Supercast

Transcription coming soon.

Jason Weimer:
He made me stand up in front of everybody at the Maverick Center and everybody was clapping.

Barry Manilow:
We have a winner here in West Valley City. Teaches at Riverton High School. Anybody?

Jason Weimer:
I was shaking in my shorts a little bit.

Barry Manilow:
Jason Weimer, Jason!

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Could it be magic? It was something like that for an amazing Jordan School District music teacher. On this episode of the Supercast, meet Riverton High School's performing arts director, Jason Weimer. Mr. Weimer recently received the prestigious Barry Manilow Music Teacher Award for the state of Utah. The award came with a once-in-a-lifetime meet and greet with Barry Manilow himself and with Mr. Weimer being recognized in the middle of the Manilow concert at the Maverick Center. Yes, it looks like this talented teacher has made it. Listen to his incredible story

Anthony Godfrey:
We are here at Riverton High School out with the marching band talking with Jason Weimer, the director of instrumental music. Jason, introduce yourself.

Jason Weimer:
Hi, I'm Jason and I teach the sit-down bands and orchestras and AP Music Theory at Riverton High School along with Mr. Chris Jesse and Mr. Drew Holland.

Anthony Godfrey:
The sit-down bands. Tell me about how all this gets categorized.

Jason Weimer:
Well, marching band is what I like to call stand-up band. We do that outside and march around on the field and then sit-down band is the stereotypical more concert inside at night concert sort of ensemble.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stand-up, sit-down, fight, fight, fight. That's right.

Jason Weimer:
Yep, pretty much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Alright, so tell me, give us a comprehensive view of the music program, the instrumental music program overall. You mentioned some other faculty members. I think that folks who have not been in music in high school recently or haven't been involved may not realize just the scope and the range of opportunities that are available to students these days.

Jason Weimer:
So our biggest goal is to be able to meet students wherever they are in terms of what they need to get better at their instrument. So we're lucky to be able to offer three levels of orchestra and three levels of concert band and three levels of percussion ensemble and two levels of jazz band. The biggest thing that that lets us do is differentiate instruction and just sort of really cater to what the kids at each level need in order to get better. We found that that's been the best way for us to help grow the program and have happy kids playing music.

Anthony Godfrey:
You have kids entering the program, it sounds like, with varying degrees of experience with instrumental music. Some of them may be starting in middle school, some of them are starting fresh in high school, haven't picked up an instrument before, and others have played for a long time. Is that accurate?

Jason Weimer:
Oh yeah. You never know who's going to end up being your best senior or things like that, whether they start in high school as a sophomore or if they've been playing in middle school. I've had kids pick up an instrument in 10th grade for the first time and end up being some of the best players we have. Of course, kids who start learning when they're super young doing private lessons or things like that are going to generally tend to have an advantage, I guess, in terms of skill.

Anthony Godfrey:
But there's a place for everyone regardless of how well prepared you are.

Jason Weimer:
Absolutely. We'll take anybody at any skill level and do what we can to get them involved.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I love that so many options are available. We're here while everyone's setting up for marching band practice and this is, they're unloading a semi-truck. That's not an exaggeration. So tell me about what's involved every time you perform and every time you practice.

Jason Weimer:
So every time we practice, we're talking about getting 5 to 10 props in the right place, coordinating an ensemble that really in itself is three different ensembles performing together. So we have the Color Guard who does the dancing and the spinning of the flags and the rifles and stuff like that. So they have their own instructional team. We have the horn line. So that's going to be like band instruments, flutes, trumpets, things like that. They have their own instructional team. Then we have the percussion section, so drums and marimbas and things like that and they have their own instructional team. Then all of those have the visual component as well, which is the marching around the field and things like that. So you're coordinating a lot of different elements together. As you can tell from the trailer, even just stuff, we have a lot of stuff. But that's one of the best things about this activity is everybody has a responsibility that helps the team be successful, whether it's making sure the props are in the right spot or making sure the people are playing the right notes. Everyone has a thing that they need to contribute and be reliable on. Yeah, that type of responsibility is just what I've seen makes this activity so great and so appealing is everybody's starting, is on the starting team. Nobody's on the bench, so to speak. Everyone's on there the whole game.

Anthony Godfrey:
They're all very involved. You're here talking with me for the podcast after school, and everyone is just doing their thing. Everyone knows what to do. It's a well-oiled machine and everyone has a role to play. And if anyone aspires to be a roadie, I think they have some really good experience. They're ready to go.

Jason Weimer:
Yeah, for sure. They get plenty of practice at it. Everything you see the kids doing, we've practiced at some point earlier in the year, even putting repurposed cafeteria tables onto the field.

Anthony Godfrey:
I did notice that. They did seem familiar.

Jason Weimer:
They were surplus, I promise.

Anthony Godfrey:
No, I'm sure you didn't go to some elementary school and steal them. You received an award over the summer that got a lot of attention and, as you said, was pretty overwhelming. Tell folks about that.

Jason Weimer:
So it was the Barry Manilow Music Teacher Award, which, I'll be honest, I didn't even know was an award until they contacted me with the nomination.

Anthony Godfrey:
Had someone nominated you, or was it with a form that allowed you to?

Jason Weimer:
You know, it was somebody nominated me. I guess that with the venues they do concerts at, they meet with people who work at that venue and brainstorm. I'm not sure exactly how my name came up, and I haven't been able to figure out who put my name in the hat. But somebody somewhere nominated me, and I'm super grateful for that. But, I mean, the biggest thing for me is when the whole thing was happening, I hate being annoying on Facebook and social media and asking people to do things for me. So I was trying really hard not to be, you know, "Hey, make sure you vote for me today." Because the type of competition it was was one where you could vote every day once, each person could vote every day once. Then the window was so wide open that I was like, "I really don't want to be annoying." But I was super, super humbled by how much the community sort of took the reins and did that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell us about this award. What did it involve? I know it's money for you and for the school.

Jason Weimer:
Yeah, so normally when they did this award, they used to focus on just donations to the school. I guess this year, the past couple years, they decided to make it about the teacher and the school program. So they did a matching $5,000 donation to the school and then $5,000 for me as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now did they... Let me back up. So $5,000 for the school, $5,000 for you. How did you spend that money for the school? Have you spent it?

Jason Weimer:
I did spend it and we're still waiting on the equipment. So they partnered with a great company called Sweetwater. They were able to give us like at pricing basically on a lot of stuff. So a lot cheaper than we would have gotten that stuff had we just bought it by ourselves.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the $5,000 for you personally?

Jason Weimer:
Yeah, I spent that really, really fast as well. You know, I took my wife out to a nice dinner and then the rest, I shoveled into paying down my graduate loans. So...

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. So hey, that's... That feels great. That feels great and it's a related cost. That makes a lot of sense. Well, that's pretty fun. That's cool. So tell me about the concert and the experience. You also got to attend the concert and you got to meet Barry Manilow. Talk to me about that experience.

Jason Weimer:
Yeah. They were great seats, first of all, like right up in the front. Before we went out for the concert, they took us backstage for the meet and greet. I mean, it was really fast. But it's like meeting a movie star, right? Like, I mean, it's probably the most famous person I've ever met in my life. Maybe will ever meet. But I mean, he was really kind and I mean, he was really busy, so we didn't chat that much. You know, we found out we played the same instrument, which was pretty cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
You played the same instrument. Tell me about that.

Jason Weimer:
Yeah. So I played clarinet growing up. And I guess that's the instrument that he played growing up as well. So, you know, we have a little bit of shared trauma.

Anthony Godfrey:
Clarinet trauma. Clarinet people. The clarinet brings people together.

Jason Weimer:
The clarinet players know about the clarinet trauma.

Anthony Godfrey:
So that's cool. That's exciting. And when he handed you the check, did he say, “This one's for you?”

Jason Weimer:
I you know, I think he dropped the ball on that one. He should have he should have done that. Right.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Jason Weimer:
But, but yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
No musical references?

Jason Weimer:
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's really sad for me. I was out of town. I wanted to be there, first of all, to see you get honored like this. But I'm also a Fanilow, a big Barry Manilow fan. I've had his stuff. I bought it when I was 13. I bought Manilow Magic, the K-Tel collection. So I've been a fan for a long time and I wanted to tell him that. But it sounds like he would have been pretty busy and pretty fast in and out of the room anyway. But I was living through you because I really would have loved to meet Barry Manilow. That sounds like a really cool experience. How did it feel for you to be recognized that way?

Jason Weimer:
It was really overwhelming. I don't like public attention generally. But you know, there was a part where he made me stand up in front of everybody at the Maverick Center and everybody was clapping. And, you know, I was shaking in my shorts a little bit. But afterwards, it was pretty cool. As I was leaving, a lot of people came up and they're like, “Hey, I just want you to know, like, I had a really great music teacher. I appreciate what you're doing.” I even ran into parents of two students that I had 10 years ago when I started that just happened to be at the Barry Manilow concert, too. They came and found me afterwards to just — you know, and I got to catch up with them for a little bit. So that was that was awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's so awesome. I love that. That must have been a great feeling. What was fun for me is that I received a few texts from people who were at the concert who filmed it.

Jason Weimer:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Then would text it to me and say, did you know this about your teacher who won this award? And they were all really cheering for you. So I got to see that footage of what happened, of him having you stand up and the spotlight and everything.

Barry Manilow:
We're going to celebrate the music teacher, so we created a contest. Each city that we go to, the students vote for their favorite music teacher and we have a winner here in West Valley City.

Barry Manilow:
Let me tell you a little bit about him. He teaches at Riverton High School. Anybody?

Barry Manilow:
He’s been teaching for twelve years, and he teaches intermediate and advanced bands, three levels of string orchestra, marching band, full symphony and music theory. He’s a busy boy, eh?

Barry Manilow:
And I love his quote. The quote is “I love seeing my students' passion and watching them fall in love with making music.” Go Jason, go!

Barry Manilow:
All right. Stop. Our winner here in West Valley City is Jason Weimer! Jason!

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back. Hear what band students have to say about Mr. Weimer and his unofficial induction into the International Barry Manilow Fan Club.

Male Voice:
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.

Female Voice:
Are you looking for a job right now, looking to work in a fun and supportive environment with great pay and a rewarding career? Jordan School District is hiring. We're currently filling full and part-time positions. You can work and make a difference in young lives and education as a classroom assistant or a substitute teacher. Apply to work in one of our school cafeterias where our lunch staff serves up big smiles with great food every day. We're also looking to hire custodians and bus drivers. In Jordan School District, we like to say people come for the job and enjoy the adventure. Apply today at employment.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
So just tell me, I always like to ask this, what would you say to parents of students who are maybe thinking about whether they ought to be involved in color guard or marching band or any instrumental music, whether here at Riverton or elsewhere. What are the benefits? Why should they consider that?

Jason Weimer:
You know, and I've said this a lot, is most of these kids won't major in music, but most of the benefits to being in a music ensemble are not musical benefits. So cooperation, how to work with other people towards a common goal, how to compromise, how to support your friends and your peers or invest in somebody else's success. Like those are in my mind are things we need a lot of now. And, you know, this activity just is full of that sort of stuff. I could I could go on and on and on and on and on about the positives of just those sort of ‘A. musical things.’ But honestly, like just hang out, hang out with some band kids, hang out with some orchestra kids at some point. Those are the kids who are like cleaning up after themselves and other people at school. Those are the kids who are like helping each other and, you know, and really watching out for each other. I think that that's not necessarily, you know, I think that that's because of their involvement in that activity.

Anthony Godfrey:
I agree. There are a ton of benefits and I like how you deem them to be ‘A. musical benefits.’ Like it goes well beyond music and their lessons that last forever. I also love that we have a soundtrack to our interview. We've got the marimbas going in the background and many other instruments as well. Sounds fantastic. And I went to the state competition couple years in a row. It's not just the students, but the parents. It's a very social for parents. It's a great connect. You become part of a community. Well, thank you so much for everything that you're doing for these kids. It's such an important experience for them. And I know your program is huge because of the great environment that you provide for students and the wonderful experiences they have when they're part of your program. So thanks to you and the other teachers involved here at Riverton and keep up the great work.

Jason Weimer:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
And good luck at state. We're talking now with two students who are in the program. Tell me your name, grade and what you play.

Elizabeth Fisher:
I'm Elizabeth Fisher. I'm a junior in high school and I'm the drum major.

Josh Sieverts:
I'm Josh Sieverts. I am a senior. I play clarinet.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about playing the clarinet. Your teacher also played the clarinet when he was in high school. He talked about the shared trauma of clarinet players. Talk to me about playing the clarinet.

Josh Sieverts:
Well, clarinet is definitely the best instrument. Up for debate, but not if you're right. There's so many squeaks, especially when you're learning. There's like these high pitch screams and they are so annoying. It's like learning the recorder in elementary school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Josh Sieverts:
One of those instruments your parents want you to play outside or in the basement. But then you start getting really good and it sounds really good.

Anthony Godfrey:
It sounds really cool. And does it come apart? Does it have like these, is it in three pieces or two?

Josh Sieverts:
Yeah. So you have your bell, you have your lower joint, which has the bottom hand of keys. The upper joint, which has the top hand of keys, your barrel, your mouthpiece, your ligature, which holds on your reed and then your reed, which is what makes the noise.

Anthony Godfrey:
I was going to say ligature. I'm glad that you stepped in with that. So now what do you like about playing the clarinet?

Josh Sieverts:
So I started playing it just because none of my family did, because I have a musical family. But then when I started playing it, it's like the perfect instrument for me because I love playing melody because I love being the most important.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Josh Sieverts:
Well, then I also love harmonies because I love how they blend and clarinet is right in the middle. So you get to do both.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow.

Josh Sieverts:
So it's my favorite.

Anthony Godfrey:
That’s great. Do you plan on continuing to play after high school?

Josh Sieverts:
Yeah. So I plan on going to college for music education, actually.

Anthony Godfrey:
Outstanding. So you can come back and work in Jordan District.

Josh Sieverts:
Oh, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic. All right. Now tell me about your instrument. You are a drum major. So does that start out with being a major or with playing the drums?

Elizabeth Fisher:
Well, that just means I conduct the band. So I don't play the drums, but I play other instruments. Basically, I just keep time and hope that everybody stays with me and my co-partner, the other drum major.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, so there are two drum majors.

Elizabeth Fisher:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
They're not the drum minor.

Elizabeth Fisher:
No, no. I'm technically the junior drum major, but we're both kind of equal, I guess.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Would she say that too? Or would she say that you're not even?

Elizabeth Fisher:
I'm not completely sure, but  . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm not trying to create drum major drama here. I'm just trying to understand.

Elizabeth Fisher:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So as a drum major who does not play the drums, what do you do? You have to stand up on that precipice, up on that platform.

Elizabeth Fisher:
Yes. Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what is it like to be in Mr. Weimer's program? So he won an award. It seems like he's pretty awesome.

Josh Sieverts:
Yes. So I'd say he's the best band teacher because lots of band teachers are super strict and it's all about being perfect. And it's never talking. It's always just quiet and you're listening and attentive. He does that, but he makes it fun. So like, we can have a great time. Like sometimes we'll just get a pizza because we can. We'll just have a party during class.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about for you?

Elizabeth Fisher:
Yeah, basically the same thing. He has a really good balance of finding fun and being productive together. He's just a really cool guy in my opinion. I've had different situations where he's just like super friendly, super caring. He's inspired me to want to become a band teacher when I'm older. So I feel like that's like the best compliment someone can receive is just like — he's just so inspiring to me and I want to be like him when I grow up.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, there's not a better compliment than that. That's fantastic. So you both want to be music teachers. What is, if you had to name one thing, what's the best thing you've learned from Mr. Weiner?

Josh Sieverts:
Honestly, how to play clarinet because I played for three years before I came here and I thought I was better than I was. I could hardly play it and then within like two months of having him as a teacher, I had excelled dramatically.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. How about for you?

Elizabeth Fisher:
I feel like just teaching me how to be like a really good person. He's an awesome person and he makes sure that we know how to treat people correctly. You know, we're teenagers. We're still trying to figure out our lives and who we are and just making sure that everybody around us is okay with us being around them and making sure that we're always grateful and just ready to be good people. I think that's something I've learned from him.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. What an incredible combination! The technical skills and learning just to be a better all-around person. What more could you ask for? So thanks for being such an important part of the band and I'm excited to see your performances coming up. So keep up the great work. Thank you 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.

(upbeat music)

Graham Bany:
The more students know that you are willing to use AI to support them, even if you don't know what the subject is, we can use SchoolAI Spaces, the chatbots, to help create these tutors for the kids. School's supposed to be fun I'm not supposed to be bored here all day.

Anthony Godfrey:
It should be fun, absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Teachers in Jordan School District are transforming their classrooms with more personalized, efficient, and engaging lessons than ever before, thanks in part to the use of SchoolAI. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside an amazing classroom at Valley High School. It's where students are thriving, and the classroom experience is more dynamic, thanks to a teacher who is diving in, using SchoolAI to reach and teach students in a way that is elevating the educational experience for everyone.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Valley High School with one of the teachers in the District who has used AI earliest and most often. Graham, go ahead and introduce yourself.

Graham Bany:
Yeah, so I'm Graham Bany. I'm an English Language Arts teacher at Valley High School. I also do digital coaching and my co-teacher Rachel and I are over the school newspaper, which we've kind of reimagined in kind of a digital form. It's a little less formal, a little bit more creative. I'm going to do a lot of fun things here at Valley.

Anthony Godfrey:
For those who don't know Valley High School, explain what Valley High School is all about.

Graham Bany:
Valley High School is the best school to go to. It is an alternative high school and alternative is often viewed as a pejorative. Alternative in this sense just means different. We have smaller class sizes. We have more deep and meaningful relationships with students. We take the time to understand every kid, every situation, every story. We are given the opportunity to try things in different ways that may be better for students. It's an incredible building that is a playground of creativity and innovation with the main goal to support students who have not been as successful in buildings where they have previously been and to try to push them towards their most successful and fruitful lives, whether that is in formal education, whether that is a trade school, or whether that's just going out and being the best version of themselves that they can be.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very well said. And there's an incredible collection of very dedicated educators here at Valley. And like you said, I like the way you put that. It's an alternative. It's a choice. What are the alternatives? This is one of those choices, and for students, this becomes the right choice for a wide variety of reasons. People might have ideas about what reasons they think kids have for coming here, there are many, many more than what you might imagine.

Graham Bany:
Honestly, my favorite are the burned-out honors kids that just need someone that's going to challenge them and remind them that it's okay to not be entirely as perfect as they felt they've had to be or the kids that are just looking for a second chance and want a teacher who knows nothing about them. It's just the beautiful opportunity to welcome every kid every day and create meaningful learning environments and opportunities to just support them.

Anthony Godfrey:
You get to redefine yourself when you come to Valley.

Graham Bany:
Everyone. Teachers, students, this is a beautiful, beautiful place, and it is the only place that I want to be.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm very proud of what happens here. It's just incredible results in graduation rates beyond conventional high schools elsewhere in Utah. So lots of great results beyond just the relationships and the support that really honestly lasts a lifetime because of the impact that teachers have on students here.

Graham Bany:
It would not be without the support of the District and you that allows us to do the amazing things that we do. We get to do this because it is needed and it is supported because it is successful and good.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's an easy place to support that way. So let's talk about your journey with AI. You started with AI before we adopted SchoolAI as an entire district. You were dabbling already because, as you just demonstrated, you are focused on your kids being successful, and you wanted your students to have every opportunity that others do. You were also feeling a little bit overwhelmed at teaching at that point. Is that fair to say?

Graham Bany:
Yeah, I think burnout is a part of the story. We cannot ignore that teacher burnout is one of the most common experiences in education. Between years three and five, the majority of teachers leave the profession. So I was at the end of year three and I had switched from a different school over to here, and I was picking myself back together as a teacher. It is hard to admit that sometimes, no matter how much we love the job, no matter how great we are at the job, no matter how perfect everything goes, that it is exhausting and it is difficult and it is a grind. So AI kind of started--AI has been around for a long time, but this iteration of generative AI where students started using it and we started noticing that uptick in cheating, is really when it started to pick up on my attention. So I had students--we read--it was EpiCac by Kurt Vonnegut where a computer falls in love with someone and I had my students use ChatGPT to write a love poem. So they were using it. I had no idea what things were and tried that. I was like, "Oh, this is kind of clever. It's creating interesting things. I think I can use this for lesson planning." And I was a tired teacher who had agreed to teach summer school and I had a two-week unit that I had not prepped or planned for. So I quietly, late at night, stayed up trying to figure out how to use to help me prepare the materials I had and create my objectives. I used it as a lesson planning partner for the very first time and summer school was much easier than it had been in the past. So it kind of got easier. Then I went to these coaching meetings where I get harassed by Teaching and Learning into using a fun new tool and they lovingly took my hand and guided me towards SchoolAI. I had never met any of them, but it was just the friendship and the collaboration that they brought to these different things that were going on in the District that really gave me the opportunity to try things, test things out.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you hear people talk about AI in the classroom, that it will create more distance between teacher and student because you've got now artificial intelligence doing everyone's work, in fact, it sets aside the menial task that is-- the menial tasks associated with teaching and learning — and allows you to really connect in a more personalized way. Would you agree with that?

Graham Bany:
Yeah. I mean, mathematically, like, we don't have to be upset and think, "I can't do everything for a student." When I have 100-plus students in my classrooms a day and I'm supposed to be providing them meaningful feedback, which is the greatest way to support them and help them. What kind of feedback can I give a kid if I'm limited to, "I got two minutes per kid and I better have the same brain power for every kid all day from 9 a.m. until when I'm done?" It doesn't happen and we can't expect that and then if we want to do that meaningful feedback, we're taking it home. So using AI in these places to accelerate these things that we're doing, still verifying everything that we are using and using it in a way to help us be as effective as possible to the most amount of students while still maintaining our own life and humanity, because the happier the teacher is, the better the classroom feels. If you're not spending your Saturday grading, you're going to come back to the class so much more refreshed and ready to go which brings you back together with them.

Anthony Godfrey:
But the same is true for students. If the menial task is set aside and the engaging, creative, personalized tasks are all that you have left, then learning becomes much more exciting than it might be otherwise.

Graham Bany:
When we have these things that are new, unique, creative, that we can find use cases for that the students have no clue could be a thing. We excite them, we engage them, we feed their hunger and curiosity. We can make it fun, right? School's supposed to be fun. I'm not supposed to be bored here all day.

Anthony Godfrey:
It should be fun. It should be fun, absolutely. So you mentioned earlier this question of cheating. When people talk about AI and cheating, what do you say in response?

Graham Bany:
People have always cheated. Always. I remember in high school, one of my buddies was using his older sister's current events that she had saved, like the write-ups that she had done, and he would bring them into class. The teacher wouldn't read them, so no one cared, and it was fine. Cheating's always happened. Cheating will always happen. It's just more convenient for the students to generate slop that they then pass off as their own. But cheating is cheating, and you can address it in any number of ways. But the whole goal should be finding a way to get the kid excited and engage them in the task, but also keeping that openness about it happening. We're not dumb. We know what AI writing sounds like. I don't know if at the District level you all have seen AI resumes or cover letters.

Anthony Godfrey:
It starts with "How are you doing?" and then there are "M" dashes all throughout it.

Graham Bany:
The "M" dash is crazy. I got an English degree, and I know how to use them, but I don't even like using them. So when I see a kid use one, or I've never seen you use a complete sentence, every sentence, for an entire page, something's the matter. The solution to cheating is engagement. That's always been the question in education. How do we engage our students? How do we get them excited to come to class? How do we keep them excited while they're in class? We're moving phones out of their hands. We are trying to be as engaged constantly in whichever ways and whichever approaches, but in a lot of ways, if you know the kid and you understand how they write and you understand how they sound, you can catch the cheating. It creates that opportunity for a conversation and connection, which you can maybe figure out why they want to do that. When you find out the "why," you can actually address the problem. To be honest, I don't think kids cheat other than something is not fun to do, but usually they're cheating because they don't understand. When you can figure out why they don't understand and teach them and show them you care enough about them, maybe they'll come to you and ask next time, and maybe it's just never actually going to be a problem again.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sometimes it's AI that creates the space that allows you to do that and to have that connection because so much has already been taken care of.

Graham Bany:
The more students know that you are willing to use AI to support them, even if you don't know what the subject is, we can use SchoolAI Spaces, the chatbots, to help create these tutors for the kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back. More with Graham Bany and SchoolAI.

Male Voice:
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.

Female voice:
Does your child need the flexibility to learn from anywhere at any time, on a cruise, in another country, or simply at home, cozy on the couch? The Jordan Virtual Learning Academy is tailor-made for you and your family. It's personalized, dynamic virtual learning on your schedule. The Jordan Virtual Learning Academy is an integrated system of three schools in Jordan School District: Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School, Kelsey Peak Virtual Middle School, and Kings Peak High School. Our programs are designed to meet or exceed District and state core curriculum standards, ensuring your child receives a superior educational experience tailored to their needs. Join us today at JordanVirtual.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you talked about your journey with SchoolAI and with AI generally, you were one of the early superusers that first summer who really helped shape what SchoolAI is doing across the country at this point.

Graham Bany:
Internationally.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes.

Graham Bany:
Yeah. They're all around the world.

Anthony Godfrey:
They are. So it was your input and the input of a hundred other educators in Jordan that really helped shape things because you're saying, "Hey, well, what about this? Can AI do this? Can SchoolAI help us accomplish this?" It really was exciting to watch how quickly it took off in Jordan and how, as you indicated, how far and wide SchoolAI has taken off as well. Let's talk about some of the tools that have sparked your interest lately and some of the things that you're able to do. Let's talk about concretely how it helps you as a teacher and how it helps your students in class.

Graham Bany:
So when it comes to AI in the classroom, there's two basic ways that I think we can look at it: Teacher-centered and student-centered. So the teacher-centered is going to be these different AI tools that we can use or the different ways we can use the tools to accomplish what we're trying to. So in the course of a week as a teacher, I'm using AI to help me go through my weekly planning. I'm using it to help me organize my to-do list and maybe kind of set things up in a way that's a little bit more accomplishable. I'm using the built-in AI tools and different software to help quickly generate from my lecture notes slides that I'm going to be using in Canva. All sorts of different things. Whether we're doing lesson plans, I'm creating word banks, I'm using it to adapt assignments to the different WIDA levels of students in my classroom so that I can make sure every student has an engaging activity or assignment that is actually at their level and challenging them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Explain to folks what WIDA scores mean.

Graham Bany:
WIDA scores are essentially just a measurement of the student's current ability with their language. So if we have a student that is a multilingual student, being able to use AI to maybe adapt for a specific low reading ability, which as they're developing their reading ability in multiple languages, right? They're a super smart kid, but maybe they just need things to be at a different way or maybe they need supports for what they're reading, like a word bank. And for us to sit down and do that, maybe that takes 15 minutes and that's a worthwhile use of our time. With AI, we can do that maybe 15 seconds and have a support for the student that is appropriate to their level that allows them to engage in the classroom activity or reading or assignment in the same way as the rest of their peers. When we know what we're doing and we know what we need to do and we know how we can do it well and quickly, job becomes fun again.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Well said. Absolutely. So let's look at some of these tools that you're using lately.

Graham Bany:
Okay. So this first one, we came up with this last year. So what we did on SchoolAI with Spaces, these would be their custom chatbots, we can custom-program them to do whatever we want them to do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Custom Spaces, describe Spaces for those who aren't familiar.

Anthony Godfrey:
Spaces essentially is a chatbot that is running through the SchoolAI filter which is built to be appropriate for students and to be kind of centered more towards these educational goals. So teachers go in, they write a prompt and the prompt is not coding, the prompt is really strong creative writing skills explaining exactly how you want the experience to go.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Graham Bany:
And then we tested a bunch of times to make sure that even our most engaged students aren't breaking it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Graham Bany:
And we use it with the kids. So this would be where we are at student centered. So instead of just teacher centered, this would be the thing that is student facing only.

Anthony Godfrey:
Spaces allows you to do almost like a ‘choose your own adventure’ sort of experience where you're put into the Revolutionary War or on an expedition with Lewis and Clark and you're interacting with you're interacting with SchoolAI in a way that creates a personalized adventure and experience.

Graham Bany:
Exactly. So I went to our school librarian and I had Tierca export from the library catalog, the list of the most frequently checked out books and the entire library catalog. So this is a bot that is set up with PDFs. So I uploaded those PDFs and it has basic prompting to engage the students in helping them try to find a book. So me the librarian or me and the other adults in there may not always know everything or may not always have all the free time to sit and help a kid pick a book, especially when we're in there. So they have the option where they could scan a QR code, pull this up and go through books by any sort of way that they would like to.

Anthony Godfrey:
And limited to the books in the library. What a great idea. So it's right there on the shelf if they once they find a book that they're looking for. Let's try it out. Can we launch it here?

Graham Bany:
Yeah. So if you just go into send a message right there. It is set up with summaries of each of the books. so it has a basic understanding about what's going on.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I just chose books similar to the ones you like. Tell me a book you like and I'll suggest similar titles from our library. All right. I'm going to try The Pigman. That's a book from the 60s. Let's see if they . . . Here are some books from the library. They're similar to The Pigman focusing on teen life, friendship and real-world struggles. The Outsiders is a great match for that. Winter Girls: Leah Struggles with Loss. Boy 21: Basketball and friendship help two boys cope with grief and change in their lives.

Graham Bany:
Wow.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. I want to read all of these books. That's pretty awesome.

Graham Bany:
So our librarian then took these as a basis and started building different experiences with the chatbots. So it would be like a murder mystery where the kids were going around finding different books. So we've kind of used these as a basis that kind of sets off other people's creativity and so she's used them to do different sorts of activities with students in the library.

Anthony Godfrey:
What has the reaction been from your students as they have had the opportunity to use AI to enhance their learning?

Graham Bany:
Like any good thing, we can overuse it. We can overdo anything.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Graham Bany:
There have been times where we've done it multiple days in a row where they want to break. And I think that's a true testament of what's kind of going on in our world. The kids want to be disconnected more. So I think AI used in very controlled doses, very intentional moments, is very beneficial. Just like Shakespeare, bad Shakespeare happens to everyone. Right. Bad AI can happen to everyone. Good AI is possible and we have to be very selective of the moments. I like to use within myself, if there is a better way to do something, I'm going to try to go that way. So if I can think of a better way to do this that doesn't involve AI, maybe I'm going to go with that.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how intentional you are about that, being very aware of where the kids are, how they're feeling about things and AI isn't the only way to get things done, but it's an additional way. Like you said, it's an alternative. It's another option. It's another way of doing things. You could have the best meal in your life and if that's the only meal you were able to have for the rest of your life, it would become a terrible meal. The same is true with AI, but it's also true with things that we have traditionally done in the classroom and not been intentional or thoughtful about evaluating.

Graham Bany:
We need a nice variety. So the more that we are critical of ourselves and not overdoing something, and the more that we are engaging with our students and understanding where they're at, because if they really like something and say, “Hey, we should do more of that,” then we do more of that. When I ask my kids, “Hey, how do we feel about this?” And they're like, “Eh,” then maybe we take a couple weeks off and circle back with something different, or I try to find something that's really ridiculous that we can try.

Anthony Godfrey:
I continue to watch as you become an influence and a positive impact on helping shape SchoolAI right from the start, but helping inspire teachers to really engage, try new things, and be at their best for students. I just can't thank you enough for everything you do for students and for the people around you.

Graham Bany:
Thank you for providing a culture within the school district that allows people like me to take chances, to be creative, to have the opportunity to fail and learn and re-approach. It really would not happen without the kindness, the leadership, and the dedication to curiosity that our district has.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you. Thank you. There are a lot of great people doing a lot of wonderful things here, and you are one of the great examples of that. So thank you. 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.

Traci Rindlisbach:
We thought that was so exciting to give the kids a chance to 3D print. Not just pressing a button, they're going to start modeling their prints.

Jared Covili:
We want students not to just be technology consumers where they just use it to find the latest game or the latest trend online. We want them to become technology creators and that's the core of what this space is.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a first-of-its-kind, high-tech learning lab for elementary school students in Jordan School District, made possible through a partnership with the Utah Jazz, Utah Mammoth, and America First Credit Union. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside the learning lab where students are wild with excitement over 3D printing, stop-motion robotics, coding, and so much more. Listen and you will hear the sounds of technology hard at work.

Anthony Godfrey:
We are at Juniper Elementary School, home of the Jordan Innovation Lab, with two of the people who helped make this possible. Please introduce yourselves and let's get right into it.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Hi, I'm Traci Rindlisbach. I work for Digital Teaching and Learning and I got to help set up the Innovation Lab.

Jared Covili:
My name is Jared Covili. I'm the administrator over the Digital Teaching and Learning Department and I'm just a fan of the Innovation Lab.

Anthony Godfrey:
I am a fan too. I just walked in, but I've heard so much about it and I was not able to be here for the ribbon cutting, but so many great reports about student reactions and the reactions from the donors who made it happen. But let's jump right into a project. Let's not just talk about it. Let's get down to business. So we have 3D printers all the way along this wall and you've 3D printed a bunch of things already for the launch. Tell me about that and tell me about the project we're going to do right now.

Traci Rindlisbach:
All right, so we bought two different types of 3D printers. We bought these Bamboo Lab 3D printers, which are super exciting because you can print four different colors and these are a little more serious 3D printers. Then we have these tiny toy boxes as well that are just like super fast prints and just like you're dipping your toes in there to start a print.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I didn't even see the little ones in between. So yeah, wow. So we've got 10 of them right here.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's amazing that this is a this is a playground for kids to well for you, too. This is this is this is pretty exciting. So what's our what's our project here?

Traci Rindlisbach:
Okay, so on this Bamboo printer, we've printed a whole bunch of things like when we were opening, we printed like the Jordan shield two colors, the Mammoth logos and the Jazz logos. All those logos were printed. We're just going to have you print a guitar pick for yourself since we know you're all about playing guitar.

Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely.

Traci Rindlisbach:
So the first thing you're going to do is you're going to hit this file right here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, so I'm accessing the templates or the designs.

Traci Rindlisbach:
These are just all the G codes like put on there and there's your pick right there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, that's perfect.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yeah, just click that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So click on that.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Then the PLA we've chosen  . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
It has a nice edge for gripping the . . That's a well-designed pick. That was a well-designed pick. Absolutely. I can really wail with this one.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Okay. And so we're going to do this metal PLA because we tested it with the other one and it broke.

Anthony Godfrey:
So okay, this is like choosing letter or legal paper.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, except we're going to choose the right and so which, which one . . .

Traci Rindlisbach:
Right here this print now.

Anthony Godfrey:
Print now. You've already set it up to print like .

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yeah, you just set it. We can click right here and you can choose the different PLAs.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, right there.

Traci Rindlisbach:
And then it's good to go. And it's going to be printed in. See right here. 13 minutes.

Anthony Godfrey:
13 minutes. Okay, we're at 0%. Temperature 69 Celsius. Okay, we're going up.

Jared Covili:
You're going to be able to add this to your resume. You're now officially a maker of a metal guitar pick.

Traci Rindlisbach:
You can sell these at your shows.

Jared Covili:
You can start your own Etsy shop.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is the one I won't flip out into the crowd. Okay, we will let a watch pot never boils and a watch print never comes to fruition. So we're going to let that simmer while we talk a little bit about how the lab started. So we were contacted by the Smith Entertainment Group, Utah Jazz, the Mammoth and America First [Credit Union] with the concept of building something that was centered around innovation, something unique for students. What excited me is that they knew that was generally in the STEM area, but it felt like there was going to be a lot of flexibility in how we shape that. So talk to me about how we decided what to do and what that partnership look like.

Jared Covili:
Yeah, we were approached by Mike Haynes from the Jordan Education Foundation, probably in May. He mentioned the idea that the Smith Entertainment Group and America First Credit Union wanted to help us build something that could really enhance students’ education. They said, “you know, we want it to have kind of an innovative blend to it, right? So we're not looking for traditional forms of learning. We'd like to use technology.” And immediately Traci got involved. She's one of our people that's very involved in STEM and computer science in our District. So we started talking about what would be some of the great tools that we could provide kids with this additional funds. We wanted to give them an experience that they couldn't have at their regular at the regular school.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what made you go this direction and tell me about what's here?

Traci Rindlisbach:
My STEM partner, Kelly Cannon, she works in the same department as I do. We have been really into 3D printing since we both came into this role. We thought that is so exciting to give the kids a chance to 3D print because it's like not just like pressing a button. They're going to like start modeling their prints and doing all those like engineering design processes through just learning how to 3D print and 3D printing.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what does it mean to model for those who haven't done 3D printing before?

Traci Rindlisbach:
That's a great idea. Create their prints. So they'll go into some kind of program. They could go into Tinkercad or on these toy boxes you can do modeling inside the app of itself. And so you'll just go and create whatever you want inside there and send it to this little printer and it will print what you've done. Now will it be perfect? Maybe if you did it correctly. But there's also that fun element of like they're going to go back and iterate and say, “oh, that didn't work. I'm going to fix this and this and this on my print until it's perfect.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Is that why we have the smaller printers so that they can dabble and kind of test things out before they go to the multi color printer or do they dive right in?

Traci Rindlisbach:
It's really an either situation like they could start on the toy box if they felt more comfortable with that. This is like a more entry level like modeling system. You'll just pull some shapes in and you'll start joining your shapes. You could pull in photos and you can make some lithographs where like if you put a light behind it, it shows like whatever photo you put into there. On the Bamboo, they would be modeling probably in Tinkercad and that would be a little more serious modeling, but still with shapes and things. So this one's just a more friendly model to get started with. But we did have a student on opening day who was really stoked about the Bamboos and talked about his Bamboo at home and what he's doing at home. So I think there's going to be kids coming in who've had a lot of experience with 3D printing and they're going to be able to teach the other students as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK, and tell me again, how do you model something? Do you is that essentially designing it virtually so that it can then become something that is physically tangible in the real world?

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yes, that's a good question. So in Tinkercad they would like design it inside the Tinkercad program and then they would slice it on the slicer and then put it right in here and it would print on out.

Anthony Godfrey:
So in other words, students can come up with their own projects and design it from start to finish instead of simply printing something that somebody else already designed.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yes, that's what we want them to do. Like we want them to like, of course, they could come in and make a print and that's always exciting. Just learning the process of how to do it. But like we want them to get to the point where they're modeling things.

Anthony Godfrey:
Maybe seeing a print initially motivates them to do all that modeling work that will lead them to something that they created themselves from scratch.

Traci Rindlisbach:
A hundred percent. We want our students to come in and choose a project that they're going to do. It could be like 3D printing or stop motion or we also have an engineering one where we'll be modeling and like creating things with cardboard. So we want them to come in with content knowledge already. So we'll say we're working in fourth grade on Mormon Pioneer Trail. They come in and they can choose if they're going to do a 3D print project, a stop motion project, or an engineering project based around the content they learned in their class. So this is just like project based learning at its best.

Anthony Godfrey:
So any of those three approaches could be used to create a project around really any subject matter.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So this connects to any learning that's happening in the classroom. That's really exciting.

Traci Rindlisbach:
That's why we're so excited about it because it's not just come and print whatever. It's come and print with a purpose.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Stay with us when we come back more about the Innovation Learning Lab at Juniper Elementary School.

Male Voice:
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.

Female voice:
Does your child need the flexibility to learn from anywhere at any time on a cruise, in another country or simply at home cozy on the couch? The Jordan Virtual Learning Academy is tailor made for you and your family. It's personalized dynamic virtual learning on your schedule. The Jordan Virtual Learning Academy is an integrated system of three schools in Jordan School District: Rocky Peak Virtual Elementary School, Kelsey Peak Virtual Middle School and Kings Peak High School. Our programs are designed to meet or exceed district and state core curriculum standards, ensuring your child receives a superior educational experience tailored to their needs. Join us today at JordanVirtual.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the three projects that students can do here in the Innovation Lab.

Traci Rindlisbach:
So we talked a whole bunch about the 3D printing. So our next one is Stop Motion and the educator that we've hired to be in charge of the lab, she is huge into stop motion and so we're super excited that she's going to be here. Her name is Tori Hadley. The students will come in with whatever content they've learned in class and they'll be given an iPad and a stand and they'll just get to work. We'll have them storyboard like “what are you guys going to do? What's the content?”

Anthony Godfrey:
Essentially the comic book version of what they're going to film.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Absolutely and then they'll start filming it. So we have all these card all this cardboard that we've sourced from Juniper, which is great.

Anthony Godfrey:Yeah nice to be housed in an elementary school that's well stocked.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Then we just have this paper and then we have these little figures over here. They could make their own characters or they could choose from our characters.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yes, some of these figures. So, if you can combine these the trolls and dinosaurs and others into a storyline you can do that. Well, there's a bear and a horse as well. Sure, we can come up with some sort of a fairy tale there.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Oh for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now you've got this cardboard and now chompsaw. I'm sure many student eyes light up at the phrase chompsaw. So show me what a chompsaw does. I have some inkling as I look at this device.

Traci Rindlisbach:
So we bought these after we saw them because we were so excited. They're student safe so I'm going to turn this on and you can see like nothing's going to . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
Right, you put your hand right up against it and you're okay.

Traci Rindlisbach:
So when the students decide what they want to chomp, when they decide what they're going to do. And this could be for their background it could be for their character or whatever. They'll sketch it out and they'll just throw their chompsaw on. This also cuts paper which is really exciting. We didn't know that after we bought it we found out.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you take the cardboard and you can shape the cardboard. Oh wow that's a cleaner cut than I expected. So this is essentially for those. It's like a . . . I don't know. There's a little knob on top here that spins underneath inside and it just cuts right through the cardboard.

Jared Covili:
Wow so think of like a scroll saw but say for kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, that's amazing.

Jared Covili:
And superintendents.

Traci Rindlisbach:
This is like two of our field trips that could be used for the stop motion animation, but it could also be used for the engineering field trip. Where they could on the desk, these desks are white boards on the top which we think is so exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
You can write on the desk.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
At long last it's encouraged.

Traci Rindlisbach:
And no one's going to get in trouble. So they can come and they can say, I'll go back to I taught fourth grade, so the Mormon pioneer trail. They could be like, “oh I got really into like mountain man.” They could build like a mountain man out of this. They could create a hand cart. They could do really anything that's associated with their content area and we have these make do's which will help them put their stuff together so they could.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I've had to make do many times. But what is a make do.

Traci Rindlisbach:
They're these cool tools that have . . . let me find them.

Anthony Godfrey:
A safe saw. Can I push the button?

Traci Rindlisbach:
You can saw through cardboard with our make do stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That is tremendous.

Anthony Godfrey:
Look at that. This is it all basically.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yeah, and then this is when these two things together.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah. Oh so you can.

Traci Rindlisbach:
So they can start creating their different projects just by joining some cardboard or some paper together.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's essentially a blue plug that you twist in to connect two pieces of cardboard.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
But then it acts as kind of like . . .

Jared Covili:
A joint.

Anthony Godfrey:
A joint. Yeah. and then you can roll right. Oh my goodness. Perforate the cardboard. OK. I have a I have a code that will allow me to stay here and lock up myself. I can I can just lock up when I go. This is this is incredible. Look, every drawer is filled with stuff: pipe cleaners, rulers, colored pencils, popsicle sticks, scissors. Wow.

Jared Covili:
Yeah. One of the best things that . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
We see starts.

Jared Covili:
One of the best things that we saw on Friday when we opened the lab was the kids needed very little instruction. I mean we would just show them “turn it on here.” After that they were going. The stop motion animation. Again, “turn it on. Here's the materials.” They would just start going. So as much as teachers may be a little overwhelmed or intimidated themselves to try and teach all of these different skills, we found that the kids feel very at home.

Anthony Godfrey:
What an engaging place for kids to be. Just while we're looking at this, this is for any fourth or sixth grade elementary student who teachers want to bring here. It's housed at Juniper. They have the easiest access of course, but it's available to anybody who schedules time here.

Traci Rindlisbach:
So far we're going to do four through six for the first year and then we're going to start expanding out. But since we have this built-in base of four through six we thought we'd start with them and then start short expanding our field trips out that way.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic. We have an educator hired to oversee this and always be here to help support teachers and students who come to use the lab.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yes. So the classroom teacher just has to bring their content knowledge and Tori Hadley, who's our educator here, is going to help them run the stop motion or the 3D printers or even help them get started with whatever they want to engineer that's based on that.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how you thought through just how to make the most of this. Remove all the barriers for students and teachers so that they can come in and just get right to work. Yeah. I've been holding the cardboard that I cut like I'm so proud. I was just I was just experimenting and I'm really proud like I'm clinging to it.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Take that home and be like . . .

Anthony Godfrey:
So yeah I am pretty proud. You know when you respond to an email it's not as satisfying as when you cut cardboard with a device you've never seen before.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Just get one of those for your office. It will destress.

Anthony Godfrey:
It was pretty exciting. I might need to do that you know. So let's look at the stop motion equipment now that you have here. It looks like just kind of an arm, an adjustable arm that allows you to position the iPad however you'd like. Let's talk about what that does.

Traci Rindlisbach:
So this is like a super simple setup but it's going to make such good stop motion. So we have to stop the iPad holder and then the iPads in there and the iPad can face straight down and they can do their stop motion underneath or they could have it facing straight on and they could have a set behind it as well. We're using the stop motion studio app and it's super simple for all kids inside the app. They can edit, they can rerecord, they can do some voice overs, and it's all free, and they can also add music which is the most important element I think of anything. We had the kids on Friday and Tori actually sent me their files that made some stop motion animation and it's beautiful and it looks like one of them was on like changing weather which again, because it's cross curricular, really gets my heart.

Jared Covili:
So one of the things that we're really trying to emphasize in our department is that we want students not to just be technology consumers where they just use it to find the latest game or the latest trend online. We want them to become technology creators and that's the core of what this space is. It's a place where they can come and create in a variety of different ways using a variety of different technologies but it all centers back on what they're learning, showing how they've taken that content and made something with it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well it's such an exciting place to be and right now I'm excited to see how my guitar picks turning out. Let's go take a look.

Traci Rindlisbach:
All right. Open that door.

Anthony Godfrey:
I open that door open the door here.

Traci Rindlisbach:
You're going to lift this plate like this and just lift it all the way out all the way out.

Anthony Godfrey: Lift it out. It's still warm.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Oh I love that about a print plate, and then you're just going to kind of crack it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh it feels like it's pretty nice and cozy doesn't it? OK. Do I just like . . .  pop it off like that?

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yep. Oh, there you go. Then you have what it looks like a little raft on it and I'm hoping that raft will pop off and we'll have a legit guitar pick right now. And so this guy was not a mess it up.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did I mess it up?

Traci Rindlisbach:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK. No. I'm pulling off the raft that it's on.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Let's see.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's do a wail with that. So the back is is . . .

Traci Rindlisbach:
And sometimes we have to smooth things out a little bit.

Anthony Godfrey:
If I smooth it out it's actually going to be just right.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Perfect.

Anthony Godfrey:
So let's let's use the garbage can. A little garbage can. OK raft. There you go. I can feel that. That's going to be a good pick.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Oh good.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a good pick. It’s got some good texture on the back of it and on the front. The thumb goes right there.

Traci Rindlisbach:
That's perfect.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, yes. All right. Sultan's a swing. Oh nice. What a great . . . what a great little project. That is the first thing I've ever 3D printed. I have to admit I've never 3D printed before and this feels fantastic. I'm going to be stopping by. There are other schools nearby and when I'm visiting them, I think I might just have to stop by this lab when I'm in the neighborhood and see what the kids are up to.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you both so much for taking time today. But more than anything, for having the vision to make an initial offering in something that is going to be so engaging for so many students for such a long time.

Traci Rindlisbach:
Thanks.

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 out there.

(upbeat music)

Heidi Jacobson:
They're heroes, honestly. Carter's like, "I'm not a hero.” He just did what he thought was right.

Cammerin Inselsberger:
My buddy Gabriel came outside and said, "Hey, there's a fire down the street." And then I remember Carter looking distinctly at me and said, "Well, come on, let's go do something."

Zera Gonzales:
We truly saw our sense of community in our neighborhood, especially with our boys again. We're so willing and selfless and risked so much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are students at Copper Hills High who recently risked their own lives by breaking down a front door and running into a burning home, hoping to save the lives of others. On this episode of the Supercast, join us as we take you inside the big surprise where the students received a military-style Honor of Excellence Award for going above and beyond and being exemplary citizens.

Anthony Godfrey:
We take you now to the ceremony honoring the boys who saved two dogs.

Female Voice:
We would like to reunite you this morning with Rocky and Simba, who you saved, and we'd have the Gonzales family come on in with the animals. They want to thank you.

Matt Alvernaz:
My name is Matt Alvernaz. I'm the Safety and Security Director for the Jordan School District. During my 20 years of combined service in both the military and law enforcement, I've had the privilege of taking part in the longstanding tradition of the Challenge Coin. The Challenge Coin is something that is given as a token of appreciation and respect for those who go above and beyond the regular everyday expectations of society. Each of these coins, as we give them out there, they're unique and there's only so many made. So once you're given one, then hang on to it. They’re never going to be made again. There's something that gets collected and it's something that's honored among the uniform services and the tradition I want to carry out and give to you guys. So these coins, they're honored in a way of a traditional handoff and it's given through a handshake. Everything on this coin means something. If you guys want to go over what they all represent, you can do that. So I want to congratulate you guys in the traditional way.

Boys:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with the three students who saved the two dogs from the fire in West Jordan City. Thank you very much for taking time. Will you introduce yourself and tell us your name, grade, and what programs you're in?

Cammerin Inselsberger:
My name is Cammerin Inselsberger. I am a senior at Copper Hills High School and I am in no current programs, but I was in diesel tech.

Carter Jacobson:
I'm Carter Jacobson. I go to Copper Hills. I am a senior as well and I'm in the diesel program at J Tech.

Gabriel Hernandez:
I'm Gabriel Hernandez and I'm a senior at Copper Hills and I'm also in the J Tech diesel program.

Anthony Godfrey:
So did you know each other before the diesel program or is that how you met?

Carter Jacobson:
No, we knew each other before. I knew Cammerin for like three years. He kind of introduced me to it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why don't you talk me through what happened, everything from spotting the fire to going in and saving the dogs?

Cammerin Inselsberger:
We were doing yard work out back at my house and then we went. My buddy Gabriel came outside and said, "Hey, there's a fire down the street." And then I remember Carter looking distinctly at me and said, "Well, come on, let's go do something." And so I jumped the fence. They ran around and we just ended up down the street and just seeing if anybody was there that was getting hurt or something.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you first arrived, what did you think? Did you think that maybe there was somebody in the house?

Gabriel Hernandez:
We did after we saw the truck in the driveway and the neighbor in front of the house telling us that they haven't checked on the house yet. They just saw the fire. So we went to the window to see if there was somebody inside and we kept banging on the door. Nobody answered and Carter sees a little dog running across the hallway.

Anthony Godfrey:
That was enough to decide.

Gabriel Hernandez:
That was more than enough.

Anthony Godfrey:
There are dogs in there and we need to get in there.

Gabriel Hernandez:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I watched on the camera how you approached the door. Tell me about working on getting in the front door.

Carter Jacobson:
I think my buddy's dead. Cammerin’s dead. He tried to shoulder the door first. And then I think they were thinking about breaking down the window, but I was like, "I'm just going to try to kick the door." Donkey kicked it. And so it started working. The bottom of the door cracked. I didn't let game everyone else's motivation to keep going. We kicked it down.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now you kicked it facing the door and then the donkey kick turned around.

Carter Jacobson:
I knew kicking it forward wouldn't work anymore. And then kicking it like a donkey kick would be more better because my foot’s more like flush to the door. I don't know. It was just something I thought about.

Anthony Godfrey:
In the moment you just thought about trying something different. What I was impressed with is that you didn't say, "Well, he tried to shoulder. I tried to kick it in. It didn't work." You just kept going and kept trying to be sure that you got in.

Carter Jacobson:
Yeah, it was either that or the window.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you got in, you still didn't know whether it was just dogs or whether there was someone in there who had maybe passed out or whatever. So what did you do once you got in?

Gabriel Hernandez:
I ran straight for the bathroom thinking it was a bedroom and then the propane tank caught fire and shot fire right through the window.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. What went through your mind at that moment?

Gabriel Hernandez:
I should get out of there.

Anthony Godfrey:
So where were the dogs when you got in?

Carter Jacobson:
I think they were... So when we walked in, Gabriel went to the bathroom and I saw the dog dart towards the kitchen. So when I walked in, they were just sitting in the laundry room, curled up in the corner. The big dog was kind of laying in front of the smaller dog protecting it.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you approached the dogs, did you have to carry them out or were you able to help them out?

Carter Jacobson:
No, we had to carry them out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Did they let you approach?

Carter Jacobson:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
I wondered whether in that moment they might be afraid and might not be cooperative as you're trying to say that.

Cammerin Inselsberger:
Yeah, they were mostly cowered down in the corner of the laundry room and so they didn't try to fight back or anything. So it's not like either of us three got hurt by the dogs because they knew something was up and so it was more so just letting us take them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Describe what it looked like inside the house. What was that like?

Carter Jacobson:
It was more... I feel like it was quiet. It was more calm before the storm because when we got in there, the side of the house was on fire. It wasn't as intense. But as soon as we got out, the rest of the house started catching on fire and the smoke detectors went off.

Anthony Godfrey:
How soon after you left the house did the fire department arrive?

Carter Jacobson:
I would say a minute after. A couple of minutes after. It was more hectic for them to get in because people were trying to drive down and see the fire and walk down so there was a lot of people blocking the street.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now the fire department said that you were helpful because you were first on scene. What was some of the information that you shared with them that was helpful?

Cammerin Inselsberger:
We saw that their propane tank started catching fire from the trailers because there was a trailer and there was one propane tank on it and there was another one on the ground. But there were also two in the back of the trailer so we were able to tell them that we saw the fire start in the back area of the house next to the house that we're in now.

Anthony Godfrey:
So they were able to see, they were able to better understand what happened because you were there. One of the things that we've trained our employees on over the years is that when you come up on an emergency you don't wait for someone else to come. You jump in and you do everything that you can. A lot of times people wait for an expert, you know, someone is bleeding or someone is hurt and they wait until someone else comes to do it because they're afraid of making a mistake. But I'm so impressed with the courage that you showed jumping in and just doing what needed to be done. Can you remember what was running through your mind as you went into the house?

Cammerin Inselsberger:
Honestly, I can't remember anything. That adrenaline hit and I just, I remember going to the door, banging on the door, ringing the ring doorbell like 20 times. And then we got in and then that was it.

Anthony Godfrey:
How long did it take for the adrenaline to dissipate?

Cammerin Inselsberger:
I don't think it did until I went to bed that night.

Zera Gonzales:
I have my dog saved. Thank you so much.

Anthony Godfrey:
How does it feel to be recognized like this today?

Boys:
Grateful.
Just proud that we did something good.
Makes me look back at the community, see what else we need help with and what we can improve with.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thank you for being a great example to other students and really to everyone who served this story and thanks for taking the time to talk with us today. Stay with us when we come back. We'll talk with the family whose dogs were saved.

Male Voice:
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.

Female Voice:
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 for 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 the family of the two dogs that were rescued. Introduce yourself.

Zera Gonzales:
Hi, yes, my name is Zera Gonzales.

Anthony Godfrey:
Zara, tell me about how it felt for your family. First of all, to learn that there was a fire, how's your house, and then to learn that the dogs were okay.

Zera Gonzales:
Truly, it was devastating. Obviously, something that was never expected to happen to us. But we truly saw our sense of community in our neighborhood, especially with our boys again, that were so willing and selfless and risked so much to enter our home. They're the very first ones that entered and saved both of our dogs, which are a big part of our family and it means so much to us. But yeah, it was such a relieving feeling knowing that coming onto the site, still seeing our home being up in flames, but knowing that both of our dogs were out safe and with the boys.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm just glad that your family is safe and the dogs are safe. Tell me about your home and what happens next for you.

Zera Gonzales:
So essentially our home is unsalvageable. We've been told that it needs to be pretty much fully reconstructed. We are still waiting, it's a waiting game at the moment. We're still waiting to hear back from insurance and that whole process of hopefully down the line will be a lot sooner than anticipated. But yeah, it is a waiting game and we're just hoping that everything will smooth out later on. We're currently living right across the street in the neighbor's home. He's renting it out and that's our long-term rental for now.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I can't even imagine what you're going through. Tell me about your... Tell me about the first time you had the opportunity to talk with the boys who'd saved — is it Rocky and Simba? Is that right?

Zera Gonzales:
That is correct.

Anthony Godfrey:
We'll talk with Rocky and Simba in a moment, but tell me what it was like to first meet the boys who saved them.

Zera Gonzales:
Yeah, well first of all, we pretty much first saw through our ring camera who were the individuals knocking down on the door, and we noticed that it was the neighbors. They live a couple houses down. And again, we just did not expect that they would be the ones that were first on site and breaking down the door to save our dogs. But it was such a relieving feeling and again, being so thankful to them right after knowing that they were the ones that entered the home. While the firefighters are still trying to put out the fire, we were able to talk to them and be like, "Hey, again, we're so eternally grateful to you guys because our family's whole because of you."

Anthony Godfrey:
I love the way you said that and you have a lot to deal with. What a devastating situation. But it's good to know that you have people around you that are going to support you through a difficulty like this. It's really a test of the community.

Zera Gonzales:
Yes, it truly is. Again, we've only been living in our home — we were heading towards two years. Just knowing that those individuals took that initiative and acted out and were able to be the ones that entered our home again, it was such a relieving feeling. And we're, again, eternally grateful.

Anthony Godfrey:
What about Rocky? Rocky is the big one and then we've got Simba here. What kind of dogs are they?

Zera Gonzales:
Yes. Rocky is a German Shepherd, Rottweiler, Husky mix.

Anthony Godfrey:
And a very good boy.

Zera Gonzales:
Yes, very good boy. And then over here we have Simba. He is a Maltipoo. That's a Maltese-poodle mix.

Anthony Godfrey:
Also a very good boy.

Zera Gonzales:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Not Simba. You're not second. You're both number one in our hearts.

Zera Gonzales:
Exactly. Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with Carter's mom. Introduce yourself, please.

Heidi Jacobson:
My name's Heidi Jacobson.

Anthony Godfrey:
Heidi, you and I have known each other for a little while.

Heidi Jacobson:
Yes, we have.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell everyone about that.

Heidi Jacobson:
Mr. Godfrey was my eighth-grade teacher out at Bingham Middle School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Bingham Middle School days were great days.

Heidi Jacobson:
Yes, they were. I actually am the first graduating class from Copper Hills High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, yeah. That's right. That's pretty cool. So now to have your son here, what does that mean?

Heidi Jacobson:
It's just all four of my kids have come here. And to have Carter be the caboose, he actually will graduate for my 30th class reunion.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That's awesome. Your son graduating from the same school 30 years later. And how proud are you of Carter right now?

Heidi Jacobson:
Those boys are incredible boys, and they deserve all of this recognition and all the publicity and everything that they are getting because they would do it again today. They're just those type of boys. They're incredible.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talking with them, I really got that sense that they'd do it again and that's just who they are. Your son is a large boy. He was able to kick that door in a way that I'm not sure I would have been able to.

Heidi Jacobson:
He said the adrenaline just kicked in once he saw those dogs through the window. He was like, “I knew no one was home.” We have dogs that are part of our family and would be devastated, so all three of those boys just knew that they had to get in there and save family members. Even though they're furry, they're still family members.

Anthony Godfrey:
He, it didn't surprise you at all that you did what he did.

Heidi Jacobson:
No, no, it didn't. They're heroes, honestly. Carter's like, “I'm not a hero. I just did what I thought was right.” I'm proud of him.

Anthony Godfrey:
What does it mean to see them recognized like this?

Heidi Jacobson:
It actually makes me pretty emotional. He's a great kid, like I said. They deserve all of this and makes my mom a heart happy.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's great to see you and we're all very proud of what they did. It's wonderful to meet your son.

Heidi Jacobson:
Thank you so much, Mr. Godfrey.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you. We're talking with Matt Alvernaz, our school safety coordinator. What does it mean to you today to honor these boys?

Matt Alvernaz:
It is a great privilege to be able to share this tradition in honoring things that are above and beyond the regular everyday parts of society. These young men did something that normal people wouldn't do, especially today. We see people pull out their phones and record and watch. And yeah, we have this great video of things out there. But these young men, who had no obligation to do otherwise, stepped up, addressed the problem and went right out without waiting and did an amazing job.

Anthony Godfrey:
And they don't seem terribly impressed with themselves. This is just what needed to be done. And they did it.

Matt Alvernaz:
Yeah, their level of humility is actually what's most impressive. It's more of like they're not after this attention that we're given. So that's all the more reason to shower them with it. But they are just like, "What? This is normal. Who wouldn't have done this?" And reality is, most people wouldn't.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us about the challenge coin you gave them to honor what they've done.

Matt Alvernaz:
So these challenge coins are part of a long-standing tradition given through military and law enforcement and uniform services typically. Here at Jordan School District, we have our own challenge coin to be able to recognize these outstanding kind of things as well, because we understand that there's more to it in everyday society in our students. We want to emulate what needs, what we like to see from society, you know, heroes and things and what these people can do. And so this coin has significance. Every coin means something. So here on this front-facing part, we have a police badge-style shield with the Jordan “J” emblem in it. Then behind that, you have the shoulder patch, which again represents first responders, you see that on fire departments and police officers. Then that is filled in with a navy blue, which represents authority and stability and loyalty. Behind the shield, you see three lines kind of crossing behind it. And the shield represents the safeguarding of the physical, mental and emotional well-being of our students and staff and everybody within our district. Below it, there's three stars that are propping up the shield. Those three stars represent the community, the school district and our first responders working together to prop this up and make sure that shield stays strong. On the backside, it says we're honoring excellence and you'll see the same three lines of what we're honoring and those three stars as well and with a ring of blue around it again to represent that stability, authority and circling what we're doing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thank you very much for honoring these students and it's a great new tradition. I know there are going to be many other opportunities to honor incredible students here in Jordan District.

Matt Alvernaz:
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. Bye. Bye.

(upbeat music)