eras tour that I got to take through the UCET history.

Kelli Cannon:
Thank you so much.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, good luck with your presentation.

Kelli Cannon:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, more on digital learning in Jordan School District.

Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Break:
It's giving busy parents a little more peace of mind when it comes to their students getting to and from school. We're talking about Zonar MyView. It's a mobile app meant to enhance the school bus transportation experience for students and their families. The app allows parents to check on their child's school bus location and the estimated time of arrival at the bus stop each day for pickup and drop off.

If you want to join the thousands of parents already using the app, it's easy. All it takes is a few simple steps. First download the Zonar MyView app from the App Store or Google Play. Then visit auxiliaryservices.jordandistrict.org/zonar. That's where you'll find the school access code and directions on how to enter your student's unique ID and learn how to create an alert zone around your child's drop-off and pickup locations.

Let the Zonar MyView app help you stay on top of things knowing when a bus might be running a little late and when to get your kids going or head out to meet them at the bus stop. It's one more way for us to better connect with you.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're now talking with Megan Dahlgren who is an Instructional Coach at Rosamond Elementary. Tell us a little bit about being an instructional coach for those who don't know what that is.

Megan Dahlgren:
Oh my goodness, so this is actually my first year as an instructional coach. I'm super excited about it. So my job is to go in and work with the teachers to help improve their instruction.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is now a full-time position. For a while, we had a few hours here a few hours there that we paid people to work after school, but I'm really proud that we are able as a district to have a full-time instructional coach in every elementary school and to have coaches in every secondary school. Every person in this world needs a coach of some sort to help them get better at what they're doing. You know the thing is LeBron James has a coach, Tiger Woods has a coach.

Megan Dahlgren:
Michael Phelps has a coach.

Anthony Godfrey:
All the greats have a coach. Caitlin Clark has a coach. They all have coaches. They all have coaches over the years who have helped them become better and even when they're at the top of their game they want to be a little bit better. They want to maintain and the same is true of teachers.

Megan Dahlgren:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Everyone needs that coaching cycle. Everyone needs that support. So tell me about UCET. How does UCET support you as you support teachers and improve instruction and outcomes for students?

Megan Dahlgren:
So I first attended UCET years ago when I was just a teacher, and I came back from that to my classroom and I said “Oh, I want to try this and this and this.” It was when AI, as I think about it, it was when AI was just getting started in education there was a math– an adaptive math game– that I put into place. Or program, it was gamified, and then also a program that would listen to kids read. And I'm like “Oh, that's what Amira is now” so this is like a forerunner to Amira. I remember taking them back and feeling “Oh, I want to use these.” I could use one because it was free and I couldn't use the other because it cost money.

So now here, I think I have a good grasp on what a lot of the programs are. So here for me as an instructional coach, where I'm also a digital coach, but I have a teacher that I am doing a coaching cycle with right now and it's for an ML student. So as I was going through the list of different presentations those were a couple that really stuck out with me, is how I can use the programs and digital technology to help these MLs. So I'm excited to learn and be able to take that back to her and say “Oh, what if we try this, and this, and this.” So that's one of my big focuses as I'm here over the next two days.

Anthony Godfrey:
For those listening, an ML is a multi-language learner.

Megan Dahlgren:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're helping a teacher meet the needs of someone who's learning English at the same time that they're learning their native language and learning all of the subjects throughout the day.

Megan Dahlgren:
Yes. I can't even imagine being in that situation and so whatever we can do to help. I mean I spent time last week putting together little flashcards that will help her with vocabulary and things like that. But it's like “Oh, what can we use technology based that could help her as well.” Anthony Godfrey:
I'm really grateful that you do this work. What you just described is exactly, I think, why it's great to be a teacher in Jordan School District because of the level of support. I love hearing your enthusiasm when you learn about something new even years ago “Okay, I gotta get this. I gotta put this to use. And how can I help this teacher help this ML student?” I just love that energy that you bring to it.

Megan Dahlgren:
Can I just say something? To my dad's credit, my dad was an educator and he got his master's in instructional technology from Utah State University in the 70s. So I literally have grown up with technology. We had an old Apple 2e so I had it in my home literally my whole life. So to be able to take this and learn and see how it's grown from Oregon Trail to you know whatever, however you're using it in your classroom now. So a tribute to my dad who was instrumental in bringing the internet to a small school in Wyoming.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us your dad's name and where did he teach?

Megan Dahlgren:
His name is Mike Roberts and he taught in Bighorn, Wyoming. So little town, I think each graduating class was between 20 and 30 students.

Anthony Godfrey:
That’s a lasting impact. I'm sure many students remember him and the impact he had on them.

Megan Dahlgren:
Yes. it was. It was amazing. Then he was able to take that and bring photography from a dark room to digital photography. Using that for students and having high school students build websites in the 90s and so it was it's really huge. He's my inspiration to loving technology.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that passion and that curiosity is carried through in your work now so I'm sure he's very proud of that. It's awesome

Megan Dahlgren:
Thank you. It’s a lot of fun. I love it. I love that even though I'm an instructional coach I can still be teaching. Just yesterday I did a little Google Tips and Tricks with some teachers at my school, those who came. It was my little tech bite as I call it. So I provide treats and come and so it's still my opportunity to be teaching even though I'm a coach.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that, I love that. Well, it's such an important role. Thank you very much for doing it and hey for everything from Oregon Trail to the things you're teaching. The Oregon Trail had its virtues you know, opaque projectors and the like. I'd like to talk to your dad about that old stuff. Anyway, thanks for everything you're doing now and like I said, just for the caring and passion that you bring to it.

Megan Dahlgren:
I love it. Thanks for the opportunity to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.

(upbeat music)

Raechel Bunnell:
And I did what I want my students to do. I looked and saw what I needed, where my deficiencies were, what parts of history did I need to study. How hard is it to watch yourself teach on a video?

Leslie Steele:
It is very stressful.

Anthony Godfrey:
Nobody likes watching themselves or listening to themselves.

Raechel Bunnell”
No, you're like, "Oh, my posture is bad." I keep saying, "Huh?" Like there's all kinds of things.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a rigorous, time-consuming, and challenging process. One that produces some of the most highly trained teachers in the entire nation.

On this episode of the Supercast, we meet two Jordan School District teachers who recently achieved National Board Certification. Doing so required them to submit materials from their lesson plans, recordings of their lessons, and many self-reflections that were reviewed at the national level by experts. Find out how their personal drive to be their very best is taking their teaching practices to new heights.

We're talking today with our two teachers in Jordan School District who are newly Board Certified at the national level. We want to talk with them about the process, but first, just introduce yourself.

Leslie Steele:
I'm Leslie Steele and I teach first grade at Eastlake Elementary.

Raechel Bunnell:
Raechel Bunnell and I teach social studies at Riverton High School.

Anthony Godfrey;
We're going to dive right into it and ask what impact has this had on your teaching going through this process?

Leslie Steele:
Oh my gosh, a huge impact. Not just for the kids who I certified with last year, but the kids this year. It asks you to really reflect on your practice. You video yourself and you watch it over and over and over and find places where you ask good questions and places where you could ask better questions. And the goal isn't perfection. It's reflecting on your practice. How can I dig deeper? How can I be better next time?

Also, you really analyze student work. For my path of certification, I'm early childhood literacy. So that's reading, writing, listening, speaking for ages 3 to 11. So it's a big span. But you basically take student work and just like dive in and work with that student one-on-one and help them craft their writing to be much better. So you're just really going deeper with things that teachers are doing every day.

Raechel Bunnell:
How hard is it to watch yourself teach on a video?

Leslie Steele:
It is very stressful.

Anthony Godfrey:
Nobody likes watching themselves or listening to themselves.

Raechel Bunnell:
You're like, "Oh my posture is bad. I keep saying, “huh” like there's all kinds of things. And that just makes you a better teacher. The reflection part of it is absolutely a big part of why board certification.

Leslie Steele:
It's a really good way to reflect on your teaching and always grow and always be better. It's not like, you know, this board certification process it says like, "Hey, these are really excellent teachers." But also it's like these are teachers that are continuing to grow, that are continuing to move forward and not just be stagnant in one place. You know after I got my master's degree I was like, "What's next?" You know, "Do I go admin? Do I go doctorate? Do I get a second master's?" And when I thought of National Board Certification I was like, "Okay that's the thing that's gonna help me be a better teacher for the future."

Anthony Godfrey:
I love your desire to go to the next level. Okay, what do I do now? What's next for me? And it's really impressive that you've both taken this on.

Now when you were speaking earlier you talked about some of the language that has now become just second nature when you talk about your own teaching and your own reflection. So it sounds like going through this process has really given you a structure for thinking about your own teaching.

Leslie Steele:
Yes, completely. 100%. I mean there's like national board speak. I feel like there's like this language that we use it's this very specific way of writing. It's this very sort of scientific way of looking at things and you're a scientist of like your own work and you're like okay. You're analyzing yourself in right next to your students work to see how you can impact that going forward.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which is not always easy to do. As humans, we tend to tell the most favorable story about ourselves in our minds like oh they're probably fine with what I just said oh this probably worked better than I thought it did. At least as a survival method, we kind of tell ourselves the best story we can. But you have learned through this process to really dig into what needs to change and what needs to be better in your class.

Leslie Steele:
A key phrase in National Board is ‘next time I will’. Next time I would and that has really altered my teaching. Just like I say it's just put this lesson to a side it's good enough but like oh you know what I could have done there. If you don't take the time to sit and do that, you know teaching is a fast-moving train, we move on to the next thing. So National Board forces you to slow down and dig deep.

Raechel Bunnell:
Considering the needs of the students is a big part of it and you know I hadn't been a data teacher in the past. I hadn't been somebody who asked the students how they were doing along the way. You know I might have done like an end-of-the-semester kind of a reflection from the students, but if you can get them along the way and get them to self-assess and how their own learning is going then we can help them to mold their learning into the future and make some better students.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that focus on data and self-reflection and what you said earlier, it's about always getting better and having the tools in place to always get better. One thing that really struck me with this process as I heard from those throughout the state this morning who are newly certified or are maintaining their certification. I like that term it's “Hey I'm keeping up I'm moving forward”.

This is not an easy process this isn't a process where you just decide you're going to do it and you go through the steps and you're all set you check the boxes. You told a story about your pathway to certification can you tell us about that?

Raechel Bunnell:
So it took me a while. I started all the way back in 2020. Our school district wants you to do it in three years, one to three years. Or I guess the state wants you to do it in one to three years. They have had a system in place that they pay for your fees, and if you don't do it in three years then you have to do retakes on your own dime. So I was determined. I was like for sure in one to three years. It was COVID that messed things up, but I was able to get everything in in three years.

So it's you know you submit your work in April. Is it April? March, and then you have to wait all the way until December until you get the results back. It's very exciting, nerve-wracking because there's a lot that you know you're waiting for, anticipation. I had all of my family gather around while we were going to open the results of my certification in 2023. We're sitting there and it's like those Tik-Tok videos when people are opening college acceptance to Harvard. So we're all standing around it's very exciting. We stayed up late you know and I get the email I open it and there's so much anticipation and I didn't certify. I didn't pass. I looked up at my family's faces and I'm like “I didn't get it” and I started to just cry. And they're like “Okay” and they all kind of went away.

It was really anticlimactic and super sad because I started to think who am I? What did I do wrong? Am I even a good teacher anymore? It was really a weird thing to fail, quote-unquote fail because I just thought I was gonna do better than that. So I had to decide if this was really– did I want to try again? Did I want to do retakes or was I done with the whole process? It took a month to really think about it and figure out what I wanted to do next.

I did what I want my students to do. I looked and saw what I needed, where my deficiencies were, what parts of history did I need to study. What parts of geography and economics did I need to study? And I was able to do it. Gosh, it really came down to the wire. I studied. I did flashcards. I did all this and then even when we were waiting, you know Leslie and I took the test on the same day.

Leslie Steele:
That’s where we met.

Raechel Bunnell:
And we're sitting there and I'm waiting in line and I'm even listening to review videos on my phone while we're in line waiting to check in. And wouldn't you know it?

Anthony Godfrey:
You were cramming.

Raechel Bunnell:
I was cramming.

Anthony Godfrey:
You were cramming.

Raechel Bunnell:
I had studied a lot but I also did some cramming. The essay on the test was the exact thing that I had studied on my way in and then I had my phone to my ear and I did well. All of that time, all of the years that I sat there and tried and worked really hard. It is a really hard process, and so I took the test. This last December comes up, and I don't tell a soul. I didn't tell anybody that I was getting my results.

Anthony Godfrey:
You couldn't have a repeat.

Raechel Bunnell:
No, I was too nervous. I was much too nervous. So I was just sitting on the couch everybody was like watching TV. I opened the email and I said “Whoo-hoo” like so excited because I actually certified. It's been a really amazing process and stuff.

Leslie Steele:
And you saw your fireworks.

Raechel Bunnell:
I saw the fireworks.

Leslie Steele:
When you certify, the screen where you log in has like these firework confetti things coming down. So like in the National Board world, it's “Who got their fireworks? Did you get your fireworks?” I would keep logging in and like see them reanimate.

Raechel Bunnell:
Yep. Just so you could see those beautiful fireworks.

Anthony Godfrey:
The fireworks rerun.

Raechel Bunnell:
You know, I don't fail at many things.

Anthony Godfrey:
I wouldn't think so.

Raechel Bunnell:
It was it was hard emotionally and that's a lot of what students go through. You know, they get a paper back and it has a D, an F on it and how do you bounce back from that? Are you going to bounce back from that? Are you going to work at a retake or talk to your teacher and study and do better next time? That's absolutely what they go through. That doesn't end when you're an adult. It doesn't end in your career. So it was an interesting experience to have to go through that disappointment and then understand that it wasn't personal, right?  You can grow from it. You grow from your failures.

Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely.

Leslie Steele:
And the support from the cohort. That was like a master class to me in teaching and giving students support. The way they would structure those meetings and give us sentence frames and guide the discussion. That alone was great professional development to kind of see how they taught us.

Raechel Bunnell:
Leslie's lucky because she started with a cohort. Back in 2020 when I started, I didn't feel like I had any idea what to do. I was alone and lost for a good for the first two, three years of it and then I figured out that there was support out there. So if I could do it all again, oh my gosh a cohort. There's one through the Utah NBCT, is that the one you did?

Leslie Steele:
Yes, I don't know how you did it without because they break it down for you and kind of say like “Okay this month we're really gonna focus on this”, “this month we're gonna focus on this” and then toward the end we're actually sending each other our papers. Reading papers, giving feedback, it was so incredibly valuable. No shade to National Board but those instructions are insane. Those instructions, I mean you can read them over and over. What do they want from me? So they help to really break it down.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back more with two of our National Board Certified teachers.

Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.

Break:
Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @jordandistrict. We can't wait to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:
What advice would you give teachers who are considering becoming National Board Certified?

Leslie Steele:
I would say you can do it. Dive in. The first step is just deciding that you want to do it. There are people in our district who are here to support you and to help you sort through the process. It seems really overwhelming at first but it's things you're already doing, you're just going deeper. Anthony Godfrey:
There is some financial incentive at the state and at the district level. Talk to folks about that who are listening and might be interested.

Raechel Bunnell:
So at the state level, there is an annual stipend, I suppose, that is about a $1,000 or $2,000 if you are teaching at a Title One school. That is one of the lower that states offer in the United States right but I think that there's a push to get more.

Leslie Steele:
Yes, the tides are turning I feel it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I feel like that's true because they talked about legislators who are interested in sponsoring legislation going forward to provide better support and more financial incentive.

Raechel Bunnell:
In any state where they have a higher financial incentive you, have a higher amount of teachers that are doing board certification. It's not all about money though, like our school district also has a great stipend of $2500 a year, and that's awesome.

Leslie Steele:
The state also pays for you to go through the process. So they pay for your individual components because that would be a couple thousand dollars I think and so the state works with the TSSP funding and that just goes directly into your National Board account.

Raechel Bunnell:
Yeah, and if anybody has questions about that, ask one of the National Board Certified teachers that you know and we can help you figure that out.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've talked with you about how much you love teaching first graders. I have visited your classroom and talked with you about how you handle current events and the difficulties of teaching social studies and the joys of teaching social studies. Tell me just about what you love about teaching first grade and teaching high school.

Leslie Steele:
Okay, first grade is like the growth. I mean from beginning of the year to end of the year it is wild the difference. The kids do a writing activity every month and then I put them together and at parent-teacher conference, I spread them all out. Parents get emotional and just to see from okay this is their August work and this is their latest work. The kids love to see it and just that growth that happens in first grade is unreal. You get kindergartners coming into you and you forget what they're like and then they leave and they're like second graders. So I just love the growth. I love the excitement. Everything is fun, and cool, and special, and magical, and I just love making school a happy place because if they love school in first grade you know we've set them up for success.

Raechel Bunnell:
So for high school social studies, it's exciting. We're in a time that is so important for students to know how to navigate the media, civil discourse, controversial issues and we don't shy away from that. We try to set the kids up with a foundation of civil discourse so that they can handle the big topics so that they can talk to each other in our class without hating each other.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's really fun for me to hear about the experiences at the beginning of a student's time in Jordan School District and toward the end of their time in Jordan and the progress they make.

Raechel Bunnell:
I hope we’re doing fun things the whole way through. It's gotta be fun in first grade and we do hilarious things in high school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely.

Raechel Bunnell:
Like we have a funeral for Napoleon and we bring out all of the people to eulogize him.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hey, high school kids are full of surprises.

Raechel Bunnell:
You know, a 12th grader will do almost anything for a sticker on a paper.

Leslie Steele:
They're the same.

Raechel Bunnell:
They're the same if they're 6 or they’re 16.

Anthony Godfrey:
We will need to talk more about the trench warfare some sounds really cool. Thank you both for being incredible teachers and for pursuing this next level of excellence. I know you're just gonna keep growing and growing. There are lots of lucky students in your classrooms over the years so thank you so much.

Teachers:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.

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