Author: communications

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Anthony Godfrey:
What is it that you're judged on?

Mackenna York:
So I know we're judged on our knife cuts. We're also judged on safety and sanitation, teamwork skills, and then obviously how your food looks, how it tastes, and then the cleanliness of your cuts.

Grant Ashby:
Teamwork comes into a big play because it really, even though most classes do involve it, it's more of a smaller amount of people. So you get to really personally connect with everybody

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Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are high school students crafting mouth-watering masterpieces in a sizzling hot competition where culinary talents are put to the test.

On this episode of the Supercast, we join students from four Jordan School District high schools dishing up delicious food in a very impressive ProStart CTE competition. It's a competition where rising young chefs are on a fast track, turning their love of food service into successful careers.

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We're here at the ProStart competition at Mountain America Credit Union Exposition Center to talk with some of the students who competed today. Introduce yourself and tell us what school you're from.

Keyon:
I'm Keyon and I'm from Bingham High School.

Mackenna York:
I'm Mackenna York, I'm from Herriman High School.

Grant Ashby:
I'm Grant Ashby and I'm from Mountain Ridge High School.

Ashlee Brixley:
I'm Ashlee Brixley and I'm from Copper Hills High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Grant, tell us what you cooked today.

Grant Ashby:
Yeah, so for us, we cooked an appetizer with marinated zucchini, toasted bread on top of creamy ricotta, with a chili crunch sauce, and toasted hazelnut.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very nice.

Grant Ashby:
And then for our main, we cooked a petite filet with gochujang carrots on top of creamy mashed potatoes with a chimichurri sauce and microgreens on top.

Anthony Godfrey:
And for dessert?

Grant Ashby:
We cooked a lemon meringue tart with a strawberry coulis and a strawberry brunoise with toasted pistachios on top.

Anthony Godfrey:
I haven't made a strawberry brunoise in I can't tell how long, so.

Grant Ashby:
Yeah, well, we tried our best today.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what is involved in the strawberry brunoise.

Grant Ashby:
Yeah,  so it's sauced strawberries that are very finely diced.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, cool. And what did you make today?

Mackenna York:
So for our appetizer, we made a vanilla bourbon glazed vinaigrette salad. It was like a salad in a cucumber bowl.

Anthony Godfrey:
A glazed vinaigrette salad?

Mackenna York:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, go on.

Mackenna York:
And then for our entree, we made a pan-seared duck breast with an orange sauce with a parsnip puree and a sweet potato rosette with lemon brussel sprouts and garlic butter mushrooms. And then for our dessert, we made a hazelnut, what's it called? A hazelnut tarte with strawberry curd and chocolate mousse on top.

Anthony Godfrey:
That sounds fantastic. I should not do this interview at lunchtime. How about you? What did you guys make?

Keyon:
So for our appetizer, we made an Asian cucumber salad that was on top of purple cabbage and it was with edamame, carrots, and roasted peanuts. Then for our entree, we made salmon and sauteed vegetables, rice, and the salmon was a miso salmon. And then for the dessert, we made deconstructed cheesecake with a blackberry sorbet. It was like oat and honey crumble. And then we had passionberry curd.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, it's like I can picture all of this. It's such an incredible combination of colors and flavors, that's really exciting. What did you make today?

Ashlee Brixley:
So today we were really, really focused on having our team create their own recipes and work solely off of those. So we made our own recipe for our crab rangoons and our sweetened sour sauce. Creamy, crunchy, sour, savory, amazing. Our main dish was a miso pork ramen. We team prepared the stock, it took 12 hours to put that together. It took forever. And yeah, we had carrots, we attempted some eggs, they didn't turn out all the way. And we put some pork, some bean sprouts, and some beautifully diagonal cut green onion on top of there.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's high-stakes cooking eggs these days, because it's $3 an egg, so you–

Ashlee Brixley:
I know, it was really expensive.

Anthony Godfrey:
–you can’t mess up on those eggs.

Ashlee Brixley:
I know, I know. And then for dessert, we did a no-bake matcha cheesecake that was inspired by a riverbed so our first layer has poppy seeds within it to represent the rocks. Our second layer is our matcha layer, and then on top it's shaped like a lily pad and has a carved strawberry to look like a flower.

Anthony Godfrey:
Good heavens, that all sounds incredible. What is it that you're judged on? What is it that you're competing? What are the criteria?

Mackenna York:
So I know we're judged on our knife cuts. We're also judged on safety and sanitation, teamwork skills, and then obviously how your food looks, how it tastes, and then the cleanliness of your plates.

Anthony Godfrey:
So do you prepare in advance, or do you know what you're going to make in advance if you bring all the ingredients, or do they say here's a horse hoof, some cauliflower, and a flavor packet of Wyler's lemonade, and now you need to make an entree?

Ashlee Brixley:
Well, thank goodness we get the opportunity to create our own menu, which is actually another thing we're graded on here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, okay, so creating your menu, you talked about the 12 hours of preparation, and then you execute while you're here, and they watch the teamwork. Tell me about knife work. Is it cutting everything the same size so it cooks evenly, or is it just simply not severing a digit? What exactly are you judged on?

Keyon:
So we're judged based on a list of knife cuts that we could choose from originally, and we don't actually get judged on the knife cuts within the dish. We put aside two of the knife cuts, and that's where the judges come in and look over those knife cuts.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's the knife cuts in addition to what you've prepared?

Keyon;
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. Well, I knew from the first description of the first dish that this is far out of my league. I could eat all of this effectively, but I could not prepare any of it.

Stay with us. Coming up, more tasty tidbits from students competing in the ProStart CTE competition.

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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.

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow, this is really nicely put together. Describe where the crab rangoon is, is that right over there?

Ashlee Brixley:
Yeah, so right here's our crab rangoons.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I like the smear of, I don't know, the dash of color there that you've got. Very nice. This looks delicious.

Ashlee Brixley:
Yeah, it's awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's your favorite of these dishes?

Ashee Brixley:
I am the one that actually created the recipe here for the ramen, so I definitely am a natural favorite to the ramen.

Anthony Godfrey;
Yeah, that looks really good. And I like the little stack of carrots, what would you call those?

Ashlee Brixley:
Those are julienne cut carrots.

Anthony Godfrey:
Julienne cut carrots. Gives a nice little pop of color and boy, that is nicely arranged. Okay, let's take a look at the next one.

Keyon:
So, what questions do you have?

Anthony Godfrey:
What did you do to the cucumber there? That is quite an intricate cut.

Keyon:
Spiral cucumber, when we cut it, we had two chopsticks below the cucumber, and we cut it 90 degrees first, and then we flipped it over and cut it 45 degrees to achieve that kind of look.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, that is really cool. And I can see that you have carefully arranged the salmon here. That is really nicely constructed.

Keyon:
Yeah, so.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about that design.

Keyon:
We're struggling with the salmon a lot, especially the rice because it's kind of difficult to shape the rice to where how it looks good.

Anthony Godfrey:
It looks great right now.

Keyon:
We decided to put it a little well for the sauce. And this salmon filet is actually a little small because it doesn't cover the sauce up there.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see.

Keyon:
And normally it covers it on top, but it's whatever. As you can see, a lot of our dishes were focused on bringing out the color of the dish instead of just like, you know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, the colors really do pop, and I even felt that in your description, like I could see what it looked like. Tell me about the latticework here.

Keyon:
So she actually just melted some white chocolate and put some coconut oil in it. And as that melted, she put it back into the cooler. No, she drizzled it just with a spoon. So it was just a spoon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, it looks really cool and the coconut oil made the difference that it could kind of keep shape like that.

Keyon:
Yeah, it looks really great and it tastes amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it tastes really good. Well, I'll have to take your word for it. I can't disturb that. Is that a lime rind?

Keyon:
Yeah, that's a lime rind. So that was actually to give some of that lime flavor to the sorbet. I didn't taste it personally, but I think it tastes pretty good. I think the dessert probably tastes the best because there's so many combinations of flavors throughout the dessert, but everything works really well together. And the texture of the coldness of the dessert makes it so good. I just love it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, everyone's probably heard of every ingredient here. It's how you combine them in a unique collection of flavors and colors that can really make something unique.

Keyon:
Actually, our dessert right here is $17, and our salmon is $12 because we have vanilla bean inside our cream cheese.

Anthony Godfrey:
Dessert’s more expensive. That would make it very enticing. Like, ooh, why is the dessert more expensive than the entree? I must know.

Keyon:
It tastes so good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, good. So it's the vanilla bean that makes it expensive?

Keyon:
Yeah, it's in the cream cheese right there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, yeah. Very nice. Let's take a look at the next one. Okay. Where's that strawberry you diced up?

Grant Ashby:
The strawberry brunoise is right on top.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, the brunoise.

Grant Ashby:
You can see those finely diced ones mixed in with the pistachios.

Anthony Godfrey:
With little dots of-- is that strawberry puree?

Grant Ashby:
Strawberry coulis.

Anthony Godfrey:
Coulis.

Grant Ashby:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, I should have known. Wow, this all looks so nicely arranged. And that petit filet is something that I would love to sink my teeth into.

Grant Ashby:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
What did you do to the carrots to make them look actually appetizing?

Grant Ashby:
Yeah, so we peeled them and we made sure they were all relatively the same size as possible and then we boiled them to cook them. And then when we were toasting and cooking our zucchini, we actually put them in a pan fry. And so they are pan-fried on the outside and then they're marinated in a gochujang sauce.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. It looks, they look delicious. They're glistening there on the plate. Are they heirloom carrots or are they Harmon's carrots?

Grant Ashby:
They're just normal carrots. They're fine and they're rainbow carrots. They just, with the sauce, it loses the color a little bit.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, no, it looks fantastic. And let's look at the final dish here.

Mackenna York:
Yes. So these are definitely our ugly plates. I mean, our salad fell apart, but it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be in like a really tight circle.

Anthony Godfrey:
I mean, there's some structural issues sometimes with this sort of plating, I guess.

Mackenna York:
But, so this is our vanilla bourbon glaze.

Anthony Godfrey:
This still looks great.

Mackenna York:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
If you hadn't told me it had collapsed, I would think it was exactly as it should be. Tell me about the dessert here. I love the design there.

Mackenna York:
So this is our chocolate mousse piped around with our strawberry cream. And then this is strawberry curd and under the chocolate mousse on top of the tarte, there's more strawberry curd under there.

Anthony Godfrey:
It actually looks like calligraphy there on the plate almost. It's, that is a lot of delicate drawing and larger dots that get a little bit smaller along to kind of accent that. It looks delicious and it looks gorgeous all at the same time.

Makenna York:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
If anyone was served any of these dishes, they would take pictures first for sure and then finally decide to eat. That looks so good.

Makenna York:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that is very impressive. Tell me about what it's like being in this ProStart program. What do you like most about being in these classes?

Ashlee Brixley:
It's a sense of community. It's definitely a sense of home. But on top of that, it really just advances your techniques. I wasn't gonna be going into culinary until about a year ago. So I've truly started square one with this program and now I'm here competing with the best in my class.

Mackenna York:
I think it really just brings everybody together and it puts you in like a field if you weren't sure if you were interested in culinary, like she wasn't sure. It really shows you all of the fun that it can be, all of the excitement that you can have in it. 

Keyon:
I just like being here and talking to people 'cause in most classes you have to keep your mouth shut but I just love talking to people so much. And in this class, it's just a lot of communication and you have time to talk between your networks and everything so.

Anthony Godfrey:
Lots of interaction, love it.

Grant Ashby:
I think the teamwork comes into a big play because it really, even though most classes do involve it, it's more of a smaller amount of people. So you get to really personally connect with everybody and you work as a team and you can create these dishes like we all did today. It's just something cool to see that even professional chefs do today.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic, well, you've all done extremely well and it's very exciting to see the final product. In addition to culinary, we also have the management category in which students have competed. So tell me about your competition today. It looks like a menu here and some marketing going on.

Chase:
Yeah, so in our management portion of the competition, we do a lot of technical work and inventing a new concept for a restaurant. So our restaurant idea was Savannah Roots, which is an African-based restaurant that not only gives back to the community but serves very affordable food for families that otherwise can't really afford it.

Anthony Godfrey:
What a cool concept and tell everyone your name and what school you're from.

Chase:
I'm Chase and I'm from Herriman.

Anthony Godfrey:
Chase from Herriman. So tell us about what the competition looks like. I love this idea. It connects to community. It's something unique. What gave you this idea and then what does the competition look like?

Chase:
Yeah, so the competition, unlike the culinary team where everybody's watching, we're in a small room. So it's a lot of--

Anthony Godfrey:
In a booth. In a numbered booth.

Chase:
Yeah, in a numbered booth. So it's really intense and one-on-one with the judges and we really try to get our point across in what we're aiming for in our restaurant and what our goals are. Our idea with this--

Anthony Godfrey:
That's the laminated poster that you hear that he's been holding up this whole time and it looks great. You've got the great colors going and the map.

Chase:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Mapped out restaurant, everything. What's your favorite African dish?

Chase:
Probably our peri-peri chicken that we have on our menu.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Chase:
It is ridiculously good and it's like, it's a nice mix between fresh citrus flavors and spicy chicken and it's just amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've had peri-peri chicken, it is delicious.

Chase:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I'm sure yours is very, very good.

Chase:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you said that it's one-on-one and you're there with the judge in the small booth. But tell me, what exactly are you judged on? What are the aspects of the competition that they evaluate?

Chase:
So we go through a number of judging series, ranging from our concept to critical thinking. It's pretty rigorous in the aspect that it's technical and every single detail counts. So we go through a number of times back and forth at making sure we understand what these questions are that these judges are going to be asking us. My team actually had two judges that had absolutely nothing wrong to say with our--

Anthony Godfrey:
Really?

Chase:
–with our poster and everything.

Anthony Godfrey:
Two judges with no suggestion?

Chase:
They had no suggestions, no critiques, and they absolutely loved everything.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic. Okay, I wanna ask you all what's next? Is this a hobby where people always want you to cook for family events? Or is this more of a career that takes you beyond your ProStart program?

Makenna York:
So for me, it's definitely both. I do get asked to cook for different family events and stuff, but I'm also going to culinary school after high school so that I can continue on with ProStart and continue on with cooking.

Ashlee Brixley:
I will also be going to culinary school in order to continue my chef's journey.

Grant Ashby:
Yeah, I will be attending culinary school. I definitely see this as a career and a path of life for myself.

Keyon:
This is just a little hobby I have inside. My family doesn't even ask me to cook most of the time and I'm just kinda here in ProStart.

Anthony Godfrey:
You must have some good cooks around in your family.

Keyon:
My father is a restaurant owner, so.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, okay, well then you're covered.

Chase:
Well, with the skills I've learned, I definitely wanna take it higher and make a career out of what I've learned here today.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love it, it's so exciting. However you choose to use these skills, it's something you won't forget, I'm sure, being a part of this. All of you have great careers, great hobbies ahead of you, whatever you choose. So thank you very much for letting me be part of things today. This is so impressive and you guys all, like I said, have great things ahead of you, so thank you.

Students:
Thank you.

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

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Anthony Godfrey:
What do you guys love about playing D&D?

Ethan Sabin:
I just love the versatility of it. It can help you have friends that can do these kinds of things with you...That can build friendships anyway.

Anthony Godfrey:
Kind of the opposite of being on your phone.

Shadow Tillman:
I mean, it's more stimulating to your brain. There's a lot of creativity and improv in it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a fast-growing club at Riverton High School where students are using their imagination, relying on teamwork and increasing their storytelling skills in a unique way.

On this episode of the Supercast, we meet members of the Dungeons & Dragons Club at Riverton High. It's a club where students are bonding over their love of exploring fantasy worlds, defeating evil creatures and finding treasure in a game where critical thinking and creative minds are key to success.

We're here at Riverton High School, after school, talking with members of the Dungeons & Dragons Club here. Introduce yourselves and tell me a little bit about yourself.

Ethan Sabin:
So I'm Ethan Sabin. I'm the president of the D&D Club here at Riverton High School. I don't know. I've been playing D&D for about a decade.

Shadow Tillman:
I'm Shadow Tillman. I'm also a member of D&D Club. I haven't been playing as long as he has, but it's still quite a while.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the origins of the D&D Club. Has it been around for a while or when did it start?

Ethan Sabin:
So I'd say that the D&D Club, as far as I know, it's been going on for a little while. However, the previous teacher that was supporting the club recently left and moved to, I believe, a job in BYU-Idaho, and so we had to find a new advisor. And it's almost like it restarted the club, but it's been going for a little while.

Anthony Godfrey:
And for those who don't know about Dungeons & Dragons, explain what a role-playing game is and what Dungeons & Dragons involves specifically.

Ethan Sabin:
So D&D is a tabletop role-playing game where basically you create your own character and it's very customizable from several different specifications and stuff. You play your character running through a story, and you have a character or a person known as the Dungeon Master that writes the story and that controls fate, and runs you through the story using the character you've created.

Anthony Godfrey:
So they create the adventure and then they guide you through the adventure and one of the ways that fate or luck come into play is by using dice. So tell me the role that dice play, so to speak, in Dungeons & Dragons.

Ethan Sabin:
Dice, they're definitely a major role of D&D. You use them to create your abilities, scores, and the things that you use to determine how your character is what they are. And then you can also use them any time that you want to make an ability check. So for example, any time you're trying to track someone or scale a wall or shoot a bow, for example, you'd make an attack roll or a different roll with one of the dice and if you roll low, you usually fail. If you roll high, then you might succeed.

Anthony Godfrey:
And if you are a certain type of character, then you have certain abilities that make it more likely that you'll be successful trying something.

Ethan Sabin:
For example, a fighter would be better at using a bow or sword than, say, a wizard would. And so because they're proficient in these items, they gain pluses to their rolls. So for example, if they rolled a 17, then they might have a plus 3 and so it would be a 20 rather than just a 17.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the plus 3 means because you're who you are, whatever damage you do, we're going to add to it just on the basis of the fact that you're a fighter as opposed to a wizard.

Ethan Sabin:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, what you just described... Oh, Shadow, go ahead.

Shadow Tillman:
Additionally, those modifiers are decided by the rolls that you get at the beginning when you first make your character. So you might be like a fighter who's skilled at fighting but about nothing else.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I think that's an important point, Shadow, is that you don't just get to decide at the beginning, "Well, I'm really good at this, and I'm really good at that, and I'm good at everything." You have to roll when you're creating the character to determine exactly what your strengths are. Is that still correct?

Shadow Tillman:
Yes.

Ethan Sabin:
I think that there are a little bit of things that you can choose. So for example, when you're creating a character, you can choose what class you want to be, which is like the specialization, and then you can also choose which skills you're proficient in. So there is some choice to it, but there are other things that you have to work for.

Anthony Godfrey:
Just give me a general description of the club. I know there are lots of clubs here at Riverton. How many people are there? What are the officers and how often do you meet?

Ethan Sabin:
So our club is one of the larger clubs at the school. We meet every single week on Mondays from 2.30 to 4. Our club has around 50 members. Not everyone comes every week and some of the players do it on different days, but we've got around 37 or so active members. And in terms of leadership roles, it's really just the president, and then we have the vice president this year. And it's an election basically at the beginning of the school year.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you guys love about playing D&D?

Ethan Sabin:
I just love the versatility of it. Obviously, it's fun to play, but then it can also help you have friends that can do these kinds of things with you, or that can build friendships anyway. And then you can also create stories. You can go through those stories with your friends. You can create your own character and stuff from scratch.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about you Shadow?
Shadow Tillman:
I would say that there's a lot of creativity and improv in it. So that there's never a time where you're feeling bored or left out. Everyone's involved, or at least everyone's supposed to be.

Anthony Godfrey:
There are lots of worries these days about people not, and youth in particular, not interacting with each other, being on their phones, being on screens. This seems like a really good antidote to that. It's in person, there's a great connection with each other, high creativity, and like you said, Shadow, everyone's involved, everyone has a chance to interact. Would you agree that this is kind of the opposite of being on your phone?

Ethan Sabin:
For sure. It's more stimulating to your brain. You actually have to do some sort of problem-solving stuff. You have to be creative on some of the things that you have to do.

Shadow Tillman:
There's a lot of problems that will come up, and your goal is to solve those problems. So there's a lot of puzzle-solving and things that will actually get you to think.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the club. Does it make it easier to find people to play Dungeons and Dragons with, and do you have closer friendships as a result?

Ethan Sabin:
I think that in some ways it's easier to do it in a club, because when you're in a club, you basically make time to do it at a certain time every single week, and so it's more in a set time, and it makes it happen. Whereas if you sometimes just do it at your home with your friends just whenever you can, it generally gets put on the back burner and isn't really something that happens all that much.

Shadow Tillman:
Also, the club makes it a lot easier to find a group, at least the way Ethan did it the first day, made it easier.

Anthony Godfrey:
What you just described is exactly what everyone is supposed to do, and that set aside scheduled time to really do things that connect you with other people and really give you joy in your week. So I love that you've got this club going and that you found another advisor.

Student:
Good, that's 20.

Student:
10. You get a 10.

Anthony Godfrey:
So we're talking now with Mac, who is the advisor for Dungeons and Dragons. Tell me, how did they drag you into doing this?

Mac Hansen:
I don't know. Before this, I didn't really play Dungeons and Dragons. I listened to a lot of podcasts and stuff about it, mostly for the comedy of it all, and they somehow sensed that I'm a super nerd, and so they said, "Hey, we think you would have fun doing this." I was like, "Insulting, but yes, I would. Let's do it."

Anthony Godfrey:
Nerd-recognized nerd, you know?

Mac Hansen:
That's exactly what happened. Well, it's funny because I had three different groups, separate from each other, without knowing that each other were coming to talk to me, come to ask if I would do it.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you give off nerd energy in ways you didn't even realize.

Mac Hansen:
Apparently yeah. I don't even try.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I love that you're helping support them. What have you noticed in the interactions? What did they seem to be getting out of being part of the D&D club?

Mac Hansen:
A chance to be more social with people within similar interests. It's the same as what some kids get for football or basketball. They're playing a game together with people who have the same interests, and so they come and they get in their separate groups and they play their campaign for an hour and a half, and they're just having a good time.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think it's fantastic, and I love the level of creativity, the personal interaction, and really the engagement that pulls away from a lot of other things that try to get our attention these days.

Mac Hansen:
I play too. When I'm here, I'm not just sitting on the side. I'm in Ethan's campaign. I told him, "If I'm going to be there, I'm going to play."

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that.

Mac Hansen:
We're all just interacting and the phones are away, which is awesome, the computers are away, and we just have dice and a book.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you for providing this for students. I think it's really fantastic.

Mac Hansen:
It's provided entertainment for me as well. Stay with us. When we come back more with the Riverton High School Dungeons & Dragons Club.

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

Break:
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, counselors, and school psychology interns. 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:
You have a character sheet here. Oh, okay. Just as you take this out and unfold it, this honestly reminds me of the old character sheets. It really does. This is not far off. Okay, let's take a look. Let's take a look. So, talk me through this character. Whose character is this? What's the name?

Ethan Sabin:
So, one of my characters is running an artificer, a fairy, artificer for one of my campaigns that I'm running on Thursday. So, not for the club, but for something else.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, fairy is the race?

Ethan Sabin:
Fairy is the race–

Anthony Godfrey:
Artificer is?

Ethan Sabin:
Artificer is the class.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, and what does that mean if they're an artificer?

Ethan Sabin:
So, an artificer is basically someone who imbues item with magic to just create magical items, and so they have a lot of versatility because of the different abilities that they can give to these items. And they're also spellcasters, so they can cast a lot of spells along with the magic that they're also using.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, explain to me, Shadow, how alignment works. Tell me about alignment. It's interesting because lawful good, that combination, it's the same combination that was used back in the 1900s when I was playing D&D. And actually, back in the past, we used to think, "Oh, you know what? That person's kind of chaotic neutral." Anyway, in real life, sometimes you would assign alignment to people. Tell me about alignment. Describe how that works.

Shadow Tillman:
So, alignment is basically the way your character reacts to things. There's two parts of alignment. There's good and evil. So, good and evil is pretty self-explanatory. And then, between all of those, there's neutral, where it doesn't really affect things all that much. Basically, you follow what you believe in for most neutral things, or if you're lawful neutral, you're going to follow the law, but not really lean towards good or evil.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, it's a combination of either lawful or chaotic and good or evil, right?

Ethan Sabin:
Yeah, so there's lawful neutral.

Anthony Godfrey:
And then, neutral is thrown in there as well, just in case.

Ethan Sabin:
Yeah, so there's lawful neutral, chaotic, then good neutral, evil. And so, you can have combinations such as chaotic good, which might mean you do whatever it takes for the good. Whereas, you might have one like a chaotic evil, which is—or sorry— chaotic evil, where it's just you want to cause chaos and destruction. You might have something like lawful evil, which is kind of like politicians, really, where they're like saying within the laws for the most part, but not for good reasons.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm going to leave that as your quote. But there is a tendency when you learn about these alignments to think about people in real life and think, "Are you chaotic neutral or chaotic good?" So, yeah, that's very interesting that it has stayed the same all these years.

Pulling dice out of the case that is carefully organized with four-sided, eight-sided, six-sided—no, let's see.

Ethan Sabin:
Yeah, that's correct.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, right, six-sided, and then is that 12-sided?

Ethan Sabin:
So, there's two 10-sided dice, and they're— So, one of them is just the 10-sided dice, which has one through 10. And then there's another one that has 10 through 100 in sets of 10s, so like 10, 20, 30.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, if you're doing a percentage.

Ethan Sabin:
So, percentage, yeah.

Ethan Sabin:
So, when you roll it that way, you could get—if you roll both of them together, you might get like 83 or 27 or numbers like that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, one is the 10s and one is the one's column?

Ethan Sabin:
Exactly, yeah.

Shadow Tillman:
It's a way to roll anything from one to 100 without having a dice that has 100 sides.

Ethan Sabin:
Exactly, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
And these are the 20-sided dice, my favorite.

Ethan Sabin:
Yeah, the most commonly used ones.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, the 20-sided is really something. And when you get a 20, it's weird. Holding the—I haven't rolled a 20-sided dice for a long time.

Ethan Sabin:
Pretty short time, so probably around three hours or three and a half hours.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. So, if somebody wants to play Dungeons and Dragons, where do they start?

Ethan Sabin:
Our Riverton Library has a copy of the Player's Handbook and a bunch of the different books. I would just recommend reading through the Player's Handbook to kind of get a bit of a grasp on the different rules and the different kinds of characters that you can create. And then, after that, maybe go to your local game store. Like, we've got one pretty close that does D&D. And you can find a group with maybe just your friends or some people that are already part of those, like, clubs and stuff.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Ethan, Shadow, thank you very much for talking with me. And if you ever need someone else on the campaign, let me know. I'll stop by. And, you know, I'm lawful good in alignment, so I'll be a real addition to the team.

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

(upbeat music)

Megan Dotson:
We found out that one of our little family members wasn't going to be able to come with us anymore. I immediately started just surfing the internet.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a way to still feel like he’s somehow a part of things.

Marcela:
Oh, absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why do you think they want to call you a superhero?

Lucas:
Because I’m going through something so hard.

Marcela:
We didn't ask her to prepare plans. We didn't ask her to do anything. We just said, "Hey, he relapsed."

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. We all know that teachers care deeply for their students.

On this episode of the Supercast, we visit Megan Dotson's third grade class at Antelope Canyon Elementary School to find out what she is doing to support one of her beloved students battling cancer. Hear how her caring heart is lifting not just Lucas, who has leukemia, but the entire class in the process. She launched the “Smile Like Lucas” campaign and is providing opportunities for students that they will never forget.

We're at Antelope Canyon today talking with Lucas. Lucas, thanks for taking a few minutes to talk with me. I see “Smile Like Lucas” everywhere I look. I see shirts. I see sweatshirts. I see it written up on the whiteboard. Why are we smiling like Lucas today?

Lucas:
We just invented it and I really liked the idea. Even the idea of a monkey in the chair.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the monkey in the chair.

Lucas:
It came with a book, and it shows whenever you're not there, the monkey will be there, and it will be like wearing the exact same outfit as you. Except it will be wearing its own shirt, I think. It came with its own shirt, except we put on a little one like me.

Anthony Godfrey:
So is the monkey wearing a “Smile Like Lucas” shirt? And for those listening who don't know, why can't you be here sometimes?

Lucas:
Because I have hospital appointments and I have to stay in the hospital. And sometimes I might have to stay in there for maybe a month.

Anthony Godfrey:
I hear that you really love school. Is that right? What do you love most about school?

Lucas:
Spending time with the class and Miss Dotson.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about your teacher. What has your teacher done that has made it such a great place to be?

Lucas:
We made Lucas Friday, the monkey in the chair. Well, really everything.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's Lucas Friday?

Lucas:
Lucas Friday. It's where everybody wears their “Smile like Lucas” shirt and then they come to school with it. Unless if your school doesn't do it. So then they come and it's short day so we do mostly fun things.

Anthony Godfrey:
Mostly fun things. And have you noticed that people smile like Lucas, like the shirt says? Do they? So I see your t-shirt and the sweatshirt and lots of other things as I walk into school that says “Smile Like Lucas” and it's got a big smile with lots of teeth and the blue glasses. Are the blue glasses kind of how people know you? Have you had the blue glasses for a long time?

Lucas:
There's even a ribbon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yes, look at the orange ribbon. I didn't see the orange ribbon. What does the orange ribbon mean?

Lucas:
It's the symbol of my leukemia.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's a symbol of your leukemia. And because of the leukemia you have to miss class sometimes, right? Hospital visits, doctor visits, and how long have you had to be out before?

Lucas;
Two weeks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Two weeks?

Lucas:
One time I had to be out for a pretty long time. I don't remember how long but it was more than a month.

Anthony Godfrey:
And there's a monkey that takes your place. Is that right? And his name is?

Lucas:
George.

Anthony Godfrey:
George. Is he curious at all? Okay, good. I thought he might be.

We're talking now with Lucas' mom, Marcela. Tell us a little bit about what the support from the school has meant.

Marcela:
It's been incredible. So he has always been a very social kid. He thrives in having those interactions with his friends. And when he first was diagnosed, he was out of school for about ten and a half months. We did a lot of online classes, which were helpful, but we could see that his emotional well-being wasn't like, it wasn't being taken care of as well as we wanted it to be.

It wasn't until he came back, he came into third grade, and we got Miss Dotson involved, and we had the nurse and the counselor, and they were all really helping him thrive because he would say that he was very lonely even when he was here. He would come out to Miss Dotson and give her a hug and say, "I'm just really lonely." And then all of these other activities that we're having, the monkey, the pictures, the letters that he gets every week. I mean we get pictures every day, "Hey, we're wearing his shirt today. It's not Lucas Friday but we're wearing it." And it makes him feel like people are there. Even if he can't see them and he can't hang out with them, people are there for him. And it's made a huge impact on his well-being emotionally.

The other thing that I will say is that we notice that when he is in a good mood or in a good emotional state, he recovers from the chemo or the procedures a lot quicker than when he's sad or feeling a little bit depressed. So it's there. We see it. We see it every day.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it lifts his spirits, but it also improves the medical outcomes and his physical health.

Marcela:
Absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you said the diagnosis was about how long ago?

Marcela:
So he was first diagnosed in June of 2023, and then he relapsed and they found it in January of 2025.

Anthony Godfrey:
The relapse is very recent.

Marcela:
Yeah. January 6th.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is that when all of the super Lucas and the “Smile like Lucas” started out?

Marcela:
Yeah. There were a lot of things that were happening before, but the relapse was like when we, it was like a lot more because we knew his treatment last time allowed for him to somehow interact here and there. Not very often. It would go weeks before he could see people. But this time around, he's heading in for a bone marrow transplant. He's going to have radiation which he didn't have before, and the chemotherapy that he'll be given will be very, very harsh. So he will actually have to be out of school for a full year and not just out of school like we'll have to fully quarantine. His immune system will not be back to normal for at least two years and any little virus could kill him. So we have to take a lot of measures. So I think once we found out how serious this relapse was, that's when we're like we need to be there for him. We need to help him and he has handled it like a champ because he knows he has an army.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. It's pretty remarkable to see all of the support and is today the last day before he prepares for all of that.

Marcela:
Yes. So today will be the last day he is at school because tomorrow he has a procedure to change his port. He has an internal so it's an inserted port on his chest, but they need a different line for the bone marrow transplant. So he gets that tomorrow. So he'll be out all day and then he starts cranial radiation on Wednesday and he'll be admitted to the hospital on Friday.

Anthony Godfrey:
We'll be wishing him the very best.

Marcela:
Thank you. We appreciate that.

Anthony Godfrey:
George the monkey will have his work cut out for him.

Marcela:
Absolutely. We love getting the pictures of George the monkey playing the parachute, or going to recess, or at lunch. He loves it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well.

Lucas:
That's how I put him in the parachute and you guys launched him. I tried to catch him but he would just keep going into the parachute. He's like “No, I'm not going anywhere”.

Megan Dotson:
He's talking about a time that we took the monkey to PE and put him in the middle of like the traditional school parachute and we launched him in the air and he says he just doesn't feel really right about launching George into the air like that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well.

Lucas:
I'm like, doesn’t that hurt?

Marcela:
Would you like to be launched?

Anthony Godfrey:
You know I'm not surprised that you're looking out for George, making sure that he's okay too. Does it make you as a family feel more connected to the school, getting the pictures of George? I'm sure that for Lucas it's a way to still feel like he's somehow a part of things.

Marcela:
Oh absolutely. I think obviously he's missing out on part of it, right? He's not here, but being able to see what the class is up to when he's not, because he's– One thing that I love about Ms. Dotson is we didn't ask her to prepare a plan. We didn't ask her to do anything. We just said, “Hey, he relapsed,” and that was a huge burden that she lifted. The fact that we didn't have to say “Hey, is there any way we can set up Zoom calls” or think about how we were going to keep him up to speed with school. She did it all. She gave us a schedule, and she said “I'm going to have it on whether he joins or not. It'll be on. If he doesn't feel well, that's fine, we'll catch him up.” And that was just as a family, we were worrying about all of these other things that we had to do. His medication, finding a donor, all of it, and to not have to worry about that was just incredible.

So he joins the calls, but then what he considers the fun, like the not school stuff, he doesn't get to be part of that, so getting the pictures of the monkey and the letters that describe all those things, that's just he he loves it. He absolutely loves it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think it's a great way to keep you connected and you know that people are thinking about you when you're not here.

Stay with us when we come back more with Ms. Dotson and Lucas.

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

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

Anthony Godfrey:
Ms. Dotson, tell me about what this has been like for you this year.

Megan Dotson:
I feel like my kids mean a lot in this room to me. They're a big deal. Each one of them are a really big deal, and when we found out that one of our little family members wasn't going to be able to come with us anymore, I immediately started just surfing the internet of like what have other teachers, there's got to be another teacher out there doing this.

So I just started looking and this foundation came up and I reached out to Marci and I was like “Hey, what do you think about this?” I needed some more information from her about his case and stuff like that to get it sent to us, and they sent it, and we found really good ways and putting him in our room. Honestly it feels whole again. We're all back together for at least reading and math, and those are our important parts of the day, and the biggest pieces, and he's here with us when he can be. And hearing his voice. He ends up being over the loudspeaker and hearing his voice is so wonderful. He'd been out a couple of days before he got to be back on Zoom with us and they all, I wish I could have known that he was going to speak to show their reaction. There's the biggest smiles in this room because that's what he is to us.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you found the idea for having George on the internet, but you took a lot of initiative to leap into action. Tell me what sparked that for you.

Megan Dotson:
I just knew that we cheer each other on a lot here. My biggest thing is “Can we give so and so a big ‘Oh yeah’” and they all shout ‘oh yeah’ in class pretty often. I needed a way for him to hear his ‘oh yeah’ pretty often because I knew that this wasn't going to be easy. I knew that there was going to be a lot that he was going to do this time.

There's a member in our class that I had heard a rumor that her aunt did t-shirts, and I was like, you know what? I got to figure it out. I sat down to my trusty computer and I came up and I was like, oh, his blue glasses, and then his smile is something that lights up our room so much every day. And I sent Marci the idea and I was like “Oh my, does this fit him? Is this kind of the message we want?” And she's like “Yeah” and so I decided to make a t-shirt for each of the kids in this room to show their support. Not only that, but in his brother's class and his little sister's class they all have the same shirt because they need an army too, not just his class.

Anthony Godfrey:
That’s great. Well, let me give you a big “Oh yeah” for jumping in and doing that. I think that's really tremendous. What do you think the other students in this class and other classes have learned from this experience of really supporting Lucas?

Megan Dotson:
I think I've watched the empathy and each of these little kids grow by a million and a half. Over conferences just the last couple of days, having the parents come in and like, oh my, they just talk about it all the time, how excited they are for Lucas Friday or how they're going to grab an extra of this or whatever at home to put in his mailbox or things like that. Just watching them care for someone else has been really really cool. And then come up with ideas about how we’re doing to, or what we’re going to say, or what they'd like to do to show him love. I encourage that a lot in this room, but I have watched it grow tremendously in the last little bit.

Anthony Godfrey:
It sounds like you had created a classroom that was very supportive long before you knew that Lucas was going to be in this situation. That gave you a lot of a lot of momentum to build on instead of just starting out of nowhere like “Oh wait a minute, we're going to focus on each other for a moment.”

Megan Dotson:
Yeah, I do. I mean, my biggest thing in here and I always, I usually cry at the beginning of the year when I tell them. But I always tell them how important kindness is to my heart. I never want someone to leave this room feeling like they don't matter, that they don't have anyone. I always say that when you get to middle school and you're sitting at the lunch table alone I want you to see someone else that's from Miss Dotson’s class in third grade and like “Hey, I could go sit with them like they were part of my family I know that they'll have me” because we are a family in here.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's remarkable and this is exactly the type of education we're hoping that students receive. One where they feel a part of things, supported, and they learn to support each other as well. You're creating some unforgettable learning experiences here.

Megan Dotson:
Thank you.

Marcela:
I can attest to that because Miss Dotson is actually a legacy teacher for our family. Our oldest had Miss Dotson when he was in fourth grade and around that time we were navigating a diagnosis for ADHD for him, and he was really struggling emotionally. I can tell you what we're seeing with Lucas is not just because Lucas has cancer. Miss Dotsen is this kind of teacher. The teacher that went above and beyond when my child couldn't make friends, when he was moving a lot, and he couldn't figure out why he had so much energy. She almost catered to his needs and we saw the difference in his academic performance once she came into the picture. Once she took over, and it was like “He's not like that. No one is the same. He's not like the rest of the students. We need to pay attention to what he needs.”

Anthony Godfrey:
And that's such a good point. We get into trouble when we think, “Well everyone needs to be this way, that's going to work best for me.” Instead of figuring out how we can best support the needs of the learner. So a legacy teacher I'm going to steal that term. I really like that. So Lucas, how does it feel to be in this class with so many friends that care about you?

Lucas;
Awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I saw you have an orange cape when you came in. Will you go grab that and show me what that's about, Lucas? Oh, with the L and the shield. Oh. And what's all this writing on there?

Lucas:
It’s the other people in my class.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh nice. That's really cool. That's such great support from other students.

Lucas:
Even I signed it down here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah let's see. Well I'm glad you support yourself. Well done Lucas. That's step one. Awesome. I saw you were wearing that when you came in. How long have you had this cape?

Megan Dotson:
Just today right? Why did we choose to do a cape? Can you tell them?

Lucas:
Because they call me a superhero.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why do you think they want to call you a superhero?

Lucas:
Because I'm going through something so hard.

Anthony Godfrey:
You said you're doing a good job with it. What is it like going through something so hard like this Lucas?

Lucas:
Well, leukemia is not that hard because they do this for me. But sometimes I have to do really hard stuff. I used to have to do this thing called virus and they would give me a shot and I'd have to.

Marcela:
And what's your biggest fear?

Lucas:
That.

Marcela:
Needles.

Anthony Godfrey:
Needles of your biggest fear?

Lucas:
Mm hmm.

Marcela:
And what do we do on Thursdays, Lucas?

Lucas:
Um, that's when she comes to visit me at my own house at my house.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, she comes to your house on Wednesdays?

Lucas:
Uh huh but.

Marcela:
We do school on Thursday at home.

Lucas:
Mm hmm.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh.

Lucas:
Mm hmm. And then she'll just come visit me at a hospital whenever.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, you're uh... I've just met you. Everyone else is used to this and how awesome you are. But I'm crying because I'm so impressed with you. Lucas, you're inspiring students to be at their very best and to learn a lot of lessons about looking out for each other.

Lucas:
Mm hmm.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's really cool. You also have a pretty special teacher that's going out of her way to really make sure that she's doing everything she can for you so that makes her pretty special too, doesn't it?

Lucas:
Mm hmm.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for letting me come talk with you, Lucas. It's been really important for me to have a chance to meet you. I heard about you and I really wanted to record this podcast with you, so thanks for taking some time out of your day.

Lucas:
You're welcome.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you very much for being such an incredible supporter and for teaching these kids unforgettable lessons in empathy, and that's a gateway to learning everything else. So thank you.

Megan Dotson:
Thank you for coming. I really appreciate it.

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

Ryan Clayton:
My goal for the program is that it's all student run from management to building and I'm just here as an advisor.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk about meaningful learning. It's a big deal. It's an outcome that helps improve people's lives.

Ryan Clayton:
It's an amazing opportunity to put on your resume. You are actually taking somebody out of homelessness by building this house for them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. These students are nailing it in a unique class designed to prepare them to be career ready in the construction trades industry.

On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to JATC South where it is all hands on deck as high school juniors and seniors build a tiny home on site as part of a new construction trades class.

We're here at JATC South outside watching a new class and talking with a new instructor. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about this class.

Ryan Clayton:
Yeah, so I'm Ryan Clayton. I'm coming from industry. I own my own construction business. And what this program is is basically taking what you would see in industry and bringing it into our high school. So we are a construction crew here and currently we're building a house for a homeless community in Salt Lake City. It's all completely built by high schoolers. I mean I pitch in here and there to help with something, but 95% of the work is done by our students. All the way from the foundation, they put our center blocks down to raise it up and put our floor in, framing it. At some point we'll get to the point where they're going to do the siding on it, they'll do the flooring, the walls, everything.

Anthony Godfrey:
So this is construction management, so they're not only learning the actual construction, but they're also learning how to oversee a project and make it all fit together.

Ryan Clayton:
Correct, yeah. So this year we've kind of combined a trades class and a management class. Next year we'll do a trades class that will focus more on the trades, learning the trades. And we're doing a separate management class that will be managing those trades classes. So they're going to get that managing experience. So what you would see is what a superintendent would do or what a foreman would do or a project manager. So my goal for the program is that it’s all student run from management to building and I'm just here as an advisor.

Anthony Godfrey:
And this really gets on two needs in the industry, and you know better than anyone. I've heard that the need is not just for those who have the skills and the trades, but those who can lead and manage projects, as well, who also have those skills and the knowledge of construction.

Ryan Clayton:
Yeah, so for sure one of the biggest deficits we have in construction is management positions, and especially managers who know the skills. Because you can have someone with an MBA come in, a business major has all this business experience, but has no construction experience, and it's really hard for them to manage. So what we need is individuals who have that construction knowledge but can also manage a team. So this strikes a good balance between that and prepping those students for it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I know that not only is there an industry need, but there's also been a high interest from students in being able to participate in a program like this. Tell me about the enthusiasm you've seen from students coming in. I have, honestly, I've seen more enthusiasm from parents. Parents have been open house, parrot-tater conferences, they just keep coming, “Oh my gosh, I can't believe you guys are finally starting this program. This is awesome. This is exactly what my student needs.”

And the students are, some of them are a little apprehensive coming in, some of them are really excited, but man once they get going they've really been loving the program. Attendance for me has never been an issue. They want to be here, they want to be working.

Anthony Godfrey:
So when you come out of industry and you meet these students, it's got to be exciting to see that there are some great kids coming into the workforce and adding to the field.

Ryan Clayton:
Oh yeah, you'd be surprised how many general contractors from industry come and want me to hand-pick my students for them because it's so hard to find really good quality labor. Because these kids are going to get scooped up right away. I mean, for them to even just take the initiative of taking a class like this in high school is already going to put them so many steps ahead of other applicants for construction jobs that they're not going to have any issues finding jobs right after high school. Good, good management or trade jobs, whatever they want to do.

Anthony Godfrey:
What advice do you have for parents or students who are considering taking either construction management or the construction course?

Ryan Clayton:
My first suggestion would be if you're a junior, take my trades class first. Learn the process, learn what the trades do, and then as a senior take my management class. It's kind of my advanced class. That would be my first advice. My second one would be probably come prepared to be cold.

Anthony Godfrey:
Come prepared to be cold. We are standing outside. You know, this suit jacket is very warm, but I am a little bit cold.

Ryan Clayton:
You can ask my students, that blizzard came in on Thursday and we were out here working on that shed over there in the blizzard.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's real world experience there.

Ryan Clayton:
Yes, we finally shut down once it started really hitting us hard, but we work in pretty tough weather and school is during, mostly during the winter. They're off during the summer when it's the nicest time to do construction.

Anthony Godfrey:
So are they going to be looking for summer jobs that they're better qualified for, even earlier than graduation?

Ryan Clayton:
Yeah, so I have some of my juniors are actually, some of my juniors are doing apprenticeships. Hunt Electric, for example, does a great summer apprenticeship for high schoolers. A lot of these kids come from construction families, so a lot of them will go work for their dads or their moms in some specific construction industry.

Anthony Godfrey:
And those are the moms who are thrilled to have them in this program

Ryan Clayton:
Moms and dads, who are thrilled to, well, and it's those parents who want to expose their– because some of these kids have been doing, you know, carpentry or concrete their whole lives. And their parents want them to come in here and learn the other trades, because it's so important to see the big picture, see the whole process of construction.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's where the management can come in too, where we have a broad experience, better able to manage those projects that you're hiring and working with. Now let's talk about the product. Let's talk about the, it would be called a tiny home, is that right?

Ryan Clayton:
Yeah, so we, what we did is we started with these sheds that you see on the other side, which are just backyard, small backyard sheds that you would see like a tough shed from Home Depot.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Ryan Clayton:
And that's kind of our practice because this, what we're building here is going to be inspected. It's permitted. You know, Salt Lake City is going to come out and inspect that we build this correctly. So I want them to make their mistakes on our sheds before they make a mistake on this. And we, and not to say we've made mistakes on this. We've actually torn down three walls and rebuilt them because we built them wrong.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's how learning happens.

Ryan Clayton:
But yeah, so we built those sheds that we're going to sell and help fund more sheds next year. And then this one is through a program called “The Other Side”. They have all kinds of programs. They have their Other Side Moving Company. They have their Other Side Boutique.

Anthony Godfrey:
I heard a presentation from someone who's closely involved with that organization. It's pretty impressive.

Ryan Clayton:
It's pretty impressive. So they started "The Other Side Village" and it's a village that they're building these tiny houses from all kinds of different programs. Salt Lake Community College is building several and we're building one. The really cool thing about this program is that they provide all the funding for it. So they buy all of our materials for us. We don't have to try to allocate budget for this. I just put an order into Home Depot through their account. They approve it and then they send us the materials. That's the coolest part is that they're getting this experience and we are able to do a high quality thing like this without having to find the funds for it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk about meaningful learning. This is a big deal. And it's an outcome that helps improve people's lives.

Ryan Clayton:
Well, and one of my students today was saying, oh, you're just using us for free labor. And I was like, no, this is an amazing opportunity to put on your resume. You are actually taking somebody out of homelessness by building this house for them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Amazing. So I see all of the piles of lumber and tools and equipment and I can smell the sawdust. There's the sound of the blades and things going on. We've got a new portable here that is super sized, that we bought from another district that has all the tools and everything through there. In fact, as we talk, let's walk through that.

Stay with us when we come back more with the students who are building a tiny home on the campus of JATC South.

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

Break:
In Jordan School District we never want a student to go hungry, without food, warm clothing, or school supplies.

Hi, I'm Mike Haynes, director of the Jordan Education Foundation. If you're looking for opportunities to help students and teachers in our schools, we invite you to join us. The Jordan Education Foundation works with generous community partners, volunteer groups, and amazing people to provide classroom grants for teachers, food and clothing to fill Principal's Pantries for students. And together we recognize outstanding educators in every single school every year. If you want to connect with an amazing community helping to fuel success in Jordan School District, get involved or donate by visiting our website at jordaneducationfoundation.org. That's jordaneducationfoundation.org. We hope to hear from you soon!

Anthony Godfrey:
We've been outside and we just stepped into the lab. This is a lab that we bought along with some equipment from another district, and I haven't been in it since it's been completed. It looks like a really nice workspace. Is this working out for you?

Ryan Clayton:
Oh, yeah. I am super grateful that the original plan was to have us just in a regular classroom up at North Campus. After learning the scope of what this program needed to be, I am incredibly grateful that the district was able to secure this building and give us the space that we needed and give us the space that we need to do big projects like this.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. So with all of this equipment and this space, and the things that you're building, Salt Lake City is coming to do the permit inspection before you move that home into Salt Lake City. You're operating, I understand, as a construction company right now.

Ryan Clayton:
Yeah, so at the beginning of the school year, we were a little delayed on getting our tiny home started because to pull a permit from a city, you have to be a licensed general contractor. Now, I have my personal license, but I'm not going to put that under my personal liability. So we had to get it set up with the district to become a construction company. So hanging in our classroom is our general contracting license. And as an acting general contractor and having my students as my students, but they're also considered my employees as well under the license, we are functioning as a construction company. We have all the rights and the abilities to build whatever a normal construction company, you know, Big D or Oakland. I mean, obviously we couldn't build on that scale, but...

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, this is thrilling. This is really exciting. It's something we've talked about for a long time. I'm really grateful that you've chosen to teach here. Tell me about what brought you here.

Ryan Clayton:
Well, my background is kind of interesting because I actually come from an architecture background. I have my degrees in architecture. That's what I wanted to go into was architecture. But then the pandemic happened and, you know, there was just a huge hiring freeze and it was super hard to get into any position. So I ended up falling back and working because the housing industry exploded during the pandemic.

I ended up going and working for my dad's company during the pandemic. I mean, I grew up working for my dad's company, so I had tons of years of experience. But I like some of that office work, but I also like being outside working with my hands. This was the perfect balance of not only do I get to work with my students in the classroom and have that time, I get to work with them out there.

This has been just a thrilling experience because I was always worried about having to, you know, classroom manage and discipline. But these students are just so great that I haven't had any issues, behavior issues. They come here willing to work. And I've really, you know, I don't think I could leave now. It's just been so enjoyable.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love hearing that. Well, we're thrilled to have you here. And thank you so much for getting this off the ground. It sounds like next year it's going to be even better.

Ryan Clayton:
I'm hoping so. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking now with a couple of students who are in the construction management program. Go ahead and introduce yourselves.

Mason:
Hi, I'm Mason. I go to Mountain Ridge. I am a senior right now.

Austin:
Hi, I'm Austin. I go to Kings Peak High School and I am in 11th grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about this program. What drew you to the construction management program?

Mason:
I guess I kind of just wanted to follow in my father's footsteps. He's been in the construction industry for most of his life. I figured I could learn something from myself here. So yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what does he think of your being in this program?

Mason:
He's pretty proud of me. I maintain good grades and I really enjoy this class. So yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about you? My uncle is my biggest inspiration. He's actually a general contractor.

Austin:
I really like working with my hands and power tools and building things. And I hope for one day to make this into a career.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK, awesome. What do you think? And Mason, is this what you want to do for work or are you just dabbling for now?

Mason:
Just kind of dabbling. I've done a couple of the J Tech programs. I'm doing construction management this year, and last year I did the welding program. I've just been kind of dabbling across the blue collar classes.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're going to be someone that lots of people call on the weekend, "Hey, I could use help with Project X." You might want to hide those skills a little bit. Your weekends may be taken up.

Mason:
Yeah. It really sucks being the friend with a pickup truck.

Anthony Godfrey:
The pickup truck and the skills. Tell me, what stands out as a moment where you really thought, "I did not know how to do this and now I'm really good at it"?

Austin:
Probably, the major thing would be probably reading a tape measure. I mean, I came in here, I could read the inches, but down to the 16th, 7th, the 5/8ths, probably that. And also blueprint readings.

Anthony Godfrey:
So measure twice and cut once. You don't even have to measure twice. You're that good.

Austin:
Yeah. Just measure once, cut once.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Awesome. Saves you some time. How about for you?

Mason:
I'd say the biggest thing I've learned in this class is just how to frame and just how to use a bunch of various different power tools. I mostly come from a family of mostly mechanics, so I'm mostly experienced with automotive tools and not construction tools.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow you really are in demand with that range of skills.

Mason:
Very.

Anthony Godfrey:
What would you say to a student who's considering being part of this program next year? What would your advice be?

Austin:
I would probably tell them, because I would say you would either be choosing the management if you want to learn all the instruction math, blueprints, readings, all that. Or if you want to learn how to frame or use power tools and stuff, I would tell them to choose the trade side of things.

Anthony Godfrey:
But it's a good choice to be part of the class.

Austin:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the teacher.

Austin:
Ryan is very good. He knows a lot of construction. If you need help with something, he'll help you. If you have a question, he'll always answer it for you. He's been a very good teacher this year.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now he told me that if you come to this class, you have to be prepared for the cold. You're wearing a t-shirt. That doesn't seem to bother you for one second.

Austin:
Yeah. There's been a couple of days where it's been a blizzard outside and I've worn a jacket. Or there's some days where it's nice outside and I just need to wear a t-shirt.

Anthony Godfrey:
Is it nice to be outside during a class?

Austin:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
How about you? What do you think about registering for this class? What would you suggest?

Mason:
I would say going into J-Tech, it seems really intimidating, honestly. But in the end, I've really enjoyed both of the J-Tech classes that I've taken. It's really given me a lot of skills that I think I'm going to use for the rest of my life.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great endorsement. What's it like having Ryan as a teacher?

Mason:
He's a good teacher. He's serious at times, but he's also kind of fun at times. He takes the time to teach you in depth. As he said, if you have a question, he usually tries to explain it with something that you're familiar with or something like that for pretty much every student.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. How does it feel to be working on a project that's going to end up reducing homelessness? You're building a home for someone who doesn't have one.

Mason:
It feels really good. It feels like I'm more directly solving the problem of homelessness.

Austin:
It feels good. I think of it as something that in the future I can take a look at this and say, "Wow, out of all these tiny homes, one of those was one of mine that I built to change somebody's life."

Anthony Godfrey:
Not everyone gets to work in a way that allows you to drive by and see the results. I don't get to drive by and see the emails I responded to. You do get to drive by and see things that you've built, and that's really exciting. Congratulations on being in a great new class and part of a really important project.

Austin:
Yep. Thank you.

Mason:
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.

Tim Brooks:
I had a line that probably went 30 yards of kids waiting to just buy this one record from one little crate.

David Sherwood:
It's like he got me into records and got my whole family involved.

Tim Brooks:
They are highly sought after commerce because of things like this. Because of some of these other binders you see here like the coins. These are all things that kids can buy only with Positive Paws.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host Superintendent Anthony Godfrey It is a fun way to recognize and reward good deeds at West Hills Middle School and it has become a big hit.

On this episode of the Supercast find out why a local vinyl record shop has established a presence with a “Pop Up” shop inside West Hills Middle School, creating a nostalgic vibe and rewarding students for positive behavior.

We're here with David Sherwood now to talk about your involvement with this store to help motivate students. Thanks for joining us.

David Sherwood:
It's good to be here. We've been longtime supporters and we're so excited to be here today.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think it's so cool that you're doing this now. I have been out. I have purchased records from you.

David Sherwood:
I know that you look familiar

Anthony Godfrey:
There are some 12-inch 80s singles that I was pretty excited to get at some of those Daybreak sales. It's amazing to me the collection of records that I found as I was crate digging. Going through those boxes and boxes of records.

David Sherwood:
I feel like there's something for everybody if you dig deep enough.

Anthony Godfrey:
There is, there absolutely is. Tell me about how you got involved and how you and the broader vinyl-loving community have been a part of this.

David Sherwood:
So I've been collecting records since I was a teenager, back before it was cool. But now, the past four years, have been doing this as a business. So during the pandemic, I was a travel agent and the pandemic just kind of wrecked us. So we're like, we need to do something to make money. We started selling records and the way we got involved in all this is my mom is actually a first-grade teacher in your school district.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, where does she teach?

David Sherwood:
Ridge View Elementary. She's a first-grade teacher.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome

David Sherwood:
Linda Sherwood.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's our K-3 school now that just has those four grades.

David Sherwood:
And so the thing that got us started though was my mom actually a couple of years ago went through cancer. While going through this our group of record collectors rallied behind it and they wanted to do something to give back to the community. So it started with– we partnered with Primary Children's. We decided to donate and do some fundraisers for Primary Children's and then that evolved into we had extra records. We met Tim and he's like, you know, we've started this store in our school, it would be fun to put those records up for the kids. So that's kind of how all that came about.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. It's really exciting that the record-loving community and it's a great community. I've been part of a record-loving community for a very long time. But just the fact that you pulled other people from outside of the school that want to help and want to support and want to do something is really remarkable. I always say that, you know as the superintendent I'm supposed to be supportive of students. I'm supposed to be supportive of employees. But when people go out of their way to contribute and to really support students at being at their best that means the world. It's really a different kind of support that has a really, really big impact.

David Sherwood:
It's so funny that our group is so like– they are the most amazing people, kind-hearted. We actually had to hold them back because they wanted to donate more than we could handle. So we have to pace ourselves so Tim doesn't get overwhelmed here at the school.

Anthony Godfrey:
We love that. The exciting thing for me is that not only do students try to be at their best at school because of the motivations that you and the community have provided but also they start to love records and they connect with each other and that broader community as well. I think Tim is a perfect example of somebody who supports the music community

David Sherwood:
The reason I kind of got involved with Tim is I was one day at Costa Vida getting lunch. This girl behind the counter saw my Daybreak Record shirt on and she exclaimed loudly “Do you know Tim Brooks?” and I was like, this is so weird. How does she know me? She said “I bought records from the stores--the record store at the school” and she's like “He got me into records and got my whole family involved”. And she eventually came into our store in Sandy and ended up buying some records from us.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I love that and it does create a sense of community. The shirt you're wearing with the samurai, explain the logo to me here.

David Sherwood:
So part of what we did is we actually flew to Japan and sourced records from Japan.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

David Sherwood:
So the records from Japan are higher quality and people were loving them here in the U.S. So we went to 55 record stores in Japan–

Anthony Godfrey:
Holy cow.

David Sherwood:
–and shipped back almost a whole pallet. You know the Opie? So yeah, I love that.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you shipped those pallets over–

David Sherwood:
And because everybody wants something that's not around. So people in the US want Japanese records people in Japan want U.S. records. It's kind of funny like that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, I see. That's very clever. Well, you've you've you've really raised the I don't know awareness of vinyl and and the pleasures of vinyl. You opened a store recently in Sandy. Talk to us about that.

David Sherwood:
We're called Daybreak Records, but we're out in Sandy. So we got an opportunity out there we couldn't turn down. Partnering with a friend of mine out there who has a bookstore. So it's a combo book and record and then we also do our weekly online things on Facebook. So we do a live record auction and then a buy-it-now post.

Anthony Godfrey:
So where can people find the auction and the store?

David Sherwood:
So go to Daybreak Records on Facebook. It's a group. It's a lot of where our charity stuff is done, too so that's a fun one to join and then out in Sandy we have our store. It's in Union Square.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic. Which brings us to this huge collection of records that you and and the group have donated in addition to our assistant principal here Tim Brooks.

David Sherwood:
I'm excited to be here. I can't wait for you guys to see the store.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I have to tell you, the first record that caught my eye was not the very cool Beatles record. Not the very cool Taylor Swift record, but the K-Tel Disco Rocket two record set. Now I have bought K-Tel records from you. Yeah, I absolutely have. So 12 inch 80 singles, but I've also bought K-Tel records because these are the ones that I saw on TV that I thought if only I could afford the shipping and handling from Ronco to get this K-Tel record.

David Sherwood:
You should have done the penny deals they did back in the–

Anthony Godfrey:
I did!

David Sherwood:
You did?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. And then and then the $9 record or cassette showed up the next month and I thought “Oh, yeah I was supposed to cancel this What am I going to do with this Don Henley CD? I guess I'll listen to it. Hey, wait a minute. It's really good.” I said CD. It was a cassette I'm making myself sound younger than I am. But yeah, the thing about K-Tel records and greatest hits generally was for me growing up It was like it was basically a bargain. I was thinking how many hits can I get for $10 instead of all the dross that might be included on an album.

David Sherwood:
I love a compilation of greatest hits Those are great for me.

Anthony Godfrey:
So I love that. Some record collectors are a bit disdainful of the compilation.

David Sherwood:
I'm not your average record collector. Neither is Tim. Tim has excellent taste.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk with Tim. I've also bought records from you Tim out there at Daybreak in in subsequent years. So let's talk about the store and why you set this up and how it works for students.

Tim Brooks:
Well, that's a good question. About five or six years ago one of my daughters asked for a record player for a Christmas gift, and she asked for an Abbey Road album. At that time in my life I had no records because I had sold them all away because I was into the CDs and then digital.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you converted from vinyl all the way to CDs.

Tim Brooks;
Yeah, and then I converted back because once she got that record player on Christmas morning, I just started yearning for one myself. So I started buying records and then I saw David across the street at the biannual Daybreak Yard Sales selling records. I went over there and I bought a few and started accumulating my own collection. Then I would sometimes buy a better version of an album and so I'd have two of the same record. I'm like, “Well, I need to get rid of this one, why don't I do what David does? I'll just sell some records from my front yard.” So I did that and it just kind of snowballed.

When I used to work at Fort Herriman Middle School we had a school store over there. And then again at Mountain Creek Middle School in South Jordan and we would sell typical little trinkets and things to the kids. Bracelets, pencil sharpeners, erasers and fun stuff like that. And I thought “I’ve got some records in my own collection I really don't want. I don't want to take them to the thrift store, that just hurts too much to donate them.”

Anthony Godfrey:
I cannot donate records. I can't do it.

Tim Brooks:
I brought it. I brought one —

Anthony Godfrey:
I’d donate my car before I’d donate records.

Tim Brooks:
So I brought one crate to the school store and just put it out and see what the students wanted. And I was asking three of the good behavior cards. Little cards for good behavior. I was asking three cards for records.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you earn three cards and you could go buy a record if you wanted.

Tim Brooks:
Yeah, they were junky old records. Scratched, not very popular and I had a line that probably went 30 yards of kids waiting just to buy these one record from one little crate. I was like, “This is awesome! Okay, they really like this.” Next week we upped the price to five cards and it tempered things down a little bit. I kind of did a little–

Anthony Godfrey:
Dynamic pricing.

Tim Brooks:
Yes, dynamic pricing and it just snowballed from there. Then I told David about that and he said “I've got some old records I'm not moving at all” and David has brought me crate after crate after crate after crate. I used to say he gave me hundreds of records. It's got to be in the thousands now. It's got to be in the thousands. I've done the math on it, two or three thousand maybe.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. It's such a great support.

Tim Brooks:
And so we sell them, and then here at the store I have–if you buy one it costs five cards, if you buy three it goes to twelve. I just go through the pricing of whether it's an LP, which is the 12 inch 33 and 1/3 records or the smaller 45 7 inch records.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is such a it's physical, tactile inter-personal sort of experience that's made possible through all these donations. Do any of the kids try to haggle?

Tim Brooks:
Yes, and I say “Sorry dude. Nope, I’ve got other people. I’ve already given you a screaming good deal on this.” Some of the things that I've been thinking about this over the years, there's so many different things we teach about vinyl records. You've got to be economical if you want to buy a mass amount and get them for cheaper. The history that's in all these records. David donated about a year ago of probably about 20 or 30 vinyl records of poetry, just spoken narration. We put those in there. There's their stuff about you know patriotic music there. I have some old records that are just dedicated to Civil War music. These records introduce the kids to something that they're not typically listening to on their portable electronic devices. There are genres in here they've never heard before like opera or yacht rock.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, yacht rock. Yacht rock. That's a whole separate episode of the podcast.

Tim Brooks:
Yes, we need to do that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back we'll have more on the big vinyl record comeback and how students at West Hills are lining up and going all in on vinyl records.

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

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

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

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

Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me, please, please tell me that people are choosing records based on the look of the album cover.

Tim Brooks:
They are. A lot of times a student will buy a record and I said “Why are you buying this Ellie?” and she'll say “Cuz it's a good-looking cover.”

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes

Tim Brooks:
Or they’ll say “I don't even have a record player, but I'm just gonna put it up on my wall.”

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. I've discovered so many bands just by saying this album cover looks cool. In the 80s. I discovered the Housemartins because I thought the Housemartins, how would a band sound that has the name the Housemartins? And now I have every single note they've ever recorded.

Tim Brooks:
Yeah, yeah, one of the things too, that a lot of listeners might not know is it used to be that one or two kids at a school would have a record player. There are so many kids who have record players now. It is a resurgence. There are tons of kids who buy the records because they know they have a way to play it at home. Like last month which was Christmas time. I brought out some crate that was just Christmas-related records, and there were some kids who were going through that but other kids were going through and saying “I'm buying this Neil Diamond record or this Andy Williams record because my grandpa liked this music when he was younger and I'm gonna give it to my grandpa for a Christmas gift”

Anthony Godfrey:
That's so cool.

Tim Brooks:
It was really, really cool. One of the things I love about these is I'll talk with students that come up to me and say”Mr. Brooks, what record should I get?” I said “Well, what are you interested in? What genre?” and we'll talk about that. Sometimes it'll be a particular artist that has great deep lyrical content, literary content in their lyrics. And there's so much literary analysis available with these records.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I think that's an important thing to talk with kids about because interpreting works of art and getting the most out of a work of art shouldn't be reserved to the dusty classics. It ought to be I don't know, something that students can— they need the skills to interact in a meaningful way with the pop culture they're going to be exposed to.

Tim Brooks:
And they can relate to it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. How do students earn these cards? These good behavior cards. Tell me again what they're called? Positive Paws?

Tim Brooks:
Our school calls them Positive Paws because we are the Wildcats and these are paws. We emphasize that the three-pronged approach of our school, which is Respect, Responsibility, and Safety. But I will often do this for anything. Like if the kids are playing with sporting equipment and they come back in and bring the sporting equipment that they borrowed I'll give them a card. Teachers will circulate up and down the aisles students who are on task can receive a card. You know actively and appropriately participating, get a card. Showing good effort in the class, showing improvement, all sorts of things like that. These cards have now become highly sought-after commerce. Because of things like this, because of some of these other binders, you see here like the coins, the baseball cards, the Pokemon cards, the paper money, these are all things that kids can buy only with the Positive Paws.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hmm, very nice.

Time Brooks:
And one of the things we do is, is it alright if I take a quick little tangent?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, please.

Time Brooks:
Some of the coins and the paper money, I will deliberately price them high. So I've got coins from all over the world. I found a coin dealer who gave me a screaming good deal on it. I tell them that if they buy the coin, there's a price on the back of each coin, then if they buy the coinm if they fill out a little paper about that coin's history I will give them a 50% refund on what they paid for the coin.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've thought about every angle.

Tim Brooks:
It's so much fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
To make this is a great experience.

Tim Brooks:
We want to suck them into learning. Suck them into learning.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Okay, before the students come in tell me one record that you wore out you listen to it so much. You had to replace it because you'd listen to it so many times.

Tim Brooks:
For me it was Abbey Road, baby. The Beatles Abbey Road.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well done sir.

Tim Brooks:
Over and over and over. Side two is immortal. It's etched in my mind. I don't have to listen to it. I can just look at the record and I start hearing it in my mouth. It's so good.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how about for you?

David Sherwood:
I mean, I'm a Beatles fan and I think that's why Tim and I connected. But the other one for me was probably Pearl Jam Ten. It's just the grunge error was my era. Like that changed music and created alternate rock and so for me that was the one for me.

That album, that was a seismic shift in music. Like wait, music can do this and it can sound like this? Yeah, love it. Great choices. Okay, let's let's let's talk to some students as they come in.

You want Beatles records? What do you like about the Beatles?

Student 1:
I've listened to them since I was really young with my grandpa. We actually bought, me and my friend bought two last week. We got, uh, I can't remember which ones we got but we got two and it was really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you have a favorite Beatles song?

Student 1:
I like it “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great one. That is a great one, a classic. How about you two? I see your Taylor Swift shirt, are you hoping for this Taylor Swift Red record?

Student 2:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Are you both fans?

Student 2:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
So the Taylor Swift, is that an auction or how can you get the Taylor Swift?

Student 2:
I’m pretty sure it’s an auction

Anthony Godfrey:
Are there other records you've bought already that you've enjoyed from the store here?

Student 2:
Midnight Rain.

Anthony Godfrey:
Midnight Rain Is that on the new record?

Student 2:
Um, it's on “Midnights” it’s one of her new albums.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, the previous one, not the most recent Poets one but the one before, very good. I like “Mean”, that's a good one. I mean, and “Cruel Summer” but everyone likes that one. Nice shirt. Zoe, talk to me about what you think of this record store.

Zoe:
I really like it because there's like a lot of vintage ones and like ones that like collectors have but they're like really cheap, so like they're worth more than what I bought them for here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it's great that people have donated them to make that possible. Tell me about some of the records you've bought that you've been really excited about.

Zoe:
I have a couple of Elvis ones. Those ones were like, those are probably one of the most worth lot. And then I have Summery Oldsman.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh really?

Zoe:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Zoe:
I have Paper Roses, that one’s nice. So I have like a bunch of other ones that had like cool cover art.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that you appreciate the older music and the cover art. Is that sometimes why you're interested in a record? Because of how the cover looks?

Zoe:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me some of the things you've done to be able to earn the cards that allow you to buy some records.

Zoe:
Um, help teachers around the classroom or picked up stuff outside.

Anthony Godfrey:
Very cool. Well, keep it up and enjoy that great music.

Hi guys, tell me about what you think of this record store.

Student 3:
It's great, there's some cool records in there, and um, yeah. It’s a cool store.

Student 4:
Yeah, I think it's pretty nice. I like how they have like a lot of records and how much there's like so many records to choose from.

Student 3:
Yeah, a lot of options. I like the options.

Student 4:
Any music taste you can come here and buy some records.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are the records that have caught your eye? What are the ones you purchased?

Student 3:
Um, I think like a Beach Boys one.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah, nice.

Student 4:
I bought a Sublime one and a Taylor Swift one.

Anthony Godfrey:
A Sublime one? Wow.

Student 4:
I'm hoping to get that Red Taylor Swift one right there. That's really the one I had my eye on for a while. I’ve been saving up for a while.

Student 3:
Yeah, it’ll be a cool record.

Anthony Godfrey:
There is something about listening to a record compared with listening to your phone, isn't there?

Students:
Yeah

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