Supercast

Transcription coming soon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are experts in communication, evaluating, diagnosing, and treating speech and communication disorders. On this episode of the Supercast, we talk to Jordan School District's speech language pathologists about the important work they do, helping students of all ages who may be experiencing challenges in some aspect of speech or communication. Find out how they are making a huge difference in the lives of students in and outside the classroom.

We're here today at Joel P. Jensen talking with Ryan Sainsbury, who is a speech language pathologist at Joel P. Jensen and Kristin Norris, the speech language pathologist and audiologist coordinator for the District. Thank you very much for taking the time.

Ryan Sainsbury:
Thank you. It's exciting to be here.

Kristin Norris:
Yeah, it's great to talk with you today.

Anthony Godfrey:
So Ryan, let's just talk to you first about being an SLP. That's our first acronym of the show. There might be a lot more. Talk to me about being a speech language pathologist. What does that involve? Because I think a lot of people may not understand exactly what the job entails.

Ryan Sainsbury:
Yeah. definitely I think as far as like being an SLP, it's so like vast and vague, a lot of it that sometimes it's confusing and hard for people to grasp because we can and do do so much. So there's usually like a medical side that we won't really get into where we help people from strokes and different brain injuries recover and things like that. And then we have the school-based side, which we are in right now. And within this side there's lots of things we kind of treat and diagnose. Speech and language disorders and communication disorders that people have. So whether it's because of various diagnoses that they were born with or maybe different delays and things that they have we help them try to learn to communicate and we try to give everybody a voice.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Kristin, tell me about the difference from level to level. I know that we have SLPs working with students of all ages, so what are the different areas of focus at at different ages?

Kristin Norris:
So it's really individualized by the student, but in general we have SLPs that are working in our early intervention program. We have SLPs that are working in our preschool program. And then we have elementary, we have secondary, we even have in our post high program. A lot of times I think people really feel like what we work on is speech sounds, and that is a big part of what we do. And you particularly see that at that elementary level. You see a lot of work on either individual speech sounds, they're what we call phonological processes, which are groups of patterns of speech that students have.

But there's a whole other piece, and that's the language piece. The language piece covers everything from social language to vocabulary to understanding and comprehending tests. It’s tied into phonemic awareness and the skills that they're learning in 1st and 2nd. So there's this tie into literacy and reading. And it just is any way that a student communicates, we can help facilitate if they have a disability in that. As we get into the secondary level, we probably see a lot more of the language piece, really helping them access the classroom and what they need to be successful. And then transitioning as they move into that post high program, what's gonna help 'em be successful is they as they leave our program.

Anthony Godfrey:
So Ryan, tell me what that looks like for you day to day as you're working with a student. What are some of the sorts of things you're working on and doing to help them progress?

Ryan Sainsbury:
At the secondary level, we see a lot of like auditory comprehension. They don't seem to have the structure of language that it takes. Kinda at the structural level and then also at the like syntax level or at the sentence level and also even at the word or semantic level. So these are different levels that we work with every day. So each day we have a caseload that varies with a lot of different things, but it's often helping them trying to figure out how they can access their education better. So maybe it's helping them follow directions because they don't quite understand sequencing. Or maybe we can even break that down further to maybe they don't understand certain clauses and sentences very well, like their brains haven't quite figured out that structure for them to be successful, to follow directions or even to impact like behaviors and different things. So once you realize that language really impacts like every aspect, it's really fun. So we work with the team of gen ed teachers our special ed teachers, even our administration to our psychologists, to everybody to try to figure out how we can help them socially and academically improve and get access to the communication and different things that they need, the skillsets they need to be successful.

Anthony Godfrey:
So there are aspects of communication that we might take for granted if you don't struggle with these sorts of issues.

Ryan Sainsbury:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
But you really have to break things down for students who do have difficulties in these areas.

Kristin Norris:
Yeah, absolutely. One of the easiest ways to maybe look at it as the difference between receptive and expressive language. Receptive is our understanding of language and expressive is how we output that language. We get a lot of kids, especially at the secondary level who may struggle with understanding. What they look like are kids that are maybe off task in the classroom, kids that are maybe hesitant to speak up, kids that are maybe withdrawn. Instead it is that they're not understanding that language processing and need some strategies to do that. And then they can be more successful in accessing their curriculum from that receptive language component.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the receptive language from what you're describing might be frustrating for the person who's expressing and it's not being received.

Kristin Norris:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the unkind, I don't know, ‘what part of sitting in your chair don't you understand?’ Well, they may not actually understand because they're not processing those instructions in the way that many people would. I can imagine that creates a lot of frustration for everybody. So it's really important to have SLPs in place to help overcome those challenges. Do students sometimes get to secondary not realizing that they've had this problem all along?

Ryan Sainsbury:
Yeah. especially at our school. Usually like mid-year we've had a bunch of initial evals and different things come in because teachers are are beginning to really recognize like, hey, maybe this student has something that's not quite right with their understanding or how they're expressing things. So yeah, throughout the years and throughout the year we get tons of referrals all the time for us to kind of evaluate and to see how we can help support these students. And often it really is like, because they're not understanding, they're confused or some of those behaviors start to manifest themselves.

Anthony Godfrey:
It must be very rewarding to see students make progress and be able to overcome frustrations that allow them to not only engage with teachers in the classroom, but with classmates. To probably make friends more easily once those communicative issues are are overcome.

Kristin Norris:
Yeah, absolutely. Expressive languages is obviously a lot more noticeable. We notice from the very beginning when kids are having a hard time saying something, when they don't have vocabulary. And so those are the kids that we pick up often early in the beginning. Then we find out that there's a receptive language component to that as well. The other piece to that is that social pragmatic language. That is the ability to understand how you're supposed to interact with someone. Sometimes it's called the hidden curriculum. That we know instinctively that when someone says hello to us, we're supposed to say hello back and to carry on a conversation. This would be the next step, we'll ask a question. Well, our kids that struggle with that, they don't know those things instinctively and we have to teach them how to do those skills. Otherwise they get excluded. They get those are the kids that end up getting bullied. Those are the kids that teachers get frustrated with because they just seem like they're not doing what they're supposed to, but it's really a fact that they don't understand.

Ryan Sainsbury:
And I think like a real beautiful piece is when we're able to kind of see inside the mind and these language skills that they do have and we're able to convey that to a parent. And you see their eyes light up because they're like, ‘oh that makes so much sense, like what you're telling me,’ right. Like at home or at different functions and things like that. Also when you tell their teachers and their teachers go, ‘oh that makes so much sense. Like, I'm glad you told me that because I thought I was just being impatient.’ And I was like, ‘well yeah’. So we advocate for them to be a little bit more patient but we also give them skills and strategies to use with these students in the classroom. So it's almost like, I dunno, it's like a win-win. Our job is the best because I don't think we can really lose cause we can like help so much. We get to help kids and we need to help others help kids and it helps them in return. So, I don't know. It's really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I like the way you described that. You're not just giving kids skills, you're giving parents skills. And you're giving teachers skills so that we can more effectively connect with students who may struggle with these issues. So is there an occupational hazard a little bit that when you're out in the public listening to people speak, maybe even as you're listening to me interview you, that you're thinking, ‘oh wait a second. I could touch that up a little bit and I could help 'em with with this speech issue.’ I mean I assume you hear that everywhere you go.

Ryan Sainsbury:
Yes. It's a blessing and a curse sometimes. We literally have to turn that side of our brain off so that we can function in our world without going crazy with all the speech and language things that we hear. Kristin Norris:
I have definitely been places and there are times that I don't wanna overstep my bounds, but I want to be like, ‘Ooh, I hope that they've talked to their SLP at the school. I hope that that child is is is being seen.’ I've gotten better at it over the years. Trying to disassociate. But I do have a sign above my desk that says, ‘Keep talking. I'm diagnosing you.’

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, well that's good. Always diagnosing, always looking for a way to help.

Stay with us. When we come back, how do you know if your child may need the services of a speech language pathologist? We'll tell you after the break.

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:
Tell me about some of the expressive issues that you might experience, that parents might watch for. Some of the more obvious things that parents might notice that would signal that involving an SLP is going to be helpful.

Kristin Norris:
Well, primarily one of the easiest things is gonna be like a speech sound disorder. If a child is struggling with certain sounds that they should have. Particularly if there's frustration involved in that. They're not able to communicate what they want to, and because of that frustration, we're seeing behaviors. They're throwing a temper tantrum when those little kids. Hopefully our middle school kids aren't throwing temper tantrums, but sometimes still there. Yeah, sometimes they are right? They're expressing their frustration because they can't communicate. They can't get out what they wanna say. So from the very beginning, that's something that parents can recognize. If you find that you're having to have them repeat things over and over and over before they can understand things. You know, that's a good, that's a good thing and a sign to look at for for parents. If they seem to be struggling with some of those literacy concepts, that would be another thing. You know, if they're really struggling, like they've gone over phonemic awareness over and over and again and they just can't seem to get it, then maybe we need to do something a little more in depth and look at some of those components as well.

Ryan Sainsbury:
And so a lot of my background was actually in like narrative structure or stories. And so when you have a student or a child who's developing and you have that look on your face as a parent as they're explaining something to you like uhhuh, uhhuh, uhhuh, and it never quite gets to a point. Or the sequence or the events don't quite make sense. Basically when you're learning and you're developing, we learn from stories. So if you look at grade level elementary, preschool, like we learn from stories, that's how we learn. And then we get into like informational texts and different things that are a little bit more difficult once we hit the secondary level. So that change, that shift of structure is really hard for a lot of people. But those early markers, like Kristin had said about like the who, where, why, what questions when they're telling a story or just them being able to express a story, you'll be able to tell pretty quickly whether it makes sense or they're getting in the right direction or if it's just a total jumble and you're trying to figure it out.

Kristin Norris:
Parents really rely on their kids coming home and being able to tell them what they do in a day. Or if something happened on the playground, them being able to come in and tell the teacher this is what happened. For our kids that have communication disorders, they don't have the skill and the structure to do that. And so they're the ones who then sometimes get left out. They don't know what's going on, they can't explain what happened at recess. Maybe they get blamed for what happened at recess because they weren't able to explain it.

Anthony Godfrey:
They can't really advocate for themselves sometimes.

Kristin Norris:
Yeah. Because they lack that narrative structure to just retell a simple event and what happened in there. And to understand the components why this happened. You know, I was able to react this way and therefore somebody reacted back to me this way. That perspective taking is, is really difficult as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
So what are some of the things that parents ought to watch for that might be an indication that there are expressive concerns? You've talked about that a little bit. Are there other things that you tell parents to watch for?

Ryan Sainsbury:
You're always gonna have, part of it will be like some of the grammatical markers and morphines that we use. So even things like past tense verbs or their sentence structure. But it varies really through age. And so that's why it's really important to, I dunno, like know SLPs. I think it's the same for Kristen, like as soon as you find out that someone in your family or your neighbor is an SLP you just get questions all day from parents who have kids who are developing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Not quite like being a mechanic, but kind of similar to that.

Ryan Sainsbury:
Similar, yeah, exactly. Very, very similar. And so you get questions all day and so there is like grade levels or kind of like age level markers that help. And so once you kind of realize like, oh, your students should be here or expressing themselves in this way and they're kind of missing these skills, then that's when we can come in and kind of fill those gaps.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the receptive issues, let's talk about that. Like you said, those are gonna be more difficult to detect unless you're looking at a pattern over time. So what would parents look for to so that they could identify that perhaps there there's an issue with their child?

Ryan Sainsbury:
Yeah, so I'm speaking more for like the secondary level because that's kind of my more my expertise. But in particular we look at just following simple directions and whether they're able to sequence things, put events in order or understand the order of events. Even just are they able to retain information that you've given them? Are they able to summarize things that you've given them and then say, ‘okay, can you tell that back to me? Like the key points that you need to do.’ Or even little things like if you're watching a TV show you say, ‘Hey, can you summarize like the main events or what's been going on?’ So a lot of those types of things are really critical for our brain to kind of store information. And so if you ask those types of tasks and they're unable to do it, then you can kind of tell they might not have the pattern for those things to kind of file into their correct order to be easily accessed as well. So it kind of goes both ways as far as at the secondary level. But I'd say mostly you definitely get it with the kids who are not paying attention and are often the problems. It's because are they not paying attention or they literally not quite get the language component. So that's where it gets trickier, I guess.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, sure.

Kristin Norris:
One of the things that we sometimes have to do as we're teasing out information with kids is figure out that can't do versus won't do. You know, is this because they don't know how to do it or is this because they've chosen not to do it? And some of those kids can really look like the won't do and then we have to tease out that information and figure out the can't do.

Ryan Sainsbury:
And in particular at a school like Joel P. Jensen, that I love cause I'm actually a bilingual speech therapist or speech language pathologist, and so I get to kind of hone in on is it a like a disorder of language or is it a language difference? And they don't quite have the language because we have many of our students who speak Spanish at home. But they have to now speak English totally different at school, right? So kind of in that, we have to find out whether it's an actual disorder or is it just a difference and they just need to be taught that again.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're a bit of a speech dual language pathologist.

Ryan Sainsbury:
That's exactly right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I was working on a title, so that's right.

Kristin Norris:
At a really young age some of those things I think you would look for in kids starts with really basic information. You know, kids develop one word to start with and then they start to put words together and then that grows into longer sentences and more complex structures. If you're asking them to point to something and we can't build the vocabulary through pointing, you know, that would be something that would be a concern. You know, if you ask them to point to the dog and they point to something else, even though you've gone over it and over and over again, that would be a red flag at the beginning. If you're asking them to go pick up their shoe and the shoe is right in front of him and they don't know what you're asking him. So this just starts kind of with that basic kind of understanding of when I give them very basic tasks to do, are they understanding what I'm saying? So that would be kind of a starting point for maybe concerns with parents.

Anthony Godfrey:
I can think of all kinds of situations where it would be nice for a teacher or a parent or even a friend to understand that, hey, there may just be a communication issue at play here. What would you say to parents who listening to this who are maybe worried about their child and would like to get some help for them? What's the first step that they take to do that?

Kristin Norris:
So if they have specific reasons, they can talk and get a referral going and get some specific testing. But if they just wanna have a conversation they can reach out to the Child Development Center if their kids are five years or younger. Or they can reach out to the SLP at their school and just say, ‘Hey, these are some of the things that I'm having a concern with. I'm seeing this. What do you think? Do you think this is something I could be concerned? Are there things I can try?’ And have a conversation with their teachers as well. Their teachers spend a lot of time with them and start to open up and start to really kind of identify what they're struggling with. And then we can decide whether we wanna go down the road and do some more in-depth testing and figure out what those concerns really might be and how we can help them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now we have how many SLPs in the district?

Kristin Norris:
We have over 120 SLPs in the district in our early intervention preschool and elementary and secondary schools.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is a lot of experts. And we also have some audiologists.

Kristin Norris:
We do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the audiologists.

Kristin Norris:
So we have three full-time and one part-time audiologist in Jordan School District, which we're really lucky to have. Not everybody has that much staff. We actually have an audiology booth that's housed at Kari Sue Hamilton. So they can do hearing screenings throughout the district, but they can also do more in-depth evaluations as well. So they are responsible for kind of helping track our kids and do those hearing screenings. But then they are then a resource to us when we're looking at kids who have ongoing hearing loss. They can help track them, they can help talk to and educate teachers. They can help facilitate things like hearing aids and other devices that may be needed for those students. And then we collaborate with them as SLPs on some of those students as well with what they might need because of those hearing losses.

Anthony Godfrey:
And the way you've described it, it's almost as if you can literally see a light going on inside of their head that they are getting it. That there's a connection and suddenly they're able to do something they couldn't do before and it connects them to the broader world and it makes them a part of it.

Kristin Norris:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that's wonderful that you're able to do that for our students.

Ryan Sainsbury:
Yeah. and then if I may add, I think a lot of times, like for example just at this school I see kids with speech fluency disorders or what we call like a stutter. I see students on the autism spectrum who need help with social skills. I see other students who need auditory comprehension. They need to figure out how to understand directions better. I see students with severe behavior problems who we need to really help and use language to help them understand and do things better. And that's just like a little bit. I also still see students who have articulation errors and just need to overcome some of these things that have been hard for them their whole lives. And maybe now their confidence has been kind of shaken a little bit because they're older now and they talk different than everybody else.

So to help all these different things, like it's so vague and vast that it can be intimidating at times, but there's nothing more rewarding or I guess more fun than staying current so that you can have the best evidence-based practice so that you can always be helping each student that you come across because the variety is huge, which I like crave. I can't go to work and have like the same thing every day, no way I would go. I would go nuts. So to have the variety, but also to say like the science part is really important. Cause we want our practices to be evidence-based so that we're giving these students the best of what's available.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you get to work with students one-on-one or mostly in small groups and you get to make those connections. And like you said earlier, you get to do something for them that no one else has been able to do. So that's got to be very rewarding.

Kristin Norris:
Yeah, It's often, you've heard it said that the voice is a window to the soul. We have a chance to help kids to actually have that voice. To make a connection with their peers, with their parents, with their friends, with their teachers in a way that maybe they wouldn't be able to do otherwise. And we use communication for everything. Everything. Non-Verbal, verbal communication, whatever we do, written communication. It's part of everything we do.

Anthony Godfrey:
What a great program. Thank you very much for taking the time and for everything you do to help our students.

Ryan Sainsbury:
Thank you.

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.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a program that brings students of all abilities together, working as a team, building trust, and a lifelong love of sports and respect for one another. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to Weber State University, where Jordan School District students hit the court in a Special Olympics Unified Sports statewide basketball tournament. It is a tournament where everyone involved walks away a winner because of their hard work, big hearts, and compassion for one another. Hear what Utah Governor Spencer Cox and First Lady Abby Cox have to say about these amazing athletes.

We are here at Weber State, at the Unified Sports State Basketball Tournament, talking with the Governor and First Lady. Maybe this question answers itself because it's such a great event. You could be in a lot of different places today doing a lot of different things. Why be here right now?

Governor Spencer Cox:
Yeah. I'm supposed to be in a lot of different places, but this is the happiest place on earth right now. It's the happiest place in Utah. It's just incredible to see these student athletes coming together with their coaches and their families. And it's a permanent smile everywhere you go. Everyone is happy and we love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
And this has been one of your Show Up Initiatives right from the start. Why focus on Special Olympics and Unified Sports?

First Lady Abby Cox:
Well, as a former special education teacher, this is absolutely dear to my heart. It's also something that I experienced as a young person growing up. I had friends with disabilities that I saw in my congregation, in my school, in my community. This is an inclusion revolution and it's the most joyful, wonderful thing that we can do for our students.

Anthony Godfrey:
This has been rocket fuel for our inclusion efforts, your support for this program, and it's just moved us forward very quickly. What impact have you seen in your own life and in the lives of those you've encountered as you've been involved in this effort?

First Lady Abby Cox:
Yeah, you know, in my own life I couldn't do anything more joyful. Every time I come, my soul is filled up. Every time I'm around my friends with all different abilities they teach me what love, what belonging really looks like. And the most important thing I've seen in our schools is that not only are we friendly to people that are different or have a different story, but they're becoming friends, not just friendly. There's a difference. Full inclusion means we're friends, not just friendly.

Governor Spencer Cox:
Yeah. And this is, Abby says this all the time. This is the medicine that our society needs right now. And there's so much division out there, so much hate. And you don't see that here, right? It's changing who we are as people and these peer, the all ability peers, both the peers and our students with disabilities playing together. There's a bond that's formed there that is just so powerful. There's a sense of community, a sense of belonging, as Abby mentioned. And everybody's better because of it. We were talking to parents earlier, parents of students with disabilities and those without disabilities that are playing together. And I don't know who was impacted more, which students were impacted more. It was such a positive influence on both of them.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's true. Anybody who gets close to this program is lifted by it. Tell me, you're both so positive all the time and we appreciate that focus. How does this fit into the broader vision that you have for the state? This focus on positivity, connection, and inclusion.

Governor Spencer Cox:
Yeah. Well, we talk a lot about how community matters and we've seen a fraying of community over time, especially coming out of COVID, right? When we saw that people had to be apart for a period of time. And we are wired for connection. Utah has always been an example of that. We are what social scientists say a state with very strong social capital. We lead the nation in volunteerism. We lead the nation in charitable giving. And that's just not like a nice feature. It plays into everything else. One of the reasons we have the best economy in the country is because we have high social capital and high social trust. And those things really matter. Again, economists are starting to realize that we're not just rational individuals. That we have to have community and connection. And that's why Utah's doing so well. We want to foster that. We want to continue that. We have a legacy of that, and we wanna make sure it gets passed on to other generations and things like this make a difference.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I can't think of a better way to accomplish it than events like this.

First Lady Abby Cox:
Yeah, and I would just add that, you know, it has to be intentional. Yes, that's how it's always been in our state, but that's not a guarantee that that's how it will always be. So we are very intentional in making sure that this sense of community, this sense of coming together will always be a part of everything that we do and who we are as a community and as a culture here in the state.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I love that. You can't take it for granted. You have to take deliberate action to move it forward. Well, thank you very much for taking the time. I can't thank you enough for your support and for helping move us forward.

Governor Spencer Cox:
Thank you, Superintendent.

First Lady Abby Cox:
Thanks so much.

Anthony Godfrey;
Thank you very much.

We're talking now with the Copper Hills High School Unified basketball team coaches just coming off of the victory against Lone Peak. Go ahead and introduce yourselves.

Kennan Madsen:
Kennan Madsen.

Jacqueline Sheppick:
And I'm Jacqueline Sheppick.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about your involvement. How has it been today and last week with the tournament?

Jacqueline Sheppick:
Honestly, it's been such an amazing experience. We love inclusion. Copper Hills is so involved in inclusion and we have like the biggest little student section over there today. We just love seeing our students get the opportunity to shine and for them to be athletes and to be recognized. And it's just been such an amazing two weeks.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you hosted last week?

Jacqueline Sheppick:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
The tournament between Canyons and Jordan School District sponsored by Scheels. Just a friendly competition.

Jacqueline Sheppick:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about that.

Kennan Madsen:
Oh, that was super, super fun. I actually used to coach for Copper Hills basketball, and this honestly has been more fun than doing that. So for me, it's super fun to be a part of this.

Anthony Godfrey:
I remember talking with someone after the event who said, ‘I can't believe I've never seen an event where people are cheering for both teams.’ So it's double the cheering,

Jacqueline Sheppick:
Honestly. It's like, it's so cool to see like inclusion and love and like unity across the state for everyone and it's really awesome to see.

Kennan Madsen:
Yeah, amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's good vibes and we all need good vibes right now.

Jacqueline Sheppick:
But like, go Copper Hills!

Kennan Madsen:
That’s right. That's right. Good vibes all around.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thank you for all the time and effort you're putting in to make this opportunity possible. Anybody who gets involved is lifted by this event.

Jacqueline Sheppick:
Yeah, it's super fun. We also just had a student win Prom King on Saturday night.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hey, that's awesome!

Jacqueline Sheppick:
He's right here, Alex. So it was really cool. We found out that our school nominated him. We had no idea he got nominated. And he ended up winning by like almost half of the votes. And the kid, you just would've thought he was royalty. He was like cheering and like the whole school was chanting his name.

Kennan Madsen:
The whole school went crazy for him.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic. Alex, tell us about what you won on Saturday night.

Alex:
Prom king.

Anthony Godfrey:
Prom king. How does that feel?

Alex:
So awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
I hear that everyone was chanting your name.

Alex:
Alex.

Anthony Godfrey:
How was the dance?

Alex:
Amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
It was amazing. You have another victory today with your basketball game.

Alex:
Yep.

Anthony Godfrey:
This a good week for you.

Alex:
Thanks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you love being at Copper Hills?

Alex:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like about Copper Hills?

Alex:
I get to shoot hoops.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yep. You gotta shoot hoops. I love it. I love that you're living your best life.

Jacqueline Sheppick:
And this is my student Corbin. He's the one who, straight up, got us here to state today. He got 14 points last game and today just drained two threes. He did awesome!

Anthony Godfrey:
Corbin, two threes. How does that feel?

Corbin:
Good.

Anthony Godfrey:
And 14 points, is that right?

Corbin:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
To what do you owe your success? Preparation, determination, courage. What was it?

Corbin:
Just my family, my friends. Miss Sheppick.

Anthony Godfrey:
Your teacher and your fans and your family cheering you on.

Corbin:
Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Corbin, you've got energy spare. You just won the game and you're still bopping around here. You've still got, you've got more left in the tank.

Corbin:
Yep.

Jacqueline Sheppick:
He's our most energetic student. He's always smiling and happy.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Way to drain those threes. Congratulations on the “W.”

Corbin:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've been a great example of inclusion in our district. How have you seen this change people as they get involved?

Jacqueline Sheppick:
Like, am I gonna cry? Honestly, it's like been life-changing. Not only for myself but like, all of these fans that are here who have welcomed my students and have become their true friends. Not fake friends that they just wanna see on the weekends or just in first period. But they truly love them and they work so hard to make our students included. And I have so many of my peer tutors that come back to me saying, ‘Miss Sheppick, because of your class, I'm gonna be a special ed teacher.’ And that's like the greatest compliment to me. But also my students with disabilities, they leave Copper Hills knowing that they have lifelong friends. And to me, that is my number one goal.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for being at the center of this and having that exponential impact on students.

Jacqueline Sheppick:
Go grizzlies, like seriously Copper Hills inclusion's working and it's amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's awesome. Thank you.

Stay with us. When we come back, we hear from Jordan School District employees who are passionate about Unified Sports and inclusion for all students.

Break:
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:
We're here with Cherie Oliver, the Event Coordinator for Scheels. Cherie, thanks for talking with us.

Cherie Oliver:
Of course. I'm so happy to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you're also a parent in Jordan District?

Cherie Oliver:
I am, yep. I've got two girls in middle school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Awesome. Tell me about Scheels’ sponsorship of Unified Sports.

Cherie Oliver:
You know what, it's something that we are just starting and we are so proud to be that. We did the golf tournament last year with the Unified golf teams, and this year we wanted to be more involved. And so we sponsored Jordan and Canyon School Districts and we just wanted to make this happen so bad, but this is how we could do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you set up a little rivalry contest last week which was really exciting. I had a Board member who went, who just said, ‘now I need to spread the word about Unified Sports. It was such a cool event.’

Cherie Oliver:
Oh, it was amazing. I cried. I think everybody there cried. It was just so great to see all the kids, including everyone and everyone being excited for everyone. It was a competition, but it was a good healthy competition and something that we are so proud to be a part of. I'm glad that we could be there for.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, Scheels made a significant financial donation to make that possible, and it's not the first time. So we can't thank you enough for your support.

Cherie Oliver:
Yeah, of course. We're happy to do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I know we're gonna have a partnership for a long time into the future.

Cherie Oliver:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So thank you very much for your help in making this possible. I know of no other program that just lifts everybody involved the way that Unified Sports does.

Cherie Oliver:
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with Ulbby talking with her about her involvement in Special Olympics. You've been involved with cheer for a long time.

Ulbby Dyson:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And just tell me about your journey getting involved in Special Olympics and in Unified Sports.

Ulbby Dyson:
Yeah, absolutely. So my husband and I moved here about 13 years ago. My oldest has something called infantile spasms, which is a type of seizure that come in the form of a sneeze. While we were at Primary’s, we kind of saw the need of just that involvement and inclusion part, but we also understood the financial part of it. And so one of the things that my husband and I set to do was, once we actually owned a gym or had a gym to be able to offer these things, we would. So we opened up our gym about almost nine years ago. And we have since then offered Unified and just special athletes programs in our facility at no cost to the parents. And it's pretty much just based off of donations from either just my husband and I working another part-time job or even the community as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's amazing that you are working a part-time job just so that you can make this possible for other people.

Ulbby Dyson:
You know, I, I think it was just the ability to, the excitement you get off of just being able to be a part of something. And also really just the community, the camaraderie that we could do. And as cheerleaders, we have that ability as well, right? We can go to events and we had the excitement and we add the poms. We add everything.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. Right.

Ulbby Dyson:
I think overall it's just one of those situations that you can set yourself up. And part of that, you know, cheer and then leaders, is obviously setting that example for the younger generations to obviously be able to see that is possible.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think the first time I met you was at South Valley at the annual basketball game.

Ulbby Dyson:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And when I heard about what you'd done with cheerleaders, they just kind of described it as you coming out of nowhere saying, ‘I wanna help. How can I be part of things?’ Tell me about that.

Ulbby Dyson:
You know, it really has been a community involvement. Overall I just try to find my way to be able to bring cheer to people. And I couldn't do it without the support of my husband as well, you know. So I tend not to give him props because he's always kind of behind closed doors. But he is one of the reasons why I can do it is because, you know, he is my biggest cheerleader and he always goes, ‘Okay, well if that's what you wanna do, go have at it.’ But also being able to, with South Valley when we met, some athletes don't have vehicles to get to and from a location. So I found that it would be suitable for myself to go into South Valley once a week for an hour to be able to give back in that way. And give them the opportunity to still perform, still be able to be a part of the basketball tournament, you get to see but also just add that camaraderie and excitement and spirit to the school.

Anthony Godfrey:
And there was a recent event recent competition and an upcoming competition for Unified Cheer. Tell me about that.

Ulbby Dyson:
Yeah, so one of the things that we actually are doing, Special Olympics actually does have a Special Olympics Cheer program. It runs about April until about end of June. And so aside from that, one of the things that we decided to do with other local high school cheer coaches was come together. All of us have have athletes with an intellectual disability that actually cannot compete at our region and state competitions. And so what we decided to do was give them that opportunity and bring them all together. And we had teams driving two hours, an hour and a half, you know, just different all over the valley. And we had about anywhere between 70 to 80 kids just wanting to perform with their partners. So it kind of ended up becoming a Unified performance at our state competition this year. So that was definitely one of our biggest highlights. And overall the excitement of just having that camaraderie with everybody.

Anthony Godfrey:
It just keeps growing. Once you're a part of this, you can't stop. You just want more.

Ulbby Dyson:
Right. Yes. And that's so true. And you know, our Special Olympics program has also been great at like, even embracing cheerleading, starting letting us start that program as well. And with our new CEO as well, Scott Weaver, he's been great at just like, yeah, let's do it. Let's see how we can add this. But it adds that excitement. I mean, even today at this event, we're watching cheerleaders from high schools that are not quite Unified, however, they are still here being a part of that. And you see the difference and you see the excitement that they bring into the game.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's that gravitational pull that just keeps adding more and more people to the program.

Ulbby Dyson:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for bringing cheer literally and figuratively to South Valley.

Ulbby Dyson:
Aw, thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

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.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They took center court during a recent Utah Jazz basketball game, but it wasn't to score a point or make a free throw. Two Jordan School District teachers are being honored as “Most Valuable Educators” or MVEs by the Jazz organization. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with Mountain Point Elementary School teacher, Charity Horne, and Joel P Jensen, teacher Mandy Truscott, to find out what it takes to be an MVE and what makes them stand out as educators, elevating everyone around them.

We're at Joel P Jensen today to celebrate an award-winning teacher, and we're talking with Aaron Hunter, her principal as well. Aaron, how are you?

Aaron Hunter:
Doing great.

Anthony Godfrey:
I want you to talk a little bit about Mandy Truscott and why she won this award. Tell us a little bit about this award and what's happening.

Aaron Hunter:
Yeah, so the Jazz and Instructure who run Canvas, they nominate, I want to say this is the first year. I'm not sure, it's a pretty new award. But yeah, people nominate teachers throughout the state for the Most Valuable Educator Award. Mandy was nominated and I can wholeheartedly say, I've known Mandy for a decade, and she's an amazing teacher. You can’t see her classroom, there's no kids in here. But if you walked in, you could, you could already tell by the way things are organized that she's a wonderful teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's very well organized, it's exciting. It's bursting with fruit flavor. It's got colors everywhere, it looks fantastic. And I've known Mandy for a long time, so I know she's a fantastic teacher. Aaron, how would you describe Mandy Truscott?

Aaron Hunter:
So, Mandy Truscott is the teacher. Like if we ever, she never fills referrals out. If we ever got a referral from Mandy Truscott, we would know that it was a very, very serious thing because Mandy just does an excellent job at managing her classroom, keeping her kids engaged. As she mentioned, the growth that her students make is incredible. It's awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you talked about the growth. Tell me, what kind of growth do you see in students who have Mandy's class?

Aaron Hunter:
Yeah. An average student that takes Mrs. Truscott’s class on average makes about three years of growth in reading from beginning to end

Anthony Godfrey:
That's incredible. That's incredible. Awesome. So in addition to there being astronauts, it's a time travel situation as well. Yeah. Because you're making up for lost time.

Mandy Truscott:
Well, that's why we say like they've landed on grade level. They do this like jump and I was like, it's like a little hyper speed. They're in hyperdrive and they eventually can get there, but they have to put in the time and effort.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I'm excited to hear that you got this award, Mandy. Congratulations.

Mandy Truscott:
Thank you. It was really exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your loot. What did you get as a part of this prize?

Mandy Truscott:
There was a thousand dollars to use in my classroom, which was really nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Great.

Mandy Truscott:
We got tickets to the Jazz game. There were six of us. We gotta stay in the suite, which was really nice as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Mandy Truscott:
And a personalized Jazz jersey, so that was really exciting as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Really?

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Mandy Truscott:
I know. My husband's like,’ let's frame it so you can put it in your classroom.’ And I think we might, cause I don't think I'm gonna be wearing it any time, so.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And you can sign the jersey for yourself.

Mandy Truscott:
There you go. I could do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, you and I worked together a long time ago.

Mandy Truscott:
Yes. Very long.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. A very long time ago. Most of your career ago, I think. You're teaching reading?

Mandy Truscott:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about that. What do you love about teaching reading?

Mandy Truscott:
I love teaching reading. So I teach remedial reading. So they're kids that are not on grade level, but they don't qualify necessarily for resource services or special ed services. But they definitely still need some help to get caught up. So we kind of catch them, they get put in my class and then that's what we work on, just trying to get them up to proficient grade level.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I can't think of a teacher who would do a better job of making kids feel great about being in the class that is intended to help them catch up.

Mandy Truscott:
It's something they struggle with, so it's not their favorite class.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Mandy Truscott:

But I feel like they do, they do like the class. We have a good repertoire, we have a good relationship.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm sure that part of the reward is seeing the impact on a student realizing they can do something they didn't think they were ever going to be good at.

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. It's really exciting to see them make so much progress. So we have like this wall of fame, which you're not in the classroom so you can't see it, but we have this wall of fame where like the kids' names get on the board when they level up, when they increase in grade levels, when they get on grade level. We do a lot of incentives to try and motivate them to do that, and it's really exciting to see. So we always are just pushing them to get on grade level. That's our main purpose.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's look, take us on a tour around your classroom. So I see amazing things happen here. And names of the kids that have landed on grade level.

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah, so those are the students who at the beginning of the year were below grade level, but they have since reached all the benchmarks to prove that they are on grade level. And then we have four other sections in the classroom. So the first time they level up or the first time they go up one grade level, they get their name in the ‘I've leveled up one reading level’ column, and then there's a two reading levels, a three reading levels, and a four or more reading levels. And you can see there's 20 kids already who are on the four or more reading levels. I think that like the numbers may be a little misleading. I think some of those kids, they didn't try super hard on the initial assessment.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Mandy Truscott:
Which, you know, surprise, surprise. But they do see this progress. And even if they're making progress on lower levels or levels that may be a little bit below where they should be they're feeling success. And that initial success I think helps them for when they do start to encounter more challenging work and more challenging curriculum.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love how visual the progress is. Student progress is just right out there for everybody to see. And I have no doubt that it's motivating. Tell me about the planets or the moons that the astronauts have landed on, on this wall.

Mandy Truscott:
I tried to really focus on creating a class community. So I did this like a space theme this year. So we have a little planet up there. I don't know if you can see it very well, but it says JPJ 112. My classroom is room 112.

Anthony Godfrey:
Ah, nice.

Mandy Truscott:
So I told them that we are like a class colony and so each student in my class has a little astronaut on the board and in that astronaut, or on the moon I should say, below the astronaut, it lists information about them. So they gotta tell me who they are at the beginning of the year, and that was really helpful. They did that the very first week of school. So I didn't know them very well, but I was able to take that information and they also filled out like this little star cadet intake form that they filled out so I could learn more about them and what motivated them, what they disliked, anything they wanted to tell me basically.

Anthony Godfrey:
What have some of your themes been over the years?

Mandy Truscott:
Oh, besides my space theme? I did an emoji theme one year. But I really like the space theme. I think I'm gonna stick with it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Might stay with it.

Mandy Truscott:
Okay. Yeah. So, we talked about how our learning objective is our mission objective. So we have that over here. Instead of the date, we put the star date.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, love that.

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. Anyways, we did they have these reading response journals, but we call 'em mission log. So they write in their mission log.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yes.

Mandy Truscott:
They can earn passport stickers for reading different genres. So yeah, anyways, we kind of did this fun space theme. I kinda ran with it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see a bit of a cat corner that has nothing to do with reading, necessarily.

Mandy Truscott:
Nothing to do with reading or with space, but I'm a little bit of a cat lady, so we have a little bit of a cat corner going on.

Anthony Godfrey:
I respect that. I respect that.

Mandy Truscott:
The kids will draw me pictures of cats occasionally.

Anthony Godfrey:
They know what you like. That’s a good thing.

Mandy Truscott:
Yeah. They know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me, what was it that initially drew you to teaching?

Mandy Truscott:
I don't, it's kind of a weird story. I did not get my bachelor's degree in teaching. I got my bachelor's degree in political science and I was initially going to join the foreign service, is what I had wanted to do. I interned in DC in the Department of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department. And I became interested in education doing that. And then I came back to Utah, which is where I'm from. And I started to substitute teach just to make a little bit of money and I liked it. And I got a job as a para. And then I decided to go back to school and get a graduate degree in education.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm very grateful to whoever was sick and needed you as a substitute.

Mandy Truscott:
It was a roundabout way of doing it, but I'm glad I did it. I feel like it was definitely meant to be, definitely what has become my passion and it became my passion really quickly. So I was a paraprofessional in a special education classroom, and so I initially did special education, I did that for eight years and then I transferred over to general ed and now doing remedial reading in general education.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, having worked with you many moons ago, it's no surprise to me that you won this award and I'm really glad to see that you're still teaching and these are some lucky kids.

Mandy Truscott:
Thank you. Thank you very much.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, we'll hear from Most Valuable Educator Charity Horne.

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 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 here at Mountain Point Elementary and we have Principal Elizabeth Felt here and Charity Horne, the Most Valuable Educator award winner. We're gonna talk with Charity about her experience, but first Elizabeth, tell me about Charity Horne as a teacher.

Elizabeth Felt:
I can't stop saying wonderful things about Charity. Charity is one of those bright lights here at Mountain Point. She is one of those teachers that goes above and beyond for every single student here in the building. She is well known by all of our parents. She is a cheerleader for everybody. She's in the hall constantly sharing just exciting things that are going on in her classroom. And when she goes out for bus duty, she's the most cheerful person out there. She is waving people down to get them down the lane to pull forward and people love it. They smile at her, which is a great thing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now that is a remarkable accomplishment. I've worked the curb at elementary schools over the years. That is not a place where love is shared very much. So that's pretty exciting. And from the moment I walked in, I could tell the energy that she has.

Elizabeth Felt:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Charity, tell me about winning this award. How did all that come to be?

Charity Horne:
Well, I got an email and I thought it was spam and I thought, ‘Oh, this has to be a joke.’ So I responded and just said, ‘Hey, is this for real?’ And she responded and said, ‘Yes it is. And you were nominated by some parents for the award and one of the nominations stood out to us. So we chose you.’

Anthony Godfrey:
How nice to be nominated. Now, it's never fun to talk about yourself.

Charity Horne:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what were some of the nominations? Elizabeth, did you get a chance to read those?

Elizabeth Felt:
No, I actually didn't because, like Charity, I thought it was spam. I hadn’t heard of it before.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you get an email that says you won and it has all these exclamation points, you do wonder.

Elizabeth Felt:
Yeah. So I remember debriefing with Charity in the hall and we're like, ‘Did you get this email?’ ‘Yeah, I got this email.’ ‘What do you think we should do?’ ‘Is this real?’ Yeah. And so then when we reached out and we were like,’ okay, I think they wanna do something. So I don't know what that looks like because they're not really sure what it looks like.’ So we're like, okay, well let's just go for a ride and it's gonna be great. We’ll see how it goes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you thought they were fake prizes at first?

Charity Horne:
Totally. Totally.

Anthony Godfrey:
But what were the real prizes that you ended up winning as a result?

Charity Horne:
Well, I earned a thousand dollars. And then I got to go to the Jazz game with my family and take my boys and we went and got in the suite. Then they gave me a Jazz jersey and the Jazz Bear came to our school and recognized me on stage.

Anthony Godfrey:
A personalized Jazz jersey from what I've heard.

Charity:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. And what's the Jazz bear like close up?

Charity Horne:
He is fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah?

Charity Horne:
Yeah. Yeah. He messed with my hair.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does he smell kind of earthy?

Charity Horne:
Ah, you know, I was so nervous. I didn't notice.

Anthony Godfrey:
So they honored you on the floor during a Jazz game?

Charity Horne:
Yes. They honored me on the floor during the Jazz game as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's pretty exciting.

Charity Horne:
It was so awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me what grade you teach first of all.

Charity Horne:
First grade. I teach first grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
First grade. That's awesome. What do you love about teaching first grade?

Charity Horne:
Honestly, just the innocence of the kids. They're just, they're so excited to be here. They're so excited. They just love you no matter what, you know? And they don't judge you. I mean, you cannot comb your hair and it won't matter. You know, adults tend to judge.

Anthony Godfrey:
But they notice everything about you too don’t they?

Charity Horne:
They do. They notice it all. They do. And I'm like, you know what? It's okay. I didn't do, my hair today. Okay, Mrs. Horne

Anthony Godfrey:
So did they ever say ‘What's wrong, Mrs. Horne?’ when you thought you were covering it up?

Charity Horne:
No, but they have pointed out blemishes or zits or anything that's wrong with you.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you have to go in ready a little bit?

Charity Horne:
A little bit, yeah. But they don't care. I mean, they're just, they're excited to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Now how long have you taught first grade?

Charity Horne:
I've been teaching first grade for six years. This is my sixth year in first grade. And I've taught two years of second grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
So two years of second grade, six years of first grade. How many hugs does that equal over those years?

Charity Horne:
Millions.

Anthony Godfrey:
Millions of hugs.

Charity Horne:
It’s a lot of hugs.

Anthony Godfrey:
That is the good part.

Charity Horne:
Because they move on, but they still love you, so they still come back and hug you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, so it's not just the hugs when they're there.

Charity Horne:
No.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's the after-hugs.

Charity Horne:
Yeah. That's my older students.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's pretty exciting.

Charity Horne:
It's awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
What would you say to someone who's thinking about teaching elementary school?

Charity Horne:
Honestly, it's a hard job, but you have to have, your heart's gotta be in it. You gotta wanna make a difference and you gotta love helping little kids.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's one of your favorite things to teach in first grade?

Charity Horne:
I like teaching math.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah?

Charity Horne:
Math.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the math skills that first graders are learning right now?

Charity Horne:
Adding and subtracting within 20, learning to make a 10, regroup.

Anthony Godfrey:
Regrouping. Yeah. I try to regroup as much as I can. It's good.

Charity Horne:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a good skill to have.

Charity Horne:
It's a good skill to have.

Anthony Godfrey:
What drew you to teaching initially?

Charity Horne:
Well, I graduated with education and back then, it was too much work, so I was like, ‘I'm not gonna be a teacher. There's no way. It's so much work.’ But so, and quickly after that, I got pregnant with twins. So my life changed to mommy mode and I ended up opening up a daycare and was gonna do a tumbling studio, and all these different branches of life going different directions. And when my daycare kids had kind of moved on and I decided to look at the school and just see if there was a part-time aide position. And I got hired as a math aide. And my Principal at the time, Mandy Thurman, called me and said, ‘Hey, I hired you as a math aide, but I talked to the district about reactivating your license. I really need teachers. What do you think? I think you'd be great.’ And thought about it. And it was just a gut feeling that it was something I needed to do. So I did it and it was a thousand times harder than it was back then.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it does get harder over time.

Charity Horne:
It does get harder over time, but I think that that hard work just makes you a better person and a better teacher. You'll learn from mistakes, you'll learn from positives, you learn from everything and you just become better. So one of the things I love, I came up with it a couple of years ago. I had heard another teacher was doing it and I thought it was phenomenal, but teaching kids that they can do hard things. And so I came up with a motto that I wanted them to say every morning. And it goes, ‘I can do hard things. I know if I think positive, work hard, and try my best, I will succeed. I believe in myself, I can do anything.’ And it's kind of one of those things that I want them to know. Know that like even in life, not just first grade, life gets hard sometimes. And if you work hard and you just do the best you can, you know you're gonna succeed.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. And I'll bet they remember it years later.

Charity Horne:
I have kids, a girl that I taught in first grade at Riverton Elementary goes to school here, I think she's in sixth grade and she's like, ‘Hey Mrs. Horne, how are you? I remember our motto.’ So she still remembers it.

Anthony Godfrey:
And then she recites it for you.

Charity Horne:
Yeah. Well, it was funny cuz I actually went running with one of my first grade parents. And we were going around the track and I hate running, I hate cardio. And so I'm just like, ‘I can't do this.’ And she's like, ‘I can do hard things.’ So we just started running and we were doing the motto. She was like, ‘See, it works for adults too.’ So I just think it's a strong quality that I have just for anybody. Like you can do it. You know, our first reaction is sometimes, ah, that's too hard. I can't do it. But if you just learn that you can do whatever you put your mind to, if you keep working on it, you'll get it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. I would assume that as a first grade teacher, you get to see a ton of progress.

Charity Horne:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
From the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

Charity Horne:
That's probably one of my favorite things about first grade, I feel like I do such incredible work. Because if you look at their beginning of the year tests and handwriting and writing journals, and then you go to the end and I'm like, holy cow. I taught them. You know, as a team, we work together to teach narrative, informative, and opinion writing. They can add and subtract. They're just, they're just bright little humans.

Anthony Godfrey:
A school supervisor showed me the other day, what a first grade student had done over the course of the year. They were so excited for the progress they'd made. And they showed, you know, the writing that they did at the beginning of the year and the writing they're doing now. And it's really cool to see, this huge progress kids make.

Charity Horne:
It’s incredible. They make a ton of progress. And even with reading, I mean, they're barely connecting those sounds and letters and putting 'em together. And by the end, they're reading full passages.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for spending the time, and most of all, thanks for everything you do to help create a great experience for these first graders.

Charity Horne:
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

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.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was an evening of reflection, recognition, and celebration. Students from schools throughout Jordan School District came together in song and dance to celebrate Black History Month in a meaningful way. On this episode of the Supercast, hear from students who participated in the performances and why they're passionate about educating others on the importance of Black History Month.

We're here at Elk Ridge Middle School for Black Excellence Night. Our Legacy is the name of the celebration tonight, and we're here with three of the students who are participating. Introduce yourselves, and what grade you're in, and what school you're from.

Marc:
I'm Marc. I'm from West Jordan High School and I am the BSU President.

Adjoa:
I'm Adjoa and I'm from Herriman High School. I'm the BSU President as well.

Siriya:
I'm Siriya. I go to Copper Hills High School. I'm a senior and I'm also BSU president.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, I'm in the presence of three presidents. That's awesome. So tell me, what are you looking forward to tonight? What are you excited about?

Marc:
I'm really excited to see all the other schools cause I haven't been able to see what they're doing. But I'm really excited also to see just the Black Excellence in the auditorium.

Adjoa:
This is my first meeting that I've been to and I'm super excited to just see what it's all about and seeing all the different dances and the different BSUs. My BSU will be hopefully showing up too and will be our first time because our school is just barely new this year, so, super excited.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Siriya:
I'm also excited to see all the other BSUs or other people that are gonna perform and just Black Excellence altogether.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are the things that you hope the audience takes away from their experience tonight? As they're walking to their cars, they're driving home, as they're thinking about things this weekend, what do you hope they take away from the experience?

Marc:
I want them to be educated. I want them to see that Black Excellence is prominent in Utah.

Adjoa:
It's very important that we help spread just awareness that we are here and that we do have cultures and that we are a community.

Siriya:
I really hope people actually see the diversity of like what Marc said because it's obviously a predominantly white state. And so obviously I hope they take away something from this and they actually leave feeling educated.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me what each of your schools is contributing to the event tonight.

Marc:
So West Jordan High School is contributing a song and a poem done by me. The song and the poem are written by me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, really?

Marc:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what the song and poem are about or the title. Tell me a little bit about it.

Marc:
So the title of the poem is I'm a Black Man and then the song is Freedom.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Great.

Adjoa:
I am the student highlight this year and I will be talking about my BSU efforts in raising money for our school's fundraiser, Hearts of Gold.

Anthony Godfrey:
What were some of the things that BSU did for Hearts of Gold?

Adjoa:
We made a whole bunch of cookies and then we sold those cookies during lunch periods and we decided to do some at a basketball game and we raised money.

Anthony Godfrey:
So this is a chance for you to connect with the community, connect with parents, but as students for you to connect with other schools as well?

Adjoa:
Yes, of course. It's gonna help us out a lot in figuring out different ideas to do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what Copper Hills is doing tonight.

Siriya:
So my BSU is going to be performing two different dances. So we're gonna be performing an African dance and an African American dance, which has African American artists.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Looking forward to it. So you're all Presidents of the Black Student Union. Tell us about what the Black Student Union does in your school.

Marc:
So, so far this year the Black Student Union has helped a lot with charity season. Our charity this year was Tiny Tim's Toys for Tots. The BSU, we held a social for Tiny Tim's Toys for Tots, and we made these little cars and it only takes $2 to make each car. And so we had people donate money and whatnot. So we got a bunch of money and then each $2, we gotta make one car for that.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I know that BSU is just getting underway at your school, but what are some of the things that you already have going?

Adjoa:
Black History Month is coming up and my BSU is planning on some really fun activities. We've got a whole bunch of posters that we made today and we're going to be putting them up as like a gallery in our library. And so it'll be going all around the library. We have a whole bunch of posters and each poster has several different Black heroes and events that have happened in Black culture and history. And at the end of the month, during like the last two weeks, we'll be doing a spirit week for like the two weeks cuz we have break. So we're just adding those weeks together and so our whole entire school will be involved in dressing up on certain days. Like we have 70s Day, we have Jazz Day, we have Blackout Day where our whole BSU will be wearing our brand new sweatshirts that we just made with our new logo on 'em. And then we'll be having a social on our last day over Spirit Week where everyone from our whole entire school and all the other schools are invited. And we'll also be doing personal invites to the different culture clubs that we have at our school to come and join us so then we can all like, join together and get to know each other.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about at Copper Hills? What has the Black Student Union been up to there?

Siriya:
So we've also been doing fundraisers and the last biggest event thing that we like really did was a clothing drive during the winter for like kids and just families that don't have really like anything. And we just donated a bunch of fleece blankets, and clothes, socks, just everything, and toys. And also with Black History coming up, my school's gonna be doing a pop-up museum with a bunch of Black historical figures and we're so excited for that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So there's a lot of education, a lot of fundraising, a lot of outreach to others, and making sure that you're helping those around you in the community. So, congratulations. It's obviously your great leaders and that wonderful things are happening at your schools as a result of your efforts. So thanks for talking with me and I can't wait to see the performances tonight, so thanks again. Stay with us. When we come back more on the Black History Month celebration.

Break:
In Jordan School District, we like to support students in and outside the classroom along with their families. That's where the Jordan Family Education Center comes in, offering support services and a wide variety of classes for students and their families, free of charge. You can take a class called Blues Busters for children feeling sad or worried. Just Breathe is a class that helps students reduce stress. Or how about a class that supports parents in helping their children make and keep good friends. There are also support groups and free counseling, all provided by Jordan School District school psychologists and counselors. To find out how you can benefit from free family support services offered by the Jordan Family Education Center, call 801-565-7442 or visit guidance.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
We also have Toni Brown, one of our specialists here. Now you've been involved in all of the planning here, this has been talked about for quite a while.

Toni Brown:
So this kind of program has gone on in other districts, but we're really excited to bring it to Jordan School District for the first time because we have so many active BSUs that have so much to contribute.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me about some of the things that are happening tonight. I understand that Black icons are taped to the back of each of the chairs. Talk to me a little bit about that project.

Toni Brown:
We're seeing the Black Excellence Program this year as kind of a kickoff to Black History Month. So on the back of the chairs, there are different Black history makers and icons. People from Rosa Parks, and Beyoncé, to Michelle Obama, and Sojourner Truth, we're spanning gender and time just trying to highlight different people from our history.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what are some of the other activities that are happening? I know there's some dances, poetry, music, and we have a Senegalese food truck as well.

Toni Brown:
Yeah, we're really excited for that. It's gonna be great food. There's gonna be all kinds of flavors and we're hoping that everybody tries it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm looking forward to it. We'll give it a try. Senegalese food truck. I've had a lot of corn dog food trucks, but not a Senegalese food truck. Why is this an important night Toni?

Toni Brown:
The Black Excellence Program is important because this is our first opportunity to bring kids from BSUs across the district together so that they can build community, so that they can display their talents, and so that they can celebrate their culture. That's what it's all about tonight. We're here to be together and enjoy each other.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a fabulous reason to throw a celebration like this and I'm looking forward to seeing all the students. I got to see a little bit of a preview of some of the performances. I think it's gonna be a great night.

MC:
My job right now is to introduce our next performer. He is a student performer. His name is Marc from West Jordan.

Marc:
Freedom
Oh, freedom by God.
Oh, freedom.
Oh, freedom.
Free, free at last.
Into the new day.
Free, free to glory.
Free, I am free now.
Lord, by God.
I am the son of a King.

Thank you all.

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.