Episode 143: Riverside Elementary Rallies Around Teacher from Ukraine with Love and Support

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She has an undying love for teaching and the students in her care at Riverside Elementary School.

On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with third-grade teacher Olena Bradford, who was born and raised in Ukraine and now calls Utah home. Find out how her school community has surrounded Olena with love and support during a very emotional time, and how Ms. Bradford remains passionately committed to her students and classroom while finding ways to help family and friends impacted by war in her homeland.

We're here with Olena Bradford at Riverside Elementary. Just to talk about your experience as a teacher and you have had quite a year, haven't you?

Olena Bradford:
Well, it was an interesting year and we had many great things going here in school in Riverside. And also there are many different things that are happening in the world right now.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're from Ukraine. Tell me about coming here to the United States and growing up in Ukraine.

Olena Bradford:
I came to the United States about 15 years ago and when I came here, I did not speak any English. I've learned English here. In Ukraine, I was attending the Ukrainian school, so everything was in Ukrainian, all the subjects. After graduating from the high school, I attended the Pedagogy University in Izmail, Ukraine in the south. It's one of the most south points in Ukraine, on the border with Romania.

I was working in school since 1993. I was working on my doctorate degree at Odessa University at the same time. Later on, I became an assistant principal of the school in Ukraine. So I was combining administrative and coaching responsibilities for elementary school in Ukraine.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, today marks 100 days of war in Ukraine. Tell me about the impact on your family and your friends.

Olena Bradford:
I think this war affected everyone in this world, not only people in Ukraine, but people in so many other countries. Everyone who is standing up right now in Ukraine is being extremely brave and being an example to me. The president of the country is like a model for me how to be a grateful leader and stay with the people, every person, support, stand up, and protect everyone who you're responsible for.

Anthony Godfrey:
We have seen a lot of examples of bravery, courage, and leadership coming from Ukraine. And I do think the world has been impacted as a whole by those positive examples. It's just a tragic situation and devastating damage and death. But I was first made aware of you because people were so amazed at your ability to stay focused on teaching and students in such a terrible circumstance. How are you able to do that?

Olena Bradford:
I think that thinking about every student in my class helped me to be focused and help each of them because my kids are here and they need me. They need my support and they need my help.

Anthony Godfrey:
We have Olenna's principal, Mike Trimmel, here. Mike, tell me about Olenna's dedication to her students during this difficult time.

Mike Trimmell:
Absolutely. Olena, if I didn't know her personally and know what her and her family were going through, you would never know that this was affecting her. She is so dedicated to her students.

She comes in early when I get in. And the first thing, instead of talking about what's going on in the world, she's asking about students. How can we support this student? She's asking about strategies. “How does Think-Write-Pair-Share work?” She's so focused and dedicated on the students that you wouldn't know that there was something else going on in her life. It's absolutely amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
I also know that the entire school is getting a boost from your energy and your focus. We've all had a very difficult few years, but it puts it in perspective when I think about what you must be going through, having, I understand, a brother in Ukraine and family and friends in Poland that are struggling to survive and to get by. People have been inspired by you and your dedication and as a result have found paths through you to help other people, to rally around you and to rally around others. Can you tell me about the support you've had from the school?

Olena Bradford:
I'm really grateful for kindness and support of every student in our school, every teacher, every staff member. Because from the very beginning, from the very first day of war, I had people coming to my classroom, giving me hugs, leaving the small, very short notes, lifting me up. And reading those notes really helped me to go from one day to another.

Also, in our school, I think our school leaders, Mr. Trimmel and Mr. Price, have done so much for me. They organized the whole entire event for us in the faculty room with the whole room decorated in Ukrainian style, with cakes made by kids, made by students, by using Ukrainian recipes. One of our teachers, Ms. Medina, was playing violin and she learned, especially for this day, the Ukrainian melodies that she played. That was absolutely touching. On that day, I received many notes from every member of our school, with just full of kindness and full of love.

That meant a lot for me because at that point I was really struggling with my feelings. It was really, really hard. But having this support helped me to go through this difficult time and accomplish everything that I needed this year and be helpful to my students. That meant a lot for me because at that point I was really feeling, I was really struggling with my feelings. It was really, really hard. But having this support helped me to go through this difficult time and accomplish everything that I needed this year and be helpful to my students.

Also, as a whole entire school, we helped some specific families in Ukraine. We were able to buy the minivan to deliver food to families in the south of Ukraine who are struggling and have no food, especially during this hard, difficult time. Also, not only people in our school, but people from the district reached out to me and they donated money to make this project happen. So I appreciate everyone's willingness to help people who are far away.

It is really important for me when I talk to family and friends in Ukraine to pass this passion, to pass this positivity and vision of life, because many people in Ukraine really feel like no one cares. It's their fight and they're alone for many different reasons because there are many difficult circumstances being bombed and being shot. But for me, even showing small videos about what happened in my classroom, what happened in our school, what are we doing now, the steps of buying this minivan and collecting the addresses and delivering this food to different people really helps to lift them up over there and show them that everyone matters.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's really inspiring that people have come together like that and supporting you personally has also had an impact on friends and family you've been able to share that with. And for people to buy a minivan and to continue to buy food and supplies to help those who are impacted by the war is just incredible. Not surprising because that's the type of people that we have. Mike, tell me about the event that was held.

Mike Trimmell:
Yeah, so we came together as a staff and just decided that we needed to wrap our arms around Olena and make sure, I think we were giving her notes and passing by the classroom, but we wanted to come together collectively and just show her how much we care for her and for the people of Ukraine. And so we had teachers, support staff, parents, PTA members all come together and make Ukrainian flags out of construction paper. One parent went and bought, I don't know how many dozen sunflowers, which is a flower that is known in Ukraine as a ray of sunshine, and decorated the whole room in sunflowers. Another staff member looked up recipes and with students created Ukrainian desserts. Mrs. Medina-Ferrone learned Ukrainian music on her violin.

We just decided that we were going to have an emergency meeting. Everyone knew except for Olena. So we had this emergency meeting in the staff lounge, which we never do. And so we all crowded in the staff lounge and as soon as Olena started walking down the hallway, we queued Mrs. Medina-Ferrone to start playing the music and I could see the look on Olena's face like, "Wait, what's going on?" And then when she came in, we all just embraced her and gave her hugs and words of support, enjoyed some Ukrainian desserts and just enjoyed each other's company. We just really wanted to wrap our arms around her and make sure she knew in a real tangible way that she is loved and that we care for her and support her and her family abroad.

Anthony Godfrey:
What an incredible outpouring of love and support. That's incredible. Fantastic.

Stay with us. When we come back, more with our incredible teacher, Olena Bradford.

Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
I understand you have a brother still in Ukraine. Tell me how he’s doing.

Olena Bradford:
Currently, we have people who are helping him since my brother is blind, so he always needed some people around him to help him with different things. Running errands and doing other things. Just for now, it costs more than it cost before because prices for everything gone way high over there. At the moment, I'm capable of doing it. It's difficult. It's not easy, but they are doing everything that we can for him.

Anthony Godfrey:
I wish your family and friends safety and peace as soon as possible.

Olena Bradford:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk more about teaching. Utah and Ukraine and the United States. Tell me the differences between school and Ukraine and the U.S.

Olena Bradford:
There are some differences and some similarities. The students are the same. Everything is the same. Math is still math. It doesn't matter where. In Ukraine or here in the United States. One of the differences would be in Ukraine, we have elementary, middle and high school in the same building. When I was assistant principal, I was all over the elementary.

Another difference is that the day broke up a little bit differently. One thing that I like about the schools here in the United States is that we have a specially dedicated time for interventions. RTI. Over there, at least when I taught 15 years ago, we didn't have that specific amount of time dedicated to the interventions, specific targeted interventions to lift up each student, to support each student. We did it in a different way, but it was during the tier one instructional time.

Anthony Godfrey:
Mike, I understand that there was a professional development experience around English language learners that Olena was involved with. Tell me about that.

Mike Trimmell:
We have a high population of English language learners at Riverside Elementary School. We also have dual immersion Spanish. Olena is a very empathetic teacher and she loves her students so much. We wanted the rest of the staff to understand what English language learners are hearing and dealing with on a daily basis. We thought if we use Spanish, that might not work because half of the staff speaks Spanish. We have a Ukrainian teacher who speaks Ukrainian. I asked Olena to develop a lesson so that in a staff meeting, she would teach math, which is a universal language, kind of.

She taught a math lesson in Ukrainian and asked them questions that no one could answer at first. Then she added visuals and manipulatives. The types of things that we know work for English language learners to help support their language development. She, by the end of the lesson, was able to have teachers answering math questions in Ukrainian with all of the visual supports that she provided. It was a great opportunity to use her strength as a teacher, the language that she brings, the culture that she brings to our staff, and also to help us as a staff become more empathetic to what our English language learners are dealing with on a daily basis in the classroom.

Anthony Godfrey:
What a great experience and deep learning because when you experience that, it's very different from thinking about how to connect with students. When you put yourself in the situation, now you're thinking shifts and you're really able to see it from someone else's perspective.

Mike Trimmell:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's exciting. No other Ukrainian speakers on the staff, huh?

Olena Bradford:
No.

Mike Trimmell:
We had one trying to speak a little bit of Russian, but it just didn't–

Olena Bradford:
She used Translator.

Mike Trimmell:
One pulled out their phone and was using Google Translator. Cheating a little bit. It was a great– I would say it was probably the single best professional development we did this year, and she was a large part of that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. What a great activity.

Olena Bradford:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what you love most about teaching.

Olena Bradford:
I love my students. I like each of them every single year. Each personality, they're all different. They're all unique. They are all special to me. And my goal as a teacher is to help them to become lifelong learners, just like me. I'm a lifelong learner.

Mike Trimmell:
Absolutely you are.

Olena Bradford:
I'm learning. And I want them to know how to find answers to the questions that they will have in their own life. Not only academic questions, but how to manage their own life, how to make a decision based on information, be able to find the reliable source of information. Dig deeper and then make the ethical decision in their life, because our life is full of making decisions, points, when we are thinking, "What should I do at this situation? How do I know that this is the right choice?" So I would say my main goal is to prepare each of my students for a real life, this way, and become critical thinkers. Always think. Always do your own research. Find the reliable source of information to verify your research and your choice.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're obviously doing a great job of preparing them for real life. Thank you. We're very fortunate to have you here in Jordan District and here at Riverside Elementary. So thank you for sharing your experience and skills with our students.

Olena Bradford:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
And for lifting the community and lifting the school.

Olena Bradford:
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.